[caption id="attachment_349" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Jose Reyes didn't miss a beat in his return, as the National League's leading hitter had a two-hit game with a run scored."]
[/caption]
Mets All-Stars Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran combined for five of the offense’s 14 hits and scored two of the teams four runs in their return to the Mets lineup last night. Their return electrified the rest of the order and sent the Mets back to .500 on the year as they defeated the Cardinals 4-2.
With seven stellar innings, and a little support from a powered-up offense, Dillon Gee picked up his 9th win of the year, and his first since his June 26 start against the Rangers in Texas.
Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the fifth, the catalyst Reyes led off with a single that almost decapitated St. Louis starter Kyle Lohse. On the very next pitch, Justin Turner turned a single to right field, giving the Mets runners on first and second with no outs. Beltran, who doubled in his previous two at-bats, walked to load the bases.
Daniel Murphy managed to work into a perfect hitters count, 2-0 with the bases jacked. On Lohse’s 2-0 offering, he hit a screamer. But it was Murphy who was screaming, into his helmet, on the way back to the dugout after lining out to the shortstop.
With one out, and the bases still juiced, Angel Pagan walked up to the plate. Because Reyes was in the lineup, Pagan was hitting in his preferred position in the middle of the order. His comfort level showed when he knocked a go-ahead two-run double over the head of Lance Berkman in right field. The long double would have scored three but Beltran read it poorly running from first base.
Beltran’s mistake did not cost the Mets, as Pagan’s double gave the Mets a 2-1 lead they would never relinquish. In fact, they added two more in the sixth when Murphy hit another good one, but this one fell in deep center field for a two-run double of his own.
After Dillon Gee exited, it was up to the Mets bullpen to come through in their first test with a lead, after the trade of baseball’s single season saves leader Francisco Rodriguez. Bobby Parnell ran in to trouble in the eighth inning, when he loaded the bases for slugger Albert Puljos with the score 4-2, but Puljos grounded into the inning ending double play.
Jason Isringhausen came on to pitch a flawless ninth inning to pick up his first save of the season.
With the win, the Mets make up a game in the Wild Card, but still trail Atlanta by 8.5 games after their loss to the Rockies. If the Mets can sweep the Cardinals out of town, they can overtake the Redbird’s position in the race, and have only the Brewers and the Diamondbacks separating them from the Braves.
Injury Updates:
The Bad: First baseman Ike Davis appeared at a summer camp in Long Island, and told the campers he doubts he will be able to play again in 2011. However he backtracked from those doubts to reporters. A determination will be made in two or three weeks about whether Ike Davis will require season-ending surgery.
The Good: The New York Post reported yesterday that David Wright’s rehab is progressing well and that he still is on pace to rejoin the Mets Friday in Miami. He most likely will stay at Single-A St. Lucie, until the Mets land in Miami before their game against the Marlins.
Back to the New York Mets Newsfeed