Mets Have Almost Nothing to Show for Giant Weekend
The Recap: Mets avoid four-game sweep, no thanks to KRocked.
After being shut out the first two games of the series (2-0 and 1-0), the Mets finally broke through on the scoreboard for meaningless runs in an 8-4 loss, then almost blew Johan Santana's gutsy performance in the 4-3 series finale win in an all-too-familiar reoccurrence of Amando Benitez-ville from Met closer KRuin.
T
HE GOOD: When you go 24 consecutive innings without putting a run on the board in one of the most offensive-friendly ballparks in baseball, there's not much good to speak of. But Ike Davis looks to have broken out of his mini-slump, hitting 2 homeruns (albeit of the meaningless variety) on Saturday and going 3-for-5 with 2 rbis today. Plus, Carlos Beltran is back and although he wasn't earth-shattering at the plate, he didn't look bad either. How about that, you're out for the entire season and the first pitcher you face when you get back is Tim Lincecum, arguably the best pitcher in baseball (who went 9 innings in a complete game shutout win). Hmmm... Giants manager Bruce Bochy allowed his ace to finish the game and he has a top-notch closer on his staff - I wonder why the Mets don't do that...
And while Johan Santana didn't seem to really "have it" in the first few innings, he settled down nicely after that and actually got stronger as the game went on. Which makes the decision to automatically bring in your choker closer into a game when you have one of the top pitchers in baseball on the mound in the first place all the more difficult to understand. Look - we've said this over and over again at MetsFanClub.com: there's no reason a pitcher like Johan Santana can't go nine innings, REGARDLESS OF THE PITCHCOUNT. Bringing KRun into the game just because it's a "save situation" makes no sense at all when you have a dominating Santana in the game. How many times do we have to see managers make this mistake? Johan has to DEMAND the ball (like he did in his last outing) and tell Jerry Manuel he's sick of being treated like Oliver Perez or John Maine.
Johan's 16-inning scoreless streak was snapped in the first inning of the game, but after that he was Johanesque, and has allowed just 2 runs over his last 31 innings for a 0.56 ERA. That's not just good - that's dominating, and the Mets are going to need that if they want to play meaningful games in September for KRunt to blow.
And although the first two games of the series resulted in shutout losses, R.A. Dickey's performance was nothing to sneeze at and Jon Niese's outing was even better. Could R.A. Dickey be the best knuckleball pitcher of our generation? The guy's been amazing! And Jon Niese straight up for Roy Oswalt? I don't make that trade!
Finally, although David Wright isn't leading the league in RBI anymore (there's no one on base to drive in!), he continues to hit well, belting his 15th homerun in today's game and is hitting a solid .309 on the season.
THE BAD: It's a good thing for Mike Pelfrey (hasn't had a good outing since his All-Star snub), Takman (couldn't even make it past the third inning... again), and Jason Bay (Boston should be ashamed for taking advantage of the Mets stupid GM - why didn't they do anything to keep him if he's so good?) that San Francisco Rodrisbad is on the team.
PayRod blew another save and another one of Santana's sure victories, only to vulture the win for himself in yet another inning in which he struggled (would he have been credited with 2 blown saves had the Giants scored in the 10th?). As mentioned in a previous post, my west coast baseball experts keep telling me how the Mets were fleeced with this guy by the Angels (why didn't they do anything to keep him if he's so good?) and is proving these scouts more and more correct by the day. We're in July and he's blowing games in ridiculous ways - can you imagine what's in store for this team when September rolls around? Save for a really ugly call by the homeplate umpire, this game easily could've been a Met loss and a 4 game series sweep.
And by the way, when KRacked entered the game in yesterday's 8-4 loss for mopup duty with absolutely no pressure on him, what do you think happened? That's right: a 1-2-3 inning with 2 strikeouts. My (and every fan's) obvious advice to manager Jerry Manuel: Stop automatically going to this guy in the ninth! It's becoming increasingly clear that unfortunately come September, even if the Mets are contending for a wild-card spot, much less the division, Met fans will be longing for the days of Amando Benitez and John Franco who at least saved the games they were supposed to save and only lost only to the Braves and Cardinals.
What's amazing is after all these chokes, and all these scary bad outings and blown saves, Frankie Arrrrgggh's ERA is still just 2.68! Are the statisticians not counting his bad outings? Oh, it must be great to be a relief pitcher and have misleading stats so people actually think you're good.
Did anyone notice Jose Reyes missed the entire series and the Mets offense was basically stagnant? Of course you did. That's why it's so important that he comes back healthy for the next series in Arizona, where the Mets play a 3 game set before heading out to LA LA land to play the Dodgers. Why can't this team play as well on the road as they do at home?
THE UGLY: There's so many things you can point to that are ugly about this SF series, but let's concentrate just on the ninth inning of today's game where homeplate umpire Phil Cuzzi blew not 1, not 2, but 3 major calls in that inning alone. First, KRod could have blown away the Giant's Juan Uribe with a called strike three that looked like it caught the plate. Cuzzi called it a ball, inspiring Met catcher Henry Blanco to have a "friendly discussion" with the umpire and getting Jerry Manuel out of the dugout. Somehow, no one was tossed from the game, but talk about an ugly call that didn't go in the Mets favor!
Then a squibbler right in front of the plate which would have resulted in a certain out and perhaps gotten KRude off the hook, was called foul by the thirdbase umpire! The thirdbase umpire doesn't make that call - the homeplate umpire does. Cuzzi's has to take charge there and call the play for what it was. Give Manuel credit for leaving the dugout and arguing that point as well. Somehow, he wasn't tossed for the game for that either (probably because he was right) - another ugly call that did not go in the Mets favor.
But the biggest blown call was calling Giants Travis Ishikawa out at the plate on a very high and ugly sidearm throw from David Wright to Henry Blanco. Replays conclusively showed he was safe, which would have won the game for the Giants, resulting in a big break for the Mets and a much deserved loss for FatRod. That call obvioiusly did go in the Mets favor, but set the stage for extra innings and the vulture win. No good deed goes unpunished.
After being shut out the first two games of the series (2-0 and 1-0), the Mets finally broke through on the scoreboard for meaningless runs in an 8-4 loss, then almost blew Johan Santana's gutsy performance in the 4-3 series finale win in an all-too-familiar reoccurrence of Amando Benitez-ville from Met closer KRuin.
T
HE GOOD: When you go 24 consecutive innings without putting a run on the board in one of the most offensive-friendly ballparks in baseball, there's not much good to speak of. But Ike Davis looks to have broken out of his mini-slump, hitting 2 homeruns (albeit of the meaningless variety) on Saturday and going 3-for-5 with 2 rbis today. Plus, Carlos Beltran is back and although he wasn't earth-shattering at the plate, he didn't look bad either. How about that, you're out for the entire season and the first pitcher you face when you get back is Tim Lincecum, arguably the best pitcher in baseball (who went 9 innings in a complete game shutout win). Hmmm... Giants manager Bruce Bochy allowed his ace to finish the game and he has a top-notch closer on his staff - I wonder why the Mets don't do that...And while Johan Santana didn't seem to really "have it" in the first few innings, he settled down nicely after that and actually got stronger as the game went on. Which makes the decision to automatically bring in your choker closer into a game when you have one of the top pitchers in baseball on the mound in the first place all the more difficult to understand. Look - we've said this over and over again at MetsFanClub.com: there's no reason a pitcher like Johan Santana can't go nine innings, REGARDLESS OF THE PITCHCOUNT. Bringing KRun into the game just because it's a "save situation" makes no sense at all when you have a dominating Santana in the game. How many times do we have to see managers make this mistake? Johan has to DEMAND the ball (like he did in his last outing) and tell Jerry Manuel he's sick of being treated like Oliver Perez or John Maine.
Johan's 16-inning scoreless streak was snapped in the first inning of the game, but after that he was Johanesque, and has allowed just 2 runs over his last 31 innings for a 0.56 ERA. That's not just good - that's dominating, and the Mets are going to need that if they want to play meaningful games in September for KRunt to blow.
And although the first two games of the series resulted in shutout losses, R.A. Dickey's performance was nothing to sneeze at and Jon Niese's outing was even better. Could R.A. Dickey be the best knuckleball pitcher of our generation? The guy's been amazing! And Jon Niese straight up for Roy Oswalt? I don't make that trade!
Finally, although David Wright isn't leading the league in RBI anymore (there's no one on base to drive in!), he continues to hit well, belting his 15th homerun in today's game and is hitting a solid .309 on the season.
THE BAD: It's a good thing for Mike Pelfrey (hasn't had a good outing since his All-Star snub), Takman (couldn't even make it past the third inning... again), and Jason Bay (Boston should be ashamed for taking advantage of the Mets stupid GM - why didn't they do anything to keep him if he's so good?) that San Francisco Rodrisbad is on the team.PayRod blew another save and another one of Santana's sure victories, only to vulture the win for himself in yet another inning in which he struggled (would he have been credited with 2 blown saves had the Giants scored in the 10th?). As mentioned in a previous post, my west coast baseball experts keep telling me how the Mets were fleeced with this guy by the Angels (why didn't they do anything to keep him if he's so good?) and is proving these scouts more and more correct by the day. We're in July and he's blowing games in ridiculous ways - can you imagine what's in store for this team when September rolls around? Save for a really ugly call by the homeplate umpire, this game easily could've been a Met loss and a 4 game series sweep.
And by the way, when KRacked entered the game in yesterday's 8-4 loss for mopup duty with absolutely no pressure on him, what do you think happened? That's right: a 1-2-3 inning with 2 strikeouts. My (and every fan's) obvious advice to manager Jerry Manuel: Stop automatically going to this guy in the ninth! It's becoming increasingly clear that unfortunately come September, even if the Mets are contending for a wild-card spot, much less the division, Met fans will be longing for the days of Amando Benitez and John Franco who at least saved the games they were supposed to save and only lost only to the Braves and Cardinals.
What's amazing is after all these chokes, and all these scary bad outings and blown saves, Frankie Arrrrgggh's ERA is still just 2.68! Are the statisticians not counting his bad outings? Oh, it must be great to be a relief pitcher and have misleading stats so people actually think you're good.
Did anyone notice Jose Reyes missed the entire series and the Mets offense was basically stagnant? Of course you did. That's why it's so important that he comes back healthy for the next series in Arizona, where the Mets play a 3 game set before heading out to LA LA land to play the Dodgers. Why can't this team play as well on the road as they do at home?
THE UGLY: There's so many things you can point to that are ugly about this SF series, but let's concentrate just on the ninth inning of today's game where homeplate umpire Phil Cuzzi blew not 1, not 2, but 3 major calls in that inning alone. First, KRod could have blown away the Giant's Juan Uribe with a called strike three that looked like it caught the plate. Cuzzi called it a ball, inspiring Met catcher Henry Blanco to have a "friendly discussion" with the umpire and getting Jerry Manuel out of the dugout. Somehow, no one was tossed from the game, but talk about an ugly call that didn't go in the Mets favor!
Then a squibbler right in front of the plate which would have resulted in a certain out and perhaps gotten KRude off the hook, was called foul by the thirdbase umpire! The thirdbase umpire doesn't make that call - the homeplate umpire does. Cuzzi's has to take charge there and call the play for what it was. Give Manuel credit for leaving the dugout and arguing that point as well. Somehow, he wasn't tossed for the game for that either (probably because he was right) - another ugly call that did not go in the Mets favor.
But the biggest blown call was calling Giants Travis Ishikawa out at the plate on a very high and ugly sidearm throw from David Wright to Henry Blanco. Replays conclusively showed he was safe, which would have won the game for the Giants, resulting in a big break for the Mets and a much deserved loss for FatRod. That call obvioiusly did go in the Mets favor, but set the stage for extra innings and the vulture win. No good deed goes unpunished.
posted by Mets Fan Club @ 5:02 PM
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