After being outplayed in the first two games in Arizona, the Mets bounced back and avoided the sweep with a 6-4 win today. Oliver Perez danced around trouble once again in allowing one run, six hits and six walks in 5.1 innings. While he did a nice job keeping the Mets in the game, his command, especially on his fastball, was poor once again. He needs to be able to attack the strike zone earlier in counts and get hitters to make contact that will result in outs. It will be hard for the Mets to win his starts if he keeps throwing at least 20 pitches every inning.

Perez suffered a no-decision when Pedro Feliciano had a rare bad outing by giving up two hits with runners on base, enabling the D-Backs to tie the game at three. There could have been more damage if it wasn't for Omir Santos holding on to the ball after being run over at the plate by Mark Reynolds. It was an incredible play by Santos who did a great job blocking the plate and holding on to the ball. He also helped save a run in the first inning when Ryan Roberts was forced to slide over home since it was blocked, and then was called out despite the fact that he beat the throw to the plate. Those two runs wound up being the difference in the game.

The D-Backs played a very sloppy game, especially catcher Chris Snyder, who failed to block a few pitches that allowed Mets runners to advance a base or score. New York scored two of their runs on passed balls, and a few runners reached base after striking out because of wild pitches. Fernando Tatis drove in a run with an RBI single in the 6th. Arizona made a careless play because they had Tatis caught in a rundown between 1st and 2nd, and Jeff Francoeur, who was on 3rd, scored on the play without any D-Backs players looking him back towards third base. Overall, it was a very sloppy game by Arizona, and the Mets had just enough to squeak by and avoid a sweep in the desert.

The Mets finished off their west coast swing 2-5, winning both games in the finale of each series. New York starts up a season high 11 game home stand on Friday night against the San Francisco Giants. Bobby Parnell will make his second start in a row against Barry Zito, who is 2-1 with a 4.03 ERA against the Mets as a Giant.

Tidbits

• Francoeur went hitless but hit the ball hard in every at-bat, including the 1st inning when he was robbed of an extra base hit by Arizona RF Trent Oeltjen.
• Speaking of Oeltjen, the 26 year old rookie was 6/11 with four extra base hits in the first two games, but went 0-5 today.
• Perez only threw a first pitch strike to 9 out of 28 batters.
• Francisco Rodriguez gave up a run with 2 outs in the 9th before closing it out for his 25th save.
• Carlos Delgado had a setback in his rehab because of a strained oblique muscle and has stopped participating in baseball activities
• The Mets announced that they will put photographs of top moments in franchise history around Citi Field.

(AP Photo Matt York)