The effort might not have been Strasburgian, but the game Mike Pelfrey threw last night at Citi Field was special enough for his manager, Jerry Manuel, to leave it in his right hand when the book might have suggested otherwise.
Though the Mets trailed the Padres 1-0 in the bottom of the seventh with one out and none on, Manuel allowed Pelfrey to hit rather than choose one of his right-handed bats on the bench to face left-hander Clayton Richard.
The manager insisted the fact that he had no imposing options on whom to call — Fernando Tatis? Henry Blanco? — did not enter into the equation.
“Not at all,” Manuel said. “Mike earned that right to get the benefit of the doubt.”
He sure had, up until that point, limiting the Padres to that one run they had scored in the first — the first, opening-inning run Pelfrey had allowed in 12 starts this season — on just four hits. And though Pelfrey struck out, providence struck when the next batter, Jose Reyes, smacked a video-replay-awarded home run to left field.
Talk about good intentions being their own reward.
“He would’ve had a big fight on his hands because I wouldn’t have been too happy about it,” Pelfrey said when asked if he had expected to be lifted for a hitter in the seventh.
If home is where the heart is, the Mets showed plenty of it yet again, defeating San Diego, 2-1, on Ike Davis’ leadoff home run to right in the 11th, two innings after Pelfrey finally retired for the night after becoming his team’s first pitcher to go nine innings this season.
It was the Mets’ ninth straight victory in their Grand Canyon of a ballpark they have begun to embrace as one of baseball’s greatest home-field advantages. Listen to this: In those nine games, the banjo-playing Mets have delivered seven home runs to the opposition’s two. And more: In those nine games, the Mets have banged out 32 extra-base hits to the opposition’s 11.
“You know, we’ve been getting the big hit at home when we haven’t on the road,” Jeff Francoeur said. “We’ve lost a lot of games on the road on walk-off homeruns and walk-off hits.”
They won this one last night on Davis’ blast after enduring a game in which they failed to get a hit in eight tries with a runner in scoring position. But that did not matter, that did not beat them, not with Pelfrey establishing himself yet again as a top-of-the rotation partner worthy of Johan Santana.
This may not be 1969 with Tom Seaver followed by Jerry Koosman, or 1986 with Doc Gooden followed by either Ron Darling or Bobby Ojeda, but there’s no reason not to dream, not with the way Pelfrey, the ninth selection in the 2005 draft, is maturing and throwing.
Manuel stayed with Pelfrey. Pelfrey stayed with the program, throwing strikes, using his four-seamer to his advantage even if he didn’t quite have the velocity to overpower the Padres. He was at his toughest in the ninth, after David Wright’s throwing error put Scott Harrison on second with the potential winning run with only one out.
But that was no problem for Pelfrey, who finished the ninth by whiffing Nick Hundley and getting Will Venable to tap to the box. Wright smacked Pelfrey on the butt on the way back to the dugout. But there were no buts about it.
“Mike has enough pitchability that he can navigate [without hitting 95, 96 on the radar gun],” Manuel said, inventing a word that seems as if it’s been around longer than video review. “He can navigate.”
Francisco Rodriguez pitched a drama-free 10th to hold the tie. Pedro Feliciano and the reborn Elmer Dessens navigated through the 11th.
And then came Ike.
Heart is where the home is. Heart is what Pelfrey pitched with, Manuel managed with and the Mets played with last night. There was no need for the book at baseball’s Grand Canyon.