When asked what flipped the switch for the Mets, David Wright pointed to Mike Pelfrey’s win over Tim Lincecum and the Giants less than two weeks ago. After losing to Philly with Johan Santana on the mound, the Mets went on to beat the Phils in the next three games, winning the series.

Wright tells Vic Ziegel of the New York Daily News how that started the ball rolling.

“When we won the next three, and in Philadelphia, that was big. We came home for the Giants and their pitcher was Tim Lincecum. He was 10-1. Coulda been the starter in the All-Star Game.”

Pelfrey sent the Mets to a 7-0 shutout over the Giants, and the highly favored Lincecum.

Wright said Pelfrey “gave us the confidence we needed. Our confidence went right through the roof.”

Mike Pelfrey is 5-0 in his last eight starts, after losing six of his first eight, dropping his ERA from 5.33 to 3.64.

Mets manager Jerry Manuel has big plans for the Big Pelf.

“I think Pelfrey has a chance to leapfrog some people on the staff and become one of the top, top pitchers not only on our staff, but in the league, and I think that at some point we’re going to have to challenge him to do that.”

Mike Pelfrey’s turnaround is a microcosm of the Mets own turnaround, and having an arm like his, pitching the way he has, will do wonders for keeping the Mets on a roll.

Nine straight! The Mets blanked the Rockies again tonight at Shea by a score of 7-0. Mike Pelfrey got the win and Mark Redman took the loss.

Pelfrey was once again dominant, as he went eight shutout innings allowing no runs on six hits. Pelfrey induced 15 outs on groundballs and struck out five Rockie batters.

Carlos Beltran got the scoring going in the 1st when he turned on an inside fastball and launched a three run homer over the bleachers in left to put the Mets up 3-0. Carlos Delgado later sent a towering fly ball over the right field wall for a two run homer to put the Mets up 7-0.

Joe Smith pitched the 9th inning to end it.

Enjoy the break everyone. The Mets resume play Thursday against the Reds.

Not knowing how Mets’ pitching coach Dan Warthen has exactly worked differently with the Mets’ pitchers, it seems that, on the whole, Mets’ pitching has produced strong results in the wake of the change. There was no obvious reason for the firing of Rick Peterson, but perhaps, in the long run, Warthen will produce positive results out of some Mets’ pitchers who have struggled.

SNY and Mets fans alike have praised the recent performance of Michael Pelfrey. Admittedly, when the performance is succinctly summed up as “he’s won his last five starts,” his recent performance sounds more than adequate. Since Warthen was guiding Pelfrey during four of those starts, it seems reasonable that he should get some credit. Not to be overtly negative, but new expectations around Pelfrey should be tempered just a little.

There’s no arguing that Pelfrey’s last two starts have been optimum. In both starts, he pitched seven solid innings. Against the Cardinals on July 3, Pelfrey gave up one run on six hits and two walks. On July 8 against the Giants, Pelfrey had an even better start, giving up no runs on three hits and zero walks.

However, the previous three starts weren’t quite as good. He battled against the Yankees on June 27, giving up a lot of baserunners — eight hits and four walks in five innings. While he didn’t give up any earned runs against the Rockies on June 22, he had five walks, a season high, in that game. Pelfrey also struggled mightily in the seventh inning of his win on June 16 against the Angels. Pedro Feliciano ended up allowing two inherited runners to score, ballooning Pelfrey’s line to six earned runs after six innings that night.

Long story short, Pelfrey’s two “battling” starts look to serve as the bridge to his recent dominance, but not all five of the wins in his streak were dominant starts. Therefore, raising expectations exponentially might be a bit unfair to Pelfrey just yet, potentially setting him up for future failure.

Similarly, Oliver Perez was another Met starter who had been struggling at the end of Peterson’s tenure. In his first two starts under Warthen, against the Angels and Mariners, Perez continued to struggle, giving up nine earned runs in 14 innings. However, his last three starts have translated to just two earned runs in 19 innings.

But while Perez pitched well early on Friday, a Met fan cannot be completely satisfied with his last performance. He gave up six walks, the second-highest total he has this season. (His highest total was eight at Colorado on May 23. Gary Cohen said on Friday’s telecast that the Rockies’ lineup was a team that did well against Perez. Perhaps the team is specifically more patient with him.) Regardless, Perez walked the bases loaded in the 6th inning on Friday and then gave up a walk and a single in the 7th inning. While Perez got out of it himself in the 6th, Aaron Heilman really bailed him out in a big jam in the 7th.

Speaking of Heilman, he’s another man who has become more successful as of late. During Friday’s telecast, Ron Darling said Heilman was using his slider more during the last month and a half, as well as locating his pitches down more. The reliever has been excellent over the last month and a half, a period mostly under new coach Warthen.

Another pitcher who may be benefitting from the change is Duaner Sanchez, though his reaction to the change has largely not been speculated upon. Since the managerial changes on June 17, Sanchez has only allowed one earned run. This could be credited not only to new Warthen philosophies but also Jerry Manuel’s decision to finally define bullpen roles. Perhaps, the stability of always knowing he has the eighth inning has steadied Sanchez. Since June 10, he’s lowered his ERA from 5.26 to 3.57.

The only Met pitcher who has visibly taken a downturn since Warthen came on has been John Maine. While Maine still “limits the damage,” three earned runs given up in his last three starts, he has pitched even less innings than usual. The Cardinals just kept hitting Maine early on June 30. He gave up seven hits in just four innings and afterwards complained of lack of movement on his pitches. Maine gave up five walks, amidst eight strikeouts, against the Giants on July 10. This caused him to not be able to go five innings for the second time in his last three starts. Since these problems are the same as before Warthen came on and since Maine had struggles in the second half of the season last year, it would suggest that the pitching coach change might not be it. One shouldn’t completely shut the door on the possibility, though.

What has been said most often of Warthen during his early tenure with the Mets, both by Met pitchers and commentators, is that he allows the pitchers to do “what brought them to The Show.” Peterson supposedly tried to mold pitchers to his vision, whereas Warthen is the type to “accentuate the positives.” This certainly seems like a more positive approach on the whole. Then again, I could swear that Peterson’s philosophy of molding pitchers was held as a positive during the initial success of Perez.

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.

With the signings of Billy Wagner and Moises Alou, the Mets have not had first-round picks in the past two years. Coupled with the various trades Omar Minaya has executed over the last two years, most notably the Johan Santana deal, the Mets’ farm system is depleted. Armed with three picks within the first 33 choices, the Mets have a great opportunity to help restock the system at Thursday’s Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.

It might serve interesting to take a look at the first-round picks the Mets have had since 2000 and the varying degrees of success and failure the related moves have brought to the organization.

With the 16th pick in the 2000 draft, the Mets selected LHP Billy Traber. An article for the New York Times reported the Mets were going to offer Traber $1.7 million, but after seeing M.R.I. results on his elbow, Traber accepted the Mets’ new offer of $400,000. I would guess that is why he was so quickly dealt to the Cleveland Indians in the Roberto Alomar trade.

He did well for the Indians in 2002 and 2003 before having Tommy John surgery. He was out of baseball for the entirety two years before landing with the Washington Nationals in 2006, which is probably where Mets fans remember seeing him again. He got a chance to make both the Nationals’ rotation and bullpen but ultimately failed in both attempts. He was acquired by the Yankees for the 2008 season, where he began in the bullpen but quickly lost his job once again.

Obviously, looking back, Traber did not turn into the No. 3 starter the Mets thought he would become. He was a bust for both the Mets organization and every organization that has picked him up since. Ultimately, he just hasn’t been able to recover from the lingering arm problems.

Thinking back on the 2001 draft is much more fun because both players the Mets bagged in the first round of that draft are still on the team. After an early attempt at starting with mixed results, highlighted by a 1-hit shutout against the Marlins in 2005, Aaron Heilman has served as the Mets’ off-again, on-again set-up man. Heilman’s relationship with both the Mets fans and the set-up role is notoriously love-hate. Heilman is basically the Diane Chambers (from Cheers) of the New York Mets.

But all things considered, picking Heilman has worked out. He has definitely contributed to the major league club on more than one occasion, particularly down the stretch. The Mets didn’t really need to trade for a Roberto Hernandez at the trade deadline in 2006 because Heilman admirably stepped to the plate in the absence of Sanchez. Has he done well in 2008? No. Will he do all that well in the future? Still up for debate.

The other pick in 2001 was David Wright, a Gold Glove, MVP-caliber player. No real arguments needed.

(more…)

Marty Noble of MLB.com writes about Mike Pelfrey’s possible demotion and his reaction:

“I know I pitched well enough to win two of those games,” he said. “I had a no-hitter going in one. But I’ve been disappointed with the others. I haven’t pitched well. I know that. That’s why I hate the game right now. It’s miserable. I’m miserable. I haven’t been able to command my pitches. When I do, I win. But it just isn’t there.”

Ed Ryan of Mets Fever lobbies for Tony Armas Jr. to be promoted. Armas has been pitching great for the New Orleans Zephyr’s, Ryan writes:

Tony Armas Jr. is absolutely dominating AAA…Armas deserves a start and then could be moved into the pen as a true long-man. Last night Tony Armas went seven innings in which he allowed one run on six hits, no walks while striking out seven his ERA is at 2.23.

Anthony Rieber of Newsday’s The Final Score points us towards a newspaper columnist ( Pete Colaizzo of the Poughkeepsie Journal ) that actually wants Willie Randolph to remain as Mets manager and this is before yesterday’s win.

SI.com’s Jon Heyman tells us that Mets brass wonder if Aaron Heilman is “tightening up in tough situations” since his stuff is still very good. Heyman also writes a bit about Gary Carter lobbying for Willie’s job and Keith Hernandez’ reaction.

The folks over at the blog formerly known as Mets Geek received a lot of attention because of their name change to Rays Geek. Hot Foot’s own Anthony De Rosa wrote about it here. But according to the USA TODAY not all the attention has been positive:

“We were starting to get death threats from Rays fans that they hadn’t won since we switched the banner,” Eric Simon of Rays Geek said.

I know it was a tough night but it was a tougher day for Scott Schoeneweis. Late last night on his Mets Blog for the NY Post Bart Hubbach reported that Schoeneweis who is a testicular cancer survivor, was rushed to the hospital by ambulance yesterday morning and was hospitalized for seven hours. Adam Rubin of the Daily News has more on Schoeneweis who took some over the counter medication because he felt flu like symptoms that are going around in the Mets clubhouse:

Schoeneweis thought that medication might have been spoiled and complicated matters since it “tasted like moldy towels.”

At one point, he said, his arms turned blue and his hands were numb. He called an ambulance at 7 a.m.

“I thought I was going to die,” he said.

Doctors thought at one point he had appendicitis, but ruled that out when they pressed the area and Schoeneweis wasn’t in intolerable pain. Turns out Joe Smith had the same symptoms, only far less severe, in L.A. during the most recent road trip. “Joe’s the carrier,” Schoeneweis good-naturedly said.

So, Willie Randolph basher’s be aware that he had few options coming out of the bullpen last night. Plus, Rubin points out that Aaron Heilman over his previous six appearances, he had allowed one run and four hits in 7 1/3 innings.

Check out the rest of Adam’s blog where you’ll find notes on Mike Pelfrey, Fernando Tatis, and Jose Reyes who was summoned into Randolph’s office for a chat with the skipper before batting practice Wednesday.

Johan Santana has a policy of not speaking to the media between starts and because of the many places I’ve read about this in the past and now recently here and here. I personally think it’s in his best interest to shelf this policy. It’s just making unnecessary enemies in the media.

Joe D from Dugout Central, like me, was very impressed with John Maine sticking up for his fellow teammates, calling John “Rambo” in his latest post. Check it out.

Well, obviously the Mets have to score some more runs. You can go elsewhere to read about how terrible Aaron Heilman is/was I’m so sick of the topic. So lets hope they get the split today with the “Bush League” Nats and then beat up on our crosstown rivals this weekend. Lets Go Mets!!

David Lennon of Newsday writes about Mike Pelfrey’s mouth guard, the object that divides the Mets fan base more than anything else, including Aaron Heilman or who bats second. In the article, Lennon takes a look at the accident that caused its required use, a line drive that caught Pelf in the face while he was with Team USA.

I wanted to keep pitching, but they wouldn’t let me. I was like, ‘I’m fine. Let’s go.’ I was mad.

Lennon also explores Pelf’s personal preferences in mouth guards, which should be interesting for all the mouth guard lovers and collectors out there (no word yet if any of the used ones are on ebay).

This is easily the most indepth article on Mike Pelfrey’s mouth ever written. At least the most in depth one written in a newspaper, and not a female fans diary.

The Mets (10-6) look for the sweep as they face the Phillies (8-10) in the final game of their three game set tonight starting at 8:05 EST. The pitchers for tonights game will be Mike Pelfrey for the Mets and Adam Eaton for the Phils. Tonights game will be televised nationally on ESPN.

Lineups:

Mets

• SS Jose Reyes
• 2B Luis Castillo
• 3B David Wright
• CF Carlos Beltran
• 1B Carlos Delgado
• RF Ryan Church
• C Raul Casanova
• LF Endy Chavez
• P Mike Pelfrey

Castillo is back batting 2nd, Schneider is out tonight with a sore forearm, and Angel Pagan gets a day off with my boy Endy in there.

Phillies

• CF Jayson Werth
• 3B Greg Dobbs
• 2B Chase Utley
• 1B Ryan Howard
• LF Pat Burrell
• RF Geoff Jenkins
• C Chris Coste
• SS Eric Bruntlett
• P Adam Eaton

As always, head on over to The Hot Foot Bleachers to discuss Aaron Heilman getting back into the good graces of the fans and why we will ride The Big Pelf to victory.