Last night, in a loss to the Padres, John Maine looked strong in the first two innings, but allowed five runs in the third, then another run in fifth, and was pulled from the game in the fifth innings after throwing 105 pitches.
Maine, speaking to reporters, after the game, said:
“As is often the case, it was one inning. I made some good pitches but they hit them… All singles, a couple broken bats. It’s frustrating… I just couldn’t get a ball to go at somebody.”
…it’s like he and Jake Peavy changed places… peavy struggled initially, then got it together… meanwhile, maine looked great in the first two innings, then walked the lead-off hitter in the third, lost some velocity, refused to pitch inside, kept missing the target, and san diego kept putting the ball in play, which found hole after hole to bring in five runs… maine actually looked pretty good again, after that, through the next two innings…
“It is troubling, because it’s happened a number of times,” Jerry Manuel said to reporters about Maine’s command.
“He is still growing, he is still trying to become a consistent guy, trying to maintain mechanics and fundamentals throughout a game; but again, when you have that type of stuff that he had tonight and struggle like he did in that one inning, that’s kind of discouraging in a sense.”
In two starts this season for the Mets, Maine is 0–1 with a 7.20 ERA, while walking four batters and striking out nine in 10 innings, during which opponents are hitting .243 against him.
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His stuff was there, he just needs to fix his command. There is simply no excuse for issuing a 4 pitch leadoff walk to a .227 career hitting catcher.
Yes there is…………..he was hanging out with Oliver Perez.
I tell u I like John a lot but the truth of the matter is that he can be just as frustrating to watch pitch as Ollie is. I'm watching the game and thinking how great it is that the Mets are working deep counts against peavey making him throw a lot of pitches throught he first two innings , and the next thing I know Maine throws 43 pitches or whatever it was in that 3rd or 4th inning. Serenity Now!!!
Back to back Rolaids nights…
And we could have signed Derek Lowe…. There are times it pays to be cheap. This wasn't one of them. I wonder if we could throw Maine & Fmart at Toronto for Halladay?
Being cheap is one thing, but it would have taken 5 years at 75 million to get Lowe.
Once the starting pitching finds its legs this team will get on a roll. How quickly everyone forgets that we didn't get over .500 for good until July 7 last year – a full 89 gams in. Baseball is a long season with many ups and downs. We need to get a little more aggressive on the bases.
I love DWright, but it seems like hes trying to hit a homerun every at bat. He's swinging for the fences on every pitch and getting beat with the fast ball. He's striking out at an alarming rate. Has HOJO suggested that he might want to choke up on the bat alittle bit. He's got a "sluggers" mentality now, and that was never the case when he first came up. I can see he's pressing
It doesn't seem like that to me, David had a couple of good at bats last night, most of the time they try to get him to chase the outside tight slider but he only bit at that pitch once tonight in the first inning.
I might promote Castillo to leadoff, drop Reyes to 3rd, Wright to fifth, and Beltran church 6-7. I think I'd much rather have Reyes, a line drive hitter, keeping the inning moving before the big bats come up. BTW, Delgado should have a one year contract every year
The strikeouts are alarming, but i'm sure he will get it together and HoJo should be monitoring him closely,
i wonder if changing his batting stance has affected him, i noticed he is not holding the bat as high and his back arm is pulled way back like he's shooting an arrow.
I actually was looking at the comment section last night while watching the game and I would say 95% of the people commenting are ridiculous losers!! i have never seen people with less faith or people who talk so horribly about their team. People who are writing off the season 10 games in. Horrible. After Castro hit a 2 run HR Reyes I believed grounded into a DP. All the comments were that the game is over, what a joke, trade Reyes, they dont have heart, etc. We had the heart of the lineup coming up in the bottom of the ninth down by 1 at home!! Please have some faith. We actually i think look ok. Are offense may not be getting the clutch hits but we are scoring runs, bullpen looks great, maine is hitting 95 on the gun. In other words there are a ton of POSITIVES!!! Get a grip!! I dont know how you people watch the Mets and enjoy anything.
Don't let it get to you. I for one won't come anywhere near this blog during the game just for that reason. Do yourself a favor and just chill out and enjoy the game without all the noise and BS from the radio, TV, and internet.
I guess your right. I mean of course we all tend to get down and negative…heck… wea re met fans, but i did expect some optimism and not that much panic. Even 70-30 negative to positive I would be able to deal with. Im not exaggerating when i say i might have seen 2 positive post the whole game.
This team is really BAD, right now. We all have a hang-over from 2006, 2007 and 2008. Until this team can proove that they are over that hump and have truly forgotten the previous 3 seasons it will always hang over them. I am really dissappointed in the way they play and this 500 start, IF they get it going soon we will find ourselves in a deep hole looking UP at four other teams, and tha is a place we dont want to be. YES, its early, but it i getting late fast. These are all games tht we should have won and lost. It just seems like more of the same old same to me. A good team, but, not a GREAT team. We are always a brides maid and never a bride.
I agree Papdog, last year we didn't find any stretch of consistency until our rotation started to really roll, specifically Pelf and Ollie's post Peterson turnaround. We were a .500 team until we went on a roll into the all star break. I can see the same thing happening this season. Everything is magnified early in the season. You lose a great Johan start, Pelf and Maine have really one bad inning in each of their home starts and just like that you're down around .500. All of this is easily overcome.
He changed his batting stance in 2007 and he was awful in April before putting up an MVP caliber season, so like you said, he will get it together eventually.
This team is mentally fragile. No one other than Santana is clutch! Maine can't get out of his own head, and God only knows what Ollie's thinking when he's up. And the hitters, dont get me started! Its as if, once people are on base, they start looking at them rather than the ball as it flies right by them. I'm tired of people making excuses for the team with the 3rd highest payroll. It doesnt matter if its early in the season, cuz this team is even WORSE later on! What's going to happen as the injuries roll in?
Explain to me how one is clutch 9 games in to the season??? BTW, people complain that we have the third highest payrol and should be steamrolling teams, do yourself a favor and look at the teams with the 1st & 2nd payroll…they're not faring much better early on.
OK…..I'll explain.
Clutch has nothing to do with how many games into the season. Clutch is about getting the hit when the game is on the line. ANY game. The purpose is to win as many games as you can, even in April. Being clutch in September when you are 12 games out is nice, but it doesn't really mean much
I'll try to explain.
# of games played is not related with being clutch, You only need to get a hit when needed. A simple thing this team is having trouble doing. Two examples: Reyes and Wright last night.
Yes, it took us a while to get going last year…but where exactly did we end up?
disirregardles of his proclivities and exhuberance to well become relavant, I have guided him to self appreciation of his happenstance!
Gangsta
The "sluggers mentality" canard about David Wright is truly perplexing. David has seen some very good third strikes and is more selective than I recall him ever being. That's a good thing in the long run. Soon, the pitchers will start making mistakes and David will crush them.
Furthermore, Dave has hit 2 balls that would have been game-tying homers in any park in the NL besides Citi and Petco and instead turned into outs. Had the wind been blowing a different way, he would be being touted as a clutch monster and a superhero instead of the only bum in the world who is hitting .300+/.400+/.460+.
I can only imagine what ignorant vitriol I would be seeing here if he were *really* struggling.
The main word to describe Maine these last two starts is "unlucky".
5 singles in one inning is lucke, pure and simple. Yes, the leadoff walk was bad, but it should not have opened up a 5-run-inning.
Against the Marlind, Maine allowed 2 deep fly balls. They both went for HRs. He got no support allowed 2 hits, Kd 7 and walked one. If the wind blows differently, he's thinking no-hitter.
I really can't understand what's so tought to comprehend regarding the unreliability of small sample-sizes in baseball
Did Wharthen ever come out to talk to Maine during the 5 run inning?