Well this sounds so familiar.  With a small lead in the NL East coming into Washington, the Mets have now fallen to second place behind the Phillies with two more games to play at Nationals Park.

And it couldn’t be a better week for watching September baseball in Washington.  The Nats are playing hard, refusing to rollover and embracing their role in helping to decide who represents the NL East this fall.  Mets fans have flocked to the park, arriving stressed and leaving defeated.  It’s September and the Mets have scored just two runs in their last 23 innings.

Last night, Odalis Perez came out strong.  He baffled the Mets, surrendering only four hits in his 7+ innings.  He struck out six, walked none and scored the Nats only run of the game.  Pelfrey was also pretty spectacular.  He allowed four walks and seven hits, but only one run.  It came after  Tatis attempted a diving catch in the 5th.  He left the game and ended his season with a separated shoulder.  Moments later, Willie Harris would walk and Cristian Guzman would double to send Perez home.  It was all the Nats needed to win the game.

When Perez left to an ovation and praise, runners were at first and second with only one out.  Mike Hinckley entered the game to take on a difficult task:  collect two more outs while facing the top of the order with two men on.  Hinckley somehow…some way got Reyes to ground into a force out.  It put the tying run on third with 2 outs for Ryan Church.  The former Nat struck out to end the inning.  Hinckley hasn’t given up a run in 10 appearances with the Nats this season.

Manny Acta then turned the game over to his closer.  Knowing Joel doesn’t match up well against Wright, the lead off hitter and Mets superstar, we assured the friendly Mets fans around us to relax.  But on this crazy night, even David Wright couldn’t handle Hanrahan’s fastball.  The 11 pitch at bat ended with a swinging strike out.  Beltran lined out and Delgado struck out to give Joel his 9th save and secure our odd 1-0 win over the struggling Mets.

Tonight, Shairon Martis (0-2, 2.70) takes on Brandon Knight (0-0, 6.43).  Martis is coming off a strong start against the Marlins where he struck out nine in 5 plus innings and gave up only 1 earned run.

Other stuff:

Boswell talks to Ted Lerner
FJB dissects Boswell’s chat with Lerner
MASN announces more HD games in 09
Syracuse may be the Nats AAA affiliate next year
Jason Bergmann’s at ESPN Zone at 12
Zuckerman Chats at 1 pm
Chico chats at 2

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 8:14 am and is filed under Game Recaps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.