Mets' Season Defined

It's been a while since I posted anything about the Mets. The team currently sits in the midst of a 4-game losing streak after being swept out of LA by a red-hot Dodgers team. They are getting ready to play the Red Sox in Boston tonight. The Mets stand at 3-4 on the current 10-game road trip to San Fran, LA, and Boston.

The beginning of the trip saw the team take 3 games against the Giants with a lot of come from behind fights. The offense was still clicking at that point, so it kept everyone from noticing how our defense was still subpar, as it has been all season. Fans were very quick to compare this road trip to a similar trip to the west coast back in 2006, where we went 9-1 against some tough competition and that set the tone for the rest of the season. It was early June and we took 2 of 3 in LA, swept 4 games in Arizona, then came back east and swept 3 games in Philadelphia. That went on to be a dominant year for us, but we all remember how that ended.

This year is different, and that's why it was very premature to start declaring this current trip as 'season defining'. Sometimes I'm amazed at just how delusional Mets fans allow themselves to be. We have seen, during the past three years, just how hot and cold our offense has been. One week we'll score 40 runs and thrash our opposition, then the next week we'll be lucky to squeak out 15 runs. Our hitters have a history of getting hot or cold seemingly at the flip of a switch. Our starting rotation has been steadily improving, even with Oliver Perez on the DL with a broken brain, and the bullpen has weathered Sean "look at me, I'm Aaron Heilman!" Green. So, other than the offense's drastic inconsistency, our major problem hasn't been the pitching... it has been the defense. Only being behind the Nationals for the most errors in the NL is absolutely unacceptable! You don't win games where you hand the opposition 3 or 4 extra outs. Johan Santana has allowed 8 earned runs and 6 unearned runs!! That's absurd. The two losses he has on his record were both 1-0 games where he allowed 1 unearned run because of our slop-tastic defense.

The hitting and defense in the current road trip have been absolutely dreadful. The defense has been even worse than normal due to the fact that we're playing so many players out of position due to injuries. Why Jerry Manuel refused to play Murphy at first base (he's an infielder by trade not a left fielder), played Jeremy Reed at first base (an outfielder by trade) and Ramon Martinez at shortstop (he's just terrible all around) is beyond me. I know we can't help all the injuries that happen, but it wouldn't kill us to have some intelligent roster management.

So, if you were calling this road trip 'season defining' last weekend, you were right but for the wrong reasons... Sloppy defense and streaky offense have definitely defined our season so far, and it doesn't look like things will be getting any better as our players keep dropping like flies.

Another tough year as a Mets fan.... Let's hope we don't get squashed like bugs in Boston.

Opening Day: Mets 2 - Reds 1

Today is opening day for baseball. I got to work a little early so I could bolt around lunch time to catch the Mets @ Reds game on TV. The game wound up being delayed 30 minutes due to 45F temps and rain/snow/sleet/whatever.

The pitching matchup was Johan Santana(0-0, 0.00ERA) vs Aaron Harang (0-0, 0.00ERA).

Final score: 2-1, Mets
Win: Johan Santana (1-0, 1.59ERA)
Loss: Aaron Harang (0-1, 1.80ERA)
Save: Francisco Rodriguez (1)

Comments on the game:

-Johan didn't really have it going early. He probably was having difficulty getting a feel for the ball with the temps hovering around 45F. He walked 4, which is unusual for him, and his slider kept missing high. Once he had the lead, however, Santana turned it up a notch, as always. :) He carried a 2-1 lead into the end of the 6th.

-Given the lack of command, Santana threw a lot of pitches. A surprise move had Manual taking him out of the game with two outs in the 6th. He was up around 99 pitches with a runner on base and Edwin Encarnacion coming to bat. Encarnacion has been a nemesis for Santana, so that probably helped Manual pull the trigger. Also, why work your ace more than necessary on a cold day when you have a bullpen you trust?

-The bullpen was stellar. Sean Green came in and got the final out of the 6th on a hard line drive caught by Murphy in left-center. Green pitched a nice, quick 7th giving way to our other new relievers, JJ Putz and K-Rod. Putz pitched around a walk in the 8th and K-Rod ended a perfect 9th with a strikeout.

-Last year's Mets bullpen would have blown a one run lead without hesitation.

-Dan Murphy, the rookie left fielder, provided all the offense we needed and some nice defense. He hit a solo homerun off Harang in the 5th, and had an RBI groundout in the 6th. In the bottom of the 6th, the line drive from Encarnacion looked as if it would be a double in the gap, but Murphy took a tough rout to the ball and made what appeared to be a difficult catch.

-Final note, which is also a concern, is that our offense left 11 men on base in the first 6 innings, then went down quietly for the rest of the game. There were so many missed opportunities in this game. I know we're going to score a lot of runs like last year, but there were so many games last year that we could have blown open with one timely hit.


Despite our offensive struggles, I'm a lot more confident about this team now than at the end of last season. I can't wait to watch Mike Pelfrey's first start of the year on Wednesday.

Back in first

Despite David Wright's best efforts, the Mets are now back in first place in the NL East. Wright has been having a terrible September at the plate and it's now starting to have an effect on his defense. That throwing error last night was inexcusable. They managed to pull the win out, but this sort of thing can't happen as the season winds down and with the division race so tight.

The Phillies and the Brewers also lost last night, putting the Mets a half game up on the Phils in the division and knocking Milwaukee further down in the wild card standings. It's beginning to look like the Mets' chances of at least clinching a wild card berth are likely, but I can't be comfortable until they actually have clinched. They need to at least take two of three in this series with Atlanta considering they play four games with the Cubs this coming week.

This is painful to watch

The season got really ugly really fast. They finally managed to beat the worst team in baseball after losing two in a row to them. Ugh.
Jerry Manuel had a great quote after the game:
"No, I'm not enjoying this. Are you crazy? Walking out there every three minutes? [Fans] didn't come to see me. They come to see the guys play."

Down to the wire

As the calendar passes into September we enter the final month of the season and the demons that come with it. The Mets ended the month of August with a series in Florida that showcased the strengths and weaknesses of the team. All three games involved strong starting pitching with Oliver Perez, Mike Pelfrey and Pedro Martinez all holding the Marlins to two runs in each game and pitching into the seventh inning. The offense, led by Reyes in the midst of a 9-game hitting streak, scored in the first inning in two of the three games with Beltran also having a big series. Young Nick Evans hit his first major league home run yesterday, as well. The defense was also solid during the series.

The weak point of this series was the bullpen, not surprisingly. After taking a 5-2 lead in the top of the ninth on Friday, the bullpen coughed up two runs in the bottom of the inning before finally closing the deal. Things were even worse on Saturday. Pelfrey pitched a strong game and left with a 3-2 lead in the seventh inning. The first batter of the eighth homered to tie the game, then Heilman walked in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. I can take it if the opposing team earns their winning run in the ninth, like hitting a home run or something, but when you walk in that run things aren't forgiven so easily.

So the Mets now have a one game lead over Philly going into September. They're 10-5 against the Phillies this season, which is something I hope they can maintain during the series the teams play next weekend at Shea. Every game the Mets lose this month will draw comments from everyone about the collapse last season, so now it's up to the team to redeem themselves. Things will certainly be interesting this month.

Who needs the bullpen....

when Johan Santana pitches a complete game, three-hit shutout? Santana helped the Mets complete a three-game sweep of the Pirates today with a brilliant 113-pitch 4-0 win. No need to call on that shaky bullpen of ours. This puts the Mets at a season-high 12 games over .500 and a 2 1/2 game lead over the Phillies plus or minus half a game depending on who wins the Phillies-Padres game tonight.

Kick'em when they're down

Finally, the Mets are starting to have some consistency against bad teams. Last week, after the bullpen gave up a game they were leading by four in the ninth against the Pirates, the Mets went on to sweep a three-game series in Washington against the Nationals. The final two games in the series were blowouts: 12-0 and 9-3, but the first game was encouraging. Johan Santana started that game and pitched seven solid innings, leaving the game with a tenuous 4-3 lead. Now, the bullpen has blown six leads for Santana this season, so instead of being 16-7, his record is 10-7. This time, Pedro Feliciano was able to nail down the save. The series was encouraging from the standpoint that bullpen needs to show some life. They weren't responsible for any run given up to the Nats.

Currently, the Mets are 2/3 of the way through a series with the Pirates at PNC park in Pittsburgh. Mike Pelfrey pitched extremely well in the first game, and the bullpen held on for the 2-1 victory. The second game was nice because Pedro Martinez pitched seven innings for the first time all season, and he also looks a lot more comfortable than has all season. He allowed one run through seven innings. Unfortunately, this game also showed just how rusty their recent AAA callup, Eddie Kunz, is. He has been tagged as one of the possible replacements for Billy Wagner in the closer's role. Yeah, giving up three in the bottom of the ninth isn't going to cut it. He hadn't pitched in a game since last Sunday, and pitchers really need the repetition of pitching often to maintain a rhythm. They still won the game 7-4, but Kunz made it shaky. He's been a pretty closer for Binghamton and New Orleans, so hopefully he can pick it up a bit, especially since Wagner is feeling pain in his shoulder after the rehab appearances he has been making.

The Mets are now in a five game winning streak and lead the Phillies by 2 games in the division.

Roll of the dice

This season, the story for the Mets has been that of a rollercoaster ride after their starting pitcher leaves the game. The performance of the bullpen has been so erratic, there really is no way to be comfortable with any lead these days. Now with Billy Wagner injured, they are trying desperately to find someone to fill in the closer's role. The first choice was obviously to try using Aaron Heilman, as he's been a pretty solid setup man for the Mets for a while. Well, after blowing a two-run lead to the lowly Pirates on Monday, Jerry Manuel decided, rightly, to switch to using Pedro Feliciano. Feliciano has been one of the few consistent pitchers in that bullpen this year. He's had his down periods, as any pitcher will have, but they've been quickly corrected. I've been waiting for them to use Eddie Kunz, a young pitcher that has lots of experience closing games in college and in AA Binghamton, but Manuel keeps saying he doesn't want to throw his young guys into the fire so quickly. Well, he's starting to change his tune now that the bullpen is looking like it's going to kill the Mets' season once again. There's also talk of converting John Maine from a starter to a close, which is something I think he would be well suited for given the high velocity of his pitches and the good movement he has on his fastball. The only problem with that is the lack of depth they already have in the starting rotation, meaning that move would make the team weaker overall.

Call me cynical, but I really am already looking at what next season will bring. It's going to be a very interesting offseason given how many members of the team will be at the end of their contracts. I just hope Minaya doesn't continue his trend of signing aging and injury-prone veterans.

Night in the city.

I spent this past weekend down in New York City visiting Asher. This was part of what has turned into a summer-long series of trips to keep me out of Rochester. Next weekend I head down to Ithaca to help the parents put in more cabinets, but I have the following weekend free.

One thing I always make a point of doing when in New York is taking at least one trip to the Blind Tiger. It's a nice low-key bar in Manhattan, with a good menu of food and really good beer selection. This trip I was able to grab some Samichlaus on tap. This is one of my favorite strong beers, and is phenomenal on tap. It has a nice thick, sweet flavor, with a nicely balanced alcohol warmth. It also happens to be 14% ABV.

The primary reason I was in NYC this time is that Shea stadium is (deservedly) being knocked down after the season, and I needed to see it in person once more before the end. The Mets began a three-game series with the St Louis Cardinals on Friday night. This wasn't a game I was able to see much of, but Asher and I caught the end of it when we got back from eating dinner. Mike Pelfrey (9-6, 3.67) pitched 7 great innings, giving up 1 earned run on 7 hits. The Mets battered the Cardinals' starter, Mitchell Boggs (3-2, 7.41), tagging him for 6 earned runs in 4 1/3 innings.
Final Score: 7-2, Mets

On Saturday the Mets continued the series, and this was the game that we went to. Asher and I met up with Craig and Hannah and saw what wound up being a marathon baseball game. Since Pedro Martinez's father died last week, he was with his family, so they called up a pitcher from AAA New Orleans. This pitcher's name is Brandon Knight, and he has been dominant in the minor leagues this year. The minor leagues are not the majors, though. He allowed the first five hitters to reach base, four of them scoring during the inning. Through the game the Mets managed to take a 5-4 lead in the fourth inning, then lost it in the sixth. Because Knight was piling up the pitch count while not being terribly effective, they brought in Carlos Muniz in relief. That wound up allowing four more runs to score. In the end, the game went on for 14 innings, and wound up ending with an Albert Pujols 2-run homer.
Final Score: 10-8, Cardinals (14 innings)

Alright, I would finish this blog about the three games, but I'm distracted watching youtube videos of George Carlin. I'll finish this shit later.

Weekend Series

I am now off to NYC to visit some friends and watch the Mets in the second game of their series against the Cardinals. Finally, I get to be at Shea when the Mets are actually contending. It should be a good time.

A small glimmer of hope begins to stir.

Tuesday night the Mets began what was looked at as a big series with the Phillies at Shea. Both teams were tied for first place in the NL East with 53-46 records. The three games had the following pitching matchups:

• Santana(8-7, 3.05) vs. Blanton(5-12, 5.08)
• Maine(9-7, 4.20) vs. Meyers(3-9, 5.82)
• Perez(6-6, 4.15) vs. Moyer(9-6, 3.76)

These matchups certainly seemed to favor the Mets, though I'm smarter than that and expected little.

The first game featured Philadelphia's newly acquired starting pitcher, Joe Blanton, against our ace, Johan Santana. A big game with first place on the line is exactly the kind of game Johan was brought over from Minnesota to pitch. He pitched pretty well, actually, going 8 innings while giving up 2 runs on 8 hits. Blanton, on the other hand, hasn't really been having the best season. He was floundering with Oakland, and didn't fare much better in this game. The Mets managed 5 runs off of him. It would have been more runs except that there were some very nice defensive plays on the part of the Phillies. They threw two runners out at the plate during the game, and Chase Utley made a great diving catch in the right side gap with the bases loaded and 2 outs.

Taking a 5-2 lead into the ninth, Manuel pulled Santana for bullpen help, which proved their undoing. Since Wagner was out for the night with shoulder spasms, they turned to Duaner Sanchez, who is continuing to make good progress coming back from injuries received in a taxi accident two years ago. Unfortunately, he hadn't progressed enough, because the Phillies loaded the bases with no one out, and it was all downhill from there.
Final Score: 8-6, Phillies

The second game featured another Philadelphia pitcher having a poor season. Brett Meyers was actually demoted last month to the minor leagues because of his control problems. They brought him up this week in hopes that he could bolster a very mediocre starting rotation. He pitched against John Maine who has been having a lot of trouble himself of late. Maine hadn't pitched past the fifth inning in any of his previous three starts. He said he came into the game looking to attack the strike zone more and not walk as many hitters (5 walks in each of his last 2 starts, ouch).

I was not able to watch this game as I was helping a friend move into her new house, but it wound up being a pretty good game. Maine looks like he may be moving past his control issues, pitching 7 good innings, while Jose Reyes broke a tie in the sixth inning with a go-ahead 3-run homer. This was the second night in a row the Mets had a 3-run lead on the Phillies going into the ninth inning, but they had Billy Wagner this time. He pitched a quick ninth inning for the save.
Final Score: 6-3, Mets

The final game in the series was today in the early afternoon, meaning I once again missed it. This would have been an interesting game to see. Oliver Perez and Jamie Moyer are both having exceptional seasons against each other's team. Perez has a 0.35 ERA in 26 innings against the Phillies this season, including today's game. Today he pitched 7 2/3 innings, giving up 1 earned run while striking out 12. Moyer also pitched really well, going 7 innings giving up 1 earned run on 2 hits.

It was the eighth inning in this game the made all the difference. In the top of the inning, Oliver Perez wound up with the bases loaded and 2 outs. Aaron Heilman came in to relieve Perez, and got Jayson Werth to fly out to deep center. In any other ballpark, that would have been serious trouble, but Shea can hold most of the long fly balls that it sees. The bottom of the inning was beautiful. Carlos Delgado, who slumped horribly for the first 3 months of the season, has been on a torrid rampage of National League pitching this month. With two outs and Robinson Cancel on base, J.C. Romero, who left-handed hitters are anemic against this year, walked David Wright to get to Delgado. This also happened two nights previous, and that resulted in a monster 2-run homer by Carlos. On this occasion, Delgado laced an opposite field double into the left field corner to put the Mets up by 2 runs.
Final Score: 3-1, Mets

So, now the Mets have sole possession of first place in the NL East. I've been calling all season for them to not even be in contention at the end of the season, as just watching the team play left me with no real hope. They looked like a team with no fire or passion whatsoever. Since they fired Willie Randolph as manager, the team is now 21-12 under Jerry Manuel. I don't know how much that had to do with it, but the team looks fired up right now. They still have major flaws on the team, especially at the corner outfield slots and second base, but they're looking to give me a little bit of hope for the rest of the summer.

Of course, I've always known my beloved Mets to find ever more horrifying ways of destroying my hope and spirit, so we'll see where this all goes.

What goes up....

The 10-game winning streak the Mets have been on has finally come to an end. It's obvious, if you watch the team, that there was no good reason for them to win that many in a row in the first place. Their tenth win in that streak was indicative of why the team struggles so often. Johan Santana went 5 innings and got hit hard, while the bullpen coughed up the lead as soon as they had one. The Mets lack any real innings-eaters, with the possible exception of Santana. This lack of depth from the starters leads to a severe strain on the bullpen and that will lead to them breaking down before the season ends. The game following that win was 5-2 loss that showcased the flaws in their number 3 starter: John Maine. Maine has good low-90's velocity with good movement on his fastball and a good curve, when he's throwing it for strikes. His issue, and one that seems to creep up on him during each season, is that he gets wild with his pitches when he starts letting his left shoulder swing out too far. Maine needs to throw from over his right shoulder, not from his side. When he's on top of the ball, it has better movement and will sink instead of staying level. When he pitches more from his side, the ball levels off or starts rising, allowing it to either enter the hitter's wheel-house or miss the strike-zone completely. Anyway, that was what happened to him yesterday, he couldn't find the strike-zone.

Unless this team can keep the offense going consistently and somehow find some depth from its starting rotation, they will find themselves out of contention by September.

Home Run Derby

Yesterday was the home run derby at baseball's All-Star Game. The biggest story to be associated with it before the event was the fact that Alex Rodriguez opted not to participate. This fact, of course, caused ESPN's crack team of hack journalists to immediately jump on him for not attending. For not attending an event that is glorified batting practice, A-Rod's ego is called into question: " But it's not important enough, apparently, for Alex Rodriguez to risk not living up to his own ego. How sad is that?" (Thank you, Jayson Stark, for helping to continue the demise of real journalism). However, what's not said is that A-Rod would also be called out for egotism if participated and won the event. Then there's the possibility that he would participate and lose the event to some other player. That would lead to comments defaming his 'clutchness' and declarations would be made about him not being a 'real Yankee' (whatever that means).

Personally, I stopped caring about the All-Star festivities many years ago when it became apparent that the players didn't really take it seriously anymore. Watching Barry Bonds get taken out of the game a few years back for a replacement in the field (players typically don't see more than two or three innings these days), then walk out of the dugout through the clubhouse and just leave the stadium, well... that was very representative of how little most of the players cared. Watching Pedro Martinez decline to show up to the game because he didn't feel like it, that kind of killed it for me.

"This time, it counts", of course. Now that Bud Selig has decided to continue to destroy his legacy (which wasn't really bad before this and steroids happened) by making the game count for home-field advantage in the World Series. I had already ceased caring about the game before this decision, but the decision itself forced me into a boycott of the whole damn thing. I will not watch an All-Star Game again until that rule is removed. The home-field advantage in the World Series should go to the team that won more games during the regular season.

Bah, I can't wait until real baseball starts up again when the Mets play the Reds on Thursday for the start of a four game series. Here's hoping the Mets can continue to play the way they did to get on that 9-game win streak before the break.

First Post

So, this is the first post. Yay. I guess the first thing I'll do is describe what sort of crap will be going into this blog. Those that know me know that I love the following things:

• Baseball
• The New York Mets
• Brewing beer
• Drinking beer
• Playing video games
• Watching anime

This blog will primarily be filled with my rantings on these topics, with some other topics making appearances from time to time.

So, yeah, that's it for now. I'm in the middle of doing laundry.