Daily Archives: September 2, 2007
The Mets (76–60) completed a sweep of the Braves (69–68) by the score of 3 to 2 in Turner Field today.
…night, night, Atlanta…
For a recap and boxscore, go to Yahoo! Sports.
…naturally, with the way he has pitched during the last week, the Braves got a runner on base with the first pitch thrown by Billy Wagner in the bottom of the ninth, and the Mets up by just two…another hit, a run scored, i blink and the game is down to just one run…
…yes, i started freaking out again…
…i hate that i keep getting benitez’s in my stomach, i mean butterflies in my stomach whenever wagner hits the mound these days…nevertheless, wagner owes a pat on the back of Carlos Delgado, who looked all fleet-footed picking up a bunt to peg the lead run going from first to second…excellent, heads-up play, carlos…wagner got a tough ground ball, delgado tagged first, but overthrew Jose Reyes to prolong the inning…and continue to freak me out…
…but, billy kept his cool, got the final out on a grounder to Luis Castillo to end the game…
…it’s September 2, and i think my heart stopped beating for a moment…man, it’s gonna be a long next few weeks, isn’t it…
…at any rate…again…night, night, Atlanta…
…by the way, billy, nice fastball, man…wow…oh, and thanks for holding on the runner this time…i know, i know, it probably doesn’t 
matter, but, thanks anyway…
…in the first inning, Tom Glavine got in trouble…following two hits, he walked a batter to accidentally load the bases…rough start…but, he stayed cool…stepped off the mound…took a breath, flipped a few change-ups, got a ground ball or two, and though seven batters came to the plate, just one run scored…it was smooth sailing for tommy after that, as he used his change-up in all sorts of counts and in all sorts of locations…
…Yunel Escobar dropped a pop-up to let Jose Reyes reach base…two batters later, David Wright hit a two-run home run…in the last few days, wright has totally stepped up his game…he is without a doubt the captain of this team…
…in the seventh, up two runs, with no outs and a runner on, Willie Randolph pulled Tom Glavine in favor of Jorge Sosa, with Julio Franco stepping to the plate…i’m thinking this is essentially sosa’s fastball vs. franco, as opposed to glavine’s change-up vs. franco, since franco can’t hit a fastball…the funny thing, though, is that sosa only threw one or two fastballs, the rest were sliders, which franco couldn’t hit anyway and struck out against…sosa then got two more quick outs, while looking quite strong, to get out of the inning…
…also, big strike out of Mark Teixeira by Aaron Heilman in the eighth inning, as tex represented the tying run…two more ground balls ended the inning…again, heilman, looking smooth…
…any time the television gets a close up of Andruw Jones, i always feel like he is laughing at me…
…if the Mets were Shawn Green and the Braves were John Smoltz the Mets would never lose to Atlanta…
…hat’s off to glavine, who, facing John Smotlz with the bases loaded, hit a deep, deep pop-up towards left field to drive in a run…that must have felt good…
…Jose Reyes struck out looking on a very outside fastball, which i, too, thought was a ball…the inning was over…reyes, though, remained in the box looking quite angry…he flipped his bat across home…waited a second…shrugged his shoulder…waited more…slammed his helmet, got a warning and then stomped back to his position…
…speaking of barking, in the eighth inning, Moises Alou struck out on a check swing…he argued, got tossed by the first-base umpire, then apparently got tossed again by the home-plate umpire…
…speaking of alou, nice throw from left field to peg teixeira, who tried to leg out a double…
…whenever the Braves wear those bizarre red tops i initially think something is wrong with my television…settle down, red, you’re hurting my eyes…
….i was sort of surprised at the tepid cheer given to glavine as he walked off the field in the seventh…i mean, it is essentially the same dynamic from when Roger Clemens pitched what was supposed to be his final game at Fenway Park for the Yankees, during which he got a huge, enormous standing ovation…today, Braves fans gave glavine a polite golf clap…so, either they don’t care, or they were just dejected because their team is a huge dissapointment…
…speaking of disappointment, in a key spot, late in the game, with the Braves behind, Turner Field began playing the Tomahawk Chop and only a few people in the crowd joined in…which made me laugh…that song is so 1990’s…just like the Braves…
The Game:
The
first-place Mets (75-60) look for the sweep of the Braves (69-67) this afternoon at Turner Field, starting at 1:05 pm EDT.
The Lineup:
SS Jose
Reyes leads off, followed in order by 2B Luis Castillo, 3B David
Wright, CF Carlos Beltran, 1B Carlos Delgado, LF Moises Alou, RF Shawn Green, C Paul Lo
Duca and starting pitcher Tom Glavine.
The Pitchers:
LHP Tom Glavine (11-6, 4.15 ERA) starts for the Mets. Glavine pitched seven scoreless innings vs. the Phillies on Tuesday, but the Mets eventually lost the game 4-2 in 10 innings. He hasn’t lost since July 2nd at Colorado. In nine starts since the All-Star break, Glavine is 4-0 with a 3.69 ERA. In three starts vs. the Braves this season, Glavine is 0-2 with a 3.63 ERA.
RHP John Smoltz (12-6, 3.06 ERA) tries to salvage one for the Braves. In his last start vs. the Marlins, Smoltz allowed three runs on six hits over six innings as part of a no-decision. Smoltz hasn’t lost since August 3rd at Colorado. He has a 155-to-37 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 167.2 IP this season. In four starts vs. the Mets this season, Smoltz is 2-0 with a 3.60 ERA.
The Notes:
This is the fourth time that Glavine and Smoltz have faced off this season.
RF Shawn Green owns Smoltz, to the tune of 16-for-29 (.552) with a homer, three doubles and three RBI.
CF Andruw Jones is 16-for-41 (.390) with four homers vs. Glavine.
1B Carlos Delgado is 8-for-19 (.421) with three homers and nine RBI over his last five games. He is now in the five-spot in the batting order.
The Braves have lost eight of their last 11 games. They have struck out 22 times in the first two games of the series.
For more insight on the Braves, check out Blogger Beat featuring Martin Gandy of Talking Chop.
The Bleachers:
To chat during the game, head over to The Hot Foot Bleachers. If you are IRC savvy, log on to
irc.echo34.com and enter channel #metsblog.
…enjoy…and as always, let’s go mets…
During yesterday’s game, Jose Reyes and Ruben Gotay were both picked off second base.
…you know, while the Mets have been stealing significantly more bases since Rickey Henderson joined the team as a coach, i also feel like they are getting thrown out and picked off more, which i assume is only a natural by-product of being more aggressive on the bases…nevertheless, i don’t like it, but i understand…
In the New York Post, ‘citing four different major-league sources,’ Joel Sherman writes that Mets upper 
management have been concerned about Willie Randolph, ‘both tactically and in failing to get his team to play with consistent passion this year.’
…the question is, though, do these upper-management people have Wilpon or Minaya as a last name, because, otherwise, who cares…i mean, this has not been a perfect season, and willie most certainly has his flaws, and i would expect not every person in every role of management to be his biggest fan…but, the fact is, while i spot problems with him in nearly every game, the team is still the best in the national league so it has just hard to believe he is truly on the hot seat…
Sherman also cites two player agents, with clients on the team, who say there has been far more second-guessing of Randolph’s decisions this year compared to last.
…this is the type of story that has far more relevance to me, as a fan, it the off-season than in the thick of a pennant race in September…that’s just me…unless it begins to impact on the team on the field, because of media attention, i will not care much about it until November, i would think…
…by the way, today could be the last time Tom Glavine ever pitches in Turner Field, which i suspect must be a fairly emotional thing for him…
…remember, tommy, you’re on the Mets, though…
Prior to yesterday’s game, Pedro Martinez told reporters that he has agreed to throw no more than 75 pitches total, or 35 pitches in a single inning, during his first start of the year on Monday against the Reds.
