Mets Take the Series in Houston

Where is this offense coming from? After trailing by three after the first inning, the Mets went on to pound the Astros again, and win 8-3. The key for the Mets in this one was surprisingly the offense, which racked up 12+ hits for the third straight game. New York broke through in the 3rd inning with a deep RBI triple to center by Luis Castillo and a David Wright RBI single. Jeff Francoeur tied the game at three later in the inning with a sac fly. Houston starter Brian Moehler started to have trouble commanding his pitches, and he was missing out over the plate when trying to throw inside.

The Mets tacked on two more in the 4th when Angel Pagan hit an RBI triple to deep center, which would have been a home run in most other parks. Castillo then tried a suicide squeeze to get Pagan home, and Moehler made a bad throw to Ivan Rodriguez, enabling Pagan to score to give the Mets a 5-3 lead. Moehler totally rushed the throw to Pudge because he had plenty of time to nab Pagan at home. The Mets got another run in the 8th inning courtesy of the Mets third triple of the game, this time from Jeremy Reed. In the 9th, Wright smoked a deep double up the hill in center field to drive in a run, and then Francoeur followed with an RBI single.

It was great to see the Mets bats come alive in this series, and really important going forward. Castillo was on fire, going 7/12 in the series. Wright seems to be hitting for a lot more power and driving in some runs. Pagan has been a huge force in the leadoff spot, and Francoeur has been on fire since the trade. It seems like all the hitters are looking more confident at the plate. It says a lot that the Mets came in and took this series against a Houston team that just swept the first place Cardinals.

Livan Hernandez pitched seven innings and gave up three runs in the win to improve to 7-5 on the year. He struggled in the first inning by allowing those three runs, but Pagan helped him out by making a great throw to gun down Geoff Blum at home. After that point, Hernandez settled down and allowed only four hits the rest of the way. He did a great job getting ahead of hitters, and the seven strikeouts was a nice surprise.

Tibits:

• The Astros are 12-5 in their last 17 home games, with two of those losses coming this weekend against the Mets
• Francouer has driven in 14 runs in 12 games with the Mets, including four multi-RBI games
• Livan Hernandez has two of the four Mets wins since the break, and has allowed 5 ER in 14 innings post All-Star break
• No home runs for the Mets today, but they did hit three triples. That was without Jose Reyes in the lineup, the triples king.
• If you think hitting in Citi Field is tough, try hitting a ball over 420 feet to dead center field and having to settle for a double, which happened to David Wright in the 9th inning.
• All nine Mets starters had at least one hit in this game.
  

(AP Photos/David J. Phillip)