A little more then a week ago, the NY Mets were adept at finding ways to lose----blown leads by the bullpen, fielding errors, baserunning errors, leaving runners in scoring position, etc. Now, the Mets have ripped off five straight wins and are finding ways to win---this is much more fun!
Last night Jon Niese, up to the bigs to replace the badly struggling Oliver Perez, delivered. Niese went six solid innings yielding just two runs and he looked big league ready in the process (yes, I know it was only the Pirates, but they are still considered big leaguers----aren't they???). Niese can give the Mets a huge boost if he can continue to fill in efffectively for Perez and will certainly put pressure on Ollie to fix what ails him. Who knows, perhaps Niese will "Wally Pip" him---hows that for an obscure baseball reference? (Pip of course was the player "temporarily" replaced years ago by a guy named Lou Gehrig).
It was also a special night for Met slugger Carlos Delgado who contributed heavily to the 7-3 win, Delgado had a three run homer and five RBI----passing Mickey Mantle on the career RBI total in the process! Congrats!
The Mets were sloppy in the process yet still got the win, as noted by Jerry Manuel; "To continue winning games when you're not playing well," manager Jerry Manuel said, "it's a good way to go. You'd rather be playing well, but this is good -- for now."
John Maine tries to keep the victory train rolling today at 1:10PM. Lets hope the Mets have that killer instinct; an old baseball adage is that if you beat the snot out of the teams you are supposed to, and do slightly better then .500 against the winning teams, you will be fine...
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