Mets Game 10: Loss to Brewers

Brewers 5 Mets 3

The Mets’ three-game winning streak came to an end, while the Brewers snapped a three-loss skid, as Milwaukee spoiled Johan Santana’s Shea debut.

The Mets jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the initial inning, on a sacrifice fly by David Wright that scored leadoff batter Angel Pagan and a booming double off the bat of Carlos Delgado that plated Carlos Beltran.

However the Brewers battled back with three of their own — the first on a sac bunt by Ben Sheets that scored Corey Hart, the other two on solo homers by Billy Hall and Rickie Weeks — and the game remained tight until the seventh, when Gabe “Welcome Back” Kapler blasted a 2-run homer into the leftfield seats to make it 5-2.

The Mets were completely inept against Sheets after the first frame, and didn’t score again until David Wright swatted a homerun in the eighth.

Notes

Just before Delgado’s blast in the first, Brewers ace Ben Sheets scolded himself — and pounded himself in the chest, in fact — after hanging a curveball to Beltran, which resulted in a line drive single. One must wonder if Sheets anger with himself had something to do with throwing a meaty fastball over the center of the plate for Delgado to jump all over.

No worries about the homeruns given up by Santana … he is aggressive and throws strikes and therefore homers are going to happen. Usually, they happen with nobody on base. I think he might want to get the fastball inside a little more on occasion, though, because the Brewers hitters looked way too comfortable at the plate.

Johan should have looked back the runner on third on Sheets’ run-scoring sacrifice. Not sure whether to blame Santana for not looking, or Brian Schneider for not yelling out instruction. It was good baserunning by Corey “Sunglasses” Hart.

Speaking of sacrifices and Santana, Johan attempted one with men on first and second in the second inning, but Milwaukee catcher Jason Kendall nailed Damion Easley at third on a bang-bang play to spoil the strategy. I wonder if Willie Randolph was paying attention, and possibly took note of the fact that someone was standing on third base to receive the throw? Because Randolph doesn’t incorporate a defensive strategy that entails third base coverage.

Nice job by Carlos Muniz, who threw two scoreless innings to finish the game for the Mets.

The Marlins are in first place with a 7-3 record, BTW. It’s early, folks.

Next Game

The rubber match pits Oliver Perez vs. Jeff Suppan in a 1:10 PM start. I won’t have a postgame until later in the day, as I have a game of my own at 2:30 … however I’ll leave the comments open.