Perez stifles Yanks as Mets leave with rain shortened sweep

Oliver Perez pitched 7 2/3 baffling innings and the Mets hitting continued to terrorize the Yankees pitching in a 11-2 waxing. Perez allowed just 3 hits in his longest outing of the year and struck out 4. The Mets obliterated a usually dominant Chein Ming-Wang, scoring 4 runs in the frame despite a botched call by the 3rd base umpire, and broke it open late in the contest. With the team already up 3-0, first baseman Carlos Delgado whacked a pitch off the foul pole for a home run to supposedly widen the margin to 6-0. 3rd base ump Mike Reilly originally called it a 4-bagger, but overruled his own decision in a conference with the rest of the umpire crew, sending Delgado back to the plate. Bench coach Jerry Manuel was ejected for arguing, and manager Willie Randolph also gave the ump an earful arguing the obvious homer. Delgado delivered anyways, hitting an rbi single stretching the lead to four runs.

Two of the Yankees three hits off Perez came in the bottom of that same inning, a single by Derek Jeter and a homer by Hideki Matsui. Other than that Perez was very effective, using his filthy array of pitches to keep the Yankees at bay. The Yankees, losers of 7 of their last 10, have struggled mightily, scoring just 2 runs a game over their last six games, in which they went 1-5. Wang’s ineffective outing gives the Yankees one more hill to climb. He, so far this season is responsible for 6 of the starting rotations 11 total runs. If he continues to get rocked like in this contest, and the rest of the staff continues to be miserable, the Yankees might be out of the race by July. The part of the Yankees ballclub that isn’t expected to struggle is the offense. Their previously noted demise is just the start of their woes. With Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada out, the Yankees line-up has so many holes. Jose Molina, Posada’s replacement, is hitting below the Mendoza line and the 3rd baseman, A-Rod’s position, is someone different each night.

Newly inserted manager Joe Girardi has used 37 different lineups in 44 games so far this season, all because of the absence of these two offensive juggernauts, not allowing the somewhat talented Yankee hitters left to gain any amount of chemistry. The biggest part of their inability to hit has been when runners are in scoring position, during which situation they hit .237 as a team. That showed up in this crucial game in the 5th inning when Molina hit a leadoff double, when it was still a 2 run margin. Johnny Damon, one of many Yankees hitters who have struggled this season overall, did his job getting the slow of foot Molina over to third on a ground-out. At a time when a ground-ball would have gotten the run home, Bobby Abreu struck out looking, as he so often does. The captain and usually clutch Derek Jeter came to the plate hoping to save the day. But he couldn’t, flying out to end the inning.

The Mets went roughshod on the Yanks the rest of the game, allowing no more hits as a pitching staff while clobbering Yanks on th offensive end. Ryan Church delivered one of his two rbi’s on a solo homer to start the sixth to dead center field. With the game seemingly in hand because of Perez’s dominance on the mound, the Mets decided they would humiliate the Yanks in their own house. The better New York team scored 6 runs in the 8th, off Wang and reliever Ross Ohlendorf. After Moises Alou drove in a run with a sac fly to knock out Wang, Carlos Delgado was intentionally walked wit two outs because of his previous damage. The gamble didn’t pay off for the Yanks as the Mets finished them off by clobbering three straight hits: two rbi singles by Brian Schneider and Luis Castillo and a blasted three-run homer by Jose Reyes to get him off the snide at into his home run swagger. Just like that the game was out of hand, 11-2 Mets, on their way to a rain shortened two game sweep.

The Mets, and especially Willie Randolph needed this after hearing rumors he would be given the ax.The offense awoke in this series, scoring 18 total runs, most coming off the Yanks two best pitchers, Andy Pettitte and Wang. Reyes, hitting just .267 this year, desperately needed this series. His inconsistency has brought him intense scrutiny by the ferocious New York media, but his homers in consecutive games hope to get him on track. When his offense is on turbo, the Mets win. When it’s not, they lose. Prior to this game he had been hitting .333 in games his team win, yet only .179 in games they lose. Therefore his productive series helps the Mets, as a team get back on track.

David Wright and Ryan Church have been the two consistent hitter for the Metropolitans this season combining for a average hovering around .300, 17 homers and 66 rbi’s. With the two Carlos’s (Delgado and Carlos Beltran) struggling so far this year, the productivity by Wright and Church are much needed for a team that desperately wants to forget last year’s collapse. This rout will go a long ways to turning at least one New York team in the right direction.