Sometimes You Just Have To Take Matters Into Your Own Hands
The Happy Recap: Mets 3, Reds 0
Like Adam Sandler said in one of the most classic movies of all time, The Waterboy, sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands, which was what Johan Santana did tonight with a dominant complete game shutout, a homerun, and manning up to Manuel in the ninth, when the manager entertained the crazy notion of pulling him for KRod.
THE GOOD: Seeing how the Mets never score when Santana's on the mound, Johan played as if to say "Enough, I'll go yard myself" and lined one over the fence in the third inning for the only run he needed to thoroughly dominate a Reds team that not only leads the majors in runs, homers, and hitting, but also embarrassed the Mets the night before with non-All Star Mike Pelfrey on the mound. Johan only allowed 3 hits, K'ed 5 and threw 113 pitches en route to only his 6th win. But what happened in the ninth inning is enough to give fans real hope that Santana may be back as the team's dominate force for the second half of the season.
Mets fans - nay, baseball fans - have been waiting years to see what transpired in the ninth inning of this game, when Jerry Manuel walked out to the mound to potentially remove his starter only to see the scowl on Johan's face that said "I got it. Get back in the dugout and keep KRod as far away from this pitching mound as possible". (Well, I'm sure he didn't say that, but that's what his face indicated). Finally! A starting pitcher with the guts to say "I'm finishing this game" and DEMAND to stay in the game over the manager's by-the-book safe play of going to his closer. Granted, the decision to leave Santana in the game was made much easier BECAUSE of his closer, but the fact remained: Johan manned up tonight and came up huge.
From a hitting perspective, other than Johan's homerun, Jason Bay drove in 2 big insurance runs in the sixth, but then....
THE BAD: We could mention the ridiculous overturned strikeout-to-hit-by-pitch call last night that put Mike Pelfrey into a tailspin (although the call was correct - you just don't want your second base umpire making it!), but instead we point to Jason Bay's ninth inning misplay of perhaps the simplest of outfield popups you'll ever see. The play was bad enough in itself, but the fact that it happened in the ninth inning of a shutout game Johan Santana really wanted to complete made it even worse. Good thing Ike Davis' diving stab of a hard hit liner made up for it. The ying and the yang folks... the ying and the yang.
THE UGLY: Nothing like heading out to the park for a fun evening of Major League baseball... except when it's 103 degrees and humid outside! When the Mets food concession staff reports record sales of bottled water over beer, you know it's hot. And when 27,473 people sweat profusely in those small Citi Field seats? Well, it's not pretty.
Like Adam Sandler said in one of the most classic movies of all time, The Waterboy, sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands, which was what Johan Santana did tonight with a dominant complete game shutout, a homerun, and manning up to Manuel in the ninth, when the manager entertained the crazy notion of pulling him for KRod.
THE GOOD: Seeing how the Mets never score when Santana's on the mound, Johan played as if to say "Enough, I'll go yard myself" and lined one over the fence in the third inning for the only run he needed to thoroughly dominate a Reds team that not only leads the majors in runs, homers, and hitting, but also embarrassed the Mets the night before with non-All Star Mike Pelfrey on the mound. Johan only allowed 3 hits, K'ed 5 and threw 113 pitches en route to only his 6th win. But what happened in the ninth inning is enough to give fans real hope that Santana may be back as the team's dominate force for the second half of the season.Mets fans - nay, baseball fans - have been waiting years to see what transpired in the ninth inning of this game, when Jerry Manuel walked out to the mound to potentially remove his starter only to see the scowl on Johan's face that said "I got it. Get back in the dugout and keep KRod as far away from this pitching mound as possible". (Well, I'm sure he didn't say that, but that's what his face indicated). Finally! A starting pitcher with the guts to say "I'm finishing this game" and DEMAND to stay in the game over the manager's by-the-book safe play of going to his closer. Granted, the decision to leave Santana in the game was made much easier BECAUSE of his closer, but the fact remained: Johan manned up tonight and came up huge.
From a hitting perspective, other than Johan's homerun, Jason Bay drove in 2 big insurance runs in the sixth, but then....
THE BAD: We could mention the ridiculous overturned strikeout-to-hit-by-pitch call last night that put Mike Pelfrey into a tailspin (although the call was correct - you just don't want your second base umpire making it!), but instead we point to Jason Bay's ninth inning misplay of perhaps the simplest of outfield popups you'll ever see. The play was bad enough in itself, but the fact that it happened in the ninth inning of a shutout game Johan Santana really wanted to complete made it even worse. Good thing Ike Davis' diving stab of a hard hit liner made up for it. The ying and the yang folks... the ying and the yang.
THE UGLY: Nothing like heading out to the park for a fun evening of Major League baseball... except when it's 103 degrees and humid outside! When the Mets food concession staff reports record sales of bottled water over beer, you know it's hot. And when 27,473 people sweat profusely in those small Citi Field seats? Well, it's not pretty.
posted by Mets Fan Club @ 7:05 PM
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