Mets Back To .500, Win Third Straight
First step achieved. Back to .500. The New York Mets beat the Phillies 8-0 in the opening game of the series and extended their win streak to three games.
Lets not get ahead of ourselves. Remember the last series against the Phils? The Mets won the first game by eight runs, then got hammered the final two games.
R.A. Dickey (1-0) won his first game as a Met by limiting the Phillies to seven hits over six innings. The knuckle baller confounded the Phillies and twice got out of bases loaded jams in the first three innings. He wormed out of one by starting a 1-2-3 double play and ended another with a line out to short.
You think that the Phils would have been a little better prepared for the fluttering randomness of the knuckle ball. They had just faced Tim Wakefield on Sunday, but Dickey only added to their frustration with the pitch, they haven’t been able to push a run across versus knucklers in 14 innings.
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“You are used to guys who have everyday stuff, but it’s very rare that you see a knuckleballer. Two in a row is even rarer — like Halley’s Comet,” Howard said. “Tomorrow we get a regular pitcher and try to right the ship.”
Jose Reyes scored three runs and stole a pair of bases. Jason Bay and Jeff Francoeur each drove in two runs and David Wright did not strike out [insert joyous celebratory whoop here.] In fact, no Mets player struck out. The last time they accomplished that feat was last September, oddly enough in a game started by Jamie Moyer, last nights starter.
The Mets got 13 hits, scored in six different innings and were 5 for 13 with runners in scoring position. Every starter (save Ike Davis) had a hit and even Mets reliever Raul Valdes got in on the action. In addition to picking up his first major league save with three innings of scoreless relief, he doubled over the head over Jayson Werth, driving in his first RBI and raised his average to .571 for the year.
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Tonight the Mets start the other new addition to the rotation. Hisanori Takahashi (3-1, 2.53 ERA) makes his second start for the Mets, his opponent will be Joe Blanton (1-2, 5.06 ERA). With Maine joining Niese on the DL and Perez in the pen, the Mets are still unsure who the 5th pitcher in their rotation will be. There’s a big blank space in between Santana and Dickey that the Mets have until Saturday to figure out.
Mets Win Subway Series, Bay Homers Twice
The New York Mets (22-23) won the rubber game of the Subway Series over the New York Yankees (26-18) with a 6-4 victory. What was supposed to be a showdown between aces, ended up being a one-sided affair until the very end. The Mets jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the fifth inning, but needed to bring in their closer to shut the door.
Jason Bay increased his home run total 200% by hitting a pair. Over the last three games he has reached base in nine straight plate appearances, including seven straight hits. Both of the home runs Bay hit were off Yankees starter CC Sabathia (4-3), who lasted just five innings. He allowed 10 hits, walked a pair and was tagged for six runs.
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Opposing him was Johan Santana (4-2), who pitched a polar opposite game. Santana went 7.2 innings, allowed six hits and just one run. He retired 13 batters in a row at one point, and didn’t go to a three-ball count until the 7th inning. He was lifted in the 8th after walking Alex Rodriguez to load the bases and the score 6-1. Pedro Feliciano came into get Robinson Cano to pop out to Ike Davis and end the threat.
The Yankees made it interesting in the ninth by getting the winning run to the plate in the form of Alex Rodriguez, but he struck out stranding two and the Mets escaped with a 6-4 victory that kept me squeezing my girlfriends foot until the very end.
It was 6-2 when Francisco Rodriguez took over for Ryota Igarashi, who had started the ninth. Igarashi walked the leadoff hitter Nick Swisher, after being up 0-2. A single, a fielder choice and another single and it was 6-2. There were two on with Derek Jeter coming to the plate when he was relieved by K-Rod.
One day removed from a five-out save, K-Rod clearly didn’t have his best stuff. The fast ball didn’t have the same pop and his breaking ball didn’t have the same snap. Jeter doubled on a hanging curve and the score was now 6-3 with two on and still just one out. Brett Gardner grounded out to third, which drove in another run. Then Mark Teixeira hit a ball off the plate. By the time it bounced again, he was on first and Jeter was on third. Up came A-Rod who was 2-17 lifetime vs K-Rod with 10 strikeouts, make that 2-18 with 11 Ks.
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This makes just the fourth time all season that the Mets have won at least two games in a row. They have three two-game win streaks and one eight-game streak this season and somehow are just one game under 500.
Jason Bay continued to wake up, his average is now up over .300 for the season and he is hitting over .450 (21-46) over the last two weeks.
The Mets get a day off on Tuesday before the Phillies come to town. The Phillies are losers of two straight games having been shut down by Daisuke Matsuzaka and Tim Wakefield, getting just six hits off the two starters in 16 innings.
Game one of the series will feature two pitchers who are allergic to throwing any pitch over 85-mph. Jamie Moyer (5-3, 4.30 ERA) will pitch for the Phillies, who will have to face kunckleballers in back to back games as R.A. Dickey (0-0, 3.00 ERA) takes the bump for the Mets.
Mets Win, Sets Up Winner Take All
In the battle of emerging starters Mike Pelfrey (6-1) got the upper hand on Phil Hughes (5-1) as the New York Mets won 5-3 and evened the series. Pelfrey allowed one run and six hits over six innings.
Jason Bay had four hits, Angel Pagan had three hits and drove in two. David Wright also drove in two. It was nice that the offense decided to show up Saturday. They had 12 hits, and more importantly got the big hit when they needed it. All five of their runs came with two outs.
The bullpen bent again, but did not break. The Yankees stranded six men on base in the final three innings and 13 for the game. The game was so important to the Mets fortunes that Jerry Manuel brought in closer Francisco Rodriguez to get the final five outs for the Mets. He realized that another loss by the bullpen and another wasted good start would shorten the plank he stands upon.
K-Rod came in with the bases loaded in the 8th and Derek Jeter at the plate. He got Jeter on a fielders choice which made the score 5-3. He then got Brett Gardner to hit it to Wright who made the play to get out of the inning.
It was the second inning in a row where Wright made a nice play on a ball, with a good strong throw to get the out. Its good to see this, especially after he threw a game away in Atlanta on a play similar to these.
The Yankees, on the other hand, never got the big hit they needed. Besides the 13 men they left on base, the first three batters in the Yankees line up went 0-13 and left six runners in scoring position.
It was a nice rebound game for the Mets. They got good pitching, didn’t throw it away either defensively or with the bullpen, and had enough big hits to beat the Yankees.
Today’s rubber game will feature the two aces. Johan Santana (3-2, 3.72 ERA) for the Mets and CC Sabathia (4-2, 3.43 ERA) for the Yankees, face off on ESPN Sunday night.
The Mets look to do something they haven’t done in over two weeks, win back-to-back games. In fact, besides the eight game winning streak, the Mets longest winning streak is two, which they’ve done twice.
Mets Limb Back Home
Not sure if you can call it a jinx, but after the first game of the New York Mets last road trip, I predicted a 2-6 road trip for the Mets.
What did we get? 2-6.
If it was only that easy I would say we go 5-1 vs the Yankees and Phillies, but with the pitching staff in disarray and an offense that shows up once every three or four games, that seems unlikely to happen.
The Mets beat the Nationals 10-7 on Thursday and yet not everything was puppies and ice cream in Metland. John Maine was lifted after just five pitches by Jerry Manuel and pitching coach Dan Warthen. In the bullpen before the game Warthen watched Maine warm up and bells went off when he couldn’t crack 80 mph.
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“I just didn’t think John had enough to compete tonight,” Warthen said. “When he’s throwing that way, then there’s got to be something incorrect in that arm. Something’s got to be feeling bad. John’s a habitual liar in a lot of ways as far as his own health. He’s a competitor and a warrior and he wants to go out there and pitch. But you have to be smart enough to realize this guy isn’t right. The ball is not coming out of his hand correctly.”
Back in 2007 Maine had his fastball at 94-95 mph. This year he has barely reached 90, and he topped out at 89 mph last night before being lifted. The Mets knew something might be amiss as Raul Valdes (2-1) was already up in the pen when Maine took the mound.
Before Maine took the mound for his one batter the Mets were already up 3-0. David Wright, back in the lineup after getting a day off, doubled to empty the bases. The Nats got one back in the second inning on a fielders choice. Then in the fifth the Mets broke it open sending 10 men to the plate, the big blow was a Jeff Francoeur single that drove in two. By the time the inning ended the Mets were up 8-1.
They pounded out 15 hits (which was as many as they had in the previous three games), including three each by Jason Bay and Ike Davis. Rod Barajas hit his 10th homerun of the season. Really? Barajas was the first Mets player to 10 homeruns? That’s like the Wizards winning the John Wall lottery.
Valdes pitched five innings in relief of Maine allowing just three runs and struck out six. To finish the game the Mets had to empty their bullpen, rolling out Manny Acosta, Jenrry Mejia, Pedro Feliciano and Francisco Rodriguez to finish the game. A tired bullpen is the last things they need going home to face the Yankees and Phillies for six games.
With Jonathon Niese on the DL and Oliver Perez in the pen, and new starters R.A. Dickey and Hisanori Takahashi (3-1, 3.12 ERA) -who starts tonight versus the Yanks- already being called upon, who would be next if Maine is out? There is Pat Misch down in Buffalo, who pitched well again. Or maybe Valdes, who pitched well in relief. The house of cards Manuel has built in the bullpen might fall like Rome if Maine is down any amount of time.
In come the Yanks for three games. The Mets are 30-42 vs the Yankees all time. Good news its against a struggling Javier Vasquez (2-4, 8.01 ERA), but the Mets have a bad habit of making bad pitchers look like Bob Gibson.
I Hate May
Even when a New York Mets player does something that hasn’t happened in 55 years, they still lose. The Mets dropped the opener of the two-game series with a 5-3 loss to the Washington Nationals and fell even deeper into last place.
Angel Pagan hit an inside-the-park home run and started a triple play, but neither was enough to help the Mets win the game. The last time a player was involved in both in the same game was Ted Kazanski (not the Unibomber) for the Phillies on Sept 25, 1955. The Mets have lost nine of 11 games and are now a game and a half behind the fourth place Braves.
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For the third straight games the Mets managed just five hits, the 1-3 hitters in the lineup went 0-11 and reached base just one time. As opposed to the Nationals 1-3 hitters who went 4-10, drove in two, scored four times and were on base six times. The 15 hits over three games is a low for the Mets this season, and, for once, David Wright can’t be blamed for this last game.
The struggling third baseman got the night off for the first time this season. The bad news is that his 15-game strike out streak will still be active when he starts again. Over those 15 games he has struck out 27 of 57 at-bats, 47% of the time. Fernando Tatis got the start at third and hit his second home run in the ninth inning. Wright wasn’t too happy with the time off.
“I don’t fill out the lineup card,” Wright said. “I never liked having off-days. I don’t enjoy having off-days. I told [Manuel] that I’d rather play, but it’s his decision.”
R.A. Dickey got the start for the Mets. The knuckle baller -just called up from Buffalo- pitched six innings, allowed five hits and allowed just two runs. He left the game with the score tied at two. It was the bottom of the seventh that was the Mets undoing.
Three Mets relievers each got one out in the inning as the Nationals scored three runs. Oliver Perez got the final out of the inning in his first relief appearance since being moved to the bull pen. It was Raul Valdes (1-1) who took the loss after allowing Roger Bernadina (still my least favorite National) to double. He scored on an Adam Kennedy sac fly off of Fernando Nieve.
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The triple play for the Mets was the 10th in the history of the team and the first since an around-the-horn triple play against the Padres on May 17, 2002. The Mets fell to 5-14 on the road and are 5-13 in the month of May.
