Jeff Francoeur, an Unlikely Hero

With the Mets season ultimately on the line, NY found solace from the most unlikely of heroes, when Jeff Francoeur drilled a 96 MPH fastball off former Met Billy Wagner deep into the right-field seats to lead New York 3-2 over the Atlanta Braves. The win was possibly the Mets biggest of the season as the team is now six-and-a-half games behind the division leaders. The home run was Jeff's 10th of the year and after the game Francoeur had this to say about his game winner:

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"Feels pretty good. It's been a tough couple three weeks since the All-Star break. I haven't played well, I've come up in some good spots and kinda let the guys down. To get this one tonight in my home town with all my family here, against Wags who is probably one of the games best closers in the game, it feels pretty good."

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R.A. Dickey was brilliant once again as he scattered five hits over six innings, while allowing only two earned runs in his fourth no-decision of the year.  The New York offense provided Dickey with minimal run support and has now scored just 10 runs for the knuckleballer over his last six starts (1.6 runs/game).

After the Mets squandered a scoring opportunity in the top of the fifth when Derek Lowe (6IP, 1ER) was able to escape the jam by inducing back-to-back ground outs off the bat of Jose Reyes and Angel Pagan to strand the go-ahead run at third base, R.A. one upped the Atlanta starter in the bottom of the inning.

After an Omar Infante double, Dickey walked Chipper Jones and Brian McCann to load the bases with two outs and the fierce competitor, who looks like he belongs on the side of a roll of Brawny paper towels, was able to strike out Erik Hinske on four pitches to end the inning. Dickey commented after the game:

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"We needed it badly.  There needs to be a sense of urgency to what we do here, and in Philly. I think you saw the result and some of that was nice to win a game like that.  For Frenchy and me to come in here and get an opportunity to do that was a neat thing, that was nice."

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