Those Mets

PELFREY BACK TO FORM; METS BACK AT .500

Mike Pelfrey finally found his way back home. After six weeks of struggles, the Mets starter returned to his early season form and earned his first win since June25. He outdueled Ubaldo Jimenez, the majors' leader in wins, and helped shut out the Rockies, 1-0, Tuesday night as the Mets returned to Citi Field to open a six-game home stand. Pelfrey, who had gotten through fifth inning just once in his previous seven starts, gave the Mets seven scoreless innings Tuesday night. He scattered four hits, walked one and struck out four. Pelfrey (11-6) threw a career-high 122pitches. The Mets bats finally gave Pelfrey a lead in the seventh after struggling early against Jimenez (17-3). After the Rockies righthander worked his way out of a bases-loaded situation in the sixth, the Mets scored a run on Jose Reyes' sacrifice fly in the next inning. Chris Carter led off by drawing a four-pitch walk and Josh Thole hit a hard double to right field to put pinch-runner Jeff Francoeur on third with no outs. After Jimenez struck out Ruben Tejada, he intentionally walked Carlos Beltran, before Reyes' fly ball to deep right field got Francoeur home. Jimenez got out of the inning by striking out Fernando Martinez. That was it for Jimenez, who went seven innings, allowing one run on four hits. He walked four and struck out eight. Hisanori Takahashi, who is still in limbo between the Mets' starting rotation and bullpen, pitched a scoreless eighth and Francisco Rodriguez finished it off in the ninth for his 25th save of the season. It was Pelfrey's start, however, that gave the struggling Mets a lift. With the Mets all but out of the playoff picture, they are focusing on the future. They are playing their young players to see what they have for 2011. Where the big 26-year-old righty fits in the rotation may be one of the biggest questions going into next year. Tuesday night, he showed he could battle back from an extended midseason slump. He did it by being aggressive with his fastball and attacking hitters from the start. Going into Tuesday night's game, the first inning had been a problem for Pelfrey, who had allowed 16 first-inning runs in his last 11starts. He had not gotten out of the first without giving up at least a run in the first in 10 of those starts. Tuesday night, Pelfrey immediately went after the Rockies hitters. He had a scoreless first inning, including striking out National League leading hitter Carlos Gonzalez (.326) in an eight-pitch at-bat. That was what manager Jerry Manuel had been looking for from Pelfrey. "I think that first inning can give you an idea," Manuel said before the game. "But I also think with Mike there has to be some adversity out there somewhere to see how he handles that, whether or not he's going to navigate through the rest of the game. I think the first inning is very critical for any pitcher, and if he comes out and does well, there and has a good second and third, and then runs into a little trouble, how he navigates that will determine (how we do)." Pelfrey, who had not gotten out of the fifth inning since June 25, found his adversity in the second inning. He gave a one-out walk to Brad Hawpe, followed by a single to Ian Stewart. When Tejada failed to turn a double play on Miguel Olivo's ground ball to third, Pelfrey had runners on first and third, but got out of the inning by getting Clint Barmes to ground into a force at second. Pelfrey looked like the more aggressive pitcher that tore out to a 10-2 start this season. In his last seven starts, Pelfrey came undone. He was 0-4 with a 9.00 ERA in those starts dating back to June 30. (NY Daily News)