postGame: Braves 3 Mets 1
The Mets (2–3) lost to the Braves (3–3) by the score of 3 to 1 in Atlanta this afternoon.
For a recap and boxscore, go here.
…Johan Santana did have his best stuff today, yet he muscled through and allowed just one run while pitching seven innings…he’s just so economical…also, entering this season, i knew he was a great pitcher…but he’s also a tremendous athlete…he put good wood on the ball twice, once legging out a double on a broken bat blooper (while carrying the bat handle with him)…also, he made two nice plays in the field, once diving to stop a ball and holding a runner at third, then kick-saving a ball while keeping another run from scoring…again, not his best stuff, yet a strong day…
…however, John Smoltz, who tossed 25 pitches in the first inning, was just slightly better than santana…or, i should say the Mets bats were just slightly worse than atlanta’s…i mean, it’s hard to score more than one run when Jose Reyes, Luis Castillo, David Wright and Carlos Beltran go 0–13 on the day…only half of which was against the great smoltz…
…the Mets also made some suspect plays in the field and on the bases, such as Angel Pagan playing so shallow against Yunel Escobar, who ripped a double over his head to drive in a run, and Carlos Delgado getting doubled up on a hard line drive out by Ryan Church…it happens…hard to ridicule…but in a tight game, these things always seem to matter…
…like Aaron Heilman grooving a meaty change-up to Mark Teixeira, who clobbered it for a two-run home run, which essentially made the day’s difference…worst part, church may have been able to rob it had he been over a foot, as the ball bounced off the wall just to the side of his glove…
…on the other, santana’s fancy defense, and David Wright’s diving stop in the seventh, all stopped runs from scoring, none of which should be overlooked just because they lost…
…wright led off the ninth with a four-pitch walk, who was driven in by a single from church…pagan walked as well, bring up Brian Schneider, who ripped a ball over the first base bag, which would’ve tied the game, had teixeira not been wisely playing the line, who dove, made a nice grab and tossed out brian to end of the game…so, so close…
