Johan Just What the Doctor Ordered
The Happy Recap: Mets 3, Braves 0
Met fans, no need to thank us, but ever since we at MetsFanClub.com called out Johan Santana for being the Number 3 option on the Mets starting rotation, he's pitched lights-out baseball such as yesterday's much needed victory to help the reeling Mets avoid getting swept by the still-hated Braves. Losing this game would have hurt - the doctor is in!
THE GOOD: How do you know when you have an "ace" pitcher on your staff? An ace stops losing streaks, especially against strong teams. And that's exactly what Johan Santana did by pitching 7 innings of 5-hit ball against a first place team, avoiding a sweep at the hands of a hated team, stopping the Mets 4-game losing streak, and lowering his ERA to under 3 in the process. And remember Met fans: Johan's historically a SECOND HALF pitcher! With his velocity and movement on his pitches back, fans have good things to look forward to.
KRod picked up the save in the game too, although we have to bring up the point that a 3 run "save" really doesn't mean much. But Frankie could have blown it and he didn't, so once again, good news abounds.
We got another good look at Bobby Parnell who picked up his 4th "hold" (it's hard to mention the "hold" statistic without laughing). Since Parnell's callup, he's been absolutely outstanding (he's allowed just 2 earned runs and has K'ed 14 in just 11 innings of work). The fact he wasn't packaged into some desperate trade-deadline deal for an over-rated fading stopgap type of player is even more good news at the break.
During the past couple of games, everyones bat (except for Angel Pagan, who's batting a team-leading .315 and seems to get 3 hits per game these days - Beltran who?) has been in a bit of a funk, but perhaps yesterday Ike Davis emerged from his mini-slump with 2 hits, inclulding a monster shot off Derek Lowe which accounted for the only run Johan would need. Every position player in the lineup got at least one hit, except for Rod Barajas (but that's okay, he contributed to calling a great game for Santana) with Alex Cora and Josh Thole delivering key 2-out rbi hits.
How about these Met kids? Chris Carter, 2-for-3. Ruben Tejada, outstanding defense to preserve shutout. Jesus Feliciano, hitting close to .300 but optioned anyway yesterday to make room for Carlos Beltran's return), Josh Thole, Ike Davis, Bobby Parnell, Angel Pagan as mentioned above. Folks, pending an Omar meltdown, the future looks bright indeed!
THE BAD: Despite all the positives, it still seems like old times, only with a different stadium doesn't it? Consider: Atlanta rolls into New York in first place with Met fans hopes held high, only to see the Braves win at will while padding their first place lead to 4 games at the break.
Although the final score was 4-2, you just got the feeling on Friday's series opener that it wasn't even that close, with R.A. Dickey's magic holding out until allowing 2 seventh inning Brave homeruns to seal the victory. Saturday's 4-0 loss was even worse, as the entire team got only 4 hits (3 of them were from Pagan alone!). Plus Jose Reyes reinjured himself, so it's a good thing he won't play in the All-Star game and get some much needed rest instead. If there's one thing that can't be clearer: as Jose goes, the Mets go. Simple (and as scary) as that.
You know it's bad for a player when he has to sit on his own bobble-head day, but that's what happened to 0-for-15 Jason Bay yesterday. Talk about a player that's happy to see the first half of the season go. Hopefully he'll get on track after the All-Star game so the Boston Red Sox can stop laughing at us.
And unfortunately Mike Pelfrey has gone from "The Sheriff" to his new nickname of "Oprah", since "Pel-FREY" has gone "WIN-FREE" since being snubbed (correctly it seems) from the All-Star game, giving up 15 runs over his last 13 1/3 innings - which still is better than the Mets would get from John Maine or Oliver Perez (who by the way is rehabbing and may be back with the team before we know it - THAT, is not good news folks).
THE UGLY: We're not going to go into a rant here about how ridiculous and ugly the All Star game is. Everyone knows that. But look at this Atlanta team and the lineup they put up: Prado, Infante, an old and hurt Chipper Jones, a non-steroid juiced Troy Glaus, McCann, Diaz, Escobar, and a Cabrera NOT named Miguel. How are they in first place?!?! How can this team come to New York and beat a team with one of the best home records in all of baseball? How can this happen?!? Is it just their pitching staff? Or could it be they have a better manager than we do?
Met fans, no need to thank us, but ever since we at MetsFanClub.com called out Johan Santana for being the Number 3 option on the Mets starting rotation, he's pitched lights-out baseball such as yesterday's much needed victory to help the reeling Mets avoid getting swept by the still-hated Braves. Losing this game would have hurt - the doctor is in!
THE GOOD: How do you know when you have an "ace" pitcher on your staff? An ace stops losing streaks, especially against strong teams. And that's exactly what Johan Santana did by pitching 7 innings of 5-hit ball against a first place team, avoiding a sweep at the hands of a hated team, stopping the Mets 4-game losing streak, and lowering his ERA to under 3 in the process. And remember Met fans: Johan's historically a SECOND HALF pitcher! With his velocity and movement on his pitches back, fans have good things to look forward to.KRod picked up the save in the game too, although we have to bring up the point that a 3 run "save" really doesn't mean much. But Frankie could have blown it and he didn't, so once again, good news abounds.
We got another good look at Bobby Parnell who picked up his 4th "hold" (it's hard to mention the "hold" statistic without laughing). Since Parnell's callup, he's been absolutely outstanding (he's allowed just 2 earned runs and has K'ed 14 in just 11 innings of work). The fact he wasn't packaged into some desperate trade-deadline deal for an over-rated fading stopgap type of player is even more good news at the break.
During the past couple of games, everyones bat (except for Angel Pagan, who's batting a team-leading .315 and seems to get 3 hits per game these days - Beltran who?) has been in a bit of a funk, but perhaps yesterday Ike Davis emerged from his mini-slump with 2 hits, inclulding a monster shot off Derek Lowe which accounted for the only run Johan would need. Every position player in the lineup got at least one hit, except for Rod Barajas (but that's okay, he contributed to calling a great game for Santana) with Alex Cora and Josh Thole delivering key 2-out rbi hits.
How about these Met kids? Chris Carter, 2-for-3. Ruben Tejada, outstanding defense to preserve shutout. Jesus Feliciano, hitting close to .300 but optioned anyway yesterday to make room for Carlos Beltran's return), Josh Thole, Ike Davis, Bobby Parnell, Angel Pagan as mentioned above. Folks, pending an Omar meltdown, the future looks bright indeed!
THE BAD: Despite all the positives, it still seems like old times, only with a different stadium doesn't it? Consider: Atlanta rolls into New York in first place with Met fans hopes held high, only to see the Braves win at will while padding their first place lead to 4 games at the break.
Although the final score was 4-2, you just got the feeling on Friday's series opener that it wasn't even that close, with R.A. Dickey's magic holding out until allowing 2 seventh inning Brave homeruns to seal the victory. Saturday's 4-0 loss was even worse, as the entire team got only 4 hits (3 of them were from Pagan alone!). Plus Jose Reyes reinjured himself, so it's a good thing he won't play in the All-Star game and get some much needed rest instead. If there's one thing that can't be clearer: as Jose goes, the Mets go. Simple (and as scary) as that.
You know it's bad for a player when he has to sit on his own bobble-head day, but that's what happened to 0-for-15 Jason Bay yesterday. Talk about a player that's happy to see the first half of the season go. Hopefully he'll get on track after the All-Star game so the Boston Red Sox can stop laughing at us.
And unfortunately Mike Pelfrey has gone from "The Sheriff" to his new nickname of "Oprah", since "Pel-FREY" has gone "WIN-FREE" since being snubbed (correctly it seems) from the All-Star game, giving up 15 runs over his last 13 1/3 innings - which still is better than the Mets would get from John Maine or Oliver Perez (who by the way is rehabbing and may be back with the team before we know it - THAT, is not good news folks).
THE UGLY: We're not going to go into a rant here about how ridiculous and ugly the All Star game is. Everyone knows that. But look at this Atlanta team and the lineup they put up: Prado, Infante, an old and hurt Chipper Jones, a non-steroid juiced Troy Glaus, McCann, Diaz, Escobar, and a Cabrera NOT named Miguel. How are they in first place?!?! How can this team come to New York and beat a team with one of the best home records in all of baseball? How can this happen?!? Is it just their pitching staff? Or could it be they have a better manager than we do?
posted by Mets Fan Club @ 4:06 PM
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