Originally posted June 2, 2011:

Oh!

Did anyone see that awesome baseball game?

In the first Mike Pelfrey lets up three runs without really even allowing a hard-hit ball, and it’s like, “oh that sucks, but that’s baseball, I guess.” Only then in the second, Pelfrey lets up three more runs on a bunch of hard-hit balls, and now it’s all, “OK, between the Mets’ offense and bullpen this one’s going to get ugly.”

Only the Mets also have Carlos Beltran on their team, and Carlos Beltran is totally sweet. So he hits a three-run home run in the bottom of the third and everyone gets to thinking how maybe at least it won’t be a total blowout if the Mets’ recently crappy bullpen can not suck for once.

Then — then! — in the bottom of the sixth, Beltran doubles off the top of the wall and Jason Bay figures out a way to get to first base, so the Mets wind up with runners on second and third with one out after Ronny Paulino taps out to the pitcher. Now Nick Evans — who always walks up to bat to Tom Petty music — comes up, and he’s taking this laid-back approach at the plate like he doesn’t want to swing at all, just chillin’, mentally listening to some Tom Petty, but Paul Maholm walks him on a full count.

Next Ruben Tejada, who’s 21 but doesn’t look a day older than 12, rips a single to right and two runs score and all of a sudden whoa, too bad the Mets bullpen stinks or else they might really have something here. And then Terry Collins throws strategy to the wind and puts in left-handed Daniel Murphy to pinch-hit against lefty Paul Maholm instead of going with a righty bat like Dillon Gee or Jason Isringhausen, and Murphy rewards his manager’s unconventional thinking by lifting a single to left that scores another run.

Now the Pirates are playing really terribly, and after an error and a passed ball, Tejada scampers home and everyone’s thinking, “man how crazy they tied this thing up, shame about that bullpen thing.”

But oh!

A little bit later, Paulino singles to lead off the eighth and Collins uses Willie Harris to pinch-run for Paulino and Chris Capuano to pinch-hit for Jason Isringhausen. This seems like it might be a pretty crummy thing to do to any position player, even Harris, but Collins says Capuano’s the best bunter on the team and he’s in there to get Harris over to second.

Only he doesn’t need to. In a very confusing sequence of events, Jose Veras balks on what looks like the second strike of the at-bat. So everyone’s all confused as to how and why Harris is suddenly standing on second and Josh Thole’s coming in to pinch-hit with a 1-2 count, and things get even worse when Thole takes a called strike and everyone figures he’s out but he’s still standing there. And by the time everything’s cleared up, Harris is on third on a wild pitch.

Long story short, Veras struggles from there and the Mets score two and now it’s like, “OMG I think they’re really going to pull this one out, what a comeback!” But obviously the first guy up in the ninth hits a triple off Francisco Rodriguez and it’s all, “Oh so this is how it’s going to be K-Rod?”

Only no! That guy scored but no one else did, and the Mets won 9-8. A bunch of other cool stuff happened too.

It was sweet.