Daily Archives: April 16, 2009
To listen to tonight’s edition of SNY.tv’s The Happy Recast, featuring live calls about tonight’s game, a minor-league recap and look at tomorrow’s match up between the Mets and Brewers, click play below:
The Happy Recast airs every weeknight at 11 pm.
Tagged SNY |The Mets (4–5) lost to the Padres, 6–5, tonight in Citi Field.
For a full recap, and boxscore, go to SNY.tv.
The least you should know:
- John Maine looked strong in the first two innings, but allowed five runs in the third, then another run in fifth.
- The Mets jumped out to a three-run lead in the first inning with a home run from Carlos Delgado, then picked up two more runs in the eighth inning on a home run from Ramon Castro, but the team went down in order in the ninth against Heath Bell, who was quite pumped to close out the save.
Other thoughts:
- Carlos Delgado hit a deep home run to right-center field, putting the ball just a few feet shy of the bridge.
- John Maine hit 94 mph on the radar gun, and cruised through the first two innings. But, at bat in the second, he goofed up a bunt, appeared rattled, walked the first batter he faced after that, pitched outside with more or less one speed, he gave up a series of hits and dribblers and allowed five, hard-working, quick runs in the fifth.
- It is nice to see David Wright steal a base, but he’s still late at the plate, and looks to be getting beat a lot.
- In the sixth, Brian Giles made a nice running grab on a looping pop up from Jose Reyes, hit towards the line, which would have been a triple had it landed, but it didn’t.
- Nice work by Ryan Church, who intentionally and successfully set down a bunt for a single in eighth, later scoring on Castro’s homer.
- Darren O’Day, Brian Stokes, Pedro Feliciano and Frankie Rodriguez each pitched clean, scoreless innings in relief.
- In eight games, the Mets bullpen has the best ERA in the NL.
- The team’s starting pitching, however, is making me worry.
- The Mets left eight men on base tonight.
- For what it’s worth, the final strike of the game, against Delgado, was high and outside and should not have been called a strike.
Livan Hernandez and the Mets take on Dave Bush and the Brewers, in the first game of a three-game series, tomorrow night in Citi Field.
According to Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus, Mike Pelfrey will miss his next start due to forearm tendinitis.
As noted earlier today on Metsblog, if Pelfrey is unable to start, the team will likely call up a pitcher from the minor leagues.
Jon Niese, Dillon Gee and Nelson Figueroa, who was pulled after two scoreless innings today in his start for Triple-A Buffalo, are likely options to start in place of Pelfrey on Sunday.
Tagged Mike Nichols, Mike Pelfrey |Tonight’s Game:
The Mets (4-4, 1-1 Home) play the rubber-game of their inaugural three-game series at Citi Field versus the Padres (6-3, 1-1 Road) tonight, starting at 7:10 p.m. EDT.
On the Mound:
- RHP John Maine (0-0, 3.60 ERA) will start for the Mets. Maine earned a no decision in his last start on April 10 versus the Marlins, allowing two runs on two hits (2 HR) and a walk, while striking out five over 5.0 IP. He has two career starts versus the Padres, but has yet to record a decision allowing seven runs over 11.2 IP. Maine’s last start versus the Padres came in August of 2007.
- RHP Jake Peavy (1-1, 3.52 ERA) will pitch for the Padres. Peavy earned the win in his last start on April 11 versus the Giants, allowing three runs on seven hits, while striking out 10 over 8.1 IP. He is 4-2 with a 3.32 ERA in nine career starts versus the Mets.
At the Plate:
- Jose Reyes, SS
- Daniel Murphy, LF
- David Wright, 3B
- Carlos Delgado, 1B
- Carlos Beltran, CF
- Ryan Church, RF
- Ramon Castro, C
- Luis Castillo, 2B
- John Maine, P
Stats:
- Carlos Beltran, who is riding a current 13-game hit streak, is 5-for-16 (.313) in his career versus Peavy.
- The Mets lead the National League with eight errors this season.
- Ryan Church leads the National League with six doubles this season. He is batting .364 in 11 career at-bats against Peavy.
- Mets relievers have retired the first batter they have faced 70% (21-for-30) of the time this season.
- Adrian Gonzalez has homered in each of the first two games of the series. He is 2-for-8 (.250) with a homerun in his career versus Maine.
- The Padres are batting .188 this season after the sixth inning, second worst the National League.
Random Thoughts:
- Despite misplacing a couple off-speed pitches, Mainer was outstanding in his last start. His fastball had life and he seemed to be pitching a bit more free and easy, trusting that his shoulder is healthy.
- I called Ollie’s quality start last night, so I’ll try to go 2-for-2 and say the Mets get to Peavy early and win the rubber-game of the series.
Tonight’s Broadcast:
- Tonight’s game will be broadcast locally on SNY and WFAN.
In-Game Chat:
- To chat live with fans during the game, go to the MetsBlog.com Bullpen, here; or voice your comments below.
Enjoy, and as always, Let’s Go Mets!
I will be live blogging this afternoon from Citi Field using my Twitter feed, which you can follow below:
To subscribe to my Twitter feed, go here.
Jon Heyman of SI.com believes free-agent RHP Pedro 
Martinez has received interest from several teams in the last 10 days.
According to Heyman, “The Dodgers and Indians would appear to be prime candidates to sign Martinez. Other possibilities include the Phillies, Brewers, Pirates, Diamondbacks and Mets.”
Heyman says Martinez remains in Santo Domingo, ‘working out every day and waiting for the right call.’
…you know, if enough starting pitchers get hurt, and teams become desperate, who knows, maybe he will get the $5 million he had been seeking… i mean, talk about timing the market…
Tagged Pedro Martinez |
Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com explains how ‘slowly but surely,’ ‘the Mets are adjusting to Citi Field.’
“The biggest thing is don’t think too much of it,” Ryan Church told Ghiroli. “As long as I go out there on a daily basis and practice… I think the more we do, the better we get.”
…SNY aired an interesting video of church working with Gary Sheffield out in right field prior to yesterday’s game… to listen to church, according to the report, he and sheffield spend a lot of time together, talking about baseball, hitting, defensive, etc., despite sheffield starting in place of church last night…
Speaking of Citi Field…
Yesterday, Fred Wilpon announced that the team plans to open a Mets museum beyond center-field, however there is no official timetable for its opening.
In a report for SNY.tv, Ted Berg peddled through Oliver Perez’s game logs to determine how often and at what times the so-called Good and Bad Ollies show up, concluding, “I’ll just suffer through the bad starts and know that they’ll eventually 
make way for good ones.”
The Brooklyn Met Fan details his afternoon hanging out with Doc Gooden, first in Times Square, then at the Mo’s Zone in Citi Field.
The New York Post was kind enough to mention the Mets winning their first-ever game in Citi Field, the night before the almighty Yankees open their new stadium, as the Sports Hernia points out.
Michael Ganci of the Daily Stach writes, “David Wright needs to cut down on the strikeouts, which is a problem that doesn’t seem to be going away.”
Wright is on pace to strike out more than 200 times this season, nearly twice as many times as last season.
Daniel Murphy is batting .294 with a .324 OBP and two extra base hits in 34 at bats this season, though he’s just 2 for his last 12.
However, last weekend, Murphy dropped a routine fly-ball that eventually resulted in a run scored.
…he has looked a little shaky on defense… not totally bad, just a bit hesitant, a but gun shy, and that is understandable… he’s doing his best to learn a new position, and it will take time…
Last night, in the fifth inning, Murphy made a weak and errant throw to Jose Reyes, who relayed the toss weakly to home, all not in time to catch a runner scoring from third.
Murphy told reporters that it was a designed play, which the team has worked on in practice; knowing full well that the opposition will try to run on him in left field.
…that’s fair, because, had either murphy or reyes mad even a decent throw the runners most likely would have been out…
Jerry Manuel, speaking about Murphy yesterday, said:
“He probably has to exhale out there; and the more that he’s out there, the more comfortable he’s going to get… I know he’s working hard… I know he’s going to try to do everything he can to become a good outfielder. But at the same time, you have to breathe out there a little bit and it doesn’t look like he was breathing too good early.”
“I’m fine,” Murphy said, according to the Star-Ledger. “I got Peavy coming. That’s what I’ll be thinking about.”
Prior to yesterday’s game, Jerry Manuel told reporters Mike Pelfrey had an MRI on Tuesday, which revealed forearm tendinitis.
Pelfrey told reporters he gets some sort of tendinitis at least two or three times per season, but said he never had it in his forearm.
According to Pelfrey, “I don’t think it’s to the point where I can’t get guys out.”
That said, Manuel and the team have not yet decided if Pelfrey will pitch this weekend, as they plan to proceed with caution.
…most reporters, commentators, etc., seem to be saying pelfrey is most likely going to miss his next start… and, if the team feels he should miss an additional start, he could easily end up on the disabled list, retro’d back, so to make room on the roster for a new, temporary pitcher… but, wisely, the team is going slow, and will probably make any such decision at the last minute, first watching him pitch in a side session in the next day or so…
In the New York Times, Josh Robinson worries me by writing:
“Forearm tendinitis is an injury that sometimes comes with ominous connotations, the result of a player’s compensating for more serious damage to his shoulder or elbow. Closer Billy Wagner’s season-ending injury last year, for instance, was originally called forearm tightness.”
According to Manuel, if Pelfrey is unable to start, the team will likely call up a pitcher from the minor leagues.
Jon Niese last pitched on Tuesday in Triple A.
Dillon Gee last pitched on Wednesday.
Tagged Mike Pelfrey | ← Older posts
