Hefner Blanks Pirates In 6-0 Mets Win, Wright Sets New Franchise Hit Record

David Wright broke the Mets all-time hits record, and Jeremy Hefner pitched seven scoreless innings in the Mets 6-0 win

Jeremy Hefner came out of the gate and had his game plan in full swing, dispatching hitters quickly and coaxing weak contact at any given chance. As opposed to Tuesday night when Colin McHugh was hit hard, Hefner was the polar opposite, striking out seven in seven innings, while walking one and giving up three hits. Hefner has proven valuable in his swingman role, while being overall serviceable out of both the rotation and bullpen.

Jeurys Familia, or J.Fam as I like to call him pitched the final two innings, and they were a tale of two innings. In the first inning, Familia was lights out, overpowering the hitters into weak contact with his 95-98 MPH fastball and struck out Travis Snider looking with a 98 MPH fastball on the black. In the ninth, Familia had no control, but after a lead-off walk coaxed a double play ball and an easy fly-ball that Mike Baxter grabbed, but Daniel Murphy made it look that much more epic – he barrel-rolled out of the way of Baxter.

The pitching has been mixed, but today’s outing displayed a common theme – Mets starters pitching well.

The hitters came out early and had their mind sets on scoring, going for four runs in the third inning on a Daniel Murphy RBI single, Kelly Shoppach’s RBI single and Scott Hairston’s RBI double. The biggest story was David Wright’s 1,419th hit in the third, that scored Daniel Murphy after an error by Pedro Alvarez. While the hit wasn’t the laser everyone would’ve liked, a hit is a hit. David made sure his 1,420th hit was a solid single to erase all doubts. The Mets scratched across two more runs on two RBI singles by Ruben Tejada in the 4th and 6th.

The offense put up 14 hits, and also received some help in the third on a few poor defensive plays by the Pirates.

Game Notes

Lucas Duda went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts.

Ruben Tejada went 4 for 5 with two RBI, one run scored and one stolen base. Ruben has been trying to be more aggressive on the base paths, and while that isn’t his game maybe if he can add it a touch it’ll make him more aggressive.

Scott Hairston went 2 for 4 with an RBI, a run scored and a strikeout. Hairston is showing his value late in the season

Player Of The Game

David Wright for going 2 for 4 with a run scored. David is continuing his march to own all of the Mets hitting records, and only one more hurdle is in the way – home runs

On Deck

Tomorrow signals the Mets final home game of the 2012 season. R.A. Dickey takes the mound looking for win number 20, facing off against the Pirates and Kevin Correia. Game time is 1:10 P.M.