Pelfrey Does It Again

With John Maine going on the DL, the Mets know that the starters have to really step it up if they want to maintain their lead in the NL East. Well, Mike Pelfrey did his part tonight as he pitched his second consecutive complete game in the Mets 9-1 win over the Astros tonight at Shea.

The Mets got the bulk of their offense from 2 Carlos Delgado 3 run home runs. It was Delgado's 46th multihomer game, fourth this year. The other runs came via a sacrifice fly from Daniel Murphy and a two run triple by Jose Reyes, who also had a single and a double in the game.

The second consecutive complete game by Pelfrey was the first since Bret Saberhagen (remember him?) did it for the Mets back in 1995.

The two stars of tonight's game have been key in the Mets run to the pennant this season. Back in March, if I told you that Delgado would be near 30 home runs by August, would you have believed me? He has 28 home runs, and has driven in 55 runs in his last 54 games. He has hit 24+ home runs in 13 straight seasons. Also, Mike Pelfrey who started the year 2-6, is now 13-8, which leads a staff in wins that includes $137 million dollar man Johan Santana. The Mets are 13-2 in Pelfrey's last 15 starts.

After an embarrassing loss by the bullpen yesterday, the Mets bats look to keep clicking as they head into a division showdown against Philadelphia in Philadelphia tomorrow night with a slim 1/2 game lead.

Should be real exciting.