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July 10, 2008 Mets 2008 Games Joe Janish

Mets Game 92: Win Over Giants

Mets 7 Giants 3

Sweep!

Behind the bat of Fernando Tatis, the New York Mets defeated the San Francisco Giants to complete a three-game sweep at Shea.

Tatis went 3-for-5 with two doubles, a homerun, and 4 RBI in pulling his weight as the #5 batter.

The Mets jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the third when Carlos Beltran singled in Argenis Reyes and Tatis followed with a two-run double. John Maine mowed down the Giants until the fifth, when he suddenly lost his touch. After getting a groundout to start the inning, Maine walked opposing pitcher Barry Zito and leadoff batter Fred Lewis before allowing a two-run double to Randy Winn to tie the score (the Giants scored on a wild pitch by Maine in the fourth). Having already thrown 109 pitches, Maine was lifted for Carlos Muniz, who retired Aaron Rowand to end the inning.

David Wright opened the bottom of the seventh with a double and Tatis blasted his fourth homer of the season — and third in his last five games — to put the Mets ahead 5-3. They tacked on two more later in the inning thanks to an error by third baseman Jose Castillo and an RBI single by Jose Reyes.

The Mets bullpen was spotless in four and a third innings of one-hit relief, with Scott Schoeneweis in the right place at the right time to earn his first victory of the season.

Notes

Billy Wagner pitched a perfect ninth, retiring the side on five pitches.

The Mets as a team left 12 runners on base.

Slugging catcher Brian Schneider walked three times to lead the team to a total of 8 free passes against only 2 strikeouts. Nice pitch selection, guys!

Freshly promoted Nick Evans started in left field and went 1-for-4.

Thankfully, David Wright lost out to Corey Hart for the final spot on the NL All-Star roster. I’m very happy to see David taking a break from baseball. After seeing what he can do after just one day off, imagine the kind of rampage he’ll go on after three days’ rest.


Next Game

The Mets begin a three-game series to lead into the All-Star break against the Colorado Rockies at Shea. First pitch will be on Friday night at 7:10 pm, with Oliver Perez going against Aaron Cook.

Joe Janish began MetsToday in 2005 to provide the unique perspective of a high-level player and coach -- he earned NCAA D-1 All-American honors as a catcher and coached several players who went on to play pro ball. As a result his posts often include mechanical evaluations, scout-like analysis, and opinions that go beyond the numbers. Follow Joe's baseball tips on Twitter at @onbaseball and at the On Baseball Google Plus page.
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  1. RockStar78 July 10, 2008 at 8:34 pm
    Is is possible that Tatis could have a resurrection year like Jose Valentin did in 2006? We may get to find out since he’ll probably get a lot of playing time now with Alou done for the season and the uncertain timetable for Church.
  2. murph July 11, 2008 at 12:06 am
    It’s amazing how good this team looks this week:

    – Solid starting pitching
    – Reliable (if not un-hittable) bullpen
    – Two-out rallies
    – tack-on runs
    – Carlos Delgado & Jose Reyes’ resurgence
    – Bench players stepping up in starting roles:
    (Chavez, Easley, Castro)
    – Newer bench players contributing:
    (F-Tat & Argenis “the other” Reyes)

    With all these nice developments, it is easy to be optimistic.
    I just hope they are not just fooling us (and general management) into thinking this is a contending team.

    Keep it up fellas! You gotta believe. (and we wanna believe).

  3. isuzudude July 11, 2008 at 6:17 am
    Murph, as long as you keep the mentality of “I hope we win” instead of “we better win,” you will not get fooled. Maybe last September and this season’s first half were reminders from the gods to learn to appreciate winning and not expect it.

    I understand your point, Joe, in having Wright rest during the all-star break, but it sure would have been nice to see more than just Billy Wagner represent the Mets in their own hometown, albeit someone else’s stadium. More than anyone, I’d say Wright embodies the passion and desire we want the Mets to emulate, so he would be the best representative of the team at the all-star game. Even so, he, Johan, and Reyes certainly deserved to make the squad with their first half performances, but I guess ballot-stuffing in Chicago and Milwaukee win out over common sense.

    Anybody else finding themselves checking in on the Phillies’ scores on a nightly basis, and cheering uncontrollably when they are losing? I know that’s a common characteristic of a Met fan…but anybody finding their symptoms strengthening?

  4. David W. July 11, 2008 at 8:16 am
    I even logged on to Gameday to watch the 9th inning of the Phillies-Cardinals game. Felt weird to root for the Cards, but felt great to care about how the first-place team was doing.

    Weird play of the day–Beltran runs through Aguayo’s stop sign after Tatis’ double, and then scores easily without a throw. Why was Aguayo trying to hold him up?

  5. RockStar78 July 11, 2008 at 12:40 pm
    David W. – maybe Aguayo was trying to hold Beltran at third because his stupid decision to send Easley on Pedro’s single last week was still fresh in his mind?
  6. Micalpalyn July 11, 2008 at 1:33 pm
    Great commentary. especially you joe.

    1. Any rhetoric on wagners comments as seen on Metsblog?

    2. Maine: Gets pulled by Jerry after 4 2/3? Talk about a quick hook (regardless of pitch count). Maine will get a week+ off.

    3. Apology: I am sorry about jinxing Moises. after saying he was ‘Barry Bonds…all but retired …We get news he is out for the year.

  7. sincekindergarten July 11, 2008 at 4:35 pm
    ID, I find myself being enthralled by the Phiithies’ woes. More so, the further the season goes on. Even more when the Mets are winning and the Phillthies are losing.

    Now, here’s a bit of a surprise, at least for me–I’m now of the mind that Omar and Jerry should get on the phone to the B-Mets and say, “We’re calling F-Mart to Shea.” Let’s see what he can do. There’s something to the effect on MetsBlog that, if F-Mart wasn’t injured last year, he’d be at Shea already. If they feel that way about him now, let’s see how he can handle things at Shea. Let him haul DWright’s or Carlos Beltran’s luggage around for a couple of weeks . . . after reeling in fly balls in LF for the Mets at Shea.