The top of the third inning of last nights game could be the inning we look back on as the time Mike Pelfrey jumped from suspect pitcher to bona fide big leaguer. Big Plef was fantastic last night hitting the mid to high 90’s on the gun and pounding the hell out of the strike zone. But it was the third inning that impressed me the most.
Ronnie Belliard leads off with a single and is then thrown out on a great play by Brian Schneider on Odalis Perez sac bunt. Christian Guzman singles to make it first and second one out and up comes Lastings Milledge. I was surprised at the boos toward Lasto, any way Pelfrey showed great command up until this at bat as he fell behind 3-0 just missing his target on the first two pitches then over compensating on the last one. LMillz took a strike but then the next pitched missed and Milldege took first base.
Now it was nervous time as Ryan Zimmerman comes to the plate. Zimmerman is in a bad slump and now with the bags loaded and knowing that Pelfrey was going to come with the first pitch fastball, Zimmerman was ready to spring. A little too anxious he swung just underneath the ball at pop out to Castillo at second for the second out. Up next was the poor man’s John Olerud, Nick Johnson. Here is where I was nervous for Pelfrey as Johnson has tremendous plate patients and you had to figure he’d expect Pelfrey to be a bit amped up as he is one out away from getting out of a major jam. Johnson looks at the first pitch of the at bat for strike, the next two pitches are out of the strike zone for balls so now the count is in Johnsons’ favor 2-1. Here is where Pelfrey grew up. He made a pitchers pitch what was either a tailing fastball or a slider that look to be at the middle of the plate and then made a late move to the outside fooling Johnson who swung and missed for strike two. The Pelfrey came with a strike down in the zone that Johnson missed for strike three and the third out. I t was as impressive a pitch sequence you would see by any big league pitcher. Outstanding job by Pelfrey and Brian Schneider Bravo!
As go Reyes and Wright so go the Mets. I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!!! I am going to save this pic and whenever I get pissed off about the play of the team or the organization I will click on this photo I think will soothe me.
I feel badly for the family of the guy who fell from the escalator ans was killed at Shea last night espically his kids since they saw it happen but you can’t tell me he just lost his footing and fell. If that were the case wouldn’t he have fallen down the stairs and not over the railing? I kind of believe the account I heard on the news that he was sliding down the hand rail. Whatever, it’s a tragedy.
Dirty Duaner got a great ovation coming in from the pen last night and he looked like the Dirty One of old making quick work of the Nats in the 9th inning.
LETS GO RANG-ERS (CLAP, CLAP, CLAP CLAP CLAP)
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This post was written by kranepool on April 16, 2008
Unbelievable game from Pelfrey last night.
I was in shock watching it from the upper deck. That third inning was huge. Good stuff. Hope he can build off of it.
I read in the Times that the guy was sliding down the rail, but in the News they say he just fell. Neither made sense to me as the News also said the escalator was broken and in my mind, anyway, you can’t slide down a unmoving escalator hand-rail.
I half wondered if he was walking backwards or fooling around or something and just fell over the rail. I don’t know, but it’s odd.
I didn’t like the way the News implied that it was because Shea’s old and needs to be torn down.
Thanks to being 3000 miles from NY and the fact that they don’t mention baseball on NHL radio, I will listen to the Rangers first then the Mets tomorrow early.
Thanks for the picture link. I didn’t see it on the News site when I was checking that earlier. And, I wondered what the uniforms looked like.
Just imagine if Pelfrey is actually going to be the pitcher we all hoped he’d be.
I remember early in the year hearing someone on Baseball Tonight saying that it takes tall guys longer to find their way in the majors because they have more trouble duplicating the motion and release than do shorter guys. I can’t remember who it was, but he was talking about Pelfrey being a later developer due to his height.
Here’s my take on Pelf and it has in part to do with what Eagle said about his height. He is a sinker ball pitcher at heart and throws the “heavy” ball. But and this is a big But, sinker ball pitchers need to keep the ball low to be effective. High sinkers are batting practice. Because of his height it is even more difficult to keep the ball down UNLESS…you bend your push off leg more than usual. Examples of really bending teh push off leg are David Cone. When I was in my pitching career from ages 7 to 23, my dad would always be yelling at me from the stands, “bend that knee!!!”. Watching him pitch last night, i noticed he doesn’t bend his knee too much. Doesn’t Peterson see this? Yes, last night was a nice game by him on a chilly night (pitcher’s night to pitch) against maybe the worst offensive team in the NL or even MLB. Last night he mostly kept the ball down but he also got away with some fat pitches up and over the plate. I think Pelf can be a #3 guy but he’s still a good 2 years away from that. Either way, was a very enjoyable game to watch for a change! I hope Maine gets his act together tonight and pitches like it’s Spring Training!