Mets LOB Stat Terrifying as Sheffield Belts Career HR #500

It's hard to get all psyched up and congratulatory to Gary Sheffield, who became the 25th Major Leaguer to hit 500 homeruns when he belted his 500th dinger in the 7th inning at Citi Field. I don't care that he did it in a Met uniform and quite frankly, I never liked Sheffield to begin with due to a laundry list of (for lack of a better word) Sheffield-isms.

But the fact that his homerun tied the ballgame at 4 apiece does make me very happy since no one else on this team seems to be able to hit in the clutch. His homerun allowed the Mets to come back and eventually beat the Brewers 5-4, giving JJ Putz the win in relief of Livan Hernandez who pitched well until the sixth inning.

A quick glance at the boxscore shows 23 as the total of men left on base for the Mets. 23!!! It's a good thing they had Carlos Delgado's 3 run shot in the first, because without a home run, the runs just don't seem to happen with this team. Beltran (6), Church (4), and Wright (3) were the main culprits in the Left-On-Base sweepstakes.

But before you get too mad at them, consider their batting averages. Beltran's hitting .316; Church is at .382; and Wright's a solid .342. What that translates to is a frightening lack of clutch hitting. (add Reyes and Murphy to the clutch hitting challenged club as well).

When Luis Castillo, traditionally a HORRIBLE rbi man, is the only guy that seems to be coming through in tough situations, you have the makings of a very long season.

So way to go, Sheffield! Let's see you do it again tomorrow