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In the ninth inning, with the Mets up 2–0, Billy Wagner let up a single to Shane Victorino and with two outs and two strikes on Jayson Werth, he hung a slider that Werth hit for a home run to tie the game.
Wagner then rebounded to retire Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins to force the game in to extra innings.
Wagner, on the blown save:
“That’s going to happen. I’d like to have bounced that slider, but I hung it and Jayson hit it. But, we came back and won it, the guys did great, they picked me up and we won and that’s fantastic.”
…true, a win’s a win, but i was watchin this game while on vacation and it brought back all of the stress i had worked so hard to remove…
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I wrote about it on my site….Wags has GOT to stop going to the well too often with the slider….he had Werth set up for an outside fastball there…it was wet, there was a long delay, it was 2 outs in the 9th with two strikes….throw your best pitch Billy!
especially if he is going to continue to hang it, like he did in SD to Gerut who couldn’t catch up to his fastball (he singled before T.C.’s HR) and then he hung it to Mark Reynolds, the same Mark Reynolds who had K’d his previous three ABs. Give them your heater unless you KNOW you can bounce the slider in that spot. Hanging sliders will run you out of town.
Bingo!
All that aside, am I the only one around here to find it eerily frightening that the supposed best closer in baseball has a 76% save percentage? I mean if he saves 23/25 like the best closers do, that’s gotta be at least 2 or 3 more wins…
Anyone know how many of his blown saves the Mets lost? I can’t recall any other than yesterday’s that they’ve won…
I think if Wagner keeps on going at this pace, he’ll have a worse season than Looper’s last one…
Reynolds hit a fastball out, not a slider. Wags left in the middle of the plate.
no it wasn’t, Wagner even said it after the game it was a slider that did not break it all.
Chris Young’s double the next night and Clark’s HR were fastballs.
I don’t care what anyone says…getting two more outs after a 2-out home run is impressive
hahahahaha
Chalk it up to the home field advantage. You’d think the Phillies would be better than 3 games over .500 at home when they get 4 outs an inning.
Wags definitely blew that one. It is going to happen from time to time to the closers though. Some people want him publicly executed and I disagree because there are not that many true closers out there. Sure, it would be nice to have Riveria, but every team in the MLB says that!
Wagner note to self: Don’t throw the slider when ahead in the count and have a home run hitter at the plate who can win or tie the game. HEAT BABY.
Don’t you think that “from time to time” is a little too often with Wags this year? Surely you’d expect your closer to close out games at a rate better than 3/4…
Yes. That is the reason I want him to get straightened out. He still has good stuff, it just seems like he hasn’t used it right.
Here is the good news though. Wags has blown 6 save opportunities. The Mets have won 3 of those games.
Rivera has lost three games this year. I doubt the Yankess are putting him on a bus out of town. Okay, that is unfair statement. Big difference between Wags and Rivera.
Note to you all. Tony Clark’s HR and Mark Reynolds’ HR were both on fastballs. On Clark he tried to keep low and away and missed over the plate. On Reynolds, after blowing him away with heat to get to 2 strikes, Renolds was on a fb and fouled it off and I begged for Wags to bounce a slider, but he threw another fb and he creamed it.
So its not only the slider that has been the problem.
note to Hubie, sometimes when a slider does not break at all and stays absolutely flat on the plane, it looks like a fastball, but is in fact just a juicy meatball
Note to Patrick, you are an arrogant jerk. Reynolds and Clark hit fastballs, its a fact!
perhaps Clark’s was, but calling a person a jerk is not nice, you can get banned.
I know there’s been a lot of hate on Billbob, and that’s understandable. He can be enraging. Truth is I still want him in there when the game’s on the line.
Six blown saves is a lot, but down the stretch I’ll take him over most other closers any day, including Lidge.
I don’t care what type of pitch Wagner threw, he’s just not getting the job done this year. He already has as many blown saves as he had all last year. Terrible.
It wouldn’t be so irritating if he hadn’t popped off about Ollie and hadn’t made the all-star game. IMO, Beltran, Wright and Reyes all belong at the all-star game more than Wagner does. Beltran has better numbers than both Fukudome and Soriano. He deserves to be at the all-star game more than they do.
I am embarrassed that this bum and his six blown saves are representing the Mets in the All-Star game.
Then again, as a fan of an NL team, I am embarrassed by about 35% of the NL roster. Some of those selections are absolutely indefensible.
The All Star game is mostly a popularity contest anyway. I would think that most players enjoy having that extra time off anyway. Also, remember what happened to David Wright after he was in the home run derby a couple of years ago.
Oh believe me, I understand it’s a popularity contest, but due to the fact that the game now means the winner gets home field advantage in the WS (thanks Selig!!), it’s a somewhat important game. Which is why Ryan Ludwick, Fukudome, Tejada, Ryan Dumpster, Brian Wilson, Aaron Cook, and our own Billy Wagner have no business playing in this game.
Reyes has the best numbers of any SS not named Hanley….Wright doesn’t deserve it, based on the performance of both Chipper and Aramis.
except Wright has put up better numbers than Ramirez across the board, bottom line, Hurdle has never been a good anything.
Reyes does have the best overall numbers, but Guzman is a deserving AS and there’s no one else you can send from the Nats – and I believe the rule is, someone’s gotta go from every team – that’s why Reyes is being snubbed.
And Wright does deserve it – he’s in the top 10 in many offensive categories, including hr’s and rbi’s.
This year Lidge is better than Wagner.
And because of Wagner’s age, I expect him only to get worse this year and next. The Mets better be working on a backup plan for closer for next year as they will need someone else to at least share duties with Wagner.
Aaron Heilman anyone? Better yet, let’s give Armando Benitez another shot.
If by some grace of God the Mets were able to trade this choke artist before 2009 in spite of his no trade clause, I’d love to see Sanchez close for the Mets. He’s got the stuff and he’s got the mindset/attitude.
You usually like closers to be able to throw top heat and close out the game. Sanchez would’ve blown it yesterday in the 8th – the rain saved his @ss…
He made a fielding error – not a bad pitch to Utley. Besides, other than the Arizona game, and one game earlier in the season (can’t remember who it was against, maybe Florida) – Duaner has been great all year. That’s a lot more than I can say for our $43 million dollar joke of a closer, who can’t strand an inherited runner if his life depended upon it, or get a four out save if need be (I think he has one all year).
In all seriousness there are probably 15 closers I’d take before Wagner based on skill-set alone, more if salary was factored in.
I think you’re stretching it with 15.
I can think of may be 4. Who else you got?
Rivera, K-Rod, Papelbon, Nathan, Jenks, Putz (Morrow too – check his numbers out – this guy is gonna be twice the pitcher Joba is), Saito, Lidge (he bounced back and I didn’t think he would, I have to hand it to him, even though he is a Philthie), Soria (flat out stud), BJ Ryan, F. Cordero, Hoffman (barely)…think that’s it
OK, a little short, if you count Putz and Morrow as one closer (since they’re on the same team), 12 guys. I overestimated a little because I forgot how many bums teams employ as their closers (Todd Jones). Still, Wagner inspires no confidence in me, and again, if the Mets somehow got him to waive his no trade clause and were able to get a good (I stress the word good, because as much as I am down on him, I wouldn’t give him away for nothing) package for him, I would make that trade.
This team is not winning a championship with him on the mound. I think that is the deep down truth that most of us Mets fans might be unwilling to recognize. He is just as un-clutch a reliever as their is.
Maybe I am overstating it, maybe I am wrong, but perception is what it is and it is based on 3 seasons of him pissing his pants at the worst times.
I don’t think you’re overstating it at all. He is the best “bad closer” in baseball. If he does his job in Game 2 and gets freaking So Taguchi out (So Taguchi!!), the Mets beat the Cardinals in 6. Instead, our $43 million dollar man choked (again!!) and gave up a gopher ball to a 37 year old bench player, and the rest was history.
Yeah, conveniently overlook the fact that his saves helped get us as far as we did in ‘06!
Considering some of the game’s greatest closers, including Fingers, Sutter, and Gossage have had 13 and 14-blown save seasons, Billyboy ain’t all that bad.