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In his first-ever start, Philip Humber left the game in the sixth inning, with two runners on base and no outs, having allowed just two runs through the previous five innings.
Joe Smith entered in the relief, and was followed by Pedro Feliciano, and six batters later the Nationals scored five runs, three of which were credited to Humber, who got the loss.
Humber, talking to reporters after the game…
“Yeah, my legs started going during that fifth inning, but I was just trying to push through it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make the right pitches at the right time – and that really hurts. To have a five-run lead in the fourth, and then give two of them back…to not be able to get through the fifth, and give our bullpen a chance that really hurts…As a pitching staff, we haven’t been able to really help out (the hitters) a lot, and that was definitely on my shoulders tonight.”
…he looked good…even if one or two of those runs score, but smith and feliciano can get out of that inning, humber’s night looks pretty good, given the amount of pressure he was under…unfortunatly, that’s not how it played out, and his line is ugly, but, from a ‘stuff’ point of view, he looked solid considering how important this game was and that it was his first major-league start…
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Hmmm, I wonder why his legs went out from under him in the 4th and 5th innings… Maybe it was the fact that he threw 3 competitive innings in the last month while Willie buried him on the bench?
I know, it’s a wild theory. Humber showed great poise and major league stuff last night. If we handled him correctly, he would probably be our 7th inning arm right now.
Even I wouldn’t pin this on Willie.
he could have pitched and lost just as well as Lawrence did last week. Then maybe this time around, he would have some experience under his belt as well as conditioning. Blame Omar and Willie on that.
That I can agree with
Even Pedro seemed to tkae a swipe at Willie last night, when he said, “If it were up to me, I would have pitched (Humber) more often.” Humber did fine, but you can’t ask someone who has pitched 3 innings in a month, and none in over 2 weeks, to give you any more than Humber gave us last night.
I don’t think any of Willie’s moves last night cost the Mets in any way (although bringing Smith in with runners on base – given how Smith has struggled – was a curious decision), but his refusal to allow Humber to pitch at all, even as his bullpen imploded around him, deserves serious scrutiny. It wasn’t faor to pitch Humber in the heat of the pennant race when the Mets were 4 games up, but it’s OK now?
This team’s bullpen needs a serious overhaul, whether the Mets make the playoffs or not, but Willie’s role in this collapse cannot and should not be easily dismissed.
Uh…Joe Smith took the loss. Humber only gave up 5 runs.
and he left in the fifth…
The positive to be gleaned from both Humber and Pelfrey’s performances this week is that they looked sharp for three innings. IF the team does make the post-season, I think they should make the roster as long-relievers. I’d certainly much rather rely on them for an inning or two than Mota or Sosa.
Actually,. I thought Humber looked real good until he tired. He’s the one ray of hope I’ve seen in weeks (though that’s merely a hope for next year).
Humber has better “stuff” than Pelfrey, and I think will be the better pitcher in the long run.
Why is it that every time I walk in the room to catch an update Carlos Delgado is striking out with men in scoring position on a 1-2 count? Also, is it me or does it look like he has lost 15 lbs. since he was signed by the Mets. Just wondering
i wish he went 6 he only went 4+ innings last night
joe smith sucks
feliciano can throw strikes
but ill bring in el duque in the 8th.. ridiculous, this is why willie didn’t get a job offer until 9 interviews deep
The way I see it Willie played it very hard to win last night. He threw El Duque in the 7th and Wagner in the 9th to keep it close. Hernandez worked out, Wagner didn’t. But it didn’t matter anyway since the offense didn’t show up in the late innings anyway. And no, I’m not blaming the offense.
This team is seriously flawed with its pitching. There is no real #1 starter, a 17-7 type guy, at the moment. Because of the overall lack of starting pitching distance the pen is worn out.
I’m hopeful that they make it outright by Sunday (Saturday or Friday, if possible) so they don’t need a playoff game and can rest.
I actually think if this team makes it, they will relax a little and do quite well in the playoffs even given my earlier comments. They are pressing very heavily and it shows.
But please, can someone throw 7 innings and only give up two runs? PLEASE!
If El Duque was available, why didn’t he start to loosen up after the 2-run shot? You knew Humber only had maybe 1 more left in him. These are the managerial decisions that need to be examined. We always say, we didn’t know the whole story…but last night, we at least know he was available…so why our best pitcher all season used to stop the bleeding, but instead used later in the game when we are already behind?
Because Duque is a starter and it takes forever for him to warm up. They had no idea this would happen.
As for the 5th, Smith got up the minute he walked the first guy and they really wasted time to give time smith to warm up.
And you;re being ridiculous. The 2 runs shot was not the problem. We ALL know you hate willie.
And when he came in they were only one run down.
They had no idea this would happen? If so, management is more FUBAR than I thought. Humber hadn’t started a game in over a month. He’d pitched 3 innings in that time span, and none in over 2 weeks. Why [i]wouldn’t[/i] management have a failsafe plan to fall back on? If el Duque takes a while to warm up, he should have started in the Met half of the 4th. At that point, Humber wasn’t going more than another inning.
And to bring Joe Smith in with runners on base is, at best, a curious decision. I can see bringing him in to start the 6th, and take him out if he falters, but the kid needs to regain his confidence, and he can’t do that coming in in a pressure-packed situation.
Willie’s decisions don’t happen in a vacuum. They have real repercussions, and he has to face the consequences for them.
Willie doesn’t have that kind of foresight. Who do you think he is, Manny Acta?
We handled Humber pretty well. He needed a season at AAA and he got it. He’ll have a chnace to make the team in spring. El Duque was hurt, Humber was aaked to step up, a la Maine and Perez in 2006. For four innings, he delivered. The kid will be fine.
Seaver/Koosman, Smoltz/Glavine/Maddux, Koufax/Drysdale don’t grow on trees. We went with mediocrity. We knew the staff would be mediocre. the bullpen, and now the team is paying the price. If we have to spend a few prospects for Blanton and or Santana, I’d do it. I’ll take the guy with 3.80 ERA over the guy with the 3.30 ERA if I can get 50 more innings out of him.
Can we skip the corner nibblers? All they do is throw a lot of pitches
I agree. I liked what I saw from Humber, and he and Pelfry should get a full shot to earn starting jobs in the spring. We need more youth in our starting staff, and I’d be very comfortable with a Pedro/Perez/Maine/Pelfry/Humber rotation. El Duque can come out of the pen (he’s done it before) and spot start when Pedro needs an extra day. I don’t know where that leaves Glavin, but at this point, I think it is time to part ways.
I like his approach and I like that curve if he can be consistent. Of course his legs went in the 5th. They handled this really badly. When you had some margin for error and a big ballpark like Washington, he should;ve pitched. We all knew lawrence would stink up the joint.
I thought Humber pitched well. If Smith and Feliciano hadn’t let in the the inherited runners his line would look pretty good.
I blame both Omar and Willie for Humber not being in the best game shape as he only pitched 3 innings this month prior to his start.
And I blame Omar for not having called up Humber earlier in August when Williams and Lawrence got starts. Humber could have gotten valuable experience then.
The bullpen is killing this team. The hitters can only do so much every night. For this bullpen I blame both Omar and Willie — but mostly Omar.
If the unthinkable happens and they miss out on the playoffs, Omar is more to blame than Willie. Neither will deserve to be fired. But both deserve to be put on notice — to be put on probation. It would be totally unfair to make Willie the scapegoat the way many fans want to do.
I disagree to an extent. This team, against the Nats has flat out stopped hitting after the fourth inning.
In the 5 losses they scored 18-runs in innings 1-4. From 5-9 they scored 13. But included in that 13 is the 6 they scored in the 9th on Tuesday.
So 7 in 24 innings compared to 18 in 20 innings.
That is a huge difference. The bullpen stinks but we did not come back from adversity or when we were tested.
You can’t expect a team to keep coming back and coming back. Over the last 11 games, the Mets have scored 6 or more runs 9 times. Out of those 9 games, they’ve lost 5 of those games. That’s unacceptable for a championship caliber team.
The offense is pressing because they feel they have to score 9 or 10 runs every game just to win now. The fact they’re scoring about 7 runs a game right now says to me they’re doing their job.
Could they hit a little better? Of course. Just like they could be fielding or baserunning better. But the big black hole in the team right now — the big killer — is the bullpen. Followed by the starters. Followed by the hitters. That’s the way I see it.
I’m listening to Benigno now. I don’t like him but I have to agree with what he just said. That when the team continually scores early … builds 5-6 run leads … and sees the bullpen continually blow those leads … then it’s dispiriting. It’s human nature. I know you’re gonna say they should fight back, but that’s just what the offense has been doing for the last 2 weeks. Only to see the pen blow it again. And again. And again.
yup
I don’t like everything Willie does and I did not like the hire. He never went to the minors to make his bones so I did not want him. He has some in-game problems but he knows the game and until this month fundamentals were not the problem. However, I cannot blame him for Humber. He never intended to pitch Humber. The fact that his pitching staff blew up could not have been anticipated 3 weeks ago. If he never planned to use him, and Omar made him do it (as I am convinced he did: let us not forget who the boss is), he had to take what he could gwet from the kid. I also think Humber should pitch off his curve, not the other way around. I hope his mid-season fastball has a bit more pop than the one I saw last night.
we definitely need a joe blanton type for next year just a big body that can go out and pitch 7 innings every time out. Willie can get second guessed all you want but honestly other than schoenweis for very short appearances 3 batters max, no one has been effective as of late so no matter who he puts in has stunk i mean he might as well just pick names from a hat bc they all stink, you can blame willie if he were using the wrong guys but there are no RIGHT guys theyre all wrong they all stink.
his legs started going in the fifth???? what?????? how OLD is he?????
From Ken Davidoff’s column in Newsday:
This has become such a fiasco that you can blame everyone, up and down the hierarchy, from ownership to Omar Minaya to Willie Randolph to the players. The Humber mess has to rank atop the list of transgressions.
What was the purpose of having this guy sit around for a month, throwing a total of three innings since Sept. 5? He couldn’t have pitched any worse than Brian Lawrence did Sept. 17 in Washington, right? That the Mets sent Humber to Port St. Lucie on Saturday night, for a quickly assembled, simulated game, spoke to their lack of preparation. Didn’t they know earlier that they would need a sixth starter, given Martinez’s insistence on receiving a fifth day of rest?
Before yesterday’s game, Pedro said, “If it was in my hands, we would’ve been pitching [Humber] a long time ago.”