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April 18, 2009 Latest Post John Fitzgerald

Mets Game 11: Win Over the Brewers

Photo from NJ.com

Photo from NJ.com

The Mets held on for a 1-0 victory over the Brewers, moving their record to 6-5 on the season. Johan Santana was dominant again – striking out 7 over 7 scoreless innings. Santana struck out 7 and didn’t allow a walk.

JJ Putz worked a scoreless 8th and Francisco Rodriguez closed it out in the 9th with a ‘strike ’em out, throw ’em out’ to end the game.

Game Notes:

  • Jerry Manuel wisely put Gary Sheffield in left field, taking pressure off of Danny Murphy – who was largely responsible for Santana’s loss to the Marlins last Sunday.
  • Sheffield still doesn’t look like he is firing on all cylinders at the plate or in the field, but he recovered on a misjudged line drive to make a shoestring catch. That alone was probably worth giving him the start, as Murphy probably would have had trouble on that play.
  • Ramon Castro led off the 7th inning with a walk. Omir Santos ran for Castro and advanced to third when Rickie Weeks misplayed Prince Fielder’s throw to first on Alex Cora’s sacrifice bunt. Jose Reyes then followed with a line shot that knocked off pitcher Carlos Villanueva’s glove – which looked like it wasn’t even on his hand correctly – scoring the only run of the game.
  • Danny Murphy was on deck to pinch hit for Santana in the 7th, but was called back when Castro walked… Jerry Manuel wisely decided to save Murphy from attempting another sacrifice bunt.
  • The last batter of the game – JJ Hardy – inexplicably fouled off a breaking ball in the dirt when Ryan Braun had second base stolen. A few pitches later, Braun again attempted to steal second. This time, Hardy watched a fastball on the corner for strike three. Omir Santos threw a strike to Luis Castillo to throw out Braun to end the game.

The Brewers look like they could be headed for a 90-loss season with their shaky pitching and a combination of mental and physical errors in the field and at the plate. That said, the Mets have won consecutive one run games – this one being much cleaner and better played. Good teams are supposed to win ugly and clean games and that is exactly what the Mets have done in this series. You can’t ask for much more than that.

Tomorrow is the final game of the series. Jeff Suppan (0-2, 12.91) goes against Nelson Figueroa, who is making his first start of the season for the Mets. It should be a wild, high-scoring game.

John Fitzgerald is an independent film/TV producer. In 2007, he followed former Mets 2B Wally Backman and his minor league team for the TV show, "Playing for Peanuts." Click here for DVD ordering information NOTE: $5 from each sale goes to maintenance costs of MetsToday.com
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  1. sincekindergarten April 18, 2009 at 4:08 pm
    Not sure if tomorrow’s game will be a high-scoring affair. Figgy’s a RHP, and most of the Brewers’ hitters are RH, so Figgy should be alright. As for today, Johan Santana was absolutely masterful. Dave Bush didn’t do bad, either.
  2. John Fitzgerald April 18, 2009 at 6:25 pm
    I’ll have to disagree with you there, SK. Both Livan Hernandez and Santana were able to stay one step ahead of Milwaukee’s free swinging lineup. Herendandez eventually ran out of gas, but Santana was able to go deep into the game. Both were too crafty for the Brewers.

    I think Milwaukee is going to tee off on a guy like Figueroa. He has limited talent and he is excitable. If he gets into trouble, it could get ugly.

    But the same thing holds for Suppan. He is more poised, but the guy doesn’t have much chance of shutting down the Mets, unless his control is flawless.

    But we’ll see what happens. Thanks for the comment.

  3. sincekindergarten April 18, 2009 at 8:29 pm
    John, all I can say is . . . we’ll see. I preferred Jon Niese to come up, but Niese got lit up in Miller Park in his first MLB start last year. ND, IIRC. (Then, Niese goes out and shuts the Braves out for eight innings.)

    Apparently, Bailout Field is playing just like a pitcher’s park would–close to Shea played.

  4. John Fitzgerald April 19, 2009 at 3:36 am
    SK –

    I prefer to call it “Debits Field.” I have to give credit to the comments section at MetsPolice.com. Someone over there mentioned it last week.

  5. isuzudude April 19, 2009 at 8:33 am
    The Mets score their only run due to a walk, a botched play at 1st on a sac bunt, and an infield hit. That’s certainly the definition of winning ugly, right there. But if they can win 90 games like this, I’ll take them.

    I’m on the fence over the Figgy-getting-lit-up debate. Firstly, remember Figgy no-hit these same Brewers just a year ago over 4.2 innings and wound up with a 6-inning victory in which he only surrendered 2 runs. So even with his “limited talent” Figgy was able to hold his own. However, just because Figgy is a RHP and the Brewers are chalk full of righty bats doesn’t automatically mean he’ll have a good start. Last week the Brewers teed off on Edinson Volquez, a RHP who won 17 games for the Reds last year. So Milwaukee won’t just lie down because of any old RHP. As they say, this is why they don’t play the games on paper, because anything can happen.