Mets' Pelfrey still Snake-bitten

Jay Greenberg
Blog: Jay Walking

Mike Pelfrey had thrown 118 pitches by the sixth inning when manager Jerry Manuel sent in lefty Raul Valdes to face lefty Kelly Johnson.

Of course, when Johnson homered to put Arizona ahead and Valdes got rocked for three more hits culminating in Miguel Montero's three-run homer, it was the manager who cost the Mets their 9-6 loss last night at Citi Field. Unless it was the error Jose Reyes made on Ian Kennedy's one-out grounder that begged for the disaster. Unless it was the fact that Pelfrey, for a seventh straight time, couldn't pitch into a seventh inning.

Jeff Zelevansky

MOUND OF TROUBLE: Mike Pelfrey talks to catcher Henry Blanco and pitching coach Dan Warthen during the Mets' 9-6 loss last night at Citi Field.

"He's been so good," said Manuel of Valdes, ignoring the .317 average lefties have had against him in favor of the 0-for-3 with two strikeouts Johnson took against Valdes last week in Arizona.

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"There was no chance," said a stunned Manuel, but of course, he then had the option of never letting Valdes facing Montero before he could put the game out of reach.

"That's our lefty guy for that situation," Manuel said.

Of course, another lefty guy, Oliver Perez, is no one anyone wants to use in any situation, as became more obvious than ever when he was the only pitcher not used in Wednesday's 8-7, 13-inning loss to St. Louis. If any part of the manager last night wanted to save the bullpen, be assured the owners are trying to save face for a $36 million mistake by refusing the release of a virtually useless pitcher.

Thus, the reasons the Mets fell 7½ games behind Atlanta went far deeper than did Johnson and Montero off Valdes. It traced all the way back to the game's start.

There are some things in this baseball life longer than a Mike Pelfrey-first inning. Some of Francisco Rodriguez's ninth innings, for instance.

But in the 10 consecutive starts Pelfrey has given up at least one first-inning run, it has been getting late for him awfully early. Two starts after throwing 51 pitches in the first in Phoenix last week, Pelfrey last night needed an assortment of 39 sliders and sinkers and seemingly everything but his fastball to hold the same Diamondbacks to three runs before he got his first three outs.

Constantly behind, he managed to allow just one more run. But it wasn't until Chris Young's leadoff double in the fourth, Pelfrey said, that he "started to get aggressive" and look more like the pitcher who on June 1 had an ERA of 2.23.

R.A. Dickey has been so stunningly dominant that the Pelfrey of the first two months would actually, along with Johan Santana, give the Mets a top three to compare with the Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt trio sending shivers down NL East spines."He has to keep it on the ground, throwing that two-seam fastball running down and in to righties, then busting them up with the four-seamer," Manuel said yesterday afternoon.

Instead, Pelfrey only spotted his fastball, relying instead on the complimenting pitches that turned his career around and now threaten to turn it again for the worse.

"Mike evolved into a guy talked about as an All-Star," Manuel said. "When you have a guy who has that kind of half and then slips back, that puts a chink in the armors.

"We have to make sure he gets back to that level. If he doesn't, it definitely becomes an issue."

At 118 pitches in the sixth last night, it was an issue. Manuel's response didn't work, and criticism of him will go on at length. But length was something Pelfrey didn't provide, and was where this loss originated.

jay.greenberg@nypost.com