The Game

With sluggers Carlos Lee and Lance Berkman not in the Houston lineup on Sunday, the Astros would have trouble generating power from the rest of their lineup… right?? Wrong. The Astros got 10th inning homers from two unlikely sources and went on to defeat the New York Mets for the fifth time in six games this year by taking a 6-4 decision at Shea Stadium.

Carlos Beltran got the Mets off on the right foot by blasting a two run homer off Houston starter Randy Wolf in the first inning. The Met lead was extended to 3-0 on a bases loaded walk issued to Fernando Tatis in the third.

After cruising through the first three frames, Ollie Perez ran into some trouble in the top of the fourth. Mark Loretta’s sac fly cut the lead to 3-1 and base runner extraordinaire Hunter Pence followed with a two run bomb to tie the game at three.

The Mets reclaimed the lead in the fifth as Carlos Beltran connected for his second homer of the game (and just his fourth from the right hand side of the plate this year) off Wolf. The solo shot gave the Mets a 4-3 lead. The score remained 4-3 into the seventh when Perez began to tire. With one out, Ollie issued a walk to Hunter Pence. Manager Jerry Manuel removed Perez in favor of Aaron Heilman and Aaron immediately added fuel to the fire by issuing a Geoff Blum double to put runners on second and third with one out. Light hitting David Newhan followed and laced single to right. Pence scored to tie the game, but Blum was cut down at the plate thanks to a solid throw by Tatis in right. Heilman’s ineffective day was done and Scott Schoeneweis came on to escape the seventh with the game still tied.

As we have seen so often, the Met offense completely went to sleep in the late innings. After Roy Oswalt retired the last 20 Mets on Friday night, the Astro bullpen retired the last 15 Mets on Sunday afternoon… and it doesn’t take an analyst like Steve Phillips to realize that’s a recipe for disaster. Another recipe for disaster is the New York bullpen. Pedro Feliciano, who has been a huge letdown this season, came in to a tie game in the top of the tenth and proceeded to give up solo homers to 64 year old Brad Ausmus (his second of the year) and Darin Erstad (his third of the year). If you have any reading comprehension whatsoever, you should know that the Mets went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 10th and New York walked away with a disappointing 6-4 defeat. The loss, combined with Pedro Feliz’s heroics for the Phils, cut the Met lead to a half game over second place Philly. The Mets thankfully end their season series with Houston on Monday night as Mike Pelfrey looks to stop the bleeding. Big Pelf will be opposed by Brian Moehler of the ’stros.

The Haiku

Beltran finds power
Astros find Achilles heel
Bullpen: Find SOMEONE!

The Boxscore

The Win Probability Added Graph

The Credits

Recap by Chuck Buono
Haiku by Howard Megdal