Speaking of Catching

I can't say I've seen a better defensively played game by any team as a whole than I did last night.  The Mets had great catches my all members of the outfield.

The first, and most impressive, of the plays came from Jason Bay.  With 2 outs in the bottom of the second inning Jamey Carroll hit a ball that looked like it would be a double off the left field bullpen fence.  But wait, Jason Bay was running as hard as he could and looked like he might be able to catch the fly ball.  Jason did make the catch as his body slammed into the bullpen, and his face seemingly smashed into the one part of the perimeter of the fence that wasn't padded.  It looked painful.  I guess it was just his luck that he had to make the longest walk back to the first base dugout, all the way from left field.  Alas, Jason Bay seems to be okay.  He stayed in the game and got a huge 3-RBI double in the eighth inning.

In right field, Angel Pagan made 2 impressive catches.  The first one came leading off the fourth inning.  It was a shallow fly ball of the bat of Matt Kemp.  It was falling fast but Angel Pagan was running fast.  He made a sliding catch to rob Kemp of a base hit.  There was no wall involved in this play.  However, in Angel Pagan's second catch, coming on the next batter, there was a wall involved.  A Casey Blake popup had Angel Pagan, Ike Davis and Luis Castillo all running towards shallow right field.  If anybody was going to get there it would be Pagan.  Angel had to slide but he ultimately made the catch in fair territory.  It may have been in fair territory but he was awfully close to wall when he began to slide, and ultimately crashed into the wall.

And finally, as we were all busy 'blaming Beltran' on Twitter, Carlos still hadn't joined the defense party.  On a catch that made Kevin Burkhardt exclaim, "Holy cow defense amazing!" Carlos Beltran made a sliding catch.  Andre Ethier was at bat with one out in the sixth inning and hit a shallow pop fly to center field.  It looked like it was going to fall in for a single, but that would only happen if Beltran failed to exist.  It was a great play that ended with a somersault from Carlos.

It was a fun game to watch as the Mets finally got a win.  And by a win, I mean a game they actually won on their own and not with the help of a screwy call by an umpire.

Let's Go Mets!


BTW, Jason Bay went towards the left field wall in foul territory in an attempt to make another catch.  He didn't make the catch but he did crash into the wall.