Friday, June 19, 2009

Game 64 - Mets 5, Rays 3

A good solid win, simple and plain.

Another quality start from Fernando Nieve. It's still early, but we might have found a replacement until John Maine and/or Oliver Perez get healthy. Just like Livan, I'm not looking for Satchel Paige every time out, but six innings plus with less than three runs will get to the pen, which is another story...

With the injury to Putz and the revelation that Bobby Parnell and his 98 MPH fastball are actually human has put this pen into flux, to say the least.

Tonight, Parnell allowed two runners in the seventh, then Feliciano allowed a two-run double to allow Tampa to get close. Sean Green allowed runners in the eighth, but with two on, he struck out the next two to get out of the jam.

Frankie returned to Hollywood in the ninth and I almost forgot about Ryan Church's RBI single in the bottom of the eighth to plate the extra run. Similar to David Wright's double in the third to plate another run. It's the ones like that that win ball games and get teams within two games of first.

This division is wide open right now. The Flithies are struggling because their lack of starting pitching is finally catching up to them. The Marlins will probably turn it on come August, but right now they are barely treading water. And I'm not even going to respect the Braves enough to finish...

This is our chance to jump up and get some right now. Which means the Saturday start by Johan on Fox Saturday baseball is a big one. It's a game that I would really like to see us win for more than just the win. It would give us the series, it would put the pressure on the Flithies and with just 98 games left you can't give away anything.

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