Note: John Lannan is Cy Young
Last night, the Mets could only manage one hit against Nationals starting pitcher John Lannan.
It’s easy to blame the bullpen, and blame Pedro Martinez, for last night’s loss, but, in reality, last night sits squarely on the offense, who made Lannan look like a Cy Young winner.
In a critical at bat in the eighth inning, with the bases loaded, one out and the Mets down by five, David Wright hit in to an inning-ending double play.
Wright is just 3 for 16 with the bases loaded, and batting .244 with runners in scoring position.
Wright, speaking to reporters following the game, said:
“We’ve just got to forget about this one. There’s no panic. We know what’s at stake. We’re in the middle of a playoff push and we’re going to have bumps in the road. This is a time when we’ve got to keep them at a minimum. We can’t allow them to carry over into the next couple of games.”
Wright better be careful, especially with his post-game comments, as, from what I can tell listening to other fans, he is walking dangerously close to being portrayed like Alex Rodriguez, i.e., a fat stat line, but no big hits.
Jerry Manuel may need to start pushing the envelope a bit more, running Jose Reyes more, using more motion, get Daniel Murphy back in the lineup, consider sitting Ryan Church, and ditch Luis Castillo, among other things.
Because this team’s hitters have got to start scoring runs, or else the bullpen will continually be put in a position to fail.
