Game #130: Mets 6, Braves 0

Chris Capuano struck out 13 in throwing a two-hit shutout. The Mets postponed their games for Saturday and Sunday. (NYTimes.com)

The final two games of this series were postponed due to the impending doom of Hurricane Irene, so tonight's game was going to stick with fans for the entire weekend. Oh boy, what a game to take into that break.

Chris Capuano pitched the game of his life and the New York offense provided accordingly, giving the Mets a memorable 6-0 win over the Braves.

The Good Stuff:

• Tonight it starts and ends, quite literally, with Chris Capuano. Cap tossed a complete-game 2-hit shutout, striking out a mind-boggling 13 and, even more astounding, walking no one in 122 pitches. Tonight's performance was astounding on multiple levels: Chris rarely goes over 6 innings, let alone the full 9, and his ERA in his last 10 outings was standing at a dreadful 5.73. Needless to say, this one will bring that down a notch or two.
• Normally when Met pitchers turn in great performances (see most of R.A. Dickey's starts) the bats are nowhere to be found. Not so tonight: if Irene was gonna stop the games for a couple days, Terry's boys were gonna give all they got.
• The scoring started in the 5th: with 2 on and 2 out, Nick Evans grounded a single into left to score Ruben Tejada, and Josh Thole followed with a blooper to center to plate Lucas Duda. 2-0.
• In the 7th, similar situation: 2 on, 2 out. Justin Turner, so good earlier in the year at delivering in those situations, reminded us why he was Rookie of the Month in May, lashing a double into left to score both runs. 4-0.
• The way Cap was tossing, 4 runs was more than enough already. But what's a few more runs gonna hurt any? Angel Pagan doubled to lead off the 8th, and after an out and an intentional walk to David Wright, Lucas Duda crushed a double into the right-center wall (probably a homer anywhere else) to score both and make it 6-0 for the win.
• But the best part of the night? The starting 9 were the final 9 on the field at the end. It's a perfect, clean box score. I love it.

The Bad Stuff:

• Well, let's try a hurricane for Bad Stuff. Irene makes landfall with the New York area on Sunday morning, and there's a decent chance there could be flooding in Lower Manhattan. That's why there's no games this weekend. Ouch.

Final Analysis:
I don't think anyone saw this coming, but what an amazing surprise it was. I tip my cap to you, Mr. Capuano. You pitched the game of your life and gave us a win over one of our biggest rivals. Bravo. Now that's something good to take with us into the baseball-free weekend.

Saturday & Sunday's games will be made up as a double-header on September 8. It was the right decision; better safe than sorry. Stay safe, guys.

MM