The Game

After three consecutive rough outings, Oliver Perez pulled it all together for his most effective start of the year as the New York Mets defeated the Cincinnati Reds by the score of 8-3 on Sunday at Shea Stadium.

After splitting a bittersweet doubleheader on Saturday, the Mets needed a big effort from starter Ollie Perez to avoid losing a home series to the lowly Reds. Perez started the day by working around a two out walk to the athlete formerly known as Ken Griffey Jr. in the first inning. The Met bats immediately went to work against Cincy phenom Johnny Cueto as Jose Reyes lead off with a sharp single to center. After stealing second, Reyes came around to score on Luis Castillo’s triple. That is not a misprint by the way. Following a David Wright shallow fly out, Carlos Beltran drove Castillo home with a double. The Mets later stretched the lead to 3-0 in the first on a Moises Alou ground rule double that plated Beltran.

Quite often this year, the Met offense staked Ollie Perez to a lead that he slowly (or immediately) coughed up. This was not the case on Sunday as Perez held the Reds to no runs and just one hit through the first five frames. In the Mets’ fifth, Carlos Beltran blasted a two run homer to stretch the lead to 5-0. The red hot Ryan Church made it back to back and belly to belly (even as I type it, I still don’t understand that Sterling tagline) with a homer of his own to make it 6-0 New York.

Given a six run lead as he took the ball in the top of the sixth, Ollie Perez transformed back into Ollie Perez as he surrendered three runs in an inning that included a leadoff walk, a couple of hits, and a run scoring on a wild pitch. With his pitch count at 102 through six innings, Perez’s day was done. While it was far from perfect, it was as good a game as Perez has pitched so far in 2008, surrendering three hits and four walks, while striking out eight to go along with the three earned runs.

The Mets added their final two runs on RBI singles by Damion Easley and David Wright in the sixth. Nice job by the trio of Scott Schoeneweis, Joe Smith, and Pedro Feliciano as they came on to throw three scoreless innings in relief of Perez. All in all, it was a positive day for the blue and orange as they set the tone immediately and never let the Reds back into the game. Taking the series against inferior teams is a must and New York did just that by taking two of three over the weekend. Another inferior team will come in to town on Monday as Odalis Perez and the Washington Nationals will come in to do battle with the Mets. Nelson Figueroa is tentatively scheduled to start this game for New York, but may be pushed back if Willie Randolph decides to shuffle his rotation thanks to Thursday and Friday’s off days, Saturday’s doubleheader, and the impending series against the Yankees next weekend.

The Haiku

Beltran, Church go deep
And Oliver rights the ship
But Dusty can’t count

The Boxscore

The Win Probability Added Graph

The Credits

Recap by Chuck Buono
Haiku by Howard Megdal