The Mets beat the Dodgers, 5-4, tonight at Citi Field.
For a complete recap, box score and stats, click here.
The Least You Should Know:
- The story tonight was the return of Oliver Perez. An admittedly “really nervous” Perez was decent tonight, and did all I could realistically ask for his first time out. Although he had seven walks and was quite wild, his slider had a lot of break on it, and Perez was able to work his way out of a few jams, specifically after walking the bases loaded with two outs in the third inning. He went five, had two strikeouts, and allowed two to score on five hits.
- With the game tied at one in the third, Daniel Murphy, who scorched two doubles tonight, scored on a seeing-eye single by David Wright to left. Wright later scored on a Casey Blake error, and Jeremy Reed then drove Gary Sheffield in to make it a 4-1 ballgame. Sheffield’s failure to slide made it a much closer play than it needed to be. Get dirty Sheff, that may have been costly.
- Daniel Murphy made one of the most unbelievable plays I have ever seen. Mark Loretta nailed a line drive off the first base bag, which launched the ball high into the air. Murphy tracked it down, barehanded it, and slung it behind his back to Bobby Parnell to record the out at first. Luck of the Irish.
- In the eighth, Ryan Church made a sliding attempt at a liner off of Matt Kemp’s bat, but missed it, earning Kemp a triple. He would eventually score to make it 5-3.
- K-Rod came in and immediately gave up a home run to Manny Ramirez. He then walked Casey Blake on four pitches, and gave up a base hit to Russell Martin. He finally forced a game ending double play to earn the save.
Other Observations and Notes:
- Phew. With everyone in the division that matters winning today, and having the lead all night, this was a must win.
- It was very nice to see someone, anyone return from the disabled list, even if it was Oliver Perez, who has been a source of frustration in the past.
- The game moved at a Trachselesque pace.
- Home plate umpire, Wally Bell’s strike zone was a bit askew. Ask Gary Sheffield and Nick Evans.
- I erased anything in my post that may have jinxed them during that last inning. Yes, I’m superstitious.
The Game Ball:
- Tentatively goes to Oliver Perez. It couldn’t have been easy to go out there tonight with the burden of an inflated contract, and fan expectations weighing down on him, but his serviceable outing has allowed me to sigh a shallow breath of relief, for now.
Livan Hernandez squares off against Randy Wolf in the rubber game tomorrow night at 7:10 p.m.
{ 32 comments }
Good win and an important one too because tomorrow we will probably lose 4-1 or 6 -1. We needed this win.
OK, we won, lets not get all excited over it. Even the NATS win games. This is one win after we lost 4 in a row. Can they sustain this level of play? I doubt it, lets not read into this too much, lets just enjoy the feeling of a win and move on. Today’s game everything will be back to normal, and, we will blow it. LETS GO METS !!!
Why even make a post like this? No one thinks we are world series bound from this win.
Enjoy it for what it is and look forward to tonight and hope Livan can keep it rolling.
Wow. Regis, I wish you were one of my professors in college.
If that performance today is decent and/or gameball-worthy, I don’t know what to say.
Yeah, that is grading on a serious curve. 108 pithches in 5 innings. More balls than strikes, 2 runs, only 2 K’s and 7 walks. He was one hit away from a line that was 4 or 5 runs in 3 or 4 innings.
Yes, for 12 million a year we should be getting a much better performance. I’m no Omar basher but that contract is looking really stupid now.
wow i miss the 7th til 9th innings and i miss a crazy play by murphy…a rare missed slide by church…and krod almost blowing it…well i didnt miss much, not annoyed that i missed the ending….
you saved yourself an ulcer in the ninth
I did too, MLB.com had a meltdown and I lost the feed.
I wonder if they’ll give me a credit?
They should give every mlb.com watching Met fan the rest of the season free! lol
So do we now sign BJ Ryan or what? lol Corner the market!
Sign and package in a trade.
Depends on why he was released?
Released because he has stunk it up and is nowhere near worth the money he earns
Solid win. Maybe getting the Metsblog game ball will give Ollie some confidence for his next start.
Yes he’s been maddening, and we probably should have tried harder to sign D. Lowe, but cut Ollie a break tonight. If that was Pelf or Livan, people would be saying “He didn’t have his best stuff tonight, but he kept us in it and gave us a chance to win.” That’s what Ollie did.
How does Frankie throw another fastball to Manny? I love his guts, but that was unbelievable. My heart rate was definitely elevated.
Sick play by the Irish kid and I like Reed whenever he’s in there. He’s like David Newhan, but good.
2 run lead. If it was tied or a one run game I doubt Manny sees a fastball for a strike at least.
I love Ollie and think he can come around, but to say he was decent is ridiculous. If the Mets were playing their typical offense and it was 1-0 in the 4th, and the ball hit SHARPLY to Wright got under his glove, it would be 3-0 with 1st and 2nd and 1 out and over 90 pitches for Ollie and he probably would have been pulled. So we’re talking a final line of 3 1/3 innings and 3 or 4er and SEVEN walks, everyone would be ALL OVER him, and the only thing he did differently was watch his team score runs early and watch Wright make a nice play behind him.
I know he was nervous, and he was gritty for sure, which was better than a fulkl-out meltdown where he gives up and walks the next two runs home, but seven walks — and the manner in which he did them, unable to find the zone at times — was bad Ollie luckily getting by more than decent Ollie.
I think Ryan would be a good gamble, especially as a situational-type lefty.
Ollie doesn’t start again til after the break. That’s gonna be a long layoff.
We are already going to have 3 closers in the pen when Wags and Putz get back, I think signing yet another closer wouldn’t be in the teams best interest given are many glaring holes currently.
should read given the many glaring holes.
But wouldn’t Ryan be at the MLB minimum?
I think Ryan is a good gamble too. I don’t think it’d be realistic to ask much out of him though. He might want to go to a team that gives him more of a chance to close. Maybe Tampa Bay with injuries always an issue with Percival. Or St. Louis after trading Perez. I’m not sure why he’d want to come here, but Danny Graves after being an All-Star like a year before that knowing he wouldn’t be the closer.
Well Franklin has been great in St. Louis – naturally, whatever move that franchise makes seems to work – but Tampa is an option and there are probably some more contenders with closer issues I’m not thinking of. Florida also comes to mind.
I’m happy we got an adequate performance out of Ollie. It’s important that this raises his confidence. Now he knows he can win. You can’t blame him for accepting that contract. However, you can blame Omar and should. Just like with Castillo. And being reminded of Castillo’s contract ALL 2008! I don’t understand why he couldn’t have just given Ollie 1 year/12 million. Same wage. Less risk involved. No competition. If he says no, the best he does elsewhere is the Braves at like half the money. Than we could have signed Wolf for that money and lived happily ever after.
Instead we’ll be reminded of how much of a Met killer Randy Wolf is. Too bad for us, huh? They have to get out on him early if they got a shot. Livan also has to keep us in the game. When it comes to Ollie and Livan, all I can expect is that they’re solid 4/5 guys. That’s really all they are. Livan’s been more than that, but is coming back to life. It’s been a struggle just for Perez to be that. With Nieve instead of Maine in the rotation and Pelf as the #2, I’d say we have a mediocre rotation at best even with Santana.
7 walks is not adequate to me. Truth is Ollie stunk last night and was lucky to get the W.
Dave27 – I don’t know if they’re allowed or how it works in the rules, but it’d actually be a good idea for Ollie to pitch in Buffalo or some minor league affiliate in his next time due. That’d be Monday. Johan throws Saturday meaning that he could start Thursday right after the break on normal rest if that’s preferred. I don’t think the All-Star team would expect him to throw more than an inning on two days of rest. They could let Ollie throw that or a simulated game Monday to keep his arm in shape, than follow Santana up with Pelfrey on Friday and go back to Ollie Sunday.
Livan and Nieve would be the guy’s getting long lay offs of like 9 days, but it’d be better for them to get it than Ollie. It might do Livan good too.
Tuesday is Johan’s throw day, so it should have no impact on him if he pitches in the AS Game.
Ollie can and probably will pitch a simulated game in between…he can’t pitch in the minors unless it is rehab, and his rehab is over. I agree with starting Johan right out of the chute – you want him to get as many starts as possible, period.
Coming out of the break I’d go with Johan, Livan, Ollie, Pelfrey in that order, based on how the rotation breaks and keeping a left-right balance.
I dunno if this team has the luxury of choosing L,R,L, R Pitchers. At this point I gotta believe you have to keep the pitchers who give you the best chance to win bunched together in the the hopes of building some sort of streak. So I would say that you would have to throw Pelf before Livan. That said, it was good to see someone come of the DL rather than go on for the Mets! Hopefully that’s a continueing trend.
Ollie always does well after BP sessions. Leave him here with Wharthen.
Guys, for all my defeatist comments, I always keep a moniker of hope, because I know my Mets are the Miracle Mets.
No doubt we got a little grace from above last night.
First, Ollie tight-roped through his 5 innings. There is no other way to describe it than that. He was so close to getting bombed out of the game in more than one inning. He did not, but the fact that he did not does not mean he did well. I categorize his escaping somewhat of a mircable.
Second, the true miracle of the game was the Murphy to Parnel play. This will not be matched this year. It is similar to the Wright catch of a couple of years ago.
We need stuff like above to win by a run.
I am not warm and fuzzy, but appreciate the win.
It was fun to watch a crisp win, for a change. I gave up after the first inning and was not expecting much, but, they surprised me. If we had lost it would have hury because all on the NL East teams won, so now, we just keep pace. LETS GO METS !!!
Daniel Murphy earned a lot of respect last night. How many players would have given up on that ball and ceded the hit. How you cannot give him the game ball is almost Jerry-esque. It would be funny, yet typical, If Murphy sat today.
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