The Beltran grand slam was probably the biggest of his Mets career and yeah, that comeback shocked even me. Yesterday's loss was just horrible and showed once again why after this season the Mets just need to let Aaron Heilman go be a starter somewhere. Today, Pedro pitched well, Reyes got a key hit and hopefully we'll be back up 2 by the time the day is over.
It's kind of weird playing the Texas Rangers, but then I've never been a fan of interleague play to begin with. Either way, most impressive today was Pedro Martinez finally making a real quality start and Willie's gutsy move to pinch-hit for him with a guy who hadn't gotten a hit in 9 years.
2006 proved that the Mets need a healthy and effective Pedro Martinez to have any chance of winning a world championship. Well, now's the time for Pedro to step up and prove that he's still got a little something left in his tank. No more excuses and if he gets injured again, maybe he should just retire and be done. He's facing a Giants team that can't hit tonight so would 6 innings, no more than 3 runs allowed be too much to ask for? I don't think so.
OK, things are looking really good after the whole Willie controversy, but let's not get carried away here because we're still 3.5 games out of first place have some problems that need to be worked out if we're seriously going to contend this year. First, the Mets need to show some guts and send Aaron Heilman down to the minors if they're not going to trade him. Heilman has been horrible all year, gives up way too many HR's and keeps costing us games. Secondly, the Mets have to be really careful with Ryan Church whose suffered two concussions of late and still isn't 100%--give the hot-hitting Fernando Tatis more playing time till Church is 110%. Lastly, there's Pedro Martinez, who I don't care how good he says he's feeling, seems to always end up injured. We need Pedro to win for sure, but the Mets have to be extra careful how they deal with him for the rest of the year. Personally, I wouldn't let him go any more than 5 innings from now on till the playoffs. In the meantime, Wright and Reyes are hitting, Carlos Beltran is getting clutch hits. the bullpen (except Heilman) looks great and the bench is making a name for themselves. Good.
Tonight is why the Mets signed Pedro Martinez. I don't care how long he's been on the disabled list or that he's not the Pedro of '99. Tonight Pedro Martinez needs to come up with a big game for his ballclub.
