The Woes Continue

You couldn't have asked for anything more of Mike Pelfrey. He went seven innings giving up one run while striking out four. It was amazing how Odalis Perez bounced back from his last start against the Mets. Facing the team that lit him up for seven runs last go around, Perez struck out six last night, allowing only for hits and surrendering no runs. After Perez came out, the Nationals bullpen allowed no hits for what was a great night for Washington pitching. Pelfrey faced trouble early on when he had runners on the corners with two out and Elijah Dukes stepping to the plate. Pelfrey prevented any Deja Vu and struck out Dukes to end the inning. On to the worst inning of the night, the fifth inning. Anderson Hernandez started the inning off with a walk, and next Wil Nieves grounded into a double play. Why does that sound so bad you may ask. Well, I'm about to tell you. The starting pitcher, Odalis Perez stepped up to plate, so you assume, alright let's get this guy out and end the inning, right? WRONG. Perez hits a fly ball to left field, in comes Fernando Tatis, he lays out and doesn't come up with it. the ball rolls a little ways in the outfield and standing at second base with a double is Odalis Perez. On the diving catch attempt, Fernando Tatis hit the ground hard on his shoulder and stayed there in major pain. Tatis walked off the field under his own power(he hurt his shoulder, not his leg) and after the game, the injury was reported to be a separated shoulder. The injury will end Fernando Tatis' amazing comeback year. So, Nick Evans came in to play in left field and Willie Harris, the next batter is walked. On comes Christian Guzman who has been such a difficult out not only for the Mets but for many teams this season. The Mets got lucky but not too lucky. Guzman hit one deep to left center which hopped once before going over the wall for a ground rule double. Obviously allowing a run isn't lucky, but it initially looked as if the ball had a chance to get over the wall on a fly(a homerun). Ryan Zimmerman flew out to end a dreadful inning for New York in which they lost a key player for the year and allowed the one run that beat them. What makes that one run worse is that a pitcher scored it. The closest the Mets came to scoring the rest of the game came when Ramon Martinez was on third base with two outs and Ryan Church at the plate. And......Church struck out swinging. Joel Hanrahan had a 1-2-3 inning in the ninth, striking out two to send the Mets half a game back of the Phillies in the NL East. Yes, the Mets are still a half game ahead of the Brewers in the wild card and we should be somewhat satisfied they remain in the playoff race but YOU CAN'T LOSE 1-0 TO THE WASHINGTON NATIONALS! Now that the Mets are trailing the Phillies, we can only hope they will have more fire and more of a will to climb back up into first place.