Welcome back to Month in Review, Mets Geek’s analysis of the Mets’ last thirty-one days. You can find our previous installments this year here, here, and here.

Well the Mets finally had a month to be proud of. After a 13-15 June, the Mets caught fire in July, going 18-8, largely thanks to their 10-game winning streak at the beginning of the month. Here are our team-by-team splits:

Team               W     L    RS    RA
Cincinnati         2     2    21    25
Colorado           3     0    12     1
Florida            1     2    12    15
Philadelphia       5     2    40    30
St. Louis          4     2    49    26
San Francisco      3     0    19     3

Oddly, to me at least, the Mets only played six teams during the month. Some other things to note: The Mets really did score 49 runs in six games against the Cards; the lowest scoring affair was a 7-2 Mets victory. They also outscored the Giants and Rockies 31-4 over six consecutive games.

And home/road:

Split         W     L    RS    RA
Home         10     2    70    29
Away          8     6    83    71

The Mets were god-like at Shea. Run differentials:

Split           W     L
1 run           2     2
2-3 runs        8     4
4-5 runs        4     2
6+ runs         4     0

Comings: Tony Armas (7/1), Argenis Reyes (7/3), Chris Aguila (7/3), Nick Evans (7/8), Carlos Muniz (7/10), Robinson Cancel (7/11), Brandon Knight (7/26), Willie Collazo (7/27),

Goings: Andy Phillips (7/1), Carlos Muniz (7/3), Chris Aguila (7/11), Brandon Knight (7/27), Willie Collazo (7/29)

Official Comings and Goings Man of the Year standings:

Carlos Muniz           7
Robinson Cancel        6
Chris Aguila           4
Raul Casanova          3
Nick Evans             3

Muniz has inched ahead, but Cancel’s still hot on his heels. Incidentally, it’s the only time Cancel has ever been hot on anybody’s heels.

Injuries: Luis Castillo, Ryan Church, Tony Armas

Anyone miss Luis Castillo?

Our offense and pitching splits:

Stat                           June     July
Runs Scored:                    120      153
Runs Allowed:                   132      100

Team OBA:                      .325     .374
Team SLG:                      .378     .481
Team BA with RISP:             .224     .267
Opponents’ OBA:                .343     .308
Opponents’ SLG:                .397     .380
Opponents’ BA with RISP:       .296     .273

Starters’ ERA:                 4.22     3.24
Starters’ K/9:                  7.2      7.7
Starters’ BB/9:                 3.6      2.8
Starters’ HR/9:                0.78     1.08

Relievers’ ERA:                4.43     4.61
Relievers’ K/9:                 7.0      8.7
Relievers’ BB/9:                3.5      3.7
Relievers’ HR/9:               1.31     0.79

The bullpen was the only component of the team that had a poor month, but it’s worth noting that their peripherals improved considerably from last month. It’s a pretty schizophrenic squad.

Stat                            May     June
OBA vs. RH Pitchers:           .323     .375
SLG vs. RH Pitchers:           .388     .506
OBA vs. LH Pitchers:           .331     .373
SLG vs. LH Pitchers:           .345     .402

RH Opp. OBA:                   .335     .297
RH Opp. SLG:                   .405     .335
LH Opp. OBA:                   .354     .324
LH Opp. SLG:                   .384     .445

For the second straight month, the lineup has performed better against righties than lefties. Also, lefties had a hard time reaching base against Met pitching, but they did a great job slugging.

Longest Winning Streak: 10 (7/6-7/17)

Longest Losing Streak: 2 (7/18-7/19)

Yeah, it was a pretty good month.

Pitchers “Beaten”: (Not necessarily the pitcher who took the loss) Todd Wellemeyer, Mitchell Boggs (twice), Jamie Moyer (twice), Kyle Kendrick, Adam Eaton, Tim Lincecum, Jonathan Sanchez, Barry Zito, Aaron Cook, Ubaldo Jimenez, Mike Redman, Johnny Cueto, Edinson Volquez, Brett Myers, Kyle Lohse, Scott Olsen

Pitchers “Beaten by”: (Again, not necessarily the pitcher who got the win) Joel Pineiro (twice), J. A. Happ, Bronson Arroyo, Josh Fogg, Joe Blanton, Ricky Nolasco, Josh Johnson

Best Hitter: Carlos Delgado was simply awesome. He hit .357/.445/.714 with nine homeruns and 24 RBI. Not to be lost in all this, however, was the month Fernando Tatis had. He actually hit even better than Delgado, going .397/.463/.767, but did so in fewer at-bats, so I’ll stick with Carlos. June winner: Carlos Beltran

Worst Hitter: Who didn’t have a great month? Not many, but Carlos Beltran didn’t play particularly well. After a fabulous June, Beltran did nada in July, hitting just .248/.333/.386. Brian Schneider also didn’t hit too well, but posted a higher on-base average, and saw less action. June winner: Luis Castillo

Best Pitcher: It was a great month for the pitching staff. There are a number of fine choices, including Johan Santana and Mike Pelfrey, but this award plainly belongs to Oliver Perez. Ollie made five starts and threw 32.2 innings, going 1-1 with a 1.38 ERA and 36 strikeouts while allowing just two homers. The walks were a little high (15 free passes allowed) but an improvement for Perez. June winner: Johan Santana

Worst Pitcher: This is definitely the hardest one to hand out this month, but John Maine was pretty lousy. He made the same number of starts as the other three starters, but threw six fewer innings than Perez and had a 5.13 ERA. His strikeout rate was fine, but walks and homeruns hurt Maine badly. Pedro Feliciano was also up for this, but he lacked Maine’s impact. June winner: Pedro Martinez

Best Pitching Performance: I’ll go with Johan Santana’s complete-game gem against the Cardinals last week. There were a number of candidates for this award, for a change, including Mike Pelfrey’s start against Colorado (eight shutout innings), and Oliver Perez’s 12-strikeout performance against the Phillies. In the end, I picked the guy who went the distance. June winner: Mike Pelfrey

Best Defensive Play: I don’t know if I can go with any play other than Carlos Beltran’s Endy-esque catch over the centerfield wall at Shea on the 27th. A thing of beauty. June winner: Fernando Tatis

Biggest Surprise: Tatis. Considering that Tatis was an afterthought for most of the year, the fact that he’s won a job as one of the team’s corner outfielders is pretty impressive. I openly mocked his potential to help the team during spring training, but here he is, hitting .319/.368/.519 in 160 at-bats through the end of July. June winner: Aaron Heilman

Biggest Disappointment: Beltran. Almost the whole team was hitting well at the same time, so it was a little disheartening to see Beltran struggling. Just imagine how things might’ve looked if Beltran played as well as he had in June. June winner: David Wright

What’s in Store for August?

The Mets obviously began August with a trio of games at Houston, which should have been pretty easy (they weren’t). Next, the Mets return home to face the Padres and Marlins before hitting the road again. They’ll first travel to Washington to face the Nats before hitting up Pittsburgh for a quartet of games at PNC, where there will be a large number of Geeks in attendance. They return home for three against Atlanta and four more against Houston. The team then heads to Philadelphia for two more. At that point, they will have played 23 straight games without a day off. They’ll get one, just before playing another key series against the Marlins.

It’s a long month with only two off-days, one of which they’ll have today, and it’s going to be difficult keeping their relief pitchers rested, especially with John Maine injured. Of course, even while their relief corps was well-rested, it faltered twice against the Astros, so maybe the extra work will help. Otherwise, they just need to keep doing what they’ve been doing throughout July. This isn’t a very difficult schedule despite the lack of rest, but the Marlins and Phils figure to be the worst of it, so they need to seize their opportunities.

References

Stats are courtesy of David Pinto’s Day-by-Day Database, the Hardball Times, and Baseball-Reference.com, as always.

You can see Beltran’s leaping catch at Mets.com’s Top Plays archive.