The highly marketed subway series took place this weekend, with both the New York Mets and the New York Yankees winning two games. Today, the Mets were able to pull out a 3-1 victory, thanks to a tremendous performance from starter Oliver Perez. Perez went seven innings, surrendering just one run and striking out eight.

“If we can get Ollie to be consistent, which has been the dilemma for him his whole career, we will have an excellent pitcher, no question,” Mets manager Jerry Manuel said.

The Mets received their first two runs early on in the game. In the 2nd, Luis Castillo hit an infield single to shortstop to score Endy Chavez. In the third, slumping first baseman Carlos Delgado hit a deep home run to right field to put the Mets up by two. This would prove to be plenty for Oliver Perez.

“It seems like I’m doing some things right,” Delgado said after the game.

The only run Perez gave up came on a monstrous home run off the bat of former Atlanta Brave Wilson Betemit. Other than that home run, Perez put in arguably his best performance of the season. Perez, who’s never pitched up to his capability, now has an ERA under 5 on the season.

“Today, that was the real Ollie,” Perez said.

“Obviously, we got some big series coming up,” Manuel said after the series. “The next time we see Ollie, we’ll be in Philadelphia. That should be exciting to watch, another rivalry as well.”