Daily Archives: May 5, 2009
John Maine pitched six innings last night, and allowed three hits and three runs while facing 26 batters, six of whom he walked, while he struck out seven.
Maine is 2–0 with a 2.25 ERA in 12 innings, during which he struck out 11 batters.
…the key, as Jerry Manuel pointed out, is that maine faced adversity in the third, but battled through, rebounded, pitched two more scoreless innings, then, when faced with runners on second and third and two outs in the sixth, he reached back for a 94 mph and ended the inning with a strike out…
“I didn’t give up on myself,” Maine said to reporters following the game.
Maine acknowledged that he is walking too many batters, then explained that he needs to ‘slow himself down,’ and not try to overthrow in an effort to gain speed on his fastball.
“I’m proud of Maine for what he did for us,” Carlos Beltran is quoted as saying of Maine. “He didn’t give up.”
In a post to Mets Today, Joe Janish writes:
“Maine was consistently high and away to lefties, the same symptom of a mechanical flaw we’ve been talking about for nearly a year. It’s stunning to me that he can continue to do the same wrong thing, every time out, and no one in the Mets organization can seem to figure it out. Did the Wilpons cut video equipment from the 2009 budget with everything else?”
…i see a lot of fans and media make this all-knowing statement, which is not to say it isn’t an accurate assumption, but it’s also very presumptuous… i mean, maybe the team has made this observation, but it’s maine who isn’t physically bringing in to the field… i’m not saying that is the case, but maybe it is… who knows… maybe Dan Warthen is aware of what janish is pointing out, maybe he relays it to maine, who, when he gets in to the game, reverts back to old habits… SNY showed video of warthen and Johan Santana working before a game with Oliver Perez on throwing his momentum towards the plate… yet, perez got in the game and never implemented it… in other words, this wasn’t the team being ignorant, and unaware, it was the team being aware and the player being stubborn or forgetful…
Last night, Carlos Beltran hit two two-run home runs.
Beltran is batting .400 in 23 games this season, during which he has reached base in every game he has played.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, courtesy of ESPN.com, Beltran and Nick Markakis are the only major-league players who have reached base in every one of their team’s games this year.
“He can be very, very dangerous,” Jerry Manuel told reporters of Beltran following last night’s game. “He’s pulled a lot of home runs in his career, but to stay through the baseball and get distance, that’s a very, very good sign for him.”
… here’s the thing about beltran, and this is not necessarily his fault, he’s forgettable… i bet he likes that, actually… but, i do admire this guy, i think he’s the best center fielder in baseball, i have always said he was a great signing, and yet, i consistently forget to mention him in post-game write ups, i left him out of my post about the team’s core last week, i rarely criticize him, but i rarely praise him… this isn’t because i am anti-beltran… not by any means… ask people who i talk baseball with, and you will know that when his name comes up i speak highly of beltran… but, for some reason, when talking about the overall team, i forget about him… i think this is actually a testament to how well-rounded of a player he is… it takes a night like last night, or a night like when he didn’t slide in to home, for me to notice him… but, in reality, he does something special at least once every game, it’s just usually something subtle, because he’s a subtle, elegant type of player, who flies under the radar at times…
Mets manager Jerry Manager talked with reporters after last night’s win over the Braves, and had the following to say about:
John Maine, who struggled early, but settled in to pitch six innings, during which he allowed three runs:
“He had good stuff tonight… I think what we saw tonight was a in-game adjustment, quicker than what he’s been doing in the past. That’s important for him going forward. He only lost it for an inning or so, and then came back and was able to throw strikes – and he wasn’t wild… I think he’s a little bit under the weather as well, I think he was battling some things physically with himself and he was able to overcome it.”
Scoring late in the game, to come from behind down 3–0 to win:
“Javier Vazquez was keeping us off balance, commanding the strike zone very well. When Daniel Murphy got the bas hit up the middle and Beltran hit the home run, I think that shook him up… We feel we have that type of offense that can overcome the deficiencies on our staff, and if we can get to the end of our bullpen we feel we have a real good shot at it.”
Fighting back late in games, as the team has done recently:
“I think Howard Johnson is doing a good job of reminding the guys to grind out the at bats. We still are giving away at bats… For the most part, part of the program has been to talk about grinding out at bats, fighting in the at bat. I thought Jose Reyes did a good job to get a walk, then stole a couple of bases… From that point of view, it looks like some things are starting to turn our way.”
Here is SNY.tv’s Post Game Extra, from last night’s win over the Braves, featuring clips of the game; quotes from Jerry Manuel and John Maine; and analysis from Keith Hernandez and Gary Cohen:
