With tonight's win the Mets guaranteed themselves that they would be at least coming back to New York on Friday night at .500 record. Of course that isn't the actual goal. The actual goal is to win ball games which is something the Mets did tonight. They got excellent hitting, pitching and all around mechanics in their 7-1 beating of the Phillies and Cole Hamels.
The big inning for the Mets came in the third as Chris Young led off with a single, and the hits and walks would keep coming. The Mets would eventually send 6 runners across the plate as they stole bases, put the ball in play, and took advantage of wild pitches eventually knocking Cole out of the game after 2.2 innings of work. Chris Young also became the Mets first pitcher ever to have two hits in the same inning, and ended the game with three hits total. His pitching was pretty good too as he pitched 5.1 innings (as Gary, Keith and Ron noted, he normally doesn't get too far into games, plus the whole it being the first start of the season and in cold weather for him also had an impact) while allowed one earned run, walked 4 and struck out 7 (which was awesome).
D.J. Carrasco knows how to make an impression. After Spring, I wasn't so up on him, but he has been fantastic so far in 2011. Specifically, both time's he has pitched, he has been in charge of preventing a rally from starting. On Sunday, he had to get out of a bases loaded jam, which he did. Today, the Phillies had two on with one out, where he was able to get the double play ball and get out of the inning. That is the type of swagger out of the pen this ball club needs, and I hope it continues.
Lastly, the Mets on Sunday showed their power, but today they showed their speed and ability to get on base. Today they had 13 hits, and only one was an extra base hit. On top of the 13 hits, they drew 4 walks and without power were still able to score 7 times. Specifically, Wright had a great day as he went 4-5, scoring 2 runs, recording 2 RBI's and getting his first steal of the year. Reyes also had his first steal of the year and Pagan added his second.
The Mets played really well today, and I hope it carries through to tomorrow.
