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The Mets beat the Reds, 9-7, today at Citi Field.
For a complete recap, box score and stats, click here.
The Least You Should Know:
- The Mets tallied 16 hits against Aaron Harang and the Reds’ bullpen. Every position player in the lineup except Angel Pagan got on base at least twice.
- Mike Pelfrey was very Mike Pelfreyish. He cruised through the first four innings then struggled, balked and allowed three runs in the fifth before settling in for the sixth and seventh. He allowed only five hits and two walks on the day and yielded a lot of ground balls.
- The Mets’ bullpen, spearheaded by Sean Green let the Reds make it a game with a three-run eighth. Cincy threatened again and scored one in the ninth, but Francisco Rodriguez put out his own fire to earn the save.
Other Observations and Notes:
- Jeff Francoeur had his first two convincing hits in a Mets uniform, a line-drive single to center and a line-drive double in the gap.
- Ralph Kiner is awesome at 87. It seems like he’s now a little more boastful (rightfully) about his playing career than he was when he was broadcasting everyday, and it suits him.
- Daniel Murphy had a couple of hard hits to right field and made another excellent defensive play, leaning over a railing along the first-base line for a foul pop-up. It looked like he made a Superman pose on the rail, too.
- Gary Sheffield was supposed to have the day off but asked into the lineup and drove in three runs on two hits.
- After Brian Schneider and Fernando Tatis homered in the seventh, the home-run apple malfunctioned. The fans chanted for it for the remainder of the frame and it eventually it did its thing after the inning ended.
The Game Ball:
- Goes to Murphy. It’s too bad he’ll have to sit for a few days after a good game, but he’s probably used to it by now.
Can some one please explain this religious commitment to pitch count. Pelfrey was doing fine, 5 hit 3 runs 4K – why did Gerry pull him??
Nolan Ryan, down in Texas has told his staff to throw out the pitch count concept – and guess what, Texas is pitching well and all of a sudden they are 1/2 game game behind the Angels in the AL WEST.
The point is, the bullpen made today’s game way too exciting. We had a 7 run lead and needed our closer to shut it down – and unfortunately Frankie made it very exciting as well. There is no way, with the break this week that Pelfrey pitches before next Saturday at the earliest, so why pull him after 115 pitches. He’s still real young, let’s see what he can really do.
Perhaps it also had something to do with getting the relievers some work before they sit for 3 days?
Anyway, with a 9-3 lead in the 8th you should feel comfortable getting your starter out of there with a nice day’s work. It’s not Jerry’s fault that Green and Feliciano stunk it up.
“Game Ball – Goes to Murphy. It’s too bad he’ll have to sit for a few days after a good game, but he’s probably used to it by now.”
More smarmy commentary from the metsblog crew about Jerry’s brazen gall in not starting Murphy every game….
Smarmy? Really?
I think Ron Darling in today’s broadcast was wondering if there was a breakdown of Murphy’s stats when he plays back-to-back games as opposed to being “rested” after a game (obviously implying the former would be better).
I didn’t hear that, but was thinking the same thing today too.
Unfortunately, while I do believe the inconsistent playing time and the two new positions learned on the job have hurt his production, this particular stat makes Jerry look good.
In games Murphy has started, when he did not start the game before (but may have pinch hit or played a few innings late), he is batting .288 (19-66). He is batting .273 as a PHer (6-22), and .226 in games where he started the previous game (33-146, including game one of the season).
Sorry RJ.
Smarmy just means sarcastic, or smug…so yeah.
I mean if the story of metsblog 2008 was incessant campaigning for Val Pascucci, then in 2009 it’s righteous indignation over Danny Murphy ever being on the bench.
Listen, at this point I think he has earned the everyday 1B job – he has been as good defensively as he was bad in LF and does seem to hit when left in there. Plus Tatis is useless, tofay’s HR aside. But on this site the guy can do no wrong.
Hey now! I wouldn’t say Tatis can do know wrong! I’ve personally called for his head many times! But today is an example of what happens when he’s not worn out from playing everyday. The Bench is where he belongs period! Hopefully Jerry will continue to keep running the same lineup out there he has the last 2 days…….if it aint broke don’t fix it!
Obviously a good way to have a successful season is to win the season series against each team.
The Mets have finished up their schedule with the following teams…they are going to have to start posting better records by opponent in the second half.
Fortunately the teams they have not seen yet include the weak Astros and DBacks and streaky Rockies and Cubs. They are finished up with tougher teams like the Dodgers, Brewers, Yankees, and Red Sox, have only 2 left with the Cardinals, 4 with the Giants, and 7 with the Phillies.
Reds: 4-2
Brewers: 3-3
Pirates: 4-3
Red Sox: 2-1
Dodgers: 1-5
Yankees: 1-5
Orioles: 1-2
Rays: 1-2
realistically they are going to need 5 win weeks more than not if they are going to get close to 90 wins. Its helpful that they have some weaker teams, but they are going to have to get on the kind of roll where it doesn’t matter who they play.
50-25 would get them to 92 wins.
They can’t think of it like that though, they’ve got to take it one game at a time! From the sounds of it Jerry is going to start running out a more consistent batting order, now that F-Core is in the fold (gotta like what we’ve seen so far)and I for one couldn’t be happier! This offense has needed a consistent batting order for some time now, and I think it may do wonders for production and a more consistent offense. Of course the fans have been screaming for this for weeks now!!!! WHy did it take Jerry so long to figure it out?? lol
So we’re all going with F-Core? I’ll be honest, I liked whoever came up with Le Grande K. Maybe we can bring that out when he has big strike out bursts. And since Wright just has a more American name, we can call him The Big K.
Church strikes out as much as Francoeur, per game. It’s just that F-Core plays 162 games, so the totals are much higher than Church, who plays about 90 a year.
Besides, Le Grande K is a bit much and personally, I think saying Francoeur is easier. F-Core is KRod or ARod ish, using just his last name to make a similar nickname. And it pokes some fun at the fact that our core is injured and he was brought in to win without them. F the core.
No, I hear the reasonings. I just laughed the hardest at Le Grande K. Though I think saying Francoeur and F-Core takes the same amount of energy. It’s more for our sakes with the spelling if not anything else.
That was the best short cut the guys came up with, so we ran with it. It beats the heck out of trying to type F-Core’s last name every time.
OH FYI, BRAVES BLEW A 4 RUN LEAD AND LOST THE GAME IN THE BOTTOM OF THE 9TH! CHURCH FOR HIS PART I BELIEVE WENT 1 FOR 5 WITH AN RBI GROUNDOUT!
CHURCH .220 BA 1 GB RBI
F-CORE .444 WITH A 2 RUN SINGLE, DOUBLE………..
HMMM, …………LOOKING PRETTY GOOD SO FAR! I know I know it’s a small sample! lol
I was going to suggest “0-for-4 Francoeur” as a nickname, but he’s making me look bad so far.
lmao, lets hope that trend continues!
That’s what Gary and Ron said today, but honestly I don’t think it’s necessarily going to take 92 games to win this division.
I was at the game….We were all chanting for the apple. hahahaha
Ya know you would think in the course of planning a multibillion dollar stadium they would allow for the possibility of back to back homeruns when designing the apple! If that doesn’t symbolize the way the first half has gone I dunno what does!
I absolutely loved that moment today. Can’t say our Mets fans aren’t passionate. The pop that apple got after the inning was as if this team just hit a walk off homer.
Hey guys I was just looking at the NL east schedules for the rest of July and the next 4 games series could make things very interesting! We have the Braves for 4 while the Phils have Florida for 4 in Florida!
Another thing we don’t see the Phils again untill late August and good lord willing we should be considerably more healthy by then ( I Hope) we have 4 games then and another 4 games in Sept with the Phils. The worst of the schedule is done.Things may not be a horrible as they seem. They’re not great by any stretch, but I if we play the way we have the last couple of games and get healthy we just might have a chance who knows!
Yea……despite everything with a full strength team, we can beat the phillies. In a 3 game set, Santana, Pelfrey and Ollie can shut that team down. Lets hope by the Phllie series we somehow have back healthy and hitting..
Beltran
Reyes
Delgado
Wagner
Putz
Maine
Imagine? aaaa
By the way, why does the league give howard anything to hit? The other night where he hit the 3 run HR, why were they even pitching to him like that. I just dont get it.
Lets go Mets!
I’m with ya on that one I don’t care who’s on the mound if Howard is the tying run in the bottom of the 9th in Philly theres no way in heck I pitch too him! Unbelievable!