The Game

The Mets rolled into Arizona last night, winners of their last ten games at the hitter’s haven formerly known as Bank One Ballpark. Those ten games spanned the last three seasons, during which the Mets accumulated a run differential of 83-20. On this night, Tom Glavine brought his 641 career starts to the hill to take on rookie Micah Owings and his three career starts.

The Mets were held hitless through the first three innings, though the Diamondbacks were able to break through in their half of the second. Eric Byrnes hit a would-be single to left that Moises Alou misplayed (twice) into a triple, and after a Carlos Quentin groundout Stephen Drew plated Byrnes with a single to center.

The Mets bunched together a couple of walks and a couple of hits in the fourth to take the lead. David Wright led off by grounding out to first. Carlos Beltran followed by drawing his second walk in as many plate appearances, though Carlos Delgado predictably popped up for the second out. Alou atoned for his gaffe in the field by doubling Beltran home from first to tie the game at one. After Hit Machine Shawn Green™ walked to give the Mets runners at first and second, Paul Lo Duca hit a seeing-eye single up the middle to score Alou and give the Mets a 2-1 lead. The rally ended there, however, as Green strayed too far from second and was caught in between for the third out.

The score remained 2-1 until the bottom of the fifth, when the Diamondbacks used a Drew single and a Chris Snyder laser beam over the left field fence to regain the lead. The lead was short-lived, however, as Beltran led off the top of the sixth with a solo blast that still hasn’t landed, drawing the Mets even at three. The back-and-forth continued in the bottom of the sixth, as Orlando Hudson hit a solo shot of his own to give Arizona the lead. Again.

The Mets generated very little offense in the seventh and eighth, as Owings gave way to Tony Pena and Pena to Brandon Lyon. The Mets got solid relief pitching of their own, as Pedro Feliciano and Aaron Heilman each pitched a 1-2-3 frame to keep the Mets within one heading into the ninth inning.

The ninth brought the Mets 5-6-7 hitters up to face D’Backs closer Jose Valverde. Valverde has a history of late-inning meltdowns, but was 10-for-11 in save opportunities thus far in 2007 and had a 1.64 ERA for the season. Alou started the night in the five-hole, but was taken out for pinch-runner Endy Chavez in the sixth inning with swelling in his knee. So, Endy Shirt led off and promptly struck out swinging. Green followed by grounding one to Tony Clark — a ninth-inning defensive replacement — at first, though the ball bounced through Clark’s legs and Green was safe at first on the error. Lo Duca followed by working a seven-pitch walk, during which Valverde seemed to lose his composure when a borderline pitch was called in Lo Duca’s favor.

With two on and one out, the stage was set for Damion Easley. Just over a week ago Easley hit a game-tying solo homerun with two outs in the bottom of the ninth in an eventual 2-1 victory over the Rockies. This time around, Easly, always cool as a cucumber, took the first two Valverde offerings inside for balls before cranking the third pitch over the fence in left-center field to give the Mets a 6-4 lead. I don’t know about you, but this particular author was going ape-poopy just after midnight east coast time, as the Mets were right back in the driver’s seat for this one.

After Easley’s homerun, things only got worse for Valverde. He walked the next batter, pinch hitter Julio Franco, and allowed a single to Jose Reyes before being yanked from the game. Valverde was relieved by Dustin Nippert, who surrendered a three-run, opposite-field blast to David Wright to effectively put the game out of reach. Scott Schoeneweis pitched the ninth for the Mets and, after walking his requisite batter per inning, retired the side to secure a very satisfying Mets victory.

The Haiku

Easley late and deep
Thrills half asleep fans back home
Wright adds the coda

The Boxscore

The Credits

Recap by Eric Simon
Haiku by Howard Megdal