Mets Game 1: Win Over Reds
Mets 2 Reds 1
Everything went EXACTLY according to plan, as the Mets edged the Reds 2-1 in the 2009 opener.
Johan Santana pitched 5 innings of shutout ball before allowing a run in the sixth and handing the ball to new middleman Sean Green. Green retired all four batters he faced to bridge the gap to J.J. Putz, who held the Reds scoreless in setting up the save for Francisco Rodriguez.
Danny Murphy blasted a solo homer in the fifth off a tiring Aaron Harang, who had mystified the Mets until running out of gas around pitch #95. He looks to be in pretty good shape compared to last year, and if he can improve his stamina will be a tough man to topple later in the year. Glad he’s in the NL Central.
Murphy drove in the Mets’ second run as well with a bases-loaded groundout in the sixth.
Game Notes
Mets put a number of runners on base early in the game, but couldn’t move them around. I’ll chalk it up to a combination of the weather and Harang hanging tough.
The first at-bats of Luis Castillo and Danny Murphy exemplified why these two are misplaced in this particular lineup. In the first inning, after Jose Reyes singled and stole second, Murphy’s job was to pull the ball and get Reyes to third base. Instead, he fisted a ball to shortstop. Luckily, Reyes still made it to third but the point is that Murphy — despite the homerun he hit in the fifth — is not a pull hitter. In the second frame, Luis Castillo came to bat in an RBI situation with one out and struck out, looking.
We’ve heard a hundred times that Jerry Manuel has had conversations with Castillo, telling him he needs to be more aggressive at the plate — particularly now that he’s down at the bottom of the lineup and will have more RBI opportunities. But does it really make sense to ask a guy to change the hitting approach he’s taken for the last 15 or so years? Castillo is a rare breed: a throwback #2 hitter who takes pitches, bunts well, and punches the ball. In the #8 spot, with the pitcher behind him, he’ll almost never bunt, and will never use his #2 skills with Brian Schneider ahead of him. But hey, if Jerry Manuel wants to keep pounding that square peg into a round hole, be my guest.
The Reds played a sloppy outfield, dropping several balls and letting several catchable balls drop. Perhaps it had something to do with the wet conditions, and compounded by the high number of fly balls hit by the Mets.
Though Santana only allowed one hit in his first five innings, he did walk four in his 5 2/3, which is too many. He also had some trouble putting away hitters once he got to two strikes. I think he threw too many sliders, and wonder if his pitch selection had anything to do with the cold and wet conditions — perhaps he couldn’t get a good changeup grip on the ball?
Putz threw a lot of pitches in the eighth — 22 to be exact. Good thing tomorrow is a day off.
Ryan Church is currently the team’s leading hitter, and tied for the team lead in stolen bases. MVP!
Next Game
The Mets and Reds take the day off tomorrow and come back to play again in Cincinnati on Wednesday. Mike Pelfrey takes the mound against Edinson Volquez. Let’s hope it’s warmer and drier.
Are we really going to have to answer Mets or Peacocks all season long, Joe?
I changed the commenting so that people could comment without having to register. Hope it doesn’t annoy the loyalists, because the idea was to make things EASIER, not more difficult.
I didn’t hear anything specific, but suspect that the Mets didn’t want to pay him 7 figures to come back. Once they obtained Sean Green in the Putz deal, and drafted Darren O’Day, they were pretty set on who would be the handling the seventh inning.
Considering that Jerry Manuel likes to run his middle relievers ragged, I’m a little concerned about Green, and always thought the rubber-armed Ayala was an ideal guy for the 80-85 appearances likely to be made by the main middle man. We’ll see how it pans out.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090321&content_id=4042416&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
^ Reading this article makes my blood boil…typical wuss…didn’t want the pressure and blames everyone else (sure he realizes the pen and himself were part of the problem but it totally sounds like he is deflecting blame here)
Despite what appeared to be solid numbers last year — Schoeneweis put up a 3.32 ERA in 73 games and gave up 55 hits in 56 2/3 innings — he knows he’ll be most remembered for one thing.
“I gave up a homer to [Florida Marlins utilityman] Wes Helms in a 2-2 tie on the last game of the season, and we went on to lose the game,” Schoeneweis says. “It was a solo homer. It wasn’t like I had a four-run lead and gave up a grand slam.
“And I had pitched pretty well in four or five outings earlier that week. But that’s not what gets remembered. What gets remembered is that I blew it and the bullpen blew it, but the fact of the matter is that the team lost.
“Guys didn’t get hits in key situations. Other mistakes were made. I mean, did we as a bullpen contribute to what happened? Of course. But was it all our fault? No.”
I can’t wait ’til this guy gets into a game at Citi…I’ll be there, on the bridge over the bullpen….spewing hatred and expletives…..
Oh yeah, after this article was written, Schoen-blow entered the game yesterday and promptly served up a pretty big homer to Seth Smith (who?!) a LEFTY…….SO glad this overpaid bum isn’t a member of the organization this year.
Good riddance, Scotty.
Joe, you took the words out of my mouth regarding Murphy/Castillo and their places in the lineup, so I won’t harp on that subject.
It was finally nice to see a flawless bullpen session, though, compared to the constant migraine we had to endure for the final 2 months last year. Putz and Krod won’t be perfect, but no bullpen is. All they need to do is be better than what the pen was last year, which is pretty much a foregone conclusion. I was glad Jerry let Green work the 7th after getting the final out in the 6th, and in hindsight Green needed only 11 pitches to record 4 outs, and with the day off today, I don’t think that’s taxing too much from our new middle man.
Good comments, Walnutz. I chuckled when I saw Show struggled in his first outing with Arizona. Actions speak louder than words, I suppose…
By the way, nwaldrop, I disagree on Ayala. Comparing ERAs is one thing, but when you stack up JJ Putz’ stuff against Ayala, there is no comparison. Plus, looking at career ERA statistics exclusively is deceptive. Yes, Ayala’s career ERA is a respectable 3.44, but since he had Tommy John surgery in 2006, his ERA is 4.80. And despite your opinion, Ayala’s ERA after being traded to the Mets was 5.50. Those are the numbers you have to judge Ayala on now, not career ERA. And those numbers come no where close to what Green or Putz will give the Mets in 2009. Keep an eye on Ayala with Minnesota this season and see if his performance there changes your mind in time.
Also, regarding Anderson, fear not because he will undoubtedly be released once Livan Hernandez gets called up to start this weekend. Jerry likely used him yesterday because of the lefty vs righty matchup, and perhaps because Anderson (3/8, .375) faired better than Sheffield (4/18, .222) against Weathers in his career.
I actually like the roster right now. I am suprised at the Sheff addition especially now. If he so dreamed of being a Met imagine if he was here in ’99-04. I look forward to seing his first ABs. Similarly, Jeremy Reed and Darren O’Day. I have seen alot of Reed and I think he could surprise. Agreed tho that it would appear Parnall and Reed could see some air-miles over the next few months. O’Day i think benefits from the Register effect, and he will be carried if he can at least get some outs as a 12th pitcher and do some mopping.
Indeed as Dude points out career ERA is not a great yard stick to measure by. The Seattle media hardly blinked at losing Putz but were more critical of losing Green.
Not sure how familiar you are with Sheff’s Met-laden past, Mic — but essentially….the Mets rejected Sheffield at every turn back in the day (around this very same time-frame 99-200-ish).
Sheff ASKED the Dodgers to trade him to the Mets during the Spring of 2001……coming off the 2000 Subway Series defeat. And I remember them offering up an insulting package, to the tune of something like Darryl Hamilton and Dennis Cook.
Of course, that was the kind of half-hearted “effort” we’d seen from the Mets in the past during the Piazza regime…never really surrounding him with marquee talent; and it’s no question they didn’t actually win anything in terms of real hardware.\
The Dodgers wanted guys like Payton, Alfonzo, Benitez, Piazza himself (which wasn’t happening) — but really, straight up for Prime Sheffield?
I also remember Piazza being somewhat disappointed, that the Mets weren’t more serious about it.
Then, you had the famous anti-Sheff talk coming from Todd Zeile and Robin Ventura — that they didn’t want to trade for Sheffield…..citing his “disruptive nature”.
Meanwhile, the Mets couldn’t wait to get rid of either player — not too long afterwards……and Sheffield was putting up MVP numbers.
Ahh, our Metsies….God luv ’em.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/19/sports/baseball-still-no-welcome-for-sheffield-at-shea.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/Z/Zeile,%20Todd&scp=3&sq=zeile,%20ventura%20Gary%20Sheffield&st=cse
As far as yesterday is concerned, I was happy to see Johan come out and throw well — especially since so many were crying hysterically and wringing their hands over him “not being ready” a month ago.
Time to step up and hit situationally, though — can’t afford not to cash in this year when the opportunities are there.
Mic: it’s “ParNELL” not “Parnall”. If Stokes is a commodity, they better trade him immediately, because that won’t last. His fastball is as straight as an arrow and he has yet to find a complementary pitch to go with it. Stokes reminds me of high school pitchers who say they “have” five pitches, but can’t throw any of them over the plate consistently. Stokes “has” a curve, slider, change, and now splitter, but can get outs with none of them at the MLB level.
Waldrop: it looks like the end of the line for Marlon, barring an injury to someone else.
Walnutz: thanks for the tip on the Scho article … I’m posting one in response, right now. Stay tuned.