Blanco Walk Off Homerun Beats Giants 5-4 In Extras

Mets take two from the Giants with back-to-back walk-off homeruns, this time from Henry Blanco. Mets win 5-4 in 11 innings.

Game Notes

Johan Santana took the mound today and had a nice bounce back outing after giving up a personal worst ten runs in his last start. Santana went 7.2 innings, the longest any Mets starter has gone all season, beating Pelf’s start yesterday by a third of an inning. Santana let up eight hits, but only allowed three runs to cross the plate. He struck out six Giants batters and walked zero. That made 32 straight innings by Mets pitchers without giving up a walk. That later ended with a walk by Frankie Rodriquez in the tenth. Santana, however, only walked away with a no decision after the bullpen gave up his lead.

Nieve, Feliciano, and Mejia all pitched to one batter each to get the last out of the eight inning. Feliciano had a blown save, sixth blown save for the Mets this season. The rookie Mejia has only given up two runs and struck out eight batters in the thirteen innings he’s pitched this season.

Frankie Rodriguez pitched the ninth and tenth innings, walking two and striking out one. Hisanori Takahashi came in the eleventh and shut down the Giants. He pitched a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts. Takahashi leads the bullpen in strikeouts with 28 K’s on the season. Takahashi ends up getting the win.

Mets bats couldn’t get much going in the game. Bay and Pagan led the Mets offense with two runs-batted in each. Wright and Francoeur combined for 0-7 with two walks and five strike outs.

Of course the biggest hit of the game was Henry Blanco’s walk-off homerun in the eleventh inning to give the Mets a 5-4 win. Three days ago there were no walk-off homeruns in Citi Field’s history. Now there’s two in two days. This was also the first career walk off homerun for Blanco. Blanco was later pied in the face by Alex Cora when being interviewed by Kevin Burkhardt.

Luis Castillo left the game in the eight inning. Bone bruise on his left foot, he is day-to-day. Cora will be starting tomorrow.

Turning Point

Henry Blanco’s clutch walk off homerun to clinch the win for the Mets.

Game Ball

Santana had a great, long start but Blanco’s homerun shocked everyone and was amazing!

On Deck

Oliver Perez looks to get the sweep against the Giants as the Mets take on the undefeated, defending two time CY Young champion Tim Lincecum. First pitch at 1:10 pm on SNY.