Sunday, August 31 Game Thoughts: Mets 6 - Marlins 2

A solid performance by Pedro Martinez and the Mets bullpen highlighted today's victory. The Mets are really rolling in August, and haven't lost a series since getting swept in Houston to start the month. Here are your game thoughts:

- Pedro has really struggled in first innings this year. In 16 starts, he's given up 17 runs in 1st innings (obviously in 16 IP). In all other innings, totaling 71 IP, he's given up 32 runs. It may just be a fluke, but I wonder if there's anything Pedro can do to improve this - more stretching, more warmup pitches, etc.

- Let's hope Carlos Beltran keeps hitting with power the rest of the way. I've always felt more confident when Carlos is up batting lefty, but his career numbers show that he's historically been the same hitter lefty or righty:

Right-handed: .288/.361/.500
Left-handed: .277/.354/.491

In 2008, Carlos's right-handed OPS is .875, and lefty it's .820.

- Nice job by the Mets bullpen today, which pitched 3 scoreless innings spanning 5 pitchers. The boxscore for the relievers had a couple 0.2 IP and 0.1 IP. This reminded me of the "Animal House" scene where the dean is reading off all their GPAs ("Zero... point... zero."). Brian Stokes continued to impress, even if Jerry Manuel is trying to send him to visit the esteemed Dr. James Andrews by pitching him 5 games in a row.

- I liked Keith's nickname for Manuel: "Captain Hook", because of his frequent pitching changes.

- I wish the Mets could combine the best abilities of the revolving door LF position into one player. This player would have Fernando Tatis's power, Dan Murphy's patience at the plate, Nick Evans's ability to crush lefties, and Endy Chavez's glove/arm. And Marlon Anderson's penchant for clutch inside the park homeruns.

The Mets hit the jackpot avoiding C.C. Sabathia for the Brewers series, as C.C. threw a 1 hit shutout today with 11 K's. The Brewers are actually appealing the hit, trying to get it turned into an error, and therefore giving him a no-hitter. How does one celebrate such a no hitter?

Johan Santana vs. Ben Sheets on a Labor Day afternoon. It doesn't really get any better. Welcome to September baseball.