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Last night, with two outs, the Mets up 2–0, and with Claudio 
Vargas at the plate, the umpire called catcher’s interference on Russell Martin during a swing that produced a ground ball from Vargas that would have ended the inning. Instead, Vargas was rewarded first base and the inning was allowed to continue.
Jose Reyes then followed with a single, Luis Castillo hit an RBI double and David Wright hit a two-run home run to give the Mets a 6-0 lead.
Martin, as quoted by the Associated Press:
“I should have known he has a long swing like that. Take away that blunder that I had, it’s a different ballgame. I take responsibility for that.”
…man, it really is the little things in baseball…i mean, think about it, the Mets won last night, three in a row, we’re talking returned energy, happiness, glee, etc, yet if the Mets do not get that call last night, which was accurate by the way, and then, because the game is closer, end up losing, today is probably a whole different narrative about how the Mets have issues, can’t sustain a winning streak, etc…what a delicate game…
Matt-
I agree that it is the little things but even without the call, I still think the Mets win last night. The energy was there. Jose running out ground balls. Delgado playing defense, Endy throwing his bat at the ball, etc. The last three nights it has been an inspired team again!
I do, too. I’m just saying, it doesn’t take much for ’some people’ to change the conversation these days.
I agree with you there! This is a much different board today then it was a few days ago.
It was awfully nice to see the Mets capitalize on that play, and then some.
When you have a team that underachieves and plays inconsistent ball, your fanbase tends to grow emotionally unstable. That’s why right now it seems like the Mets are only as good (or as bad) as they were last night (or over the last few nights). The farther from .500 we move, the less likely the fans are to overreact to every little thing (and the less delicate each game seems). Winning is like Ritalin (it really takes the edge off).
What a weird game yesterday with the calls. What i really liked about yesterdays game was that we capitolized on the error and knocked in 4 runs that inning, not to mention all the 2 out runs we got through the game. Weird game but glad we came out of it on top. Way to tack some run on also at the end. LGM
good point .. when teams are going good, 2 out catchers interference, errors, and walks, or swinging bunts turn into big innings. When things are not going well, the next guy just gets out and it makes no impact… not to mention Penny looked pissed last night, I was reading some pretty nasty things coming out of his mouth, and that interference call really shook him to my eye.
Yesterday, and Wednesday too for that matter, definitely had a different feeling and confidence than has been in the air for a little while. I think this team knows the fish and knows they are better than them, so having them come into town in first place, then taking 2 of 3 was a big boost to morale.
Matt,
“Some people” don’t understand just how small the difference between success and failure is in baseball.
A batter who succeeds 26 percent of the time is awful – but one who succeeds 28.5 percent of the time is pretty good. A team that wins 54 percent of the time is in 3rd place spinning its wheels — 56.5 percent and they’re probably in the playoffs.
That’s NOT to minimize things like focus and energy. If anything, they’re MORE important in a game where such small differences matter. It’s not about being “fiery” and slamming helmets — it’s about consistently doing things right and playing hard and giving yourself the best possible chance to grab that extra two percent.
Stat-heads disagree – they say focus, energy, etc. are are already factored into performance… and on an individual level, they’re right (look at how David Wright has been so consistently excellent). But on the team level, it can make all the difference in the world. I think the Mets are proving that. They need to keep it up.
matt, i think your assesment of how the small things change ppl’s perception of the team is dead on. i was thinking about it the other night after the walk-off win, how if endy hit one right up against the wall and it got caught and he just missed a homer by a few feet, all the papers and fans go nuts that the mets have no fight and no comeback ability once they are down. …but of course since it went over the fence now the mets all of a sudden have fight in them.
it really is amazing how a ball traveling a few more feet can change everything about the team.
Game ball goes to Martin and Penny??
I haven’t seen much comment on SNY’s mishandling of the coverage of this situation. I was watching the game, saw Vargas get thrown out at first (he was barely running, conserving his energy), and then SNY went to commericals. The full mid-inning block, probably 3 or 4 ads. When coverage returned, Vargas was on second, Reyes on first, and Castillo was about to hit a double. Ron and Keith (love them both) seemed not to realize that commercials had been running, since they announced the situation as if nothing happened. I had to run to Gameday to find out what happened. I can see the cut to commercial at first, but somebody in the booth should have gone back to live action once Vargas was awarded first. And the announcers should have explained it.
It was a very weird situation. I doubt the announcers even knew what was going on. I was watching the game through extra innings and when vargas struck out it went to commercial. Mid way through the commercial the game came back on and after a few seconds of comercial/game back and forth it stayed there. They explained various times what happened though
I agree the announcers didn’t know what was happening. My beef was with the production crew in the truck (or wherever they sit.) Didn’t they notice a game was going on while the commercials were playing?
I was going to comment on this too…I’d had a couple, and I had to rewind twice to make sure I hadn’t missed something. It was very confusing, and the crew did a poor job.
interesting .. mlb.tv which does its own commercials cut back to the Reyes at-bat, shortly after cutting away showing Vargas talking to the first base coach. It looked like there was confusion on the field, they cut away, then maybe 20 seconds went back.. That’s probably the first time it’s been better to watch it on the internet instead of TV ;)
Grammar police….
Vargas was awarded first, not “rewarded”
And I love the way Martin stood up and took the responsibility.
But you know what, Mr. Martin? It would not have mattered anyway; the Mets were going to win that game. If it wasn’t catcher’s interference making the difference, it would have been something else. They just were going to win it, period. So don’t feel too badly.
It was a weird situation at the stadium too…there was no indication what had happened.
What was confusing was the home plate ump ran out and it looked like he was pointing at the first base ump who threw his hands up as if he was calling a foul ball or maybe even a balk. After which Vargas took first. In hindsight, I guess the home plate ump was point at first base–awarding it to Vargas–and the fist base up was calling time?
No announcement, no message on the scoreboard. I figured it must have been catcher’s interference, but I had to use my cell to go to go to mlb.com an inning later to get confirmation.
SNY messed me up, how did they go through 3 commercials before realizing that play was still continuing. Thank god for DVRs, I had no idea what happened. Awful job by the SNY crew last nite on that crucial play.