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August 18, 2009 Mets 2009 Games Joe Janish

Mets Game 119: Win Over Braves

Mets 9 Braves 4

At least the Mets have the opportunity to play the role of spoiler.

This game began like a typically bad Ollie outing — early on, they fell behind 4-0 and looked like they wouldn’t do much against Atlanta ace Derek Lowe.

Then in the fourth frame, a line drive ricocheted off Lowe’s glove hand, and it was as if a light switch turned off his effectiveness, because the Mets then exploded for 8 runs on 10 hits to knock Lowe out of the game.

Meanwhile, Oliver Perez managed to “hold” the Braves to “only” those four runs through the fifth, before yielding to Elmer “Glue” Dessens. Dessens, Pedro Feliciano, and Brian Stokes finished it up to preserve the victory.

Notes

The bright side: Ollie earned a victory. The not-bright side: he wasn’t terribly effective. Perez allowed four runs on five hits and a walk, including a three-run homer by Matt Diaz and a solo shot by Adam LaRoche. Jerry Manuel got him out of the game as soon as he could while still pitching long enough to be credited with the win. Two more years and $24M for a pitcher who has evolved into a fifth starter.

The Mets banged out 17 hits on the evening.

Luis Castillo, Gary Sheffield and Jeff Francoeur all went 3-for-5 on the day, with Castillo and Sheff driving in two runs apiece. In any other park, Francoeur might’ve had two homers — he hit two blasts off the Soot Monster.

In the remarkable fourth frame, every Met in the lineup had a hit except for Dan Murphy, who made two outs in the inning.

Next Mets Game

The Mets and Braves do it again at 7:10 PM on Wednesday night in Flushing. Bobby Parnell faces Jair Jurrjens.

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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. CatchDog August 19, 2009 at 7:36 am
    Eight runs in ONE inning?!! With that lineup?!! The Mets may have lost their leadoff, 3rd, 4th and 5th place hitters, yet found the testicular fortitude to smack Derek Lowe right in the snot box.

    Lollie is sooo bad. But he and Boras are laughing all the way to the bank.

    Madoff robbed the Wilpons behind their backs. Boras smiled and did it right to their faces…

  2. Walnutz15 August 19, 2009 at 8:14 am
    Random Question, since I rarely go to this site anymore — just randomly did this morning, for some reason or another:

    Does Matt Cerrone watch the same game that we do?

    “Impressed” with Oliver Perez’s performance?

    4 runs on 5 hits – 2 homeruns, in 5 innings. . .

    Quite impressive.

    Thanks for keeping things real, Janish.

  3. joejanish August 19, 2009 at 8:29 am
    Catchdog, I like that: “Madoff robbed the Wilpons behind their backs. Boras smiled and did it right to their faces…” LOL!

    ‘nutz, easy on Cerrone … he obviously has very, very low expectations for Ollie, as we all do. If you expect Ollie to give up 8 runs on 6 walks and 10 hits in two innings, then last night’s “performance” could, technically, be described as “impressive”, no?

    😉

  4. Walnutz15 August 19, 2009 at 9:29 am
    Perez is livin’ the good life.

    Nuthin’ between his ears, a fat-cat contract for the next 2 seasons — and a knee-“injury” to gimp off onto, whenever he feels the need.

    I’m just wondering if this team can ever do something flat-out “positive. Period.

    …..Without the accompanying side-story…..

  5. nwaldrop August 19, 2009 at 1:10 pm
    I think the standards of this team were lowered a few months back when mediocrity became acceptable, when the “treading water” philosophy of Manuel was instituted. After that I saw Tim Redding get a standing ovation at Citi Field for “only” giving up four runs in 7 innings. Soon getting to five hundred was an impossible dream for this team, and last week Manuel’s new policy of having the players in the team at least “look like proffesional ballplayers” was instituted. By the end of the season showing up to the game will be the only criteria for this ball club.
  6. isuzudude August 20, 2009 at 12:00 pm
    I was at the game and was perplexed when Kevin Burkhardt, while giving his report on the pitching probables on the big screen, mentioned that Ollie’s been “spectacular” over his last 3 starts. “What exactly is so spectacular about 6 hits and 6 walks over 5.1 innings?,” I asked my girlfriend. Alas, Joe, you must be right that expectations have been lowered so far for Ollie that anything less than giving up 3 grand slams in a game is a solid performance.

    I also managed to catch an Angel Pagan home run ball during batting practice. At the risk of sounding like I’m 6, man that was cool! After I caught it I looked into my glove to actually see if it was in there, and a guy standing closeby said, “Next time open your eyes.” I figure that’s some pretty good advice.

    The 8-run inning was crazy. Hit after hit after hit. What Bobby Cox was thinking leaving Lowe out there for so long is beyond me. After Perez got a hit on a 2-strike count I thought for sure Lowe’s day was done, but Cox left him out there for 2 more batters. But I’m not complaining!

    It was also my first trip to Citi and I gotta say, though the stadium is beautiful and a definite upgrade over Shea, it’s not as alluring as all the hype makes it out to be. To me, it’s just another baseball stadium with some quirky outfield angles and a lot of expensive food. I like the new outfield seating, and I think the sound system and television availability is much improved. But other than that I wasn’t overly impressed by anything. There are certainly some very bad viewing angles around the park. I don’t like the color scheme. The Jackie Robinson rotunda is bland. The eating area is extremely tight and packed together. Maybe I’m just being picky. To me, it’s a nice place and I’m sure it’ll grow on me, but my initial in-person impression was that is was good, but not great.