Let’s face it: It’s been getting ugly at Shea Stadium this season. Not only has the team played no better than .500 baseball, but the surliness and discontent of the crowd has been palatable. It’s almost as if no one in Queens is happy that spring is here and baseball is being played once more. Fans seem caught in a time warp, convinced it’s still last September, and that this group is still in the midst of their monumental free fall from postseason contention.

In that context, Mike Pelfrey’s seven shutout innings last night can only be described as a breath of fresh air. Writes SNY’s Ted Berg:

No one knows what Wednesday holds for the Mets, and no one can say whether the boo birds will fly back toward Shea. But on Tuesday, Mike Pelfrey made like a 6-foot-7 scarecrow and frightened those foul fowl away. In the game’s waning moments, the fans who braved the cold and the mediocre start to the season stood and cheered.

Pelfrey looks like a different pitcher from even a month ago, toeing the rubber with confidence and aggressively attacking opposing hitters with a fastball that seemed to find another gear at the strike zone. The 24-year-old right-hander was dominant last night, and in the process, Big Pelf became the first pitcher on the Met staff to record their second win of the season – Who woulda thunk it?

Most impressive to me was the way Pelfrey navigated pitching jams, specifically in the third inning when he found himself in a heap of trouble facing the Nats’ RBI-tandem of Ryan Zimmerman and Nick Johnson with the bases drunk. Pelfrey induced a popup from Zimmerman before striking out Johnson on five straight fastballs.

It’s easy to forget just how high expectations were for Mike Pelfrey coming out of the draft, however the Mets have never given up the hope that this kid could blossom into an ace one day. He certainly pitched like one last night. In a game where the Mets desperately needed to flush away some of the negativity surrounding the team, Pelfrey was a ’stopper’ at Shea.