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Pelfrey goes distance as Mets top Braves

Aug 21, 2008 - 3:58 AM By Larry Fleisher PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

FLUSHING, New York (Ticker) -- Earlier in the season, Mike Pelfrey was considered a question mark for the New York Mets' rotation. Those doubts are now becoming a thing of the past.

Pelfrey fired a complete-game three-hitter and the Mets scored five first-inning runs en route to a 6-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday.

The righthander allowed three runs and three hits while improving to 10-2 in his last 13 starts. He struck out three and walked three, throwing 62 of 108 pitches for strikes.

"I think Mike has evolved into one of the bright young pitching stars in the National League," New York manager Jerry Manuel said. "There's no question about it and I think he'll continue to mature (and) develop with each outing."

The latest outing continued Pelfrey's turnaround over the last 2 1/2 months. He began this season 2-6 with a six-game losing streak from April 25-May 26.

"I just think that I'm not the same guy that earlier in the year was trying to make pitches, trying to be too perfect, trying to nibble at the strike zone," Pelfrey said. "I feel more confident and I know that if I throw the ball over the plate and keep it down, we have guys behind me that are going to make plays."

The Mets are 13-3 in Pelfrey's 16 starts since the end of May.

"It takes a bunch of things to do a complete (180) like he has," Mets catcher Brian Schneider said. "Confidence is a huge part of it, but he's been throwing a lot more strikes, and as you see tonight, he got a bunch of first-pitch swings, fly balls and some groundouts. He's around the strike zone a lot more."

Pelfrey took the mound in the ninth, three outs away from New York's second complete game of the week. It appeared he might not finish the job as he fell behind Chipper Jones 3-0, but he recovered to fan the slugger on a 93 miles-per-hour fastball for the first out.

After retiring Brian McCann on a liner to Fernando Tatis in left field, he finished off the victory by getting Mark Kotsay to fly to left.

"It was awesome being a part of that, and with two outs they start standing up and cheering," Pelfrey said. "I noticed, so it's pretty cool."

He retired the final 11 batters to finish off his first career complete game in a blistering 2 hours, 8 minutes.

Rookie Daniel Murphy had a two-run single and Tatis added an RBI single in the first for New York, which leads the majors with 104 first-inning runs. Pelfrey added a run-scoring base hit as the Mets capitalized on throwing errors by Jones at third base and shortstop Yunel Escobar.

David Wright added a solo home run for the Mets in the sixth.

The five-run first sent the Mets (70-57) to their eighth win in nine games and 11th in 14 contests. It also kept them 1 1/2 games in front of the Philadelphia Phillies (68-58) atop the National League East Division.

Rookie Jair Jurrjens (11-9) allowed all the first-inning damage with two outs. The righthander has taken the loss in four of his last five outings.

"They all came with two outs and they all were head-knockers," Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said. "We played sloppy and they came up with five runs."

"Everything went wrong in the first inning," said Jurrjens, who allowed six runs - four earned - and six hits in five innings.

Pelfrey encountered few obstacles along the way. He allowed a two-out, run-scoring single to Gregor Blanco in the third and a pair of runs in the sixth when Blanco scored on a double play and Escobar came home on a wild pitch for Atlanta, which lost for the ninth time in 10 games.