Mets Game 3: Win Over Marlins
Mets 13 Marlins 0
Where was all that offense on Tuesday? Never mind the idea that Matt Wise threw a hanging changeup in the tenth inning of game two — it wasn’t he who lost the game, but rather the ineptness of the Mets’ offense against one of the worst pitching staffs in MLB that caused the loss.
But I digress … back to game three, which was an old-fashioned blowout.
Oliver Perez was spectacular, spinning six shutout innings of five-hit ball, walking one and striking out eight, expending 93 pitches in the process. Newest addition Nelson Figueroa came on to pitch a perfect seventh, and Pedro Feliciano pitched a scoreless eighth. Billy Wagner summoned an unusual amount of courage to close out the game. Collectively, Mets pitchers allowed no runs on six hits and one walk, striking out 10 in a 126-pitch performance.
While Ollie’s outing was outstanding, the big story was the bats. The Mets pummeled Andrew Miller for five runs in four innings, then bashed reliever Lee Gardner for another five in the sixth inning. Leading the way was David Wright, who continued his MVP argument with three hits, two runs scored, and three RBI, finishing one triple away from hitting for the cycle. Carlos Beltran added three hits of his own, scoring two runs and driving in another. Every Met in the starting lineup had at least one hit except for Perez, with five of the starters collecting two hits or more.
Notes
Ryan Church — who drove in three — is hitting .385 this season, but that’s 15 points less than fellow former Nationals teammate Brian Schneider (2 RBI), who is at .400. Imagine if those two — combined with Angel Pagan’s .400 hitting — can keep up that pace at the bottom of the lineup? Not likely, but hey, we can dream.
Lastings Milledge, BTW, is hitting .182.
Marlins closer Kevin Gregg is the highest-paid Fish, with a $2.5M contract.
Next Game
Day off on Thursday, then the Mets travel north to Atlanta to face the Braves for a three-game weekend series. John Maine faces Tim Hudson in the opener on Friday night at 7:35 PM.
Tonight’s lopsided victory did give me one thing to gripe about. And no, it’s not the ever-popular topic of Willie’s usage of the bullpen. Carlos Beltran hit a shot to RF last night that went over the wall, bounced off a railing beyond the wall, and then bounced back on to the field. The initial call by the 2B umpire was HR, which was correct, but for some unbeknownst reason, that umpire (who also happened to be the crew chief) decided to overturn the CORRECT CALL and rule the hit a ground-rule double. I guess the home plate umpire must have had a better view, even though he was farther away from the play. Or perhaps the 2B umpire forgot his glasses for the game. I don’t know. The point is the crew made the WRONG CALL. Now this fiasco gets tossed to the wayside because the Mets won by 13…however, what if that call had cost the Mets the game? What if the Mets were trailing by 2, and Beltran’s blast would have tied the game? Better yet, what if this was a playoff game? A World Series game? I sure bet the ruling would get a whole lot more scrutiny then.
Isn’t it about time baseball uses instant replay? Hey, I know the “purists of the game” still exist and would think such a tool in baseball would be sacreligious. But isn’t the most important thing getting the call right and making sure the correct team wins the game? Since when did preserving tradition and catering to the umpires’ ego take precedence over accurateness? And I know what some of you are going to argue. “You can’t use instant replay in baseball because there are far too many judgement calls and the game is already long enough as it is without sitting through a hundred replay reviews per game.” That’s fine. I propose replays can only be used for determining ambiguous home runs near the foul pole, ambiguous home runs where it isn’t clear if it went over the wall or not (like Beltran’s), and fan interference. Balls & strikes, safe & out calls, ambiguous foul balls by the bag or by the chalk, balks, and every other judgement call remains up to the umpires to decide. And replays will only be reviewed if summoned by the game’s “official scorer,” who could probably use another job beside botching hit and error calls. I can’t imagine there being a game where more than 2 replays would need to be summoned. I just think in the interest of fairness, if we possess the technology to be able to get as many calls correct as possible, what is the big deal?
We need instant replay in baseball.
I think the only thing keeping it from happening is the fear that once instant replay is brought into the mix, it will eventually be used for the subjective / judgment calls. The theory being, if you give IR an inch, it will eventually take a yard. In other words, using IR for HR calls is the first step in the technology taking over the game.
Before IR is instituted, however, I’d like to see QuesTec removed completely. But that’s a whole ‘nuther can of worms for another day.
Ollie’s going to be in the 5-year, $75 million category this offseason, if he continues to pitch like this.
Oh BTW all of these 3 were acquired by some pretty darn good trades……
On Church: He showed his defense last night and that will Lastings a distant memory quickly.