Mets Game 15: Win Over Phillies
Mets 4 Phillies 2
Jose Reyes jumpstarted the Mets in the initial inning, leading off the game with a double and scoring — along with Ryan Church — on another double by MVP leader David Wright. From then on, the Mets never relinquished the lead.
In the seventh, Reyes ripped a two-run homer to put the Mets ahead 4-0, giving plenty of wiggle room to Scott Schoeneweis et al.
Once again, Oliver Perez was less than efficient with his pitches — throwing 108 in 5 2/3 innings — but allowed no runs and four hits, striking out seven and walking five. Willie Randolph may not be happy with his efficiency, but it’s hard to argue with nearly six shutout innings vs. the Phillies lineup in CBP.
The Phillies’ best chance to come back came in the eighth, as they loaded the bases against Joe Smith and Pedro Feliciano. They scored one on a bloop single off Aaron Heilman, but Heilman then struck out Geoff Jenkins and Jayson Werth to end the threat and the inning.
Notes
The top of the order — Jose Reyes, Ryan Church, and David Wright — went 6-for-12 with three runs scored and four RBI. Wright is 6-for-8 so far in this series.
Even though Aaron Heilman came up big and shut the door on the Phillies with the bases loaded and one out in the eighth, I’m not comfortable with the frequency with which he’s being used. He was throwing from a low arm angle — from fatigue — and from that release point Aaron does not have his sharp control. Yes, he got away with it this time, but he did not have his good command, and if you noticed he didn’t throw too many changeups. Good thing, because when he drops down to Joe Smithlike level, the changeup floats up in the zone, and is easy to hit. It looked like he was using either his splitfinger or possibly his slider instead.
Next Game
The final game of the series will be played at 8:05 pm on Sunday, with Mike Pelfrey going against Adam Eaton. The game will be broadcast on ESPN, so once again I suggest you put the TV on “mute”.
Perez might not look efficient out there, but you can’t argue with his results. Yeah, there were 5 BBs, but none of them scored. And, I like the exuberant, enthusiastic Jose Reyes a lot more than the reserved one. If other teams don’t, well, screw ’em.
Going back to Aaron Heilman, welcome back! Oh–throw the slider a tad more. It’s obvious that hitters aren’t looking for it.
Joe, I agree with you that the frequency of Heilman’s appearances is becoming a concern. Overall, I do think Willie’s done an improved job from seasons past with managing the bullpen. And though I think it’s difficult not to use 3 or 4 relievers every game when your starters are throwing the 100th pitch by the 6th inning and the team only has a 2 or 3 run lead, I think yesterday Willie had an great opportunity to limit the number of relievers he brought into the game, but didn’t capitolize. I’ll explain.
In the 6th inning, after Ollie walked Bruntlett after a 10,000 pitch at-bat, Willie definitely made the right move in bringing in Sanchez to face Rollins. Perez was gassed, and Rollins is a weaker hitter from the left hand side, thus bringing in Sanchez created the better matchup. And the move worked, as Rollins grounded out to end the inning with no runs scoring. However, though the move to bring in Sanchez was correct, how he was brought in is the move I disagree with. The #9 spot was due up for the Mets in the top of the 7th, as Angel Pagan, in the 6-hole, made the final out of the 6th for the Mets. My question is, if Sanchez was due to come up in the 7th, why not make a double switch when he came into the game, and put Endy Chavez in LF batting 9th, with Sanchez batting 6th? That way your not wasting Sanchez for just 1 out. To further back up my point, the Phillies were going to have Taguchi and Werth leading off the bottom of the 7th, two more right handed bats who Sanchez could and should have been left in to face. And then, if all goes well, Willie can bring in Feliciano to face Utley and Howard, then bringing the game to the 8th in which Joe Smith would face Burrell, Feliz, and the rest of the righties at the bottom of the Phillies’ order. Instead, Willie opted to start the bottom of the 7th with Schoeneweis facing Taguchi and Werth, which I though would be a recipe for disaster. However, the Show got them out before giving up the homer to Utley. But in my opinion, with better management from Willie, neither Heilman nor Schoeneweis would have gotten into the game, and the Mets still would have had all the right pitching matchups, as well as a better defender in LF with Chavez in the game. That’s my major gripe. Again, like you say Joe, Willie’s decisions didn’t cost the Mets yesterday, but eventually they will, and I just hope he can look in retrospect to yesterday’s game and learn how to optimize his bullpen better and implement double switches with more efficiency.
Anyhoo, a 5 game overall winning streak, a 4 game winning streak vs. the Phillies, and the prospects of a series sweep in Philadelphia have me all but giddy. I would absolutely love to see the Mets’ bats finally explode against Adam Eaton. To say that’s way overdue is an understatement.