Daily Archives: August 16, 2007
The Mets have announced that Pedro Martinez will make his third rehab start Monday for Single-A St. Lucie, 
during game-one of a double header.
The Mets are off on Monday, so, according to David Lennon in Newsday, Rick Peterson intends to catch Martinez’s start in person.
…so, if monday will be his next start, it stands to reason that his fourth start, and possibly his last start, will be saturday, august 25, meaning his first major-league start could be the final few days of august, either in Philadelphia or in Atlanta, which will make me so damn giddy i might lose my mind…in some ways, it may be smarter to just hold him off a bit, so to start the following week against the Reds…however, if the Mets hope to get him five starts before October, it’s now or never…
Yesterday, on The MetsBlog Podcast, Anthony and I talked about Martinez’s rehab start with Eric Phaler, who covers the St. Lucie Mets for the The Port St. Lucie News and TCPalm.com.
To listen, click the play button in the audio player located in this site’s left-hand column.
Phaler gives us a first-hand report on Martinez’s recent start, while discussing his overall rehab and his impact on the club’s younger player.
Phaler also provides a bit of insight in to St. Lucie Mets LHP Jonathan Neise, RHP Deolis Guerra, and RHP Joe Hietpas.
According to multiple reports, Carlos Delgado said he 
hyperextended his left knee when running down a foul ball in the second inning last night.
He stayed in the game, but left after the seventh inning.
Delgado stayed in the game but left before the bottom of the eighth.
Following the game, Willie Randolph told reporters that Delgado does not have much swelling, adding that his first baseman simply ‘tweaked his knee a bit,’ which got sore towards the end of the game, ‘so we got him out of there.’
…my guess is that delgado will not play during tonight’s series finale, but will be back in action in DC on friday…
Prior to last night’s game, Mets GM Omar Minaya told reporters that Endy Chavez will play his first minor-league rehab game today with the Gulf Coast League Mets.
…it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…
Chavez has been on the DL since June 7 with a strained hamstring.
During last night’s win, John Maine allowed three runs on five hits and 117 pitches, including two home runs and 34 foul balls, while walking three and striking out eight, through five innings.
Maine is tied with seven other pitchers for second in wins with 13 in the National League.
He is 14th in the league with a 3.59 ERA.
Willie Randolph, on Maine’s outing, while talking to reporters after the game…
“Well, they made him work – that’s the bottom line, you’ve got to give them a lot of credit. I didn’t think John threw that bad. I mean, he had a lot of foul tips, they were battling, they were trying to put the ball in play…he got a little frustrated at times, and he gave up a couple of gophers, but, for the most part his stuff was pretty decent. They just made him work, they made him battle. He needed to stay strong and get through it and he made it through.”
Maine, on Maine, talking to reporters after the game…
“I think there were 34 foul balls just from me pitching through five innings. If they had put just half of those balls in play the pitch count goes down and I get a couple more innings out of it. It was just a weird thing today…
“I felt great today. It’s the best I’ve felt in a while…I feel I could have located a few of my pitches better, but when they’re fouling off that many pitches it’s tough.”
Shawn Green started in right field last night, leaving Lastings Milledge on the bench.
In the top of the ninth, Milledge pinch hit for the pitcher, singled to left field, moved to second on a sacrifice, stole third, and scored on a throwing error.
Milledge, on being ready, while talking to reporters after the game…
“Willie told me before the 
game to be ready to go, we may need you as a defensive replacement or as a pinch hitter – so I was ready to go ever since the fifth inning…
Milledge, talking to reporters after the game, about whether it was his call, or Willie Randolph’s, to steal third with no outs, up one run in the ninth and Luis Castillo and David Wright on deck…
“Yeah, me and Rickey picked up (Shawn Chacon) last night. He’s more of a one look guy. He gave me two looks, so I knew after he turned for the second look I was gone. It was a chance we took. We had a one-run lead with Billy coming in, we had a lot of confidence. The only thing we wanted to do is tack on.”
…stay fresh, greenie, because l’millz be the president…
Last night, in a win against the Pirates, the Mets scored five runs in the first, five runs in the ninth, and no runs in between.
Willie Randolph, while talking to reporters after the game about the importance of scoring five insurance runs in the ninth, …
“Well, we should have done a little more of that during the middle of the game. I mean, we only had two hits between the first and ninth. You can’t let teams hang around. That’s the bottom line. I mean, you give them credit for battling back, but we had Matt Morris on the ropes early…We allowed him to settle down. We need to do a better job of adding on. We made a couple of mistakes during the game…just some shoddy stuff going on, that’s all.”
David Wright, while talking to 
reporters after the game about scoring early and scoring late…
“We need to do a better job of putting teams away…We allowed them to creep back up in to the game and gave them a fighting chance when we really could have ended this thing early…
“Obviously, we wanna score early and score often, but we’re starting to get that flow back to the lineup. We just need to be more consistent in the lineup. Guys are just playing small ball, guys are being a good situational hitting team, we’re hitting behind runners, we’re cashing in with guys on third base and less than two outs. So, those are the kind of things we need to do. We don’t need guys going up there trying to hit three-run home runs all of the time. We just need them to keep the ball rolling, keep the line moving…
“It’s nice that we put up two crooked numbers like that, but this offense has the ability to do that way more often than we’re doing. To go from scoring five, and hitting everything hard in sight, in the first and the ninth, to basically not being able to scratch out a couple of hits in between is very drastic – it says there is no gray area…So, we have to improve that and be more consistent…We need to have that killer mentality…We let them off the hook and let them coast.”
The Mets (67–52) defeated the Pirates (49–69) by the score of 10 to 8 in Pittsburgh last night.
Willie Randolph, on the overall game, while talking to reporters after the win…
“A little bit of everything happened in that game. Five in the first. Five in the ninth. We tried to give it back to them in between. And, you know, even John Maine, with his high pitch count, I’ve never seen so many foul tips…So, just a weird game. Nice to get the win, obviously, we made it interesting in the end, but we’ll take it…If we win, I don’t mind, that’s the bottom line.”
…it was weird…the Pirates have been a strange team for the Mets over the last two years or so…there was that trip before the all-star break, the trade for Oliver Perez, the potential clicher, but sweep, last season, this game last night…i want to be comfortable and confident against this team, but i’m not…i don’t trust them…
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