Those Mets

WRIGHT, PELFREY BEAT TWINS

David Wright laced an RBI double and an opposite-field home run to propel the Mets to a 5-2 victory over the Twins at Citi Field on Friday night. It was a crisply played game between a team known for its fundamental efficiency and another that is quickly tending that way. The Mets looked very much like the Twins' contending teams of the past several seasons, moving runners along and getting clutch hits and big outs. Wright's fourth-inning double down the left-field line off Kevin Slowey scored Jose Reyes to tie the game at 1. On Ike Davis' single one batter later, Wright wisely scooted home when Denard Span's throw brought catcher Joe Mauer up the line and left home plate unguarded. Davis then scored from first on a Jason Bay double off the wall in left-center for a 3-1 advantage. After the Twins cut the lead to 3-2, Ruben Tejada doubled off the wall to lead off the fifth and sneaked in past Mauer's tag on Reyes' sacrifice fly two batters later. Wright added his home run into the nook down the right-field line leading off the sixth. It ended up being enough for Mike Pelfrey, even though it didn't often look like it would be. This wasn't vintage Pelfrey, or at least what Mets fans hope they can start calling vintage Pelfrey. But it also wasn't the Pelfrey of last season, the one prone to the big inning and self-castigation. Pelfrey's final line, in fact, looked an awful lot like that of counterpart Kevin Slowey. Each lasted six innings, each surrendered six hits, each struck out two and walked none, each allowed one home run. But unlike Slowey, Pelfrey was able to record the game's most crucial outs. It appeared the right-hander was on the ropes in the third, with runners on the corners, nobody out, and Mauer and Justin Morneau coming to the plate with the Twins already ahead 1-0. But Pelfrey bore down, striking out Mauer on a fastball up and in before inducing a 6-6-3 double-play grounder up the middle off the bat of Morneau. Pelfrey labored throughout the evening, reaching a full count eight times during the night and having four different at-bats last at least nine pitches. Pelfrey tossed 117 pitches in six innings -- two shy of a season-high -- and even his 1-2-3 sixth required 27 pitches. But it was enough for him to record his 10th win of the season and remain undefeated at Citi Field in 2010. (MLB.com)