Carlos Beltran hit two solo homeruns off Jered Weaveri>, and Mike Pelfrey finally earned that elusive 3rd win of the year as the Mets got a huge series opening 9-6 win in Anaheim. Pelfrey, who has been pitching so much better of late, got his first win since April 15. He went 6+ innings and gave up 6 runs, but he threw a lot better than his numbers indicate.

The Mets have had no trouble scoring early in games this year, and they continued that trend tonight. Jose Reyes led off the game with a walk, and advanced to 2nd base on a Luis Castillo grounder. He then stole third and scored on an errant throw by catcher Jeff Mathis. It was a small ball run all the way, and the Mets had a 1-0 lead. They added to it soon with the long ball, when Beltran destroyed Weaver's 2nd pitch over the right field wall to make it 2-0.

The Angels scored a run off Pelfrey in the bottom of the 1st to halve the lead, but the Mets got the run right back. Marlon Anderson led the 2nd off with the first of his 2 doubles, and 2 batters later Brian Schneider knocked him in with an RBI single, his first run batted in since May 29.

In the third Beltran came up again, and the result was the same. He connected on Jered Weaver's first pitch and hit a bomb to center, his 2nd solo shot of the game. It was the 10th homerun of the year for Beltran, tying him with Ryan Church for 2nd on the team. It was also the 100th homerun for Beltran as a Met, the 10th player to achieve that number.

Pelfrey ran into trouble in the bottom of the 4th when he gave up 4 hits and 2 runs, but he got out of it due to some aggressive Anaheim baserunning, when Casey Kotchman was thrown out at 3rd on Howie Kendrick's RBI single.

The formula for another Mets collapse seemed to be falling into place again though at 4-3. So many times the Amazins have built a lead early, only to have the bats go silent and the pitching fade late in the game. But tonight the formula was reversed. Instead of trying to just hold onto a lead, New York added on plenty of insurance runs. The Mets scored 4 runs in the 7th, led by Luis Castillo's big 2-RBI single down the left field line. It was 8-3 when Pelfrey took the hill in the bottom of the 7th, but if you thought Pelfrey would get his win without sweating it out, you haven't been watching the Mets this year.

Pelfrey faced the first 3 batters without recording an out, and gave way to Pedro Feliciano with 2 men on, nobody out, and the score 8-4. But the struggling Feliciano (is there anyone in the Mets bullpen not struggling?) allowed 2 hits to the 3 batters he faced, and just like that it was 8-6 and the go ahead run was at the plate with 1 out.

Aaron Heilman came in with every Mets fan in the country still awake biting their fingernails down to the cuticles. But Heilman came up huge, striking out Vladimir Guerrero and Torii Hunter to end the inning and strand 2 runners.

After the Mets added a run in the 9th to make it 9-6, Billy Wagner once again came in for the save. And once again he made things interesting, bringing the tying run to the plate with 1 out and Guerrero on deck. But Garret Anderson lined one right into the glove of Jose Reyes, who stepped on 2nd base to complete a game-ending unassisted double play.

Rizzi's Rant:

Phhhhhhhhhew!!!!

I was all ready for an easy win after we had the 8-3 lead, but after the first two guys got on against Pelfrey I just had a feeling I would be rubbing my ulcers by the 9th.

Once again, the bullpen looked awfully shaky. But one guy who all of a sudden looks a lot better is Aaron Heilman. Without him the Angels probably win tonight, so let's all give props to Heilman. Aaron had a terrible May as we all know, when his ERA for the month was a dreadful 8.25. But in June he has been a legit reliever, and his ERA this month is down to 1.25.

Heilman was the unsung hero on the pitching side, and Jose Reyes was the unsung hero for position players. Reyes totally manufactured two runs. In the 1st he walked, stole a base, and scored on a wild throw. And then in the 9th Reyes did it all by himself again. He led off with a hit, and advanced to 2nd when Gary Matthews Jr. threw behind him at first. He was sacrificed to 3rd, and came home on a deep fly ball from David Wright. Slowly but surely Reyes is starting to do the things he did all of 2006 and the first half of 2007.

As ridiculous as it is, Willie survives another game, and the Mets are starting to string wins together. Three out of four against two good teams now, as both the manager and the players look a lot looser and more relaxed. If we can find a way to win one more in Anaheim and take advantage of a bad Rockies team, the Mets could come back home to a much quieter media storm, and then who knows what they could do.

All I know is I am going to bed now, and I plan on having some very sweet dreams...