Mets are Humiliated and Dominant By Identical 6-0 Scores
The Happy Recap: Mets take 2 of 3 from Twins and edge ever so close to First Place in the NL East.
Big bad Joe Mauer (with his tremendously annoying commercial for his video game) and the Minnesota Twins invaded Citi Field this weekend, only to see the Mets win a convincing opener 5-2, then get humiliated by someone named Carl Pavano by a 6-0 decision. But the Amazin's showed Ronnie Gardenhire (who characterized his years as a Mets infielder as "embarrassing") some real 6-0 embarrassment at the hands of Jonathan Niese who (dare I say it) is making an excellent case for being the Mets #2 starter behind Mike Pelfrey. (that's right, Pelfrey!)
THE GOOD: Mike Pelfrey, 10 game winner. I like the way that rolls out... Mike Pelfrey - 10 GAME WINNER! The Sheriff went 6 innings on Friday night and was the recipient of a David Wright dinger in Friday night's 5-2 opening Met win (and it didn't even seem that close - of course until KRod came into the game and almost blew it in the ninth, but earned the 3-run pity save instead). In addition to Wright, who also doubled, Jose Reyes went 2-for-3 and Jason Bay even drove in a run with an rbi double.
Despite being totally humiliated in Saturday's 6-0 loss (although Jeff Francoeur's still hitting accounting for 2 of the Mets 3 meager hits), the Mets and Jonathan Niese bounced back with a dominant performance of their own. Niese has been nothing short of impressive since his return from the DL and he had plenty of offensive support being him for his fifth win of the year. Jesus Feliciano continues to impress with 3 hits, as did Jeff Francoeur with his 3 hits, with David Wright recording another 3 hits in the game himself. Wright leads the league in RBI with 61 and with a few more games under his belt, he may accumulate more RBIs before the All-Star break than he had all of last year! In fact, other than an 0-for-5 day for Jose Reyes, every Mets position starter had at least one hit in the game, and the Mets bullpen was equally effective for basically the entire series (as usual).
The Mets bullpen really has been a pleasant surprise all year long. And now with a rotation of Pelfrey, Niese, Santana, Takman, and Dickey, it looks like everything's coming into place to save Jerry Manuel (a.k.a Forrest Gump) and Omar Minaya (a.k.a. Lutenit Dan) from being unceremoniously dumped by Jeffy boy (a.k.a. Paris Wilpon).
The Mets may have swept the series had it not been for another bad Johan Santana outing. What does that say when the elder Carl Pavano can pitch consecutive complete games but no Mets young starters can finish their own shutouts? We'll say it again, the pitch count stat is ridiculous and ruins more pitchers than just letting them throw can ever do.
THE BAD: Look, no one wants to admit it, but let's be honest here. Johan Santana is not the Johan of old, and may never be again. I don't want to hear the old "Santana's always been a second half pitcher". While that's true, he's always been a second half pitcher when his first half fastball topped 90 miles per hour, which it doesn't anymore and maybe never will again. Until further notice, Santana's the number 3 pitcher on this team after another clunker performance (against his old team no less). You want to tell me he settled down after allowing 4 first inning runs? Maybe... but a much more realistic scenario saw the Twins tank it for the rest of the game knowing an easy victory was assured with Carl Pavano dominating the Mets hitters. This is bad, folks, and I hope I'm wrong, but I see issues with the one-time dominating "best pitcher in baseball" that was Johan Santana.
THE UGLY: With the possible acquisition of Cliff Lee in play, many "experts" are indicating that if the Mets don't acquire the playoff proven superstar, they may resort to their backup plans of another serviceable starter. The names being mentioned are very ugly. Kevin Millwood? We already have Kevin Millwood on the team - his name is John Maine! Brett Myers? We already have Brett Myers on the team - his name is Oliver Perez. Jarrod Washburn? We already had Jarrod Washburn on the team in the form of Pedro Martinez. You get the idea - none of these has-beens will help. But Omar being the consummate General Manager already knows that, right?
Big bad Joe Mauer (with his tremendously annoying commercial for his video game) and the Minnesota Twins invaded Citi Field this weekend, only to see the Mets win a convincing opener 5-2, then get humiliated by someone named Carl Pavano by a 6-0 decision. But the Amazin's showed Ronnie Gardenhire (who characterized his years as a Mets infielder as "embarrassing") some real 6-0 embarrassment at the hands of Jonathan Niese who (dare I say it) is making an excellent case for being the Mets #2 starter behind Mike Pelfrey. (that's right, Pelfrey!)THE GOOD: Mike Pelfrey, 10 game winner. I like the way that rolls out... Mike Pelfrey - 10 GAME WINNER! The Sheriff went 6 innings on Friday night and was the recipient of a David Wright dinger in Friday night's 5-2 opening Met win (and it didn't even seem that close - of course until KRod came into the game and almost blew it in the ninth, but earned the 3-run pity save instead). In addition to Wright, who also doubled, Jose Reyes went 2-for-3 and Jason Bay even drove in a run with an rbi double.
Despite being totally humiliated in Saturday's 6-0 loss (although Jeff Francoeur's still hitting accounting for 2 of the Mets 3 meager hits), the Mets and Jonathan Niese bounced back with a dominant performance of their own. Niese has been nothing short of impressive since his return from the DL and he had plenty of offensive support being him for his fifth win of the year. Jesus Feliciano continues to impress with 3 hits, as did Jeff Francoeur with his 3 hits, with David Wright recording another 3 hits in the game himself. Wright leads the league in RBI with 61 and with a few more games under his belt, he may accumulate more RBIs before the All-Star break than he had all of last year! In fact, other than an 0-for-5 day for Jose Reyes, every Mets position starter had at least one hit in the game, and the Mets bullpen was equally effective for basically the entire series (as usual).
The Mets bullpen really has been a pleasant surprise all year long. And now with a rotation of Pelfrey, Niese, Santana, Takman, and Dickey, it looks like everything's coming into place to save Jerry Manuel (a.k.a Forrest Gump) and Omar Minaya (a.k.a. Lutenit Dan) from being unceremoniously dumped by Jeffy boy (a.k.a. Paris Wilpon).
The Mets may have swept the series had it not been for another bad Johan Santana outing. What does that say when the elder Carl Pavano can pitch consecutive complete games but no Mets young starters can finish their own shutouts? We'll say it again, the pitch count stat is ridiculous and ruins more pitchers than just letting them throw can ever do.
THE BAD: Look, no one wants to admit it, but let's be honest here. Johan Santana is not the Johan of old, and may never be again. I don't want to hear the old "Santana's always been a second half pitcher". While that's true, he's always been a second half pitcher when his first half fastball topped 90 miles per hour, which it doesn't anymore and maybe never will again. Until further notice, Santana's the number 3 pitcher on this team after another clunker performance (against his old team no less). You want to tell me he settled down after allowing 4 first inning runs? Maybe... but a much more realistic scenario saw the Twins tank it for the rest of the game knowing an easy victory was assured with Carl Pavano dominating the Mets hitters. This is bad, folks, and I hope I'm wrong, but I see issues with the one-time dominating "best pitcher in baseball" that was Johan Santana.
THE UGLY: With the possible acquisition of Cliff Lee in play, many "experts" are indicating that if the Mets don't acquire the playoff proven superstar, they may resort to their backup plans of another serviceable starter. The names being mentioned are very ugly. Kevin Millwood? We already have Kevin Millwood on the team - his name is John Maine! Brett Myers? We already have Brett Myers on the team - his name is Oliver Perez. Jarrod Washburn? We already had Jarrod Washburn on the team in the form of Pedro Martinez. You get the idea - none of these has-beens will help. But Omar being the consummate General Manager already knows that, right?
posted by Mets Fan Club @ 5:45 PM
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