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September 18, 2009 Mets 2009 Games Joe Janish

Mets Game 148: Loss to Nationals

Nationals 6 Mets 5

Nationals closer Mike MacDougal did everything in his power to give the Mets an exciting, come-from-behind victory in the ninth inning, but eventually stumbled into his 16th save in Inspector Clouseau style.

Mike Pelfrey pitched seven innings, which was a positive. He allowed five runs (four earned) on eight hits and no walks, which was neither positive nor negative. Nice outing in terms of innings-eating, but not much else.

On the other side, J.D. Martin held the Mets to two runs on seven hits in 5 1/3 frames. The Mets best chance to score runs came after MacDougal entered the game. The fireballing righthander nailed down the final out of the 8th but walked two in the ninth with a four-run lead to set up a three-run rally that ended with a comebacker off the bat of Jeff Francoeur with the winning run on second base. Oh well.

Notes

Francoeur had three hits, using a nice inside-out swing to dump base hits into right-center. He might’ve had four if MacDougal didn’t knock down the ball in his last at-bat. The ball, by the way, knocked off MacDougal’s glove — it was a hard smash.

Pelfrey’s efficiency was good — he threw only 90 pitches in his seven frames, walking no one. His curveball looked pretty good, and he threw it at a nice change of pace velocity — around 76-78 MPH. If he would throw that instead of the slider early in the count, and learn to mix in a change-up, he’d turn into the frontline starting pitcher we’ve been waiting to see. His biggest issue — other than lack of a reliable offspeed pitch — is that batters can tee off on the fastball when he falls behind in the count. A good changeup and/or curveball would counteract that problem.

This is the Mets’ first six-game losing streak since 2005

Next Mets Game

The Mets and Nats do it again at 1:10 PM on Saturday afternoon. Rochester’s Tim Redding faces Long Beach’s John Lannan in a matchup of New York natives. I’ll be here participating in a golf outing for this former teammate and will watch the replay on DVR, so don’t expect a post until late tomorrow night.

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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. isuzudude September 19, 2009 at 10:40 am
    My observations during and after this game:

    1. Regardless of what records may indicate, the Mets are, right now, the worst team in baseball. They have a #4, three #5’s, and a pitcher who will be limited to no more than 80 pitches in every outing in their rotation. They have an over-worked, under-manned bullpen with a broken down closer. They have nothing but a bunch of punchin’ Judys in the lineup. And they have a manager more interested in thinking up his post-game excuse for a lost game/season rather than managing his way to a victory.

    2. And observation #1 leads me to believe the Mets won’t win another game the rest of the season. They will finish out the year on a 20 game losing streak with an overall record of 63-99. Really, at this point, does anyone here think that’s out of the question? I sure don’t. But hey, at least they won’t lose 100!