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August 26, 2009 Mets 2009 Games Joe Janish

Mets Game 127: Loss to Marlins

Marlins 5 Mets 3

Late summer depression has set in: the days getting shorter, Mets games growing longer.

Somehow, this 2-hour and 40-minute contest felt more like 4-5 hours of Chinese water torture … don’t ask me why.

Mike Pelfrey squandered an early 2-0 lead, eventually allowing 5 runs on 11 hits and 5 walks in 5 2/3 innings, expending 118 pitches.

Josh Johnson scattered 9 hits over 6 innings to beat the Mets for the seventh time against no losses in his career. Former Met Matt Lindstrom threw another dominating innng in setup relief.

Notes

There was some talk in the postgame suggesting that Luis Castillo’s lack of execution on a few plays didn’t help Pelfrey (strangely, no mention of Dan Murphy not helping Castillo with a routine scoop on a low throw at the back end of a DP relay). Maybe Castillo’s poor night did compound a situation or two, but Pelfrey still allowed 16 baserunners through less than 6 innings.

Jerry Manuel thought Pelfrey “was OK”. Huh. Not the descriptor I would’ve used.

Manuel also suggested that had the Mets executed defensively, they would’ve had a better chance to win. No sh**, Sherlock? News flash to the Master of the Obvious: your team has had a problem executing defensively, and fundamentally, since you took over from Willie Randolph. It’s not a coincidence.

Though Murphy was awful in the field on this particular evening, he did collect two hits, including a double that moved Keith Hernandez and Gary Cohen to compare him to Pete Rose and Wade Boggs. Stop. It. Now. This is the exact insanity at the this exact time last year that caused the Mets to pencil in Murphy as the team’s starting leftfielder in February. When Murph gets his average over .270 and his OBP to .320, we can start including him in sentences with everyday MLBers (though, still not HOFers).

Don’t get me wrong, I like Dan Murphy, I really do. But I find it obscenely offensive to compare him to people like Pete Rose and Wade Boggs at this point in his career — it’s an insult to my intelligence, and akin to comparing Omir Santos to Johnny Bench. Let’s see the kid achieve the level of “Major League Average Everyday Ballplayer” (or as the geeks say, “replacement level player“) before comparing him to Hall of Famers, OK?

Fernando Tatis paralleled the weather with a hot night, going 3-for-4 with a double, an RBI, and a run scored — moving Ron Darling to quip in the postgame, “Tatis is not part of the problem, he’s part of the solution”. Dear lord … if a 34-year-old .250 hitter is part of the solution, maybe I’ve misunderstood the problem.

On a positive note, Cory Sullivan made an awesome throw from left field to nail Dan Uggla attempting to stretch a single into a double. He made another impressive throw to home plate later in the game (though there was no play). See, I’m not completely negative.

Next Mets Game

The series finale begins at 1:10 PM on Thursday afternoon. Tim Redding goes against Anibal Sanchez.

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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 27, 2009 at 7:24 am
    Living in the Sunshine State, I take in most or all of the Mets & Marlins games. Because school has already started down here, my son (who will be playing hooky) and I will be one of about 4000 fans in attendance for the getaway game.

    I wonder if my son will feel like it’s more like detention than entertainment. With Tim Redding on the hill, it’s almost a certainty to be the former.

  2. isuzudude August 27, 2009 at 9:47 am
    Funny stuff, C-dog. Maybe your son will choose to misbehave at the game so he can be ‘expelled’ from the stadium.

    Joe: agree 100% on Gary Cohen’s terrible references. I thought, “here we go again with the Wade Boggs bullcrap.” All it took was for Murph to get his average to .260 and Cohen’s already putting the kid in the HOF. Like the players, I know Cohen is pretty much playing out the season at this point, but he needs to be a little more responsible with some of the things he says to a large, and easily persuaded, viewing audience.

    Though I wouldn’t be so harsh on Murph’s defense. He did make two nice backhanded plays in the 1st inning. The inability to scoop Castillo’s throw was pivotal, as it allowed a run to score, but that was still a tough play to make.