Those Mets

ANOTHER COMPLETE GAME SHUTOUT, ANOTHER BIG WIN

The Mets had to play two games without their closer, Francisco Rodriguez, and did not need even need a relief pitcher, let alone a closer, in either one. On Thursday, the day Rodriguez was arraigned in court on an assault charge, Johan Santana pitched a four-hit shutout. He had told Manager Jerry Manuel before the game that he could pitch 10 innings if needed. Not to be surpassed in either resolve or results, R. A. Dickey did Santana even better. He threw a brilliant one-hit shutout to lead the Mets to a 1-0 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies, and because he throws a knuckleball, he probably could have gone 11 innings. The victory was the major-league-leading 18th shutout of the season for the Mets, a surprising figure for a team only one game over .500 at 58-57. More important, it was the first time the Mets won consecutive games since June 22 and 23. With two outs in the ninth inning, the fans rose to their feet when Dickey, on his 105th pitch, got Placido Polanco to line out to right field. Dickey embraced catcher Henry Blanco after the final out. The performance, combined with Santana’s on Thursday afternoon, provided another happy moment for the Mets in the midst of the turmoil caused by Rodriguez’s arrest and his placement on the restricted list. Dickey improved to 8-5 and was the recipient of a shaving-cream pie from Angel Pagan during a postgame interview on the field. Coming into the game, Dickey, a 35-year-old journeyman, had registered only one victory in his last nine starts, despite pitching very well most of that time and allowing 18 earned runs in 51 innings for a respectable earned run average of 3.18. Four of those earned runs came in his previous start, Saturday against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Dickey lasted only three innings in his worst start of the season. On Friday, he did not allow a hit until Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels stroked a low knuckler for a shallow bloop into right field with one out in the sixth inning. Before that, Dickey had allowed only one base runner. After retiring the first seven batters he faced, Dickey walked Wilson Valdez with one out in the third, but then got Hamels and Jimmy Rollins on pop-ups to end the inning. He then set down the Phillies in order in the fourth and fifth to make the 35,440 in attendance start to think about the possibility that they might see the first no-hitter in Mets history. But Hamels dashed those hopes in the sixth. In the bottom of the inning, the Mets scored when the two struggling sluggers in the middle of the lineup produced a run with two outs. David Wright laced a double that sailed over the head of Phillies center fielder Shane Victorino to snap an 0-for-15 slump. Then Carlos Beltran whacked a double off the wall in left field to score Wright, who jogged home almost as if he thought Beltran’s ball had gone over the wall. The Mets squandered an opportunity to score in the fifth inning when an apparent home run was turned into a triple that did not yield a run. Leading off the inning, Mike Hessman drove a ball to deep left field for what at first looked like a home run off the railing above the wall. But left fielder Raul Ibanez argued that the ball was touched by a fan reaching over the railing. As Hessman stood in the dugout after circling the bases and a one went up on the scoreboard for the Mets, Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel emerged from the visitors’ dugout to argue the call. The umpires eventually went below the stands to review the play. After a 6-minute-35-second delay, the crew chief Tom Hallion came out, consulted with the home plate umpire Ed Rapuano, then pointed to Hessman in the dugout and then to third base as the fans booed. They booed even louder after Hessman was stranded. Jeff Francoeur and Henry Blanco struck out swinging and Hamels walked Ruben Tejada intentionally to pitch to Dickey, who grounded meekly back to the pitcher. The fans did not seem to take consolation from the fact that at least Hessman, whose 329 career minor league home runs are the most among active players, had his first career triple in 87 major league games. At the time it seemed as if the lost run would be costly, but Wright and Beltran made sure it did not undermine another brilliant performance from a Mets starter. (NY Times)