Delgado Shines in Debut

Wright was not talking about Delgado’s 470-foot home run over the center-field fence, or his line-drive single that put the Mets ahead, or any of his four hits.
Instead, he was referring to one of the many high-fives that he was forced to accept from Delgado yesterday afternoon during a 6-5 victory against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Shea Stadium.
Delgado has already done serious damage to the arms and psyches of the Dodgers. Derek Lowe, the Dodgers’ starting pitcher, expressed disgust with the pronounced shift that his team used against Delgado yesterday.
Delgado beat the shift four times — by hitting through it and over it.
Delgado waited 1,711 major league games to get to the playoffs, and there seems to be no sidetracking him now.
He posted the Mets’ first hit with a hard single to left field. Then he had the Mets’ second hit of the day with a home run that looked more like a 9-iron.
Lowe threw a curveball to Delgado in the fourth inning that nearly scraped the top of the plate, and Delgado still went after it.
“You could tell what happened,” said Russell Martin, the Dodgers’ catcher, “just from the sound.”
At first, Kenny Lofton drifted back slowly in center field, as if he were refusing to acknowledge the strength of Delgado’s drive. Then Lofton turned and ran. The ball hit high off the roof of a three-story camera stand behind the center-field wall.
Asked if the postseason had measured up to his expectations so far, Delgado said, “I hope it gets better.”
Delgado is often exuberant on the field, but he showed unusual emotion yesterday. After sliding safely into home plate, he gleefully pounded his fists on the dirt. And after driving in the go-ahead run, he made a dramatic windmill motion.
“I was very excited,” Delgado said. “I had butterflies in my stomach for the first couple innings. I was saying, ‘Whoa, what is going on here.’ ”
He responded to the butterflies as if they were hanging curveballs. He swatted them away.