Mets 4 Red Sox 2
After ending the first half 1-for-20, Edgardo Alfonzo still questioned the health of his back so he sought a second opinion from former team doctor David Altchek.
Altchek told Alfonzo he could not damage the torn back cartilage further this year, but the pain will not go away. Alfonzo arrived at Shea yesterday with a new approach to his back problem.
“I just want to take [the pain] out of my mind,” Alfonzo said
Alfonzo’s new attitude – forgetting the first half pain – is a metaphor for how the Mets want to approach the second half.
Manager Bobby Valentine basically told his team this in his pre-second half meeting before last night’s 4-2 win over the Red Sox. Take the horrid first half out of your minds, Valentine told his players.
“Let’s look ahead,” Al Leiter said of Valentine’s words. “Throw that [expletive] away. Contrary to what everybody is saying and thinking – and maybe we’re even thinking – we still have a chance.”
A chance is debatable. What is not is how well Leiter, John Franco and Armando Benitez have pitched and how good Alfonzo appeared on his home-run cut last night.
Alfonzo, swinging without apprehension, took a Tim Wakefield third-inning knuckleball to the back of the picnic area in left. The solo homer gave the Mets a 1-0 lead. Last night, Alfonzo’s numbers improved to .234 with 10 homers and 26 RBIs.
“His best swing is a sight for sore eyes and hopefully we’re not going to need any eye wash the rest of the year,” Valentine said.
There have been a lot of second guesses about the Mets of late. What the team should’ve and could’ve done to avoid their horrid first half.
But the most important second opinion might have come from Altchek, who eased Alfonzo’s mind by confirming current team doctor Andrew Rokito’s findings that Alfonzo can’t hurt his back further.
“I feel good enough,” said Alfonzo, who was told by Altchek that three months’ rest would cure his torn cartilage.
Leiter’s done little to deserve his 5-8 record. After missing nearly a month during April and May with a strained tendon in his throwing elbow, Leiter owns a 2.71 ERA in his past 11 starts.
The Mets are just 5-6 in those starts. Last night was only the fifth time in those 11 games he’d received four runs or more.
Leiter looked like his usual self. He gave up just two runs in his 71/3 innings, while walking none and striking out eight. Leiter, along with Benitez, held Manny Ramirez hitless.
“He pitched real well without the wins,” Valentine said.
Franco “earned” the save without the “S” next to his name in the boxscore. With the score 3-2 and one-out in the eighth, Franco induced Jose Offerman to fly out to right and Darren Lewis to look at a third strike. Franco has thrown 131/3 straight scoreless innings. Benitez got the save with a scoreless ninth.
One win can’t erase the first half. The Mets are still 12 games under .500 and 12 out of first.
“We can’t play the first half again,” Valentine said.
The players know the rest of this month will be about trade rumors.
Since GM Steve Phillips’ stated goal heading into the trade deadline is to be able to contend next year, then there seems little reason for Leiter, who doesn’t want to be dealt, to worry.
Plus Leiter said he can veto trades to the Indians, Mariners, Dodgers, Diamondbacks, White Sox, Cubs, Tigers, Brewers, Astros and Giants. With a trade to the Yankees or any NL East club very unlikely, the only team that it seems possible Leiter could be dealt to is Boston.
The Red Sox saw what he can do last night. They saw what the Mets thought they were going to be. For a night, the Mets were pain-free.