The New York Mets managed to exorcise a few demons at Citifield last night. The idea that they are still “chokers” has now faded into the sunset. Their ninth inning comeback with Jonathan Papelbon on the mound was intense. Two walks by Jordy Valdespin and Ruben Tejada coupled with an infield hit off the leg of the Phils close set the stage up for David Wright.

Wright had to stare a statistic in the face. The Phillies were 35-0 heading into the ninth inning with a lead. The Mets 3B got up in the home ninth, in a tie game, hitting over .350, looking to place the Phillies further into their home in the basement.

Last year Wright struggled. We all saw it and he has shaken that off having one of the finest years of his career. Listening to chants of “M-V-P” as he stood in the batters’ box the Mets spiritual leader quickly dunked a shot in front of Hunter Pence who seemed to be playing very deep considering the bags were juiced and a hit would win the game (his 4th RBI on the evening). After the winning run scored Papelbon just started out into space and the Mets all chased down Wright who eventually got a pie in the face in his postgame interview.

Terry Collins proclaimed the game a “must win” before the game and like a good skipper his troops rose to the occasion. The Mets are a pesky group with good pitching and the bullpen seems to be rounding into shape. This should be an exciting 2nd half of the season.

Retired Numbers
The fact that the New York Mets only have one players’ number retired in 50 years (Tom Seaver) makes little sense. They show Mike Piazza on the jumbotron in the late innings. The catcher will soon be voted into Cooperstown and he has his name fully entrenched in the Mets record books in numerous categories, all as a catcher (and a few at-bats as a DH). In the 2000 NLCS he hit .412 helping to lead the Mets to their last World Series appearance. I think the Mets should retire his #31. I don’t think anybody would argue against it.