NEW YORK — Jesus Flores was supposed to be the New York Mets’ catcher of the future, a talented young player who was rising through the ranks of their farm system.
Until that day in the winter of 2006 when Mets general manager Omar Minaya decided to take a chance and leave Flores unprotected in the Rule 5 draft and Jim Bowden and the Washington Nationals swooped right in and claimed him as their own.
Some 17 months later, there are Mets fans who still rue Minaya’s decision, even though current New York catcher Brian Schneider has acquitted himself well since his acquisition from the Nationals.
Those feelings of resentment are only magnified on nights like this, when Flores comes to Shea Stadium and takes down his former franchise like he did last night by driving in the go-ahead run in Washington’s 5-3 victory.
“They made a mistake,” Flores said of the Mets’ decision to leave him unprotected. “I just take advantage of it.”
With the game knotted 1-1 behind sterling pitching performances from Tim Redding and Claudio Vargas, Flores came to bat in the seventh inning with Elijah Dukes standing on second and two outs. He fell behind 0-2 to reliever Aaron Heilman, then showing patience beyond his years, battled his way back to run the count full.
“I’ve been working on it,” the 23-year-old said. “That’s why I’ve been hitting a lot of 3-2 counts. Just trying to calm myself down, look for a good pitch to drive and don’t swing at every breaking ball.”
On this particular payoff pitch, with Dukes running, Flores delivered. He laced a single through the left side of the infield, and Dukes came barreling around to score the run that would put the Nationals ahead for good.
“What an at-bat for the kid,” manager Manny Acta said. “Just a tremendous at-bat against Heilman.”
A flurry of subsequent hits, including run-scoring singles by Felipe Lopez and Cristian Guzman, capped a four-run inning and gave the Washington bullpen a nice cushion to close things out. Saul Rivera pitched 11/3 innings in relief of Redding, Luis Ayala recorded a key out in the eighth and Jon Rauch earned his eighth save with a rare, four-out outing.
“That’s an A-1 team effort right there,” Redding said.
But none of it would have been possible without Flores’ clutch hit.
The 23-year-old catcher isn’t supposed to do this in the big leagues. After holding his own as a Rule 5 pick last season, he was supposed to spend all of 2008 in the minors to refine his skills. But injuries to both Paul Lo Duca and Johnny Estrada left the Nationals without a starting catcher, so Flores got the call from Class AAA Columbus.
All he has done since is prove he belongs here. His RBI single last night raised his average to .364 and gave him six RBI in eight big-league games.
“He’s a bonafide No. 1 starter,” Redding said. “He’s been awesome since he came back.”
Flores also called a good game behind the plate last night, guiding Redding through six innings of two-hit ball.
Redding (5-3) retired the first nine batters he faced and made only one mistake in his time on the mound: a 2-0 fastball to Schneider in the fifth that the ex-Nationals player crushed to right for his second homer.
Otherwise, Redding dominated while lowering his ERA to 3.55 and outdueling Vargas, who was making his first start with New York.
Vargas (0-1) was once a rising star in the Montreal Expos’ farm system, a big right-hander who could blow away hitters with his fastball. He made four starts for the Nationals in 2005, not that they were memorable. After going 0-3 with a 9.24 ERA, he was shipped out by Bowden, though he proceeded to win 32 games over the next 2½ years with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Milwaukee Brewers.
Promoted by the Mets this week when they were in need of a starter, Vargas matched Redding pitch for pitch. He carried a shutout into the sixth before making his one and only mistake of the night: a 2-0 fastball to Ryan Zimmerman that wound up careening off the facade of the second deck above the left-field wall.
SEEN AND HEARD AT SHEA STADIUM
NEW YORK — There’s nothing worse than a bad ceremonial first pitch, and last night’s participant was as bad as they get. This fellow, some corporate bigwig who surely paid an arm and a leg to make a fool out of himself in front of 45,000 people, stepped all the way up to the rubber, looked in for an imaginary sign from catcher Brian Schneider, shook him off, came to a complete set, looked back at an imaginary runner on second base, then fired toward the plate. The pitch, if you want to call it that, traveled perhaps 40 feet. The crowd predictably booed as this joker walked off with what little dignity he still had.
— Mark Zuckerman
QUOTABLE
“He’s not the only one in the game. But I really feel bad because he’s such a talented guy. You always want to see him do good and be healthy for the whole season.”
— Manager Manny Acta on first baseman Nick Johnson
TODAY’S GAME
Nationals RHP Jason Bergmann Record, ERA: 0-1, 11.68
Mets RHP Mike Pelfrey Record, ERA: 2-3, 4.86
Time: 1:10 p.m. TV: MASN HD
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