In the eighth inning yesterday, with one out and Ryan Church on second, the Mets down 2–0, and the pitcher on deck, Luis Castillo chose to bunt for a base hit, instead of trying to drive in the run, but ended up grounding out, advancing Church to third.
…Daniel Murphy’s dropped pop up is getting most of the attention, but castillo’s slip up was equally bizarre…
Following the game, Jerry Manuel seemed confused by the decision, saying, “I think his mindset was, this guy is real tough, and that if 
he could get one down he could beat it out… In hindsight, though, you say, you’re swinging good, go get a big hit here.’”
…the difference, i guess, is, if murphy makes the catch then that inning is over with the game is still tied at zero… if castillo swings away, and doesn’t bunt, he may have grounded out or struck out, so we’ll never know if he was truly right or wrong choosing to bunt… but, i believe it was the wrong baseball decision either way…
Saturday morning, Castillo was hitting .100 in 10 at bats this season. He took early batting practice on Saturday afternoon, along with other teammates. Saturday night he went 4 for 4, raising his batting average 257 points in one day.
Yesterday, Castillo was 1 for 2 and is batting .375 with a .444 OBP in five games and 16 at bats this season for the Mets.
To read more about Castillo, and how Howard Johnson intends to work with him, while keeping him focused, read the Bergen Record.
i understand where luis is coming from. Im glad to know now that it wasnt a call by jerry lol. The marlins team is bad defensivly and jj was throwing a gem. Luis wanted to catcht he defense snoozing by dropping a bunt(which i think jose should have done) but he dropped it on the wrong side as he should have tried to get it to the 1b side. I thought however that castro was the key to that inning, if he was to lay a bunt down and move the runner over, castillo would ahve the opportunity to drive him in. Thats baseball though, coulda/shoulda/woulda. Castro looks awful so far btw.
You want a guy to bunt a runner over in the 8th inning when you are down by 2. For real? Thank you minaya for not making this guy your manager.
and what you want to take a chance that castillo hits a hr…good logic. Id rather take one than none my friend. In the ninth we would have been down by one with the top of the order coming up. If everything went to play as it did yesterday we would have at least tied the game….
but keep waiting on that castillo hr bro…hope he gets you your 2runs back : /
i'm with you, dirty. trying to lay down a bunt for a hit (NOT a sac) is not a bad decision. jj was throwing 96 mph bowling balls out there and like you say, the marlins are poor defensively. i think they should've done it more, cause until that 9th inning, nobody was even close to him.
I hope all of our players get a standing Ovation when they are frist introduce No Booing
i wouldnt put money on it…..unfortunatly
I think its sad if they do lets give our guys at least to the all-star break
yeah. I'd bet that Sheffield, Feliciano, O'Day and Perez all get booed
Apparently Shef was getting good ovations at the open workout the team did before the season began. I don't know about him being boo'd. Ollie on the other hand………might as well be Heilman…he is going to get an earful.
I just don't feel confident when Castillo is up to bat, I feel it's going to be an automatic out from the left side. If Luis would only give up hitting left handed he could probably just focus on being consistant with the bat and don't feel the need to hope for a basehit and then he'd feel confident in himself again. I don't believe in booing a guy that's been struggling.
Sure you would like to see him swing away and drive int he run in that situation, but giving him the benefit of the doubt maybe he wasn't seeing Johnson well (no one was obviously) and felt like he had a better chance of getting on and extending the inning by dropping a bunt. Again, not what you want to see all the time, but in the grand scheme of things, I don't think that it is fair to compare that to Murphman dropping an easy fly ball. Let's not make excuses for him cause we all like him, let's call it like we see it.
i mean your right and you cannot compair the two. Castillo's play was deliberate while im sure murph wasnt. Castillo made a call and it backfired….nobody was doing anything against jj yesterday anyway. Gotta tip your cap.
Right. I think this would obviously be something you could get on Wright or beltran for, but not so much Castillo in this instance. It certainly wasn't the reason they lost the game. I mean no gurantee that he even gets a hit if he swings away anyway.
I would have rather seen him hit away. If he can't handle an RBI opportunity, he should have been pinch hit for. Cowards way out: bunting your way on and leaving it up to someone else to drive the run in.
i dont think it was a coward way to go about it. So in another situation, you wouldnt take ball 4 and let the guy behind you drive the runs in to not be a coward. IF(and thats a big if) castillo were to get on with that bunt, it would have been 1st and 3rd with two out and the PH. Castillo can steal and you now have the tying run on 2nd. Or if the PH gets a hit you now have the tying run at 2nd and go ahead on 1st with the top of the linup. Its not cowardice imo to try and improve the odds of something happening or letting the guy behind you have the opp to drive someone in. Castillo was trying to get on…it just backfired.
it would've been 1st and 3rd with ONE out if castillo's bunt worked out.
It's basically worthless to put up average statistics until at least late April anyway.
Castillo _can_ beat out a bunt for a base hit, and he probably figured the way Johnson was throwing, force them to have to make a good play fielding. It's not a horrible decision.
Church was already in scoring position! It doesn't matter how tough the pitcher was, you have to swing the god damn bat in that situation!
Agreed
and miss……..therefore church stays at 2nd now with two out. No guarentees..ESPECIALLY the way jj was throwing that game, castillo was going to get a hit. He moved church over to where a shallow hit could have gotten church in easy, instead of a shallow hit and church has to stop at 3rd. Castillos bunt backfired but at least moved church over to where a shallow hit would get him in no problem.
Hey Matt – Why don't you stop the "bodyguarding" Murphy. We all know you have a man crush on the guy but He DROPPED A ROUTINE FLY BALL. He cost us the GAME!! I like Murphy a lot and want him to be a Met his whole carerr but in no way shape or form does Castillo deserve the blame. He did bunt which was foolish but is no where freakin close the error Murph made. So stop it. Your site is getting weaker by the day by the way as your updates are totally off. I wonder if u still watch the games.
Well, I wouldn't go as far as you go with the negative commentary about the site, but I do agree with disagreeing with Matt's take. Castillo took a risk….technically it is not the right play….but nothing was working off of Johnson yesterday – the 3b was playing back and was an inexperienced 3b at that (according to the Marlins announcers, anyway). If you get on, now you have 1st and 3rd, 1 out and a pinch hitter coming up. I have no problem with that play.
Murph….not only did he drop the ball, he broke in 2-3 steps before scampering back. This game is on Murph in the field, and the offense collectively not hitting a lick.
It was nice however to see a 2hour game……
exactly. nothing against matt's site, but do disagree with his pov here.
One thing we all forget about Castillo….the bunt is a huge part of this game. It has always been and he is good at it. I think he should have swung away but this is his game. If he lays it down properly, its 1st and 3rd with 1 out.
I still think he should have swung away. But why are we dwelling on Castillo? Murphy dropped the ball AND the other pitcher was just a little more dominant than ours today. cant win them all
I agree you have to swing the bat!! Not even a question!! Wait…. unless like someone said before, he wasnt seeing JJ well and knew the chances of getting a hit were slim to none. Then its a great team move and hats off to Castillo for doing what he feels is the best thing he could do at the time to get a win for the TEAM. Maybe he was being realistic and not trying to be a hero. Extend the inning the best way you are capable of in a given situation. With that said swing the bat Castillo lol
I think it's downright silly how much coverage Murphy's error is getting. Did no one notice the Mets got no-hit through 5? I know Josh Johnson is a fabulous pitcher (I myself said before the game I think he's the best pitcher in the division after Santana), but the Mets look lost and terrified the whole game. The looked the way they used to look when facing John Smoltz. I put that game more on the offense than the error.
I agree that they had nothing against JJ yesterday, but I think the reason the Murphman's error is getting a lot of attention is because Johan was equally spectacular, if not better. Had Murphamorphisis made that catch and these guys keep dueling to a 0-0 score through 9 and we go to the pens, I like our chances.
I agree, if the game went into extra innings tied at 0-0 than I would have liked our chances. The key to beating the marlins is working the SP pitch count and get him out of the game early. Beat up on the bullpen and have your bullpen hold them at bay. JJ pitched a great game and I'm not as upset about this game than I would have been if the Mets had a 2-0 lead and had comand of the game and the error came in the 7th inning and it cost the mets the game. The Mets were never in the game so chalk it up as a tough loss but lets put that behind us now and win tonight!
What do you really expect the Mets offense to do when you got a guy hitting 97 on the outside black all game. If anything, I think the hitters should have moved up on the plate more, but the way Johnson's slider and change were working, they wouldn't have done much in that position either. Great pitching always beats a great offense and while people are immediately jumping on the offense as the culprit for the 3-3 start, the Mets hitters are in every game, fighting until the last out. Yeah, the RISP is dreadful, but these things even out as well. The good news is, they're getting runners on, going the other way a lot, being aggressive on the bases.
Agree with you there. Though, if anything, i'd like them to get more aggressive on the bases. Reyes looks like he hasn't gotten into a good groove stealing bases. I'm not panicing yet though.
Shoulda, woulda, coulda…..
Tip your cap to JJ. He and Santana went head to head and both pitched gems. When the opposing pitcher is pitching just that good, you can't afford to make a mistake. Murphy's dropped ball did exactly that. One mistake obviously did control the outcome.
Our offense looked as weak against JJ as theirs did against Johan.
Hindsight is always 20/20. If Castillo swung away, if Johan walked the 8th batter in that situation…..As I said all big ifs.
Someone had to come out the loser on the well pitched ball game and it was us. It's gonna happen from time to time. And no, I don't think it's going to be the pattern of the season. Too small a sampling to make that determination yet.
This just shows one of the many flaws with Castillo's game. He lacks any agression whatsover. Always looking for a walk or bunt with runner in scoring position. Just on Friday he stared at strike three with a runner in scoring position. I know he lead the league in pitches per at bat last season, which in his case was a bad thing, because he often let some good fastballs go by. I think this is one of the reasons fans get on him so much. In addition to not getting results, he just lacks any agression whatsoever. Always leaving it in someone elses hands. At least thats what makes me crazy about him.
which is why if he is going to play he should be batting second. Let him move Jose over or take walks then when the bottom of the order comes up we wont have 3 guys coming up who dont drive in runs…
How will the likes of Castillo and Ollie be treated by the fans today? I dunno. Considering what Ollie has done thus far, I hope the Mets cut him some slack, for now. But that's just me.
well Castillo is batting what .375…Ollie on the other hand is just a mess…
i hope ollie gets booed today
NO CHANCE METS FANS DONT BOO SOMEONE. I REALLY HATE THAT ABOUT MET FANS….THEY CANT WAIT TO BOO SOMEONE FROM THIS TEAM.
with two outs, it is inexcusable for Castillo not to be swinging away with a runner on second base and a pinch hitter cold off the bench on deck.
it would be more understandable, but still stupid, to try to create a big inning if there was no one out.
it is ridculously poor judgment not to try to hit the duck on the pond with two outs.
I have a question, with Church on 2nd and on outs, why not have that worthless meathead Ramon Castro sacrifice him over to 3rd? even if he doesn't bunt him over, how about a little situational hitting to get the guy to third base? no vitrole for frankenstein castro?
Luis Castillo is useless he cant hit very well and he plays the laziest second base I've ever seen He always throws off his back foot, his range has decreased, and he has trouble bending over to pick up ground balls, the same thing happened last year but the excuse was he isnt in shape and his knees were injured…Whats the excuse this year?….sure Murphy's mistake cost us the game but he does more to help this team win than Castillo does so Met fans arent gonna kill him. Anyone who thinks that Castillos bunt was a smart play is foolish. First of all he showed bunt earlier i the count which took away the element of surprise. Bonafacio was already playing in so the chances of him getting a hit was slim. You have to swing the bat!!! or at least work out a walk if you cant get a hit because there was a pinch hitter up next. We saw him do it on Friday where he wasnt agressive and he did that over and over last year where he took called strikes. There was one out already so a bunt doesnt do any good. If you got a player in your lineup who has to bunt with a runner in scoring position and one out you obviously have a problem. The person who you also have to kill is Castro who didnt advance the runner with no out. Our lineup is very weak in the 7th and 8th positions and most of all with the struggles of Wright and Reyes in the clutch it makes things worse. I still feel we shouldv'e addressed the lineup but its early so Im hoping these guys will turn it around. Good news for Met fans is that if you heard yesterday's telecast Jerry Manuel had a convo with Keith and both agree that david wright is tryng to pull the ball and his swing isnt level which is what we have all been saying for a while. At least the manager knows about it so hopefully Wright continues to work at this problem and he can get back to his old form cause he looks horrible right now
The boneheaded-ness didnt start with castillo, it started with castro's AB. You pinch hit castro, have someone bunt Church over to 3rd with 1 out now. Then you pinch hit Castillo to try and get someone to at least hit a fly ball. Simple.
i'm not so sure how Castillo's slipup was equally bizarre… i'd say you see balls go through the wickets fairly often, and its not as remembered as a DROPPED fly ball. Also, Castillo's error ended up not costing the mets anything
EDIT: Apparently this didn't mean the error, but I still seem to think its not as big a deal… it was bizarre, but dropping a fly ball is worse :)
I disagree with Matt. By Castillo bunting he can do one of two things.
1) Johnson was tough and by putting Church in Scoring position by sac bunt, it gives the Mets a chance to get one run. And if Reed had gotten a hit pinch hitting, the game was 2-1 with Reyes coming up. 2) If he had gotten a hit with a sneaky bunt, that's even better with Reed coming up.
Those options are better than Castillo swinging and strikeout or double play or fly out
It's one error- i do not want to go crazy. But it was a bad error in a close game – that will kill you over time. Especially if Santana has no faith in you out there. Let's not sugercoat this-Murphy we all know has fielding issues. That said-he does not benefit from catching balls one handed. Not sure which Met coach is responsible for him and training him-i would start with you need to catch the ball with two hands.
Will not go crazy beyond this-but he needs to focus on the defense as well as his hitting.