I saw it with my own four eyes – Wright hit a Grand Slam and Mike Pelfrey looked great in a 9-1 rout of the Houston Astros.

Summary

So let me knock the negativity out of the way to begin. It was the Astros and they looked completely outmatched. The Astros are a 100-loss team, It is Spring Training, Pelfrey still sucks, Wright is not clutch, Sandy Alderson is a nut job.

Did I cover everything? I know that I am being pretentious, but I enjoyed tonight’s game because I saw some life in our team that made me believe for a second we were not as bad as everyone proclaimed us to be. Yes, for one night, we were just average, and that was okay.

The Astros offense is lacking, so it is a good thing that Pelfrey was able to pitch the way he did, or else we would never hear the end of it. A final line of 6.1 IP, 3 H, 0 BB, 3 K, and an ER  was the mark of a good pitching performance from one Mike Pelfrey, who looked sharp for the first time this Spring. The 0 BB was as HUGE as my capital letters for the ex-palm licking tosser and his GO:FO ratio was 13:1. If that is not proof that the sinker was working tonight, I have nothing else for you.

Herrera finished up in the 7th with two clean outs. Rauch came in to follow and struck out two in the inning. When Rauch’s changeup is on, he pitches brilliantly. Also a fun fact – we went from Herrera at 5’6” to Rauch at 6’11”. Wow. Nice angle shift. That’s the equivalent of going from Dickey to Parnell in speed. Edgin closed out the game in the ninth, but it looks like Herrera’s going to be taking that lefty spot until Byrdak is back.

A quick rundown of the offense shows Wright with a grand slam, his only hit on the afternoon, leading the charge with Murphy and Thole both posting multiple hits on the evening as well. A comedy of literal errors overtook the Astros defense today as they made three errors which helped the Mets – even giving Mike Pelfrey credit for an RBI on a possible DP ball.

Thole got called for CI in this game but was good otherwise by gunning down Ruggiano on a steal attempt. Bottom line: We were supposed to beat the Astros, we beat them with a 7-run 4th, and tomorrow afternoon we keep going on route to Opening Day.

Hero Of The Game

Mike Pelfrey for giving me a reason to believe in him, if only for an hour.

Notes

Scott Hairston sighting today – I guess he will be heading north with the team to start on the bench.

Think there’s any real advantage to my angle switch joke earlier? 5’6” to 6’11” is no joke.

Mike Pelfrey got a hell of an ovation when he fouled off a 3-2 pitch from Livan Hernandez after working there from 0-2. Highlight of the night.

On Deck

Our whiz kid Dillon Gee takes the mound for us tomorrow against the Cardinals at 1:05, who counter with Kyle Lohse. Parnell is scheduled to pitch so keep an eye on him – E.R.A. is still 0.00 this Spring.