Note: Ryan Church is a Good Player
During yesterday’s win over the D’Backs, with the score tied in bottom of the eighth, Pedro Feliciano made a poor throw over first base, allowing D’Backs 2B Chris Burke to extend a routine bunt in to a potential triple.
However, Ryan Church hustled, picked up the ball – now rolling towards right field – and tossed a one-hop bullet to David Wright to leg Burke sliding in to the third for an out.
…by the way, it was a acrobatic tag by wright, as well…
Church, speaking to reporters after the game:
“The biggest thing was getting a grip on the ball…In that situation, the key is not to panic. It started to tail a little bit, but David made a great play to get to it and make the tag…That guy could have been on third with nobody out. Whatever helps, just chip in. I didn’t get it done with the bat, just do it with defense.”
Church also made a running catch of a liner by Chris Young in the sixth to get Santana out of a bases-loaded jam in what would prove to be the Mets ace’s final inning of work.
Meanwhile, in a post to Brooklyn Met Fan, Adam apologizes to Omar Minaya for having criticized the acquisition of Church for Lastings Milledge, writing, “I’ve completely reversed my position on this trade and I hereby stand down. You made the right call. I thank God you did because I can’t imagine what kind of shape this team would be in without Ryan Church and Brian Schneider.”
…as i said at the time, this was a deal that worked for both teams, and it was not about milledge’s shortcomings…in fact, the sense i got was that people connected to the Mets knew that milledge would eventually develop in to the type of player they’d regret having traded away…the thing is, given the pressure to win now, the Mets did not have time to wait for that day to come…let us not forget, too, that church is under 30 and under contract…
