The Mets took game one of the 2006 series with their crosstown rivals with an old-fashioned combination of Firepower, Defense, and relief pitching.  The offense kept them close, as did some outstanding defensive plays, but it was the bullpen that was absolutely remarkable last night. 

Jeremi Gonzales picked up right where he left off his last outing.  He came out and just threw fastball after fastball, strike after strike.  The problem was the Yankees had apparently taken the time to read the scouting report on Gonzales and they absolutely teed-off on him in the first.  With no visible breaking ball or off-speed pitch to keep the Yankees off balance, hitter after hitter feasted on Gonzo's cheese - Double, single, walk, single, ground out, double, double - It was a demonstrative greeting -  "We are the Yankees, 26 world championships, you might have heard of us, anyway, nice to meet you, Jeremi.  Thanks for the batting practice."

Time was where you could hand Randy Johnson a  4-0 lead in the first and then make other plans for the evening.  Fortunately for the Mets, the unit is now human and is thus subject to human mistakes.  The Mets took advantege of his somewhat newfound frailty got some HUGE hits at big moments to win this game.  Carlos Beltran's 3-run blast in the first was an enormous mental boost for the Mets, keeping them in the game early, Nady's homer in the third to tie the game 5-5 was huge, as was Kaz Matsui's game-tieing single in the 5th.  The Mets seemed to have an answer on offense for whatever the Yanks could throw at them.

The real story this night was the Mets bullpen.  The relief corp has been nothing short of amazing this year but tonight they absolutely shined.  Oliver, Hellman and Wagner combined for 6 innings of two-hit relief.  They allowed no runs, struck out 8, and allowed just one ball out of the infield.  They retired the last 16 Yankees they faced, including the most dominant performance of Billy Wagner's season.  Wagner was untouchable, not only striking out the side but looking like a bully doing it.  It looked like a father throwing his hardest stuff at his 8 year old kid.

Thanks to the remarkable relief work, the aforementioned clutch hitting, and defensive gems by Reyes and Delgado, the Mets took a tie into the bottom of the 9th.  Fortunately for the Mets, Rivera looked hittable.  With two outs, David Wright took advantage and deposited a mediocre Rivera cutter over Johnny Damon's head for a game winning, walk off RBI.

After losing consecutive series' on the road to St. Louis, Milwaukee and Philadelphia , it was essential that the Mets drew first blood last night.  They did so, and did it old school.....hitting, defense, pitching.  With game one in our pocket and Pedro taking the hill in an hour, it feels good to be in orange and blue.