Mets Game 132: Loss to Rockies

Rockies 8 Mets 3

We’ll blame it on the thin air.

Three days after watching Bobby Parnell take a step backward, Mike “Mr. Yips” Pelfrey followed suit with a four-inning stint. In those four frames, Pelfrey allowed 7 runs on 6 hits and 5 walks. One of the runs was unearned, but the reason that unearned run scored was because Pelfrey was slow to back up third base on a Todd Helton single. Shame on you, Pelf.

The offense was equally inadequate, managing only one earned run on four hits in six innings against starter Jorge De La Rosa. They had no safeties at all from innings two through five. The most exciting part of the game after the first inning was the seventh, when Cory Sullivan and Angel Pagan hit back to back triples.

Notes

For the umpteenth time this season, Angel Pagan showed why extreme athleticism and raw talent aren’t nearly enough to succeed at the MLB level. During the Mets’ first inning “rally”, Pagan was deked into believing that Luis Castillo’s clean single to center was … something else? Instead of standing safely on second base, Troy Tulowitzki convinced Pagan to inexplicably backtrack toward first, and was easily tagged out. It was a head-scratching, head-shakng, mouth-gaping, and eye-rolling incident.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, after Seth Smith walked, the SNY camera showed Dan Warthen about to leave the dugout to speak with Pelfrey — but Jerry Manuel stopped him from walking out to the mound. On the very next pitch, Todd Helton stroked a prodigious three-run homer into the right field seats to make the score 7-2 and put the game away for the Rox. Not sure Warthen would’ve said anything to prevent the dinger, but it must’ve driven him nuts.

Smith had three hits and scored three runs; Helton had two hits and three RBI.

Is it me, or was there something wrong with this being the game — and the trip — upon which David Wright made his return? Ryan Church, thin air, anyone? While it likely made no difference to David, as long as the season is trashed, why not wait an extra three days, leave D-Wright behind, and have him make his return in Flushing? Just sayin’.

Speaking of strange moves, Carlos Beltran will be playing in Brooklyn later this week. Why? Why not just take it easy the rest of the season, and/or get that micro-fracture surgery? What happens if the bone bruise is aggravated again from being on the field, and surgery is required in, say, March 2010?

I concur with Gary Cohen — the new helmet worn by David Wright reminds me of Gazoo.

My wife has a new name for the Mets: “And … Just Like That”. It refers to the Mets’ habit of losing leads “just like that” — for example, the 2-0 advantage they took in the top half of the initial inning of this game.

She also lamented that, “the only name on the team I recognize is Sean Green — and it’s not even the Shawn Green that I know!”. Sorry, honey.

Gary Cohen sort of suggested the nickname “Broadway Lance” for Lance Broadway. I’m thinking more like, “Off Off”.

The most interesting aspect of this broadcast: finding out that Keith Hernandez knows about Snopes, and Gary Cohen doesn’t. Second place: seeing Keith’s daughter drown a beer while wearing a red “Hernandez is My Homey” T-shirt.

Why does it bother me that I played against Eric Young, Sr. in college and I’m now watching Eric Young, Jr. on my TV? Junior was three years old when I faced his father. How depressing …

Notes

The Mets and Rockies do it again at 8:40 PM EST on Wednesday evening. Tim Redding faces Ubaldo Jimenez. Josh Thole will NOT get the start behind the plate — he needs more bullpen duty to get a feel for the Mets hurlers and the movement of their pitches. The unofficial word is he’ll start on Thursday.