Wright Handed Compliment

David Wright shaped up his ailing swing and rescued the Mets with a 4-4 night, including a huge eighth inning homer, as the Mets edged the Nats by a field goal, 13-10, boosting the Amazins to a season high 3.5 game lead in the NL East.  SNY documented how Jerry Manuel and hitting coach Howard Johnson spent extra time with Wright in pre-game BP, counseling him on keeping his left shoulder in and eliminating the uppercut from his swing.  These efforts paid immediate dividends with a first inning double (shoulder stayed in tight) and with the eighth inning HR (nice level follow through, no uppercut).  Perhaps the most impressive contributions on the night came from Wright’s bare hand.  Wright seems a lock to win his second straight Gold Glove, as he proved twice how steady and reliable he is on plays where he charged in for the ball, scooped it with his golden bare hand and nailed the runner.  Add in a nice leaping grab in the eighth and you have a complete performance from the man most valuable to the Mets.

I say this with full acknowledgement of the contributions of Domo Arigato Mr. Delgado.  His recent run of power hitting is truly stunning.  Delgado carried the Mets in game 1 vs. the Nats Tuesday, which was won by a safety, 10-8.  Delgado became only the third left handed hitter in the last 40 years to have two straight two home run games all hit of left handed pitchers (joining a 2/3 impressive list with Carl Yazstremski, a pre-steroids 1999 vintage Barry Bonds and the surprising Geoff Jenkins).  What I also found impressive was Delgado’s at bat in the seventh inning last night, with the game tied 7-7.  With a man on third and one out, what the Mets really needed was a sacrifice fly, and that’s what Delgado delivered, with a shortened swing rather than gunning for the fences with his usual swing.  I liked that adjustment a lot, thinking of the team instead of saying “I’m so hot, look at this.”

I agree with my esteemed crosstown colleague Joseph Gallo that Delgado’s hot streak has distracted attention from Wright and Jose Reyes, who are more consistent and more key to the teams success.  But ah, what a great and valuable distraction its been; it can only help the team that Delgado is so feared at the moment.  I also don’t buy the Delgado as MVP talk (a .265 average #5 hitter?), and have come around to the Gallo camp again in that Albert Pujols probably deserves the award, since Wright has cooled off and I just don’t believe in the candidacy of Sabathia or Manny either. 

Another Met who has steadily stepped up his production of late is Carlos Beltran.  He has quietly heated up from a lackluster couple of months in the middle of summer, has over 100 RBIs and 100 runs, and his .281 average would be his highest season mark as a Met if he maintains it.  Perhaps more significantly, last night Beltran took a positive step with his most annoying tendency, his .179 average on the year with two outs and runners in scoring position.  His first inning 2-out RBI bloop single bucked this trend, and continued a nine-game hitting streak for the recently more dependable Beltran.  This helps not just the Mets but the cause of increasing tourism to Puerto Rico, as the corny commercial with Beltran and Delgado has that much more clout with both of them hitting!

If Wright, Beltran and Delgado can stay hot it creates a minefield for opposing pitchers in the 3-4-5 meat of the Mets order.  Seems like at least one of those guys has been cold at any given time in the season before now.  The switch hitting Beltran sandwiched between the right-handed Wright and left-handed Delgado, following Reyes and Ryan Church in the 1-2 spots should continue to be deadly (lets hope).

Before I pat Beltran on the back too much I should add that Lastings Milledge playing way too deep, practically on the warning track, was probably the reason that 1st inning bloop fell in.  The same was true on a Tatis bloop single that was at the heart of the Mets four-run seventh, as Milledge was playing so deep Ron Darling humorously commented he was going to be charged a toll on the Whitestone Bridge.  Even after that Milledge was surprisingly not moved in by the Nats, and on a play where Beltran should have been picked off at second if not for a Christian Guzman error, which resulted in the ball rolling into centerfield, Beltran had time to get up, look around, dust himself off, enjoy a cup of coffee and a doughnut and check his email before deciding to run to third base as Milledge ran a mile to get the ball.  Add to this an embarrassing play where Milledge did not communicate and call off leftfielder Roger Bernadina, resulting in a collision.  Milledge is immature as a player and has learned some bad habits in his first year playing full time, I blame the Nats coaching staff for not counseling him and I also credit the Mets for pulling off the trade for Church and Brian Schneider.

The biggest change for the Mets of late has been their ability to score early AND late, instead of scoring early and having their offense die late, which characterized most of the season.  Espeically as the starting pitching has faltered in the last two games and the bullpen has fallen to earth, the late runs rescued the Amazins in the two game slugfest vs. Washington.  Aaron Heilman has set a team record for allowing homers with runners on base, as both he and Brian Stokes allowed huge homers to Guzman last night.  With no less than 14 bullpen pitchers on the expanded September roster, the Mets have the luxury to rotate arms and demote non-performers.  So while Stokes, who has been huge, will have another chance at least to maintain his setup role, Heilman is just a puzzlement.  Seeing him come in and walk the first hitter he faces was almost as nauseating as the Guzman homer.

The Mets have a night off to root for the Brewers against the Cheesesteaks and get ready for a three game weekend set against Atlanta.

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Last post (s) by Mark Reichman

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