The Haiku

Big Pelf, huge effort
Church finds his RBI bat
K-Rod walks no one

The Game

To quote Al Michaels, “Do you believe in miracles?” The New York Mets actually won a baseball game on Wednesday, defeating the Milwaukee Brewers 1-0 on the shoulders of a tremendous performance by Mike Pelfrey. The victory put an end to New York’s five game losing streak and marked the second time this year they defeated Yovani Gallardo and the Brewers 1-0.

With his team reeling, Mike Pelfrey stepped up and shut down one of the better lineups in baseball on Wednesday. The combination of New York’s ridiculous excuse of an offense combined with their daunting challenge of facing off against burgeoning ace Gallardo left Big Pelf with no room for error. Thankfully he was up to the challenge. The big guy tossed 7.2 scoreless innings before handing the ball off to Sean Green with two out and two on in the eighth. Green enduced an inning ending ground out to escape the jam and preserve New York’s 1-0 lead. Backtracking to the sixth inning, the Mets grabbed that 1-0 lead on an RBI single by Ryan Church that barely eluded the dive of second baseman Craig Counsell, scoring Luis Castillo. That seeing eye single would account for the only run scored in the game as Gallardo was dominant for Milwaukee, setting a career high by setting down 12 Mets via the strikeout. But on this day, Pelfrey was just a little bit better. There were a few different occasions where Pelfrey could have come undone as we have seen him do so often20this year but was able to keep his composure by getting key double plays to end the fourth and fifth innings and working around a balk to put a runner on second base with nodoby out in the seventh. Frankie Rodriguez came on to work the ninth and collect his 21st save in the process.

While this win was certainly big with the way this team has been getting beat up on a daily basis, the Mets still have a daunting task ahead of them as they head to Pittsburgh for a make up game on Thursday, followed by a three game trip to the city of brotherly love to take on the defending world champions.

The Boxscore

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E NY Mets 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 5 1 Milwaukee 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 0

NY Mets AVG AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO PO A Cora, SS .253 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 7 Castillo, L, 2B .275 4 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 Wright, D, 3B .340 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 1 Church, RF .286 3 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0 Evans, N, LF .333 3 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0   Rodriguez, F, P .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Murphy, Dn, 1B .242 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 11 0 Martinez, F, CF .180 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 Schneider, C .242 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 6 2 Pelfrey, P .160 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0   Green, S, P .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   Reed, LF .282 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals .272 31 1 5 2 0 0 1 2 12 27 14 BATTING 2B: Evans, N (3, Gallardo), Castillo, L (8, Gallardo). RBI: Church (19). Team RISP: 1-for-6. Team LOB: 5. BASERUNNING SB: Church (6), Castillo, L 2 (10). CS: Church (2). FIELDING E: Wright, D (12). DP: 2 (Castillo, L-Cora-Murphy, Dn 2).

Milwaukee AVG AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO PO A Counsell, 2B .298 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 2 Hardy, SS .233 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 Braun, LF .330 4 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 Fielder, 1B .306 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 10 0 Hart, C, RF .251 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 Gamel, 3B .239 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1   b-McGehee, C, PH .322 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Kendall, C .232 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 10 3 Gerut, CF .193 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Gallardo, P .129 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1   Villanueva, P .333 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   a-Catalanotto, PH .267 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   Smith, C, P .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals .254 31 0 7 0 0 0 0 2 6 27 11 a-Singled for Villanueva in the 8th. b-Grounded out for Gamel in the 9th. BATTING GIDP: Hart, C, Gerut. Team RISP: 0-for-7. Team LOB: 6. BASERUNNING SB: Counsell (2). CS: Fielder (2).

NY Mets ERA IP H R ER BB SO HR BF Pelfrey (W, 6-3) 4.26 7.2 6 0 0 2 6 0 28 Green, S 5.19 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Rodriguez, F (S, 21) 1.19 1.0 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 Totals 4.21 9.0 7 0 0 2 6 0 33

Milwaukee ERA IP H R ER BB SO HR BF Gallardo (L, 8-5) 2.75 7.0 5 1 1 2 12 0 27 Villanueva 4.95 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 Smith, C 1.76 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 Totals 4.42 9.0 5 1 1 2 12 0 33

Team ER: off NY Mets 0, off Milwaukee 1. BB: off Pelfrey 2 (Kendall, Counsell), off Gallardo 2 (Church, Evans, N). SO: by Pelfrey 6 (Fielder, Gerut, Gallardo, Gamel, Gamel, Kendall), by Gallardo 12 (Wright, D, Evans, N, Murphy, Dn, Pelfrey, Cora, Wright, D, Murphy, Dn, Schneider, Cora, Wright, D, Martinez, F, Schneider). Balk: Pelfrey. Pitches-strikes: Pelfrey 107-69, Green, S 3-2, Rodriguez, F 9-7, Gallardo 114-70, Villanueva 18-11, Smith, C 9-7. Umpires: HP: Brian O’Nora. 1B: Fieldin Culbreth. 2B: Gary Cederstrom. 3B: Jim Wolf. Official Scorer: Tim O’Driscoll. Weather: 70 degrees, roof closed. Wind: 1 mph, Varies. T: 2:44. Att: 35,409.

The Win Probability Added Graph

The Credits

Recap by Chuck Buono
Haiku by Howard Megdal