Man, that really looked like Mike Pelfrey’s night on Wednesday.

Wednesday’s game is one of those wins that really shouldn’t end up as an SNY ULTIMET Classic. It reminds of that 2006 Mets at Giants game where Brian Bannister was put on the shelf for months and Billy Wagner gave up a pinch-hit home run to Barry Bonds to force the game into extra innings. That was re-aired as an ULTIMET Classic. Yes, the Mets won that game, but there was so many bad feelings around it. I’d never want to see it again.

The same can be said about last night. As much as fans and media alike might say its a turning point for the team, let’s face it — the Mets only scored three runs in that fourth inning before finally getting Beltran’s homer in the 13th. That offensive production could easily be compared to any of the Mets-Padres losses. Most glaringly, the team ran themselves out of an 8th inning where they could have added an extra run. No, tonight’s story was all about the maturation of Pelfrey.

Grant it, Pelfrey’s recent success might not be completely all it seems. He put together two solid starts against the Dodgers and Padres, but those teams are both light-hitting. But on Wednesday, he took on Arizona, a team in the top 10 in baseball in runs scored. He actually pitched better against Arizona, going a dominant eight innings and giving up only five hits and two walks. He looked more dominant in this game than in his no-hit bid against the Washington Nationals.

Perhaps most uplifting was his strikeout total of 8. Outside of his start against the Dodgers, he has mostly had low strikeout totals, while still having higher pitch counts. He managed to double his average output of strikeouts, while also significantly lowering his regular pitch count. That’s a testament to how much Pelfrey simply overpowered the Diamondbacks’ lineup.

After he breezed through the 8th inning, I really thought that Pelfrey was unstoppable on Wednesday. Nothing was going to stop him from getting that complete game shutout. In fact, I was stunned that it was even a question whether Pelfrey would attempt it in the 9th or not.

Immediately after Pelfrey was taken out, I thought that he should have gotten another batter. This had nothing to do with the odds of winning the game because I didn’t think Wagner would blow it. I was just really rooting for Pelfrey to pull off the complete game shut-out.

Then after all the goodwill that Pelfrey had built up over eight innings, causing the Shea fans to rise to their feet in applause multiple times, Wagner let the air out by giving up that double and subsequent three-run HR to tie. After that, the fans were emotionally drained. So was I. If the Mets lost, it would have been the worst loss of the season by far.

The extra inning frames went by like a blur and when Carlos Beltran hit his walk-off HR, Gary Cohen seemed like he was desperately trying to amp up the emotion for the call. Ironically, he basically repeated the same call he gave when Beltran hit the walk-off HR against Jason Isringhausen in August 2006.

Mets fans are, of course, happy with the win, but it’s more of a sigh of relief. There’s no real joy in that win when it occurs like that. If the game was tied going into extras, it might have been a different story. If Pelfrey was less than he was on Wednesday, it might have been a different story. But Pelfrey gift-wrapped that win, and the Mets struggled to accept the present.