Pelfrey Blanks The Nats 6-0 As Wright Drives In Five

What a way to open a series! There were so many bright spots in this game I don’t know where to begin, but let me start with Mike Pelfrey who pitched a gem tonight at Shea Stadium.

Pelfrey’s fastball was popping and his slider was devastating to the Nationals hitters. He pitched seven solid innings allowing no runs on five hits and striking out four. In the third inning he got into trouble by loading the bases, but struck out Ryan Zimmerman and Nick Johnson to end the threat in dramatic fashion. It was the second straight solid start for Mike Pelfrey who is now 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA. Great job Pelf!

The offense was led by the return of Jose Reyes to the lineup who was on top of his game and smacked four hits including a triple and a double. He fell a homerun short of hitting for the cycle, but make no mistake that his hammy was feeling just fine. It was Jose’s best game of the season so far and he electrified the crowd.

As solid as Jose Reyes was tonight, it was David Wright who was the hitting star of the game. He exploded for five RBI’s tonight including his third homerun in as many games. He is locked in right now and with his three hits tonight he raised his average to .311 on the season.

Aaron Heilman came in and slithered out of a shaky scoreless 8th inning, but all eyes were on Duaner Sanchez who returned after a 21 month absence and sealed the deal for Pelfrey. Sanchez looked solid and struck out one in his inning of work.

It was a special night at Shea as players from both teams donned their number 42 jerseys in honor of Jackie Robinson. It also made the game a little confusing at times because there were no names on the jerseys for either team. It also made for some entertaining game-calling from Ron and Keith in the booth.

Willie Randolph surprised me when he decided to bat the slumping Luis Castillo in the eight spot, while putting the hot hitting Ryan Church at number two. Usually it takes Randolph a long time before reacting like this to a slumping player… especially a veteran like Luis Castillo. It goes to show how much pressure Willie is feeling to get this team back to the post season. Hey… whatever it takes…

All in all, it was a great game! Give a gameball to Pelf and DW5… Lets Go Mets!