FIRST HR A BLAST FOR KIRK
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Jon Rauch pitched scoreless eighth and ninth innings to keep Washington at bay and give the Mets time to manufacture the game-winning run. Jason Bay was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and plenty of boos. He’s hitting .167.
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The Mets had three two-out RBI last night against the Nats. They’ve gotten nine of their 16 RBI this season with two outs in an inning. The last time the Mets won four straight to open the season was 2007. They had a better start in 2005. How many in a row did they begin that year with?
Kirk Nieuwenhuis was asked about the ball he hit off the Modell’s sign in right field Monday night for his first big league home run, pointed to the top shelf in his locker and smiled. “That’s it right there,” the center fielder said.
The 24-year-old shaped the thrilling 4-3 comeback win over the Nationals as much as any Met when he unloaded on a 2-2 slider from Edwin Jackson and drove it for a two-run shot that tied the game 3-3 in the fourth inning. They were also his first RBI in the bigs.
“That felt real good and for this team to win at the end there was unbelievable – great stuff,” Nieuwenhuis said. “I’ll just remember this whole day: the first home run and then the team’s win.”
A third-round pick in the 2008 draft, he’s been considered a top organizational prospect since. He started the season with Triple-a Buffalo but was quickly called up after starting center fielder Andres Torres suffered a strained calf on Opening Day and was inserted into a platoon with Scott Hairston where he will bat against righthand starters.
Citi Field securit y guards tracked down the ball, which landed with “a couple of girls who were nice enough to fork it over,” Nieuwenhuis said, for a bat and a couple baseballs. He plans to give it to his father, Bob, who flew in from Ripon, Calif., when he got called to the majors. “He’s still here so I can give it to him.”
Jackson had fed him a steady diet of sliders and “with two strikes you just try to back everything up and shoot something over the middle,” he said. “It was a hanging slider.”
Though he crushed it, Nieuwenhuis didn’t think it was out off the bat. And were it not for Citi Field’s redesign, it wouldn’t have been. The sign it struck was in play last season.
“That’s a double last year so, no, I wasn’t sure off the bat,” he said.
PEN MIGHTIER
Where most l ooked at the Mets and saw questions in an entirely retooled bullpen, Miguel Batista did not. The 17-year veteran, who began last season with the World Series champion Cardinals, said, “I was very excited about this group and this team. Last year I was excited about St. Louis and told (former manager) Tony (La Russa) about it. But I might have been even more excited about this group, even though people around us were not.”
He has good rea son for excitement now. The Mets relief cor ps keeps deliver ing. Batista relieved starter Mike Pelfrey in the sixth with two on and two out and got an inning -ending strikeout. When he issued a pair of walks to start the next inning, Ramon Ramirez entered and got out of it unscathed, getting an inningending double play. Jon Rauch didn’t allow a hit in the eighth and ninth.
“We are there for each other and pick each other up,” Ramirez sa id. “We bel ieve in each other. . . . That’s what makes us a good group.”
T he bullpen t ot a le d 31 scoreless innings and has allowed one run over 131/ this season w ith t h ree saves in three chances (all by Frank Francisco). After last year’s relievers pitched to a 4.33 ERA that ranked 28th of 30 teams, this one has a 0.68 ERA in the first four games.
Ike Davis, who went 0-for-4 and now is 0-for-15 on the season, will have Tuesday off, Terry Collins said. The first baseman, who has been diagnosed with a case of Valley Fever but said he feels none of the fatigue generally associated with it , will go for a regularly scheduled follow-up appointment Tuesday.
In addressing his seasonopening slump, Davis said, “The good part about it is I haven’t affected the team. ... All I can do now is play good