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The Mets (78–61) defeated the Brewers (80–58) by the score of 6 to 5 in 10 innings tonight.
For a recap, boxscore, stats, etc., go to SNY.tv.
Jon Niese let up a lead-off home run to start the game. He labored through much of the next few innings, looking like he was aiming the ball, during which he let five runs to score, while squandering an early 5–1 Mets lead. It was not the rock-star debut some people were hoping for. Fear not, though, the talent is clearly there.
The Mets used six pitchers in relief of Niese, none of which were charged with a run, including Brian Stokes who pitched two scoreless innings and continues to look strong.
Actually, my cell phone rang in the ninth inning. I thought it might be Jerry Manuel asking me to warm up, but it wasn’t.
Nick Evans made two more awkward catches in left field, one of which even he looked surprised to find in his glove.
David Wright made two sensational picks in the field, though he continues to look totally unsure of himself at the plate. He is batting .114 in his last seven games.
Carlos Beltran hit a three-run home run from the right-side of the plate, and is now batting .277 with 96 RBI.
In the 10th, with the game tied, Daniel Murphy led off the inning with a single up the middle, which was followed by a bunt from Jose Reyes, which, thanks to a throwing error, ended up pushing Murphy to third. Murphy later scored the go-ahead run on a sac-fly from Endy Chavez, who has 12 RBI on the season.
By the way, Manuel let Evans hit earlier in the game, in a spot that would have been perfect for Murphy, who was then able to pinch hit later in the game.
Luis Ayala, who did not look healthy on the mound, picked up his fifth save, as he is seemingly the team’s ‘closer.’
Ayala gave up a pinch-hit double with two outs in the ninth, which, for a moment, looked like it might end up a home run. Thankfully, it died on the line. Rickie Weeks ripped a ball down towards third base, but it slipped foul just inches before the bag – had it been fair, since Wright was not playing the line, it would have scored the tying run. Ayala, clearly in pain, then struck out Weeks to end the game.
The Mets conclude their three-game series with the Brewers tomorrow afternoon in Milwaukee, starting at 2 pm, with Oliver Perez (9-7, 3.90 ERA) taking on Dave Bush (9-9, 4.12 ERA).
Props to the BP. I’m just loving it – after I got my heart started again.
Great Win !
lmao! I swear this team is conspiring to kill me with innings like that one lol
had ‘em all the way! LOL!!
Are we due for a BP Meltdown now that we have 2 great games from them? Please tell me no
Well, you truly can’t win them all..
But the pressure is heavily on the PHillies right now. They cannot come to Shea in anything but second place, and the Mets will have a chance to really do some damage.
you are worthless!!!
MLS, why jinx?
HUGE win
one day at a time, just have to keep winning ball games
Nice win, another good job by the bullpen. I see Stokes has taken over the role that Heilman used to have; I hope Manuel doesn’t use him too much and burn him out.
nice win
Very nice
This team has a ton of character.
The Phightin’ Whos?
Please.
tons of character..but alas no heart
So great to see such resiliency against a top-tier team such as the Brewers. Bodes well for our playoff push this month. Just can’t get complacent against teams such as the Braves and Nats. Gotta battle ‘em all equally!
amazing!!!!!!
I really think its our year
whoooooooooaa now
haha
Ladies and gentlemen, this was a game won with defense, hustle, and (bullpen) balls. Makes me proud to be a Mets fan.
Heart and fight? On MY New York Mets?
It’s more likely than you think.
its actually very comical that the key to maximizing this pen is to treat everyone like situational guys except stokes and ayala. its insane! hahahaha
It’s exciting and fun to watch, especially when the Mets win. Jerry is trying to use his players to their best advantage. The bullpen has more than its share of situational pitchers. The pitchers get a lot of appearances but pitch less innings than their appearances would suggest.
The nicest thing would be to sweep tomorrow, we could close the gap to 2 games in the loss column w/ the Brew Crew for the wild card.
Irrelevant.
whoaaaa now. nothing wrong with some insurance :)
Brewers are better than the Phillies. They’re going to have a better record than them. There will be no wild card in the East.
whoaaaa now. nothing wrong with varied replies to other people’s comments. :)
but seriously, yeah. Why not have a Plan B?
Though I have to say, after these first two games, I’d much rather face the Brewers than the Cubs, who seem to be in a league of their own in the NL
Exactly. I’ll take the post season anyway I can get it. Especially w/ 8 games against Mil, Cubs & Phils and 8 against Fla & Atlanta
Man.. I know this is hindsight, but if the Mets won those two close games against Phillies and Marlins, they would be looking at 7-0 in this road trip. But 6-2 (including tomorrow’s win) against Phillies, Brew, and Marlins on the road is not bad at all.
Just turn around and keep walking you stiff….
No, it doesn’t work that way. Maybe the reason the Mets played so well were because of those 2 devastating losses. Maybe that gave them extra inspiration. If they would have won those games, maybe they would have got complacent and lost the next few. That hindsight game doesn’t work.
Hope they dont over use Ayala
or Stokes..but if it can be done, it looks like Manuel will do it. They just gotta last two more months.
In 2001 Bob Brenly had a winning % of .568, highest for a first year manager (minimum 50 games) in the NL in over 10 years. Ken Macha was at .593 in 2003, highest in AL in 20 years. The year before Brenly took over the D’Backs were a winning team, and the A’s won 103 games before Macha stepped in.
What makes Manuel’s current .623 winning % so extraordinary is that not only would it be the highest first-year winning % in the history of baseball, but he took over a team that was under .500 after it’s first 69 games, and has turned them around without the addition of any starters (tho losing his closer) and has the exact same team seemingly all playing better and more cohesive over the course of the next 69 games (43-26).
There are many parts that made this happen, from a new pitching coach, to minor roster tweaks here and there, to overall luck and coincidence… but the numbers don’t lie.
Thank goodness it worked out tonight, but I did not think that Manuel should have left Ayala in tonight. His groin was clearly bothering him and it could have really blown up in their faces, since he might have been pitching differently to compensate. Hopefully Manuel gives him at least a couple of days to rest the groin–don’t want anything *really* bad happening.
The thought of Ayala’s groin blowing up in anyone’s face just makes me go “ewwww.”
But seriously, folks… It sounded from the post game interview that Jerry did not think Ayala was having any groin problems, or at the very least, that he didn’t see that he was in the “obvious” pain that all of us (possibly prompted by Keith’s comments?) saw. I’d be curious to see what Ayala himself has to say about it.
I wouldn’t mind Mets facing Brewers in the NLDS.
As great as this series has looked so far, we still didn’t go against CC, and have yet to hit Sheets, so I wouldn’t go THAT far just yet…But it is good to see that they aren’t invincible
Don’t forget we didn’t have to face CC, I want no part of him if we make it to the playoffs. I think the Mets and phils making the playoffs would be much more interesting and again, no chance of CC. Plus i’m not really worried about the Dodgers or Dbacks coming out of the west.
Well if last season is any indication you would rather face CC in the playoffs than the regular season. ;)
Exactly.
Agreed on the CC cautions…but face it, if we make it, it will be the Brewers we face.
I am LOVING what we are seeing from the Mets, top to bottom, pitching, hitting, defense, baserunning, coaching, etc.
This is looking like a team that is ready to make a deep run in the postseason….dare I say, all the way?!?!
don’t dare it, please. Let’s just get to the playoffs first
I DARE you to dissapear….
I cannot remember being that nervous in my entire life. Oh my god. Thankfully they won and my heart rate when back to normal. Here is what I think the motto should be for the 2008 Mets:
Different Team. Different Time. Different Mets.
I like it!
Thats great
Good one. I like it.
you are the kind of NutBag that gets nervous to pee you puss….
How bout Different Team. Different Time. Different heart medication. What ya think?
Great win. Now I hope Oliver can pitch a big game and we sweep the brew crew – leave them some nice to remember us by come October – LETS GO METS!!
No one is going to remember what happend once the Mets’sees are in October you bum, all anyone should care about is Actually playing in Oct ..Just win!!!
Anyone else notice that — although the wins overshadow this — Rickie Weeks absolutely KILLS the Mets? With that 4-for-6, he’s now hitting .367 with 5 homers in 16 career games vs. the Mets. Thank god he plays in Milwaukee, not Atlanta or Florida or whatever.
Or the Phillies. Yikes.
Well, I figured the Phillies have Utley, so if they had Weeks that would probably mean something good/inevitable happened, like Utley going somewhere else for the money, which will be A+ when it happens.
anyone notice that you have 2 left feet you pencil neck!!!!
‘Scuse me?
Parvis, what creeped into your colon, man?
Jeez these “unclutch heartless losers” sure have won quite a few close and late games lately.
It’s crazy, isn’t it.
Ugh, the media’s portrayal of the Mets has been atrocious.
Even now, after the way they’ve been playing, most people are picking against the Mets in the division.
Which is absolutely ridiculous.
I know people have a right to be skeptical of us, but I don’t get how one team last season has an incredible September and the other has a once in a lifetime collapse and this somehow sets a precedent that this will ALWAYS happen every year for the rest of time.
Brian Stokes have been nothing but Solid and he’s hard throwing too.
player of the game…..Daniel Murphey
Id go with the Bullpen.
We had better have a plan B for a closer for a few games, at least. Ayala was visibly wincing on the mound tonight.
Still had big ones to get the job done, though. He certainly has the guts for it.
how bout stokes??
As long as the starters can go deep in the game and we don’t need him earlier, I’m all for it.
Al Reyes. We’ll see how he does pretty soon.
Great win. Don’t forget the excellent throw to home by Beltran to throw out JJ Hardy, and the other great throw to second by Chavez.
Is Ayala hurt? Anyone know his status?
Jerry said on post game he didn’t think Ayala’s strained groin was an issue tonight, after he put men on, for taking him out. Obviously since no one was up in the BP. I got the impression it’s not serious enough to affect his mechanics???
Looked like it was bothering his follow through tonight though – at least to me.
Good win tonight.
no $hit
srry for the hostility
Damn my girl called me at the start of the 9th and I had to watch the whole game on mute from then on, pretending all I was doing was listening to her (she hates when I sound distracted by the mets, so I was cheering and cursing mentally and through bodily gesturings, i really thought that ball was fair in the bottom of the 10th, since i couldnt hear the announcers nor the crowd). But what a great win! what a great game! Seriously, how many extraordinary games have the mets played the past few months?!?! I know we’ve had some tough ones not go our way, but still, you gotta step back from the blinding fan-hood sometimes, and just say “Wow! This is fun!”
And dare I say the bullpen was abslutely fantastic???
Break up with her.
I’m saving you future trouble.
He makes a good point – a game in extra innings, possible huge play? You got to be able to watch that, with sound, no apologies necessary.
that sux bro. My gf learned already if its a tight game dont even bother calling lol
I’d never watched an MLB game until I met my girlfriend (grew up FAR away from any market.) She brought me in. She’s an insane Mets fan, and now so am I. She also taught me how to play poker.
She’s a man, baby!
Hahaha, I’ll relay that message.
never thought they’d win this game with a rookie making his first ML start…remember the humber game last year?
i don’t want to get too excited (about playoffs) but this team has showed me an unbelievable fight and can’t wait for this weekend agains the phils.
i’d love to take tomorrow, but ollie is due for a bad game and they’ll probably rest beltran-who is absolutely hot-and the brewers will be looking to salvage a game
i want nothing less than a sweep this weekend, though
The Mets brought Niese up and used him immediately. The same was not true for Humber who except for a mop up spot here and there was basically inactive for some time. Different managerial philosophies. It’s nice to see Evans and Murphy NOT hitting in the eight hole. Great win.
Ths team has a shot at 92-93 wins…amazing when you consider that this was not even a .500 team in late June.
*Mets have the most wins in the majors since July 1st.
*Over their last 36 games the Mets have commited just FOUR errors; the least in MLB HISTORY!!!
History?
…or were the Brewers doing the official scoring for us? :)
here’s it word for word: 4 errors over a 35 game stretch [well we just extened that with our 36th game] is the fewest by any team in MLB history. That’s pretty cool.
I don’t even want to think about post-season just yet, but the Mets just refuse to lose right now. It’s the types of games that they are winning. And, this all started after blowing that 7-0 game last week.
Once again, truly resilient.
Everyone is paranoid about overuse in the bullpen, but I’m looking forward to trying out Reyes and Rincon. With Muniz and Parnell there are plenty of fresh arms…and Thursday’s an off-day.
Ayala had a lot of innings on his arm before he got here, so yeah, that is a concern. And his leg still bothers him. We can’t lose another closer at this point.
The gritty gutty New York Mets! I am probably going to have a heart attack by the time this season is over but I am loving the ride.
…I scheduled a stress test for Friday morning…pray for me.
The trip is a success no matter what happens tomorrow, but keep in mind a sweep means pulling to within 1.5 of Milwaukee…no one is thinking Wild Card right now, but that’s certainly important. Looks alot nicer than 3.5 games.
Sadly there will still be idiots saying that the team has no “killer instinct” , “chokers” and crap like that if they are down by 1 run in the 3rd inning tomorrow.
If I am the Phillies I am actually rooting for the Mets to sweep tomorrow, if the Phillies win that would leave them 3.5 out of the wild card and 2 out of first with a chance to control their own destiny against the mets in a 3 game series while leaving them option B with the wild card.
On the flip side by sweeping the Brewers – the Mets are also eating into the Brewers wild card lead, which would leave them 1.5 behind the Brewers in case the division slips away this weekend.
Either just keep winning Mets.
To add to the the phillies have 4 coming up against the Brewers – which is a win-win for us, best case scenerio one of them sweeps – I prefer the brewers
Great game here. Isn’t it nice winning? I love it. 3 game win streak. Let’s continue it. You never know. It could be 7 at the end of the week in the snap of our fingers if this team keeps grooving. Niese can’t make a start this week with the day off. We’ll only need 4 starter’s.
Now the big question is can we sweep them. It’s been hard for this team to close the door on teams. They usually only do it when they’re hot. I’m feeling good about tomorrow. Up 2 with 23 to go.
Just got home from the Nationals-Phillies game. Unfortunately, the Phils won, but I’ll be honest, they don’t scare me too much. The Nats are really pathetic (Milledge leads the team with 13 homeruns! I’m too lazy to look it up, but I feel like it’s been a looooong time since a team didn’t have a 20 HR hitter), so the Phillies winning isn’t quite as impressive as say, the Giants beating the Patriots. Phillies fans seem almost scared, like they have something to lose. I wore my Mets hat, and was in a section with mostly Phillies fans, and even though they were winning almost the whole game, none of them seemed too enthusiastic. I know it’s not a great way to judge a team, but I feel like the roles are almost reversed this year, like the Phillies are the ones who are scared and tight, while the Mets are the ones playing with heart. Maybe I’m crazy (and maybe I’m drunk), but I just have a gut feeling that the Mets are gonna pull this thing out.
Ugh…reports surfacing that Pedro is not a lock for Saturday’s start…he couldn’t get loose in his last start and is working with a personal trainer…if that doesn’t work he could be scratched.
The only thing that’s worth questioning is the idea of three lefty’s back-to-back-to back on a team that does well against them. We’ve won the first two so it’s seemed to work. Ollie will throw a good game tomorrow. He’s a big game pitcher. Ollie to beat the Brewers tomorrow, than Pedro, Johan and Pelfrey.
Ayala is throwing everything out there. I love his toughness!! The offense needs to put up huge numbers tomorrow, so Jerry can stay away from him, Stroke, and Figgy, need fresh well rested arms down the stretch.
Honestly, if Pedro doesn’t make the start it doesn’t worry me that much. As long as he’s not done for the year. The Phillies hit him hard in his last start. He hasn’t been as effective as he could be. I’d still rather see him out there over Niese. It’ll either be Pedro, Niese or Figueroa getting the start.
any news on Maine? how is he doing? any chance he would come back this season?
Yup. Ayala is tough. I don’t know how he was having such a ba season in Washington. What a turn of events. Just like Guillermo in 06′. I just hope there is no steroids this time around. I know it sounds stupid, but I’m actually more confident seeing Luis take the ball in the 9th over Billy. I’m just glad Aaron doesn’t have to get abused out there. I’m happy to see Joe Smith handling his role better. It’s taken a lot of the burden off of Feliciano and Schoenweis too. And Stokes has just been awesome.
Hopefully we do get Billy back though. If we do, our potential playoff bullpen may not look so bad after all. If we have Stokes, Smith, Schoenweis, Feliciano, Ayala, Wagner and maybe even John Maine that’s not as bad as it sounds. If not, it’d probably be Heilman. We don’t need Duaner who’s got a dead arm. We wouldn’t need Aaron who’s been roughed up. And we’d be in good shape.
I haven’t heard much about Maine. Some about Billy. If John’s coming back, they said it unlikely it’s be as a starter. He may actually be able to help the bullpen. His starts before getting hurt weren’t exactly hot either. I know El Duque’s done for the year. I haven’t heard any updates on Ambiorix Burgos. He throws hard and didn’t even have all that bad of numbers the last time he pitched with the Mets.
Stokes, Smith, Schoenweis, Feliciano, Ayala, Wagner and Maine and/or Figueroa will be much better than using guy’s such as Heilman, Duaner and Al Reyes. Even with all the guy’s being healthy I think Omar may be stubborn enough to keep Aaron and Duaner on a playoff roster even with no room.
niese…wicked deuce…
Pixie Dust. 1969, 1986 and maybe now
We just got back from the game to our hotel, and will be going to tomorrow’s finale. My boys and I are now 3 for 3 in Mets games at Miller Park. I think we just might be a good luck charm for the Mets in Milwaukee. We went to a game last August, and are taking in the entire 3 game set this week.
Great to see the bullpen hold its own, and we were thrilled not to have to see Heilman pitch Monday or today. Hope Perez pitches deep tomorrow. We’re waiting for David Wright to get some big hits, though he did single ahead of Beltran’s home run.
If anyone is going to the game, we are the 3 Chinese guys in Mets shirts and caps. We’ll be in Terrace Level 426, row 10 tomorrow.
I liked how courteous some of the Brewers fans were to us. Even though they lost, they were nice enough to acknowledge the great game.
I can’t wait see Pay-raise pitch! We hope to see more Mets fans this time, since we barely saw any Mets fans unil after the game.
Quietly, this team has put together a clutch year. Not too long ago the headlines in the NY papers were “Meet the Mess” How you like us now you phony journalists at the Post and Daily News.
I also agree that if the Mets are to face Milwaukee in the 1st round it won’t be easy regardless they won Mon and Tues night. Facing CC and Sheets in a short series will be nothing short of being against all odds.
However…CC has thrown 6 complete games since the trade and while that’s just simply sick in this day and age, Wedge started wearing CC out down the stretch last year and one hast to wonder if the Brewers know they have no shot at signing him long term are just going full throttle with him now and will be spent come playoffs. Also the Mets did ZERO against Sheets before he was taken out. I guess I just wonder what CC will show up in the playoffs…the dominant “ace” one or the tired and labored one from last years playoffs?
Yes Sheets and Sabathia are very good but so are Johan and Pelfrey. If we are lucky enough to see playoff baseball the first two games would be at Shea. Also everyone talks about our shaky bullpen but the Brewers bullpen is worse. They give the ball to Eric Gagne and Guillermo Mota in important situations. Not to mention Ned Yost may be one of the dumbest managers in baseball.
The mans name is Ned Yost, what do you expect?
Cerrone, stop with the corny jokes like “my cellphone rang and it was manuel, blah, blah, blah”. Just report the game as is. No need for the geeky outcry. Do what you do best and report the baseball stuff. You start sounding like that jacka$$ Peter Vecsey when he does his columns.
dude….
Geez buddy why the anger? The Mets won a great game and you are concerned about a joke? Lighten up pal.
Hey, I am not angry. Great Mets win of course. Enough with the bullpen jokes and it was corny. That’s all. After a great win I like to see positive comments posted. I can joke with the best of ‘em but that was lame. Sounded like a Yankee fan joke.
Let’s go Mets and remember 7+ innings of shut out work by the bullpen.
Peter Vescey is the man, what are you talking about
Some people just need something to be negative about and since the team is doing well, the next target looks to be Matt.
EHHH!! Wrong! Target is not Matt and anyone else for that matter. Just making a comment and its not a personal attack on Cerrone so take it easy people. I am a fan of the Mets whether good or bad and not negative. Don’t start making off the wall comments w/o knowing what you are talking about. You probably are a bandwagon Met Fan anyway. What, the Yanks losing too much for you?? HAHA
Let’s go Mets!!!
For some reason I picture rivertech as Mr. Pink from the Resevoir Dogs.
LMAO. Good one!
did Wright recently compete in a home run derby?
lol Touche.
It is amazing how some fans just want to be negative. I could not be happier right now with how the Mets have showed grit and toughness. But now the negative Met fans want to get on Wright calling him Arod.
Any Met fan that knocks Wright is a flat out moron. Wright has played a legit gold glove 3B this season (unlike last season), he will have 120 RBI, 100 runs scored and 30 HR’s. Wright does strike out too much and is struggling right now but what more do you guys want out of a player?
oh and by the way the is not batting 114 in his last seven games…he is batting 260 with 2 hrs, 4 rbi and 4 runs scored….as we all know he is going through a stretch where he is a bit down….but i would take that down stretch any day of the week!!!! oh and by the way he is playing gold glove d
Love Jerry sticking with Easley against the Righty.
Keep Slapstillo away from my team…….
Give Wright the day off, the series is won………………………..