Feelin' Good in Hollywood

Written by Nikki DeMaio | 24 July 2010

Johan Santana put together another brilliant outing for the Mets last night... and this time, he came away with the win.  Santana went 7 innings, allowing just one run on 5 hits.  He was helped by the outfield defense, as Bay, Pagan, and Beltran each made at least one phenomenal catch (including Bay's face-first smash into the bullpen fence, a la Aaron Rowand a few years ago).  The offense showed some signs of  life for the first time since the All Star Break, and that includes Jason Bay who came through with a 3-run double in the eighth inning.

It's amazing to me how the Mets continue to play like two different ball clubs.  Last night, everything clicked:  fantastic starting effort, great defense, and the offense woke up to drive in 6 runs.  These are the Mets we've been seeing at Citi Field for most of the season (I'm glad they took the show on the road, even if it's just one game at this point).  But then, there are the Mets who have been just awful playing away from Flushing.  Those Mets are the ones that dug themselves into a 7.5 game deficit prior to yesterday.

Another thing - I was relieved to see some fight in the team last night.  Maybe Santana affects the mentality of the guys playing behind him more than we realize.  It seemed like last night was the first game in the second half where the Mets actually came to play baseball, and it showed in all aspects of the game.  It was important to get things moving in the right direction, but now they have to continue to play like that.  Tonight would be an excellent time for Mike Pelfrey to rediscover his ace form of the first half.  After starting out 2010 looking like a completely different pitcher, we've seen Pelfrey regress back to some of his bad habits from 2009.  He doesn't work at a quick, efficient pace anymore, and you can see in his body language that he's just not in the groove he was in to start the season.  I like Big Pelf, and he was so easy to root for when he was dominating line ups... but now he's getting frustrating again.  A win tonight would go a long way in helping Pelfrey - and the Mets as a whole - get back on track.