Daily Archives: May 25, 2009
The Mets defeated the Nationals by the score of 5 to 2 tonight.
For a full recap and boxscore, go here.
The Least You Should Know:
- John Maine pitched six innings, gave up four hits, walked three and struck out four, and shrugged his shoulders and shook his head in frustration and disappointment at the conclusion of every inning – he allowed just one run.
- In the sixth, Gary Sheffield crushed an inside fastball for a home run to left field, however, again, for the second day in a row, it had to be reviewed by the umpires because a fan reached over and touched the ball in flight.
Other Moments and Observations:
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Carlos Beltran was thrown out by a mile at the plate to end the first inning, with his bad knee I am not sure why Razor Shines sent him.
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Maine did a nice job sticking with what was working for him, not adjusting for the sake of adjusting. He also looked super annoyed with being pulled from the game in the dugout at the end of the sixth inning. He’s looking better. His slider is strong, and setting up his fastball well, which is getting him swings and misses like 2007.
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In the third inning, Angel Pagan broke for second, with two outs and an 0–2 count, allowing him to advance to third on a ground ball to right field from Luis Castillo, helped by the absence of the second baseman who ran to cover second.
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Pagan later scored with ease on a single to left field by Carlos Beltran.
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Following a sensational appearance in Boston, Bobby Parnell took on four Nationals hitters, walked three, allowed one hit, and walked in a run – Pedro Feliciano and J.J. Putz took over to end the inning with a pop out and ground out.
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Putz has seemingly lost all command of his fastball, throwing 13 balls compared to 16 strikes. However, he’s using his secondary pitches well enough to get by.
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The bullpen walked six batters tonight, yet the Nationals left seven runners on base in the final three innings.
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Francisco Rodriguez returned to action, and though he looked a bit rusty, he’s 13 for 13 in save opportunities with a 0.83 ERA.
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This is a big win, a) because the team is quite injured, and b) this easily could have been a let-down game, coming off the long, dramatic, exhausting, 10–game road trip against upper-level competition.
The Game Ball:
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Tonight’s game ball goes to Sheffield, who is now batting .405 with three home runs and nine RBI since Carlos Delgado was put on the disabled list.
The Mets remain in Citi Field tomorrow to face the Nationals, with Livan Hernandez facing Craig Stammen at 7:10 pm.
Tonight’s Game:
- The Mets (23-20) begin a three-game series against the Nationals (13-30) tonight at Citi Field at 7:10 p.m.
On The Mound:
- RHP John Maine (3-3, 4.53 ERA) starts for the Mets.
- LHP John Lannan (2-3, 3.63 ERA) takes the hill for the Nationals.
The Lineup:
- Angel Pagan, RF
- Luis Castillo, 2B
- Carlos Beltran, CF
- Gary Sheffield, LF
- David Wright, 3B
- Fernando Tatis, 1B
- Omir Santos, C
- Ramon Martinez, SS
- John Maine, P
Tonight’s Broadcast:
- Tonight’s broadcast can be seen locally on SNY and heard on WFAN.
Ramon Martinez will start at shortstop tonight, again, in place of Jose Reyes, who has missed seven of the last 10 games with tendinitis in his right calf.
Carlos Beltran, who had been bothered by his right knee, will return to playing center field.
However, Angel Pagan will start in right field, in place of Ryan Church, who was pulled from the game over the weekend due to a sore right hamstring.
…from what i can gather, the Mets do not plan to put church or reyes on the disabled list, at least not today…
…in other words, manuel has Daniel Murphy, Jeremy Reed and Ramon Castro, the back-up catcher, on available to him on the bench tonight… or, as Kevin Burkhardt said on Twitter, “Tonight has a Livan Hernandez pinch hitting appearance written all over it.’…
Tagged News |
The first weekend of Interleague play saw the Phillies travel up I-95 to the Bronx and take 2 of 3 from the host Yankees.
Raul Ibanez stole the spotlight once again for Philadelphia with home runs on Friday and Saturday.
Brad Lidge did his best to give the Yankees an opportunity to win the series by blowing saves on Saturday and Sunday. Luckily for the Phillies, catcher Carlos Ruiz redeemed the closer Sunday afternoon by going 3-for-4 and driving in the winning run in the 11th inning for a 4-3 Philadelphia win.
The Phils return to Citizens Bank Park on Monday to host the Marlins for 3 games.
At Turner Field, the Braves pitching staff allowed just 5 runs over 3 days to lead Atlanta to a 3 game sweep of the AL East Toronto Blue Jays.
On Friday, it was Kenshin Kawakami who pitched 8 shutout innings. Derek Lowe gave up just 2 runs in 7 1/3 innings on Saturday. And on Sunday, Jair Jurrjens tossed another quality start for the Braves.
Brian McCann seems to be adjusting well to his new glasses, going 6-for-10 in the series. The young backstop also belted 2 home runs and drove in 4 on Sunday.
The Braves begin a west coast trip in San Francisco on Monday tied for 2nd place and just 1.5 games out of first place.
In the Battle of the Beltways down in Washington D.C., it took a 7th inning grand slam by Adam Dunn on Sunday to prevent the Nationals from being swept this weekend by the lowly Baltimore Orioles.
After scoring just 2 runs on Friday and one run on Saturday, Washington plated 8 on Sunday thanks to 2 home runs and 6 RBI from Dunn.
Manny Acta’s club visits Citi Field tomorrow to begin a 3 game series with the Mets.
Down in Miami, after dropping the first two games by a combined score of 25-5, the Marlins managed to salvage the finale of their series by defeating the Rays, 5-4 in 11 innings on Sunday.
Florida pitchers threw 225 pitches on Friday, 200 on Saturday, and 188 on Sunday.
…There’s no telling what the Marlins pitching staff will look like when they come to New York next weekend after traveling through Philly first!
The 225 pitches thrown on Friday is the 40th most in a 9 inning game since 1988.
In other news…Atlanta’s Chipper Jones and Yunel Escobar didn’t start on Sunday and are listed as day-to-day with toe and hip injuries respectively.
And finally, the Marlins optioned struggling starter Ricky Nolasco to AAA over the weekend.
For more news, notes, analysis and statistics from around Major League Baseball, be sure to visit Baseball Daily Digest.
Tagged MetsBlog, News |The Mets ended a 10–game road trip 5–5 yesterday, that sent them to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Boston.
On May 14, 50 percent of 4,200 people on MetsBlog said the expected the Mets would go 5–5 on the recently-concluded 10–game road trip, which is exactly what happened, while 33 percent said they would go 7–3.
Jerry Manuel, as quoted by Adam Rubin in the Daily News:
“Before the trip, going west, and playing three teams that were very good at home, to say that we could get out of it at .500, we probably would have taken it… But the way we started out, and the closeness of the games that we played in Los Angeles, we feel that we probably could have done better. But that’s water under the bridge now.”
Rubin also provides other news, notes and quotes from yesterday’s loss.
The Mets return home to Citi Field today to face the Nationals for 
three games, followed by three games at home against the Marlins, after which they travel to Pittsburgh to face the Pirates, then face the Nationals in Washington DC.
…ending 5–5 on that road trip is actually a positive, when i think about all of things that happened, from errors to injuries to travel to the competition… that said, i expect the Mets to press on and dominate the Nationals and Pirates, like they did in April and May… they have struggled against the Marlins this season… but, it’s this sort of trip that proved to come back and bite them in September the last two seasons… come on guys, don’t let up…
[poll id="258"]
Tagged Poll |During Saturday’s broadcast on FOX, FoxSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal was said he is certain the Phillies will aggressively seek front-end starting pitcher, such as Jake Peavy or Roy Oswalt.
In a report for Newsday, Ken Davidoff looks at the Mets needs and writes, “So must the Mets.”
According to Davidoff, Peavy is not likely to accept a deal to the Mets or Phillies, which is why believes the Mets must go after rehabilitating free agent Ben Sheets, “and also discuss Erik Bedard with the 
…the thing is, while i believe the Mets need another dominant starting pitcher more than anything else, they also need a full-time, experienced, multi-purpose, back-up infielder, and a power bat, and they probably only have enough prospects to get one, maybe two, of the three… and, at what point should Omar Minaya trade young talent for the sake of patching short-term holes, while not waiting so long he ruins the major-league season for the sake of the farm system… tough balancing act…
Shannon of Mets Police explains why the 2009 Mets are similar to the 1987 Mets.
In a post to NY Baseball Digest, Mike Silva relays a phone call from a listener to Mike Francesa, which may have been the most intelligent, interesting call of the day, which, naturally, the host dismissed and and hung up on.
Omir Santos is hitting .270, Ramon Castro is hitting .253, and Brian Schneider is getting close to returning from the disabled list, so Sam Page of Amazin’ Avenue is Asking the Catcher Question.
Lastly, Caryn Rose of Mets Grrl posts some excellent photographs from her weekend in Boston’s Fenway Park.
Well, yesterday, I had the comment section working for roughly one hour, then it became glitchy again.
I think part of the problem may be there is 520,000 comments in the archives of MetsBlog.com, which is a lot.
So, it’s back to the drawing board.
However, please note, once I have fixed what needs fixing, 99 percent of you will likely still be able to post comments, and 100 percent of you will be able to see them.
Obviously, I have not had a ton of time to dedicate to this, being that it is Memorial Day weekend.
However, it will become my top priority starting tomorrow – thanks for understanding.
