Is It June Yet?
May Recap
Batting (C+): The Mets hit .265 for the month, over 20 points higher than April, but their on-base percentage went down. Walks decreased and strikeouts increased, never good signs.
The season team average of .254 is still below league average, but they have climbed into the top half in the league in runs scored. The power numbers are still down and don’t think its only Citi Field that is holding those numbers down. The Mets have much better numbers at home this season, then on the road. Home numbers are 272/350/419, as opposed to 234/299/365 on the road. The power outage stems from the lack of any true 40-home run hitters. Both Jason Bay & David Wright are mid-30 guys, at best. And yes, Citi Field will take away some of those, but it still wouldn’t mask the fact that they don’t have that real big bat.
So the runs have had to come from somewhere else and, thankfully, they have been more active on the base paths, stealing 30% more bases than last month. The Mets are second in the NL in stolen bases (52) and best in percentage, having been successful 84% of the time. Four different players stole five or more bases in the month, and may have six guys steal 20 or more bases this year. The only starters who haven’t stolen a base are Barajas and Davis, and it doesn’t look like they will either.
Hitting Star of the Month: (tie) Angel Pagan & Jason Bay (B). The numbers for the month are very similar. 324/375/490 for Pagan, 314/383/457 for Bay. They each scored 18 runs, have 33 hits and both have 10 extra-base hits. Both have raised their average about 30 points in the past month. Bay did have the longer hot streak, hitting in 11 consecutive, where as Pagan never had a streak of more than five games. Each of them was outstanding on the bases, Bay was 6-for-6 and Pagan stole 7-of-9. Oddly, Pagan (3) out homered Bay (2), who hit both of his in the same game.
Pitching (C): After the great showing in April, the Mets pitching has returned to earth. The monthly ERA is 4.35, they are worse than league average in hits and runs allowed and only the Diamondbacks allowed more home runs than the Mets in May. The bullpen blew 4 of 11 save opportunities and are still being used too much, second in innings pitched this season. The pen allowed 11 homers in the month, as opposed to just 5 in April.
The rotation, which has been in flux all month, seems to have settled down. Santana-Pelfrey-Dickey-Takahashi-Niese works for me. Most Mets fans are infinitely more comfortable with that one then a rotation that included Perez & Maine. The fact that Perez is still in the pen and not on a deserted island still troubles most of us. Hopefully he will take to the role that Jerry Manuel seems to be using him in, long relief when it can’t get any worse.
Pitching Star of the Month: Johan Santana (B). Remove his first start of the month (the shelling in Philly) and Santana has been marvelous. In all five starts since then he’s pitched at least seven innings and his ERA is 1.69, with a 0.96 WHIP.
Sadly the Mets offense takes his starts off and he’s just 1-1 in the month. He is pitching like an ace and a guy making $20 million a year, but the hitters need to help him out a bit more. You could also make a case for Hisanori Takahashi, especially if he pitches well tonight.
What to look for in June:
The Mets play 14 or 26 games on the road and need to be better than a .300 team (7-16) on the road if they plan to be anywhere within site of first place. During the middle of the month they play 15 straight interleague games and with the winning series over the Yankees, they are now 107-107 all-time against the AL. They get two last place teams (Baltimore and Cleveland) and three teams over .500 (Minnesota, Detroit and the Yanks again).
The rotation looks solid (for now) and who knows how Maine & Niese will pitch after coming off the DL. If the rotation stays intact for the month, then you’re looking at a team that could win 20 games in the month. If it blows up and Perez is forced back into the rotation, start making golf reservations for the middle of October, you might get paired up with some Mets.
The bullpen is still being overused, Manuel is the king of using pitchers for one batter. And the Mets fans looking for K-Rod to save 62 games, keep dreaming. It’s taken him a season and two months to get to 44 and the odds on him getting to 62 saves as a Met before I turn 40 is 3-1.
The UFC Took My Post Away
This is what happens when you have a day game after an MMA event. You get a post covering two games. With just about every fight going the distance I got home after 1AM and couldn’t get up enough to write about the game, especially a loss in which Oliver Perez pitched. I am going to admit that UFC114 was the first ever card I watched and now will go out of my way to see more. For the record, Brilz was robbed of his victory and lost a bull crap split decision.
Saturday: Brewers 8, Mets 6
Corey Hart made the Mets staff his own personal batting practice pitchers and led the Brewers to an 8-6 victory in the second game of the series. Its not like the Mets played that bad, well, maybe they did for half the game. After Jason Bay grounded out with the bases loaded to end the fifth, the Mets didn’t have another runner reach base, as they rolled over for three Brewers relievers, none of who were Trevor Hoffman, future Hall of Famer.
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The first five innings the Mets looked good. Six runs, nine hits, three stolen bases and were 5-16 with runners in scoring position, that’s good. The bad news for the Mets? The Craptastic Duo pitched on Saturday and dug a hole too deep. Fernando Nieve made an emergency start for the Mets (lets hope its his last), and recorded an Ollity start*; two innings, five runs and three walks. He was then replaced by the name sake, Oliver Perez, who wasn’t much better in his third relief appearance. He went two innings allowed three runs and walked two. When Elmer Dessens came in to take over for Perez, it was 8-6 and would stay that way until the end.
This was the longest relief stint for Perez since being sent to the pen, but doesn’t warrant him moving back to the rotation, even with Nieve failing in his first attempt in the rotation. The Mets get back Jonathon Niese soon so they won’t need Nieve, or Perez, again.
Sunday: Mets 10, Brewers 4
After losing the first two games of the series, the best the Mets could hope for was not to get swept and the bottom of the order made sure that wouldn’t happen. The 6-7-8 hitters for the Mets went 9-for-14, scored seven runs and drove in five. Even starting pitcher R.A. Dickey had a hit to drive in a run.
Dickey (2-0) received plenty of support and had a lead even before he took the mound. Jose Reyes lead off the game with a double and scored on a David Wright sac fly. Then he gave it right back in the bottom of the inning when Rickie Weeks hit a lead-off home run. He then fell behind in the second when he allowed the 9th place hitter, short stop Alcides Escobar, to single and drive in Jonathan Lucroy.
He would tie the game up himself with a 4th inning single that drove in Jeff Francoeur, who had four hits on the day. The big hit for the Mets came in the 6th inning. With two outs, Reyes was intentionally walked to load the bases for Luis Castillo, who singled up the middle to drive in two runs and made the score 4-2. The Mets added two more in the 7th on a Angel Pagan homerun and led 6-2 heading into the bottom of the inning.
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By that time Dickey had settled into a groove. The knuckle baller ended up going seven innings, allowing four runs and walked no one. The only mistake he made after the second inning was another homerun to Rickie Weeks which cut lead to 6-4 in the bottom of the 7th.
The Mets would tack on four more in the top of the 9th after the first six hitters of the inning reached base, including three consecutive doubles from the heroes of the game, the 6-7-8 place hitters. (Better known as Pagan, Francoeur and Henry Blanco.)
Overall the series versus the Brewers was a disappointment, only because of the losing record. They played well enough to win all three games, but couldn’t score in the first game and didn’t score enough in the second game. When they finally put it all together in the finale they were able to escape Milwaukee with a 1-2 record and kept their heads above the .500 line. For now.
*Ollity Start – less than 5 inning pitched, three runs or more, and more walks than innings pitched.
Mets Win Streak Snapped
Well it had to end sometime. The Mets ran their streak of scoreless innings to 35 before Corey Hart ruined everything by hitting a two-run walk-off home run and gave the Brewers a 2-0 victory.
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Johan Santana pitched the best game by a Mets starter all season and picked up another no decision. He pitched eight innings, allowed zero runs and just three hits and for his troubles received diddly. Over his last four starts he’s allowed a total of three earned runs in 29.2 innings (0.91 ERA) but has just one win. The other three games? The Mets lost 2-1, 3-2 and now 2-0. Scoring some runs for your ace would be a good idea.
This time it was the Mets bats doing their impersonation of the Phillies. They hit into three double plays and couldn’t get the big hit they needed against Yovani Gallardo (5-2). The best opportunity the Mets had was in the 3rd inning. They had the bases loaded, no one out and lead off hitter Jose Reyes at the plate. Reyes, the hottest batter during the five game winning streak, hit a grounder to first and Rod Barajas was erased at home. The bases were still loaded for Alex Cora, who proceeded to ground into a double play and end the inning. The Mets didn’t have two men on bases together again until the 9th inning.
Santana did not come out for the 9th inning as he was lifted by Jerry Manuel for Pedro Feliciano to pitch to lefty Prince Fielder. Why pull Santana, who had only thrown 105 pitches and was rolling?
“Once he had doubled, fought through the eighth, I didn’t think it would be a good move,” Manuel said about Santana continuing. “And Fielder, I think, was seeing him pretty good anyway. I didn’t want to chance him to lose that ballgame out there after the way he had performed.”
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After Feliciano got Fielder to ground out, Manuel went to the bullpen again and brought in Ryota Igarashi. Ryan Braun reached on an infield single and then after Casey McGehee popped out, Corey Hart came to the plate. Hart then hit a 1-1 pitch over the left field wall and gave the Brewers a 2-0 win and ended the Mets 86-inning streak without allowing a homerun.
Todays game should see a little more offense from both teams. Fernando Nieve (1-2, 5.09 ERA) gets his first start for the Mets, while Manny Parra (1-3, 3.54 ERA) makes just his second start of the season for the Brewers. Lets hope the Mets offense reverts to the way they hit during the recent winning streak and not continue what they did yesterday.
Mets Shutout Phils. Again.
Maybe I should head out to Vegas.
I jinxed the last road trip vs the Marlins, Nationals and Braves and said the Mets would go 2-6, they did.
Then before this current homestand, I said: “If it was only that easy I would say we go 5-1 vs the Yankees and Phillies…” And they did.
Really? It’s that easy? If it was I wouldn’t need to try to find a job, I would just need to find a guy named Big Tony or Jimmy the Squirrel who ran book and make a fortune that way.
I know if I actually try to predict the Mets record on the upcoming road trip, I will jinx it. I either need to make my predictions in jest (latest homestand) or despair (most recent road trip), so I won’t even make any guesses about how the Mets will play in Milwaukee and San Diego. But if they play like they did against the Phillies and Yankees, then it should be an enjoyable trip.
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The staff looks solid, although its only a four-man rotation right now. Emergency starter Fernando Nieve will get the start Saturday, after that Jonathon Niese will be back. He hasn’t been good in May (0-1, 8.76 ERA), but pitched well in April (1-1, 3.10 ERA. If he pitches more like April than May then it’ll be puppies and ice cream come summertime for Mets fans.
The Mets completed the sweep against the Phillies with a 3-0 victory and set people scrambling for the record books. Only two other teams in major league history (which means since 1876) have swept three or more games from a first-place team without allowing any runs: the Orioles over the Red Sox in 1974 and the Washington Senators over the Philadelphia A’s in 1913.
The Phillies scored as many runs in the series as I did, zero. Mike Pelfrey (7-1) pitched seven strong innings and offense continued to get the big hit when it was needed. Jose Reyes had three more hits, including the big one -a two-run double in the 8th- that iced the game. Reyes now has two or more hits in five straight games. It wasn’t just the offense, the Mets turned three double plays and haven’t made an error during their five game winning streak.
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This was just the second time in Mets history that they swept a three-game series and didn’t allow a single run. The last time they accomplished this feat was also against the Phillies in 1969. Any time that year is conjured up in Mets lore, people get all gooey with dreams of another World Series. Lets just see if we can get to the All-Star Break above .500 first before we all make plans for late October.
The latest homestand was arguably a better one than the one they went 8-1. The Mets were coming into this homestand with the majority of their rotation in flux and the offense was inconsistent at best. Then Plan B happened, Hisanori Takahashi and R.A. Dickey stepped up and have pitched well after being thrust into the rotation. Jason Bay and (more importantly) Reyes have found their strokes and the new look lineup seems to be working.
The Mets are now 19-9 at home and have climbed back to two games over .500 and are just two games back of the Phillies, as it most of the division. Everyone in the NL East is at .500 or better and all five teams are within 3 games of each other. They look to extend the winning streak to six games tonight with Johan Santana (4-2, 3.41 ERA) on the mound. On Saturday, Fernando Nieve gets the emergency start.
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Mets Blank Phils Again
A couple of firsts for the Mets tonight as they beat the Phillies 5-0 and moved a game over 500. Jose Reyes hit his first home run of the season and Hisanori Takahashi won his first game as a starter. The firsts are good news for all Mets fans. Reyes has responded well since being put back in the leadoff spot and another question about the rotation looks answered.
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The winning streak is now at four games as the Mets blanked the Phillies again. Tonight it was another pitcher who didn’t start the season in the rotation that kept the Phillies from scoring. A day after R.A. Dickey pitched six scoreless innings, Takahashi (4-1) pitched even better. He allowed just five hits, struck out six and walked no one in six innings.
Reyes had his fourth straight multiple hit game and drove in a pair. Rod Barajas had the other three RBIs for the Mets, who stole four bases and now have seven in the two games. The Mets got to Phillies starter Joe Blanton (1-3) early with single runs in the second and third. A Barajas sac fly drove in the second inning run and then Reyes led off the third with his first home run of the season.
Thats all that Takahashi would need as the Phillies bats were silent again and they dropped their fourth straight game. After being shutout once all season, the Phillies have been shut out three times in four games, and were almost no-hit in Boston this weekend. They got just seven hits and advanced someone as far as third base just twice in the game.
After getting a no decision in his first start against the Yankees, Takahashi pitched well again. He hasn’t allowed a run since joining the starting rotation and has solidified his place after Johan Santana and Mike Pelfrey. In his two starts, he has pitched 12 innings and allowed 10 hits and walked just one.
The Mets raised their home record to 18-9, tied for the best in baseball and sit just three games back of the Phillies. In the final game of the series, Mike Pelfrey (6-1, 2.86 ERA) takes the mound for the Mets and will face Cole Hamels (5-2, 3.92 ERA).
