Freddy Sanchez faced Mike Pelfrey three times yesterday afternoon, striking out twice and grounding out once.
TONIGHT’S PREVIEW: Giants at Mets
And when Jeff Francoeur was on second base in the bottom of the ninth inning, Sanchez got a chance to talk to him.
“He was telling me, ‘Dang, [Pelfrey] was throwing hard today. He’s got a heavy, heavy ball,’ ” Francoeur relayed. “He’s so big and tall that when he throws it for strikes, he’s going to do exactly what he did today.”
Pelfrey handled Sanchez in all three turns, and not many other Giants fared much better against the right-hander. In the Mets’ 3-2, walk-off win at Citi Field, Pelfrey was terrific, firing 7 1/3 innings of five-hit, two-run ball.
Pelfrey, who got a no-decision, walked one, so it marked the fewest baserunners against him (six) all season.
“He was outstanding,” Mets manager Jerry Manuel said. “Hopefully he’s coming.”
The Mets had been victorious in only one of Pelfrey’s previous five starts, but yesterday he held the Giants hitless into the fourth inning and scoreless into the fifth.
He gave up a run in the fifth on Eugenio Velez’s RBI single, then couldn’t keep a 2-1 lead in the eighth, surrendering consecutive doubles to Velez and Randy Winn to tie it. Still, Pelfrey now has a 1.77 ERA in three starts against the Giants in his career.
Pelfrey, though, continues to be inconsistent. In his last outing, he allowed five runs in six innings to Arizona, and he hasn’t won consecutive starts since early May. Pelfrey, who fanned five yesterday, said the key to his being consistent is “being aggressive and executing pitches.”
Pelfrey (8-8, 4.75 ERA for the season) got off to a strong start yesterday, retiring the side in order in the first and striking out two — including Sanchez on a 94 mph fastball. He worked around Anderson Hernandez’s leadoff error in the second, then allowed only a walk in the third and a double in the fourth before the Giants broke through.