On the day after David Wright was sent to the hospital with a concussion after experiencing a close encounter with a Matt Cain fastball, the Mets were able to give him a wonderful get-well present by defeating the Giants in walk-off style at sunny and hot Citi Field. Daniel Murphy lined an RBI single with one out in the ninth inning that barely scored Jeff Francoeur from second base ahead of the strong and accurate throw by rightfielder Nate Schierholtz. Frenchy was able to slide around the tag by Giants’ backup catcher Eli Whiteside to give the Mets a 3-2 victory.
Mike Pelfrey recovered nicely from his rough start on Monday against Arizona. He pitched 7.1 innings today, giving up two runs on five hits, while walking one batter and striking out five. Jonathan Sanchez was equally impressive for the Giants, also giving up two runs in his seven innings of work. The only blemish for Sanchez was the first home run by Luis Castillo in 475 at-bats, a two-run bomb into the second deck in left field, an area where no Louie had gone before.
After Castillo’s shocking power display, Pelfrey continued to mow down opposing hitters. Then in the eighth inning, after recording the first out of the inning, Big Pelf allowed back-to-back doubles by Eugenio Velez and Randy Winn. The latter double enabled the Giants to tie the game at 2 apiece, prompting Jerry Manuel to remove Pelfrey in favor of Brian Stokes.
Stokes struck out Freddy Sanchez for the second out and then intentionally walked Pablo Sandoval. Sandoval was still in the game after losing a Kung Fu fight with a railing near the Giants dugout while chasing a foul pop-up. Stokes was able to get out of the inning without any further runs scoring when he induced Ryan Garko to line out to Luis Castillo for the third out.
Francisco Rodriguez was brought into the game to pitch the ninth inning a day after being the losing pitcher. He was impressive in his latest outing, striking out all three batters he faced. The last two strikeouts were on full count pitches in which he got the batters to flail at strike three.
Looking for their walk-off win since May 29 against the Florida Marlins (that win kept the Mets in first place by a half-game. That seems like such a long time ago!), Jeff Francoeur led off the bottom of the ninth with an infield hit. David Wright’s replacement, Fernando Tatis, dropped down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Francoeur over to second base. Jeremy Affeldt was brought in for Sergio Romo to pitch to Daniel Murphy. Murphy delivered the game-winning single to right field, scoring Francoeur from second base. It appears that there is still a Murphy delivering a happy recap for the Mets after all!
After the game, Omar Minaya delivered the news that David Wright was placed on the 15-day disabled list at the behest of his doctors. He is eligible to be activated from the DL on September 1, which is the day rosters can be expanded from 25 to 40 players. As is Wright’s wont to do, he did not want to go on the disabled list, but concussions are not something to be taken lightly and anyone suffering from post-concussion symptoms should have as much rest as possible.
Tomorrow night, the Mets will try to win the wraparound series against the Giants. Livan Hernandez will face Joe Martinez of the Giants in the series finale. Interestingly enough, Martinez also suffered a concussion on April 9 when he was hit in the head by a line drive. In addition to the concussion, he suffered a fractured skull and did not return to the majors until two weeks ago. Game time at Citi Field is 7:10 PM.
