Game #63 (35-28) - Let's Go to the Brooms!

With today's 11-4 victory, the Mets completed their first road sweep since September of 2008, outscoring the Orioles 19-6 in the three games.  For the first time in a while, the Mets are doing what they should be doing; jumping all over the bad teams that they should be beating, as opposed to playing down to their competition.  It's hard for me to hate this team when they're doing their jobs so well.  Of course, after this tease and winning 8 of their last 9, they'll be sure to let us down in Cleveland starting on Tuesday, right?  Here's some notes on today's game.

• Today was the 5th straight game with a leadoff hit for Reyes.  That's his longest such streak since 2006.  He's definitely look more comfortable at the plate, and while he took a few bad swings today, he's certainly getting closer to his peak 2006-2008 form over the last 10 games.
• There's been talk about the Mets pursuing Millwood at the deadline.  If anyone that watched him today still thinks that's a good idea, please get your head checked.  I don't buy as much into pitchers needing to be on a competitive team to be motivated.  Millwood's a professional, he's been in the majors for 14 years - he knows his job is to take that mound every 5th day and get outs, and he's simply not getting it done this year.  His average fastball velocity is under 90 for the first time in his career, and the result has been the highest HR/9 rate of his career.  While he'd be worth taking a flier on for virtually free, I would hate to see the Mets give up a Dillon Gee or Brad Holt to get him.
• Despite Jerry sitting Carter yesterday after his Friday homer, he responded tdayt with a 3 run HR in the first inning.  With Carter swinging a good bat, it's hard to see where Tatis really fits in with this team, especially since Carter can play 1B as well.  Tatis has been overmatched at the plate this year, and while that may be due to the lack of at-bats, he's also just not hitting the ball hard.  While Tatis' BABIP is a meager .229 (vs his career number of .308), it's hard to blame that on bad luck, as his line drive percentage of 21.5% is just in line with his career rate of 21.3.  What jumps out for Fernando is his whopping 13.3% infield fly ball rate, almost double his career number.   With Carter showing the pop Tatis once displayed, it's hard for me to see how Manuel can justify trotting Fernando out there at Carter's expense.
• Congrats to Jesus Feliciano on his first major league hit after 1271 games in the minor leagues.  That said, he still doesn't belong in the majors.   He doesn't play good defense, he has no pop, and he doesn't have the speed to be a true singles hitter.  If the Mets had to call up a career minor leaguer to take some AB's, give me Mike Hessman and his 329 career minor league HR's.  He could be this year's Jack Cust.  If you're going to play Feliciano in CF, why not have Kirk Nieuwenhuis come down from Binghamton for a cup of coffee?  Nieuwenhuis definitely needs some seasoning, as he's terrible at pitch recognition, but he's only 22, and unlike Feliciano, has a chance to help the Mets beyond this short stretch.
• Not a good day for Pelfrey today - he had a lot of trouble with his location, similar to Santana's problems on Thursday with the Padres.  However, despite this being his worst outing since his Derby day drubbing in Philly, Big Pelf hung tough and was able to give the Mets 6 innings of 3 run ball.  Yes, it came against a completely inept lineup, but I'll take this next step in the continuing maturity of Pelfrey.  In years past, when he struggled with location like he did today, he would throw away his game plan and just throw his fastball every pitch, making a bad situation worse.  Today, he stuck with what he wanted to do, and continued mixing his pitches well, even though his splitter was a little flat, and his fastball showed little sink and rarely broke 90.  It may have been the cushion of the 5-0 lead to start the game, but I'd like to think it's a sign that Pelf has learned to trust his approach.  He's now 9-1 on the year, the fastest Met to 9 wins since Bobby Jones won #9 on May 28, 1997.  How's that for research?  
• It would be wrong for me to overlook the big game from Jason Bay today.  Bay was 4-4 today with 4 runs scored and a solo HR, breaking out of his 1 for 25 slump in a big way.  Maybe he'll keep in going in Cleveland against his former Sox teammate Masterson.  Until then, I'm not saying anything good about him.  He'll need about 30 more of these games to NOT be insanely overpaid, ok?
• Monster day for David Wright, with another HR against a righty.  I'm loving his better approach at the plate these days, as he's being much more selective on pitches low and away, and he's seeing that pay off in declining strikeout totals.  Good to have the old Wright back, hopefully he can stay for a while.

The Mets will look to keep the hot streak alive on Tuesday night in Cleveland with Johan Santana taking on Justin Masterson.  Be sure to tune in tomorrow for an interesting op-ed piece on an oft-overlooked reason why being a Met fan sucks.