Game #46: Yankees 9, Mets 3

MIke Pelfrey, center, and the Mets were searching for answers during the Yankees' eight-run seventh inning. (NYTimes.com)

For 6 innings, Mike Pelfrey kept the lid on the Yankee offense. Unfortunately for him, pro baseball games are 9 innings, not 6. And in the 7th, the lid came off in the worst way.

The Yanks rode the tidal wave of an 8-run 7th and shut down the Mets offense after the 2nd on the way to a 9-3 victory and a Subway Series win.

The Bad Stuff:

• Mike Pelfrey held the Bronx Bombers to 1 run, a Curtis Granderson solo shot in the 1st, through his first 6, but a Brett Gardner single between his legs to lead off the 7th opened the floodgates. When Pelf left the game, he had loaded the bases for Derek Jeter. The Captain came through, lacing a base hit up the middle to tie the game. An aging Jeter may be struggling this year, but you can't let him get in those situations because he'll dig down deep and get a big hit. When the dust settled, the Bombers were up 9-3, and Pelfrey was stuck with 5 runs against and the L. And the worst part of it? None of the Yankee runs in the 7th came via the longball.
• Another casualty of the Yankee onslaught was Pedro Beato's perfect 0.00 ERA; the rookie reliever gave up 2 runs in 1/3 of an inning, skyrocketing his ERA up to 0.95.
• The Mets' offense eked out 11 hits, but RISP continues to be the bane of their existence: today it was a 2-10 showing that sunk the boat. By comparison, the other New York boys went 5-10. Almost always a team that bats .500 with RISP will beat the team that bats .200 with RISP. Today was no exception.
• Jose Reyes couldn't get anything going in 5 at-bats, and Justin Turner's RBI streak ends at 7 with an 0-4 showing. Something else that really sticks out like a sore thumb: the Mets drew just 1 walk in the whole game. That's not gonna help the team OBP.

The Good Stuff:

• When the team manages 11 hits, there's gonna be a couple bright spots. What gleams the most on this grimy mess of a game was the Amazin' 3-run 2nd inning. Jason Bay and Fernando Martinez lead off with base hits, then after a Turner ground out advanced them to second and third, Willie Harris brought Bay home on a single. Martinez held up at third, but Ronny Paulino advanced him home with a hard ground out that Yankee pitcher Ivan Nova bobbled. Jason Pridie then brought Harris home, and just like that the Mets were up 3-1.
• Harris made the most of a rare start, going 3-4 with that 2nd inning run. F-Mart pulled out another hit to go 2-4 on the day.

Final Analysis:
In a different world, the Mets would have come out of this weekend with a 3-game sweep and would have actually had a better record than the Yankees. Instead, we leave the Bronx with a 2-1 series loss and a record two games below .500. So what happened? As simply as Dad put it: "They've got better players than us." It's intensely difficult to keep that group from putting up offensive numbers for a whole weekend. We managed to for one game, which is why we won't leave the Bronx with total failure, but we were 3 innings away from winning the series before the Yankee volcano erupted. This one hurts.

The Amazin's will have a day off to recover and three chances to get rolling again at Wrigley Field. Then it's back to Queens for a weekend showdown with the Philadelphia Phillies. Ike Davis is eligible to come off the DL in time for the Philly series. One, hopefully he does, and two, hopefully he's back to his normal self. In order to stay competitive, we'll need him at his best.

MM