Wright Supplies the Power, Passes Strawberry in Win

The Mets and Marlins found themselves locked in another great pitching match-up between R.A. Dickey and Mark Buerhle. These two fast workers kept the first four frames scoreless, while only taking an hour to get through them. Until the Mets broke out in the bottom of the eighth, hits were hard to come by for both of these teams, but when they did, they had quite an impact.

Like Tuesday night, the Marlins were the first to strike in this game, with a long home run from Omar Infante. New York answered in the bottom of the sixth; after an errant throw from Jose Reyes allowed Daniel Murphy to reach on a fielder’s choice, David Wright hit his third homer of the year, a two-run shot to left center. The hit officially put him on top of the Mets all-time list for most career RBI, with 735 and counting. Congratulations to David!

After these home runs, Buerhle and Dickey didn’t allow another run to score in their seven innings of work. The final line for R.A.: 7 IP, 3 hits, 1 R, 1 BB, 7 Ks. Like Santana the night before, he erased his poor start in Atlanta with a masterful performance. The most pleasing part of last night’s win was the insurance runs tacked on by the team in the bottom of the eighth. New York had been struggling to score runs of late, but they put together a rally when it counted. Tejada muscled a double down the right field line, Wright got intentionally walked, and then Duda came through with a big RBI single. Mike Baxter pinch hit for Scott Hairston and put more space between Miami with a two-run double to make it 5-1.

The bullpen threw two more scoreless innings to shut the door, allowing the Mets to try for the sweep this afternoon. Even though Ike Davis was hitless in four more at-bats, dropping his average to .123, his last two at-bats looked a lot more promising. He drove the ball to left center and center, which could mean he may be on the cusp of busting out of this slump. We forget that he hasn’t had one full year in the MLB yet, so he needs to build his confidence back up and show himself that he can compete on the highest level.

A great team win tonight, with flashes of brilliance on the mound, in the field, and at the plate. Congratulations again to David Wright, who will continue to re-write the Mets record books, if he sticks around. The win puts the Mets back up to 10-8 on the season, four games behind the surging Nationals.

Probable Pitchers today:

New York is bringing the brooms to Citi Field this afternoon at 1:10pm as Jonathon Niese tries to keep Reyes and the Marlins quiet once more before they head to Colorado to face the Rockies at Coors Field. Ricky Nolasco will be toeing the slab for Miami, as they try to salvage one game from this series.

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