The Mets (72–57) defeated the Astros (64–64) by the score of 3 to 0 in Shea Stadium tonight.
For a recap, boxscore, stats, etc., from tonight’s win, go to SNY.tv.
Johan Santana was stellar tonight pitching seven scoreless inning while throwing a season-high 121 pitches. Although he gave up eight hits over his seven innings, Santana looked in control tonight. Santana improved to 3-0 with a 1.48 ERA this month and is now 27-6 with a 2.31 ERA during his career in the month of August.
Aaron Heilman followed Santana and pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning, looking strong doing so. Keep it up, Aaron. The team needs you.
With Heilman pitching the eighth, it was left up to a pumped up Luis Ayala to get the save in the ninth. Since joining the Mets, Ayala has pitched three scoreless innings while giving up one hit. I’m not sure if anyone has ever researched this, but I would be curious to see if a player’s performance improves once being traded from a sub .500 team to a team in a pennant race.
Ryan Church returned to the lineup, collecting an infield single before the slugging Brian Schneider hit a two-run homerun to give the Mets three-run lead. Good thing he did, since Roy Oswalt retired the final 20 batters he faced.
The Mets have now won 10 of their last 11 games and remain 2.5 games in front of the Phillies.
The Mets continue their four-game series with the Astros tomorrow night in Shea Stadium starting at 7 pm, with John Maine taking on Brandon Backe.
{ 58 comments }
In Omar We Trust!
He picked up a closer AFTER the trade deadline for Anderson freakin Hernandez.
That alone should keep his job safe for another year.
Yeah, except that the walking reminder of his failings, Castillo, returns tomorrow. So we’ll see.
Castillo when healthy, is our best 2nd base option.
Offensively*
He’s been an enormous liability in the field.
He was also still recovering from surgery. It’s not like he’s known as a defensive liability.
We must also keep in mind that Castillo had something to do with Santana WANTING to come here. Santana could have been traded to other teams, but practically forced the Twins to trade him to the Mets. The Rangers almost nabbed him, but everyone seems to conveniently forget that point. Omar signing Castillo to that contract had, IMO, a big part to play in getting Santana to WANT to come here.
Yes it’s a bad contract, no we don’t want Castillo here any longer. He’s served his purpose. Santana is here now, so we don’t need Castillo here anymore. In the off season, it will be time to move him on now that Santana is here for good.
But under the circumstances, it was not necessarily the rotten contract that we want to make it out to be. Some of that money we are paying Castillo was actually spent to get Santana here. Just keep that in mind, and hopefully they will get rid of him and cut their losses in the off season as quickly as possible.
We’re playing very well now. The only reason why Castillo would replace the Easley/Reyes combo is because of money.
If we’re only concerned with what’s best for the team, then Castillo would be gone.
I’ve been defending Castillo a bit, but chico’s post above is comically ridiculous. Did that little story of yours come to you in a dream?
Castillo played as much part in the Twins dealing Santana to us as I did praying to my Omar Minaya doll. If you want to say Santana was inclined to sign an extension with the Mets, well, that’s one thing — but claiming that Santana somehow controlled the Twins’ trade discussions? Well, “That’s gold, Jerry! Gold!”
The Twins would have shipped Santana to Timbuktu if they had been offered a better shipment of prospects than what we gave them.
And Santana would have turned the trade down. He did have the no trade clause. Also, if he had lost that right which some people thought he might have, he could have turned down any extension offer he was given by the trading team, thus having that team decline trading for him. Where Santana was going, if the twinkies didnt just hold on to him, was soley on Santana. Though money was the main factor for Santana wanting out of Minny, his well known dislike of Minny getting rid of his friend Castillo, was a helpful push in making the decision easier.
the reason why castillo should replace reyes/easley is because of offensive capability. easley/reyes combined are okay on defense as well as castillo. his OBP is about 50 points higher than theirs, which more than makes up for argenis reyes’ supposed superiority in the field.
Not supposed superiority, definite superiority. Castillo I believe was ranked the worst starting defensive 2B in baseball
OK folks, let me explain.
Santana made it clear that he wanted to go play for the Mets and his buddy Santana. He had only a limited amount of time left on his contract. No other teams wanted to pony up and trade all of their really valuable prospects for him, just to see him leave next year to the Mets anyway. That left the Mets in the drivers seat. All they had to do was offer up the equivalent value of the 2 draft picks the Twins would gain by keeping him, plus the one year of service time of Santana, and that made an equal trade. The Twins knew they were going to lose him to the Mets, everyone else knew they were going to lose him to the Mets, because he made his wishes known and indirectly forced his trade to the Mets. That’s why we got him for such a low price, without giving up FMart and with our barren farm system and all. Because we overpaid for Castillo beforehand, and all those other signings (Pedro, Beltran, Glavine) to pave the way for Johan to don the Blue and Orange.
Now have I made myself clear or do I need to draw it out with a crayon for you?
If you look at it statistically Castillo is the best option. Castillo has the highest VORP of the three options at second. Castillo has a 7.2 VORP, Easley has a negative .6 VORP, and Argenis has a negative 1.5. Castillo is the best option right now.
santana wanted to play with his buddy santana? if you’re gonna be such a condescending d-bag then at least proofread your posts. is that clear? or do i need to spell it out with a crayon for you?
besides it is a well known fact that though he preferred the mets he was willing to go just about anywhere. and he was going to veto any trade that didn’t come with an extension thereby negating any chance of him leaving the next year for the mets.
So … praying to doll helped?
One Should take into consideration that when they made his contract up the team was fearful that that needed a 2nd basemen real bad.
And Castillo already had some deals that offered him many years with very good paychecks included in those deals. And that was the only reason why Omar felt that he had to make a move to cover 2nd base, so he singed him up.
Things changed during the season but remember that the Mets had no one at that point in time that could do it.
No way would Omar have done it if he had another logical alternative.
We’re talking about Castillo, so he’s actually a *limping* reminder. :)
again…you people never learn…it happened with delgado….everybody wanted delgado out ….now look….he is the clean up hitter we needed….i’m telling you….in a few days we’re gonna be reading that castillo is the best 2nd baseman
Delgado’s resurgence is hardly a basis for an “I told you so.” Anybody who claims to have known it was coming is full of it. And anybody who “predicted” it while he was struggling for a year and a half did so based on nothing, and simply got lucky.
To expect Castillo to be second baseman/#2 hitter extraordinaire is flat out silly. To expect him to be better than Easley or Argenis is not silly, but expecting much more is. And to change things up when they have been going so well, for such minimal improvement, isn’t worth the risk, in my opinion.
oh wow. a ton of people knew delgado was still recovering from an injured wrist and was getting unlucky with his balls in play average. just because you don’t understand these things doesn’t mean other people don’t.
Before you anoint him as the savior let’s give him a few more tries.
I like what I see so far from Ayala but he is what he is.
johan said he didn’t want to come out of the game before roy…man i love this guy…
Roy Oswalt retired 20 straight batters…Santana had only a single 1-2-3 inning…and Santana still beat Oswalt. That’s pretty impressive.
nice job by Johan going out there in the 7th inning and continued putting up zeros. the mets lineup again did nothing after the Schneider homerun. good to see Church back in RF. LET’S GO METS!!!
hope the Maine Event shows up tomorrow and put up at least 7 innings of good pitching.
Ayala = CLOSER!
Mike –
Probably depends on the pitcher… I believe Gagne was in a similar situation last year (Rangers to Red Sox) and completely bombed.
Certainly seems like Ayala is a competitor though, who is glad to be on a winning team for the first time in his career.
BREAKING NEWS!!!!!! BARACK OBAMA HAS NAMED GIUSEPPE FRANCO AS HIS RUNNING MATE ITS ALL OVER THE WEB
look, he doesn’t own the white house…in fact he doesn’t own anything about it…all he knows is that he’s the best candidate for the vice presidency out there…so quit hiding under your average old white man and vote for guisseppe franco!
lol
I’m sure for every Alejandro Pena, there’s a Mike Bordick.
looking at ayala’s peripherals, there are 2 big things going on with his numbers. 1 is that he is walking a lot more people. 2 is that his LOB% is really really unsustainably bad. In so far as his HR rate, LD%, etc., he’s largely the same dude. If his LOB% normalizes and he gets a little more stingy with his walks, he isn’t far away from being a good reliever.
Just look at his stuff. His velocity looks fine and so does his movement.
IF we get this type of production from Ayala and IF we get something close to this from Reyes when he is ready Omar might get executive of the year!
eh, they’ll never give it to a big market team. I think someone like FLA or TB will get it.
Omar “Executive of the Year”? Wow. How quickly Omar has gone from sour to sweet.
He’s had a few breaks go the wrong way in the last year or two. Maybe it’s just his turn to have things work out, who knows?
Backe has given up 11 ER in 2 of his last 3 outings. Let’s send this guy to the showers by the 4th inning.
Agreed. You hit him hard early on knock him out early, and it kills the bullpen for the next couple of games (the next 2 of which are against us) as well. We’ve seen this shred up our bullpen a million times when Glavine or someone else gets lit up in the first couple of innings, lets do it to someone else.
well, with Glavine, at least he waited till the last game of the season to get shred up early, so it wouldn’t matter how used up the bullpen got, since he cost the team a playoff spot.
He actually waited until his last 3 starts to be awful. The last of which was the worst obviously.
yea, you’re right, I guess I’ve just eliminated everything in between his first and last starts as a Met from my memory (unfortunately, I had the displeasure of being at both).
Just as long as you don’t say the losses were “devastating”–that word should not be used for baseball games, you know!
The Mets are 20 games from Marlon’s goal with 33 games to play…
I feel proud to be a Mets fan :)
Santana is everything we hoped!
LETS GO METS!
I really hope the Dbacks win tonight. Not just to push the Marlins further back in the NL East, but it will also provide the Dodgers with some motivation to win tomorrow in Philly.
Wow, Johnson struck out 13 in 7 innings tonight…
and gets the ND b/c his bullpen sucks. See, it’s not just us!
news…..from Adam Rubin
Orlando Hernandez has opted for surgery on his right big toe, which would seem to signal the end of his career. That’s the toe that has the bunion. El Duque has resisted surgery on that toe because he once indicated the rehab time could be more than one season.
Matt Wise (shoulder) similarly has ended hopes of coming back this season. He’s left the team’s complex in Florida for his home in Arizona.
With Mike Pelfrey’s innings count already higher than any other professional season, the Mets intend to give Stokes a spot start on Aug. 31 against the Marlins. Pelfrey may get an inning or two in the bullpen to stay sharp, but he should get the equivalent of nearly a full turn in the rotation off. Pedro Martinez and Santana also will benefit with a week between starts.
Wow, I forgot all about Matt Wise. I like that pick-up during the off season, but damn. Hopefully, Matt comes back healthy next year to be apart of our new revamped super duper bullpen.
marlins are winning 5-4 bottom 8
what the hell….Rauch…
c’mon Dbacks…rally!!!!
Nearly 14 feet of pitchers between the two of ‘em (Johnson and Rauch), and they can’t get the job done! :)
Whaddya think?
Seems these ex-Nationals are working pretty nicely as NY Mets!!!
We sure miss you Lastings…NOT!
wow, here’s some shocking news…
After the game, the Mets said RHP Orlando Hernandez, who had been out since having foot surgery Oct. 18, will have an operation on his big toe in the next day or two, effectively ending his attempt to come back this season.
but we need a 5th starter because pelfrey sucks!!! =]
damn. i want jorge julio back.
Johan Santana, in the league, is now:
2nd in ERA (2.64)
1st in innings pitched (184)
6th in strikeouts (153)
5th in WHIP (1.14)
9th in wins (12, tied with Mike Pelfrey)
Ace.
Phils are 2 games back. We don’t do 1/2 games here at Metsblog.
If Santana ends up with a 16 wins and is 1st in ERA…and 2nd or 3rd in Ks, do you all think he might have a shot at a Cy Young?
What if the DBacks dont make it to the playoffs (Webb)?
If he pitches in his final 6-7 starts the way he has in the last three, he will get himself into the discussion, but unfortunately, thanks to the bullpen, the Cy Young ship has probably already sailed for Santana in ‘08. 18 W’s and a sub 2.50 ERA are the best case scenario for him, but at this point, playoffs or not, the award is Webb’s if he can win a couple more games and keep the ERA under three.
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