Mets bounce back to take 2 of 3 from the Reds

The Mets were able to overcome the Red Sea which hit Citi Field on Friday night and win two big ball games on Saturday night (4-0) and Sunday afternoon (9-7).

Johan Santana pitched 7 innings of shutout ball for the win to improve to 10-7 on the season. But it was the Mets offense which set the tone from the start with a 3 spot in the first inning off of Reds starter Johnny Cueto. Jeff Francoeur made his Mets debut in RF and "Frenchy" delivered immediately with a droplet into shallow right field over the outstretched arm of Joey Votto for a two run single to give the Mets a 2-0 lead. Omir Santos also drove in a run on an rbi single in the 1st as the Mets sent nine guys to the plate in the inning. Not bad for a Mets team that has struggled to score runs, and they took advantage of Cueto, who gave up 9 ER in the first inning in his previous start at Philadelphia. Luis Castillo had an rbi single in the 2nd, and that's all Johan needed on this night to shut down a Reds lineup that has also had issues scoring runs.

The Mets offense found a groove again today. David Wright had an rbi double in the 1st to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. Then they broke the game open with a four run 3rd inning. Gary Sheffield, who had to beg Jerry Manuel to play, drove in two with an rbi single, and Murphy continued his hot hitting with an rbi double. Jeff Francoeur was 2/5 with a single up the middle and a deep double to left center field to make him 4/9 in the two games this weekend.

Mike Pelfrey bounced back from a rough start on Tuesday against the Dodgers to rack up his 7th win of the season (7 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 4 K). Pelfrey cruised through the first four innings by throwing only 54 pitches, but hit a rough spot in the 5th after walking the first two batters, committing his 6th balk of the year, when he tried to throw to first base but Murphy was not covering the bag, and then giving up three straight hits run scoring hits. Adam Rosales smashed an rbi ground rule double to right center field, and Chris Dickerson and Willy Taveras had rbi singles that cut the Mets 7-0 lead to only a four run cushion.

Things were going so well for the Mets offense that they even hit a HR... Not once... But TWICE, in the 7th inning, when Brian Schneider and Fernando Tatis went deep. The apple only came up for Schneider's HR because it takes 45 seconds after it is lowered for it to charge up again, so it didn't come up for Tatis's HR. The Citi Field faithful was chanting "WE WANT THE APPLE" and then after the bottom of the 7th the apple came up and the fans gave it a standing ovation. K-Rod worked the 9th inning for his 23 save of the year.

Tidbits

First half of the season comes to the end with the Mets 42-45.

Great way to end the first half with back to back wins, great pitching from Johan and Pelfrey, and the offense starting to score some runs.

The Mets hit their first homer since last Thursday in Pittsburgh when Schneider went yard in the 7th.

David Wright is clearly becoming the leader of this team. He pulled aside Pelfrey after he gave up a long double to Rosales to keep him focused.

Second year in a row the Mets go into the break on a multi game winning streak. Last year they won 6 in a row to end the first half.

Daniel Murphy made a great sliding play on a ground ball, and he's shown some nice range at 1st base and really seems comfortable there.