Mets Game 151: Loss to Braves

Braves 11 Mets 3

Thank goodness this game was played on the same night as the premiere of House MD. And thanks to Patrick Misch for allowing the score to get out of hand with minutes to spare before the 8 PM start time for House.

Unfortunately, the first episode of House MD was nearly as bad as the game. So it was a tough night all around. The good news for Dr. Gregory House is, he’s out of the mental hospital. The bad news for the Mets is, there are still 11 games to play in 2009.

Misch was blasted in his 1 1/3 innings. Three of the first dozen batters he faced hit homeruns. I won’t get into the gory details.

Meanwhile Derek Lowe and Kenshin Kawakami combined to allow three runs on seven hits in nine innings, walking none and striking out eight. It took the Mets six pitchers to give the Braves eleven runs.

Notes

Even my wife wanted to know why it took so many Mets pitchers to finish this laugher. No one could play the role of sacrificial lamb? The only surprise was that we saw neither Sean Green nor Pedro Feliciano.

It’s games like this when I wonder, “where the heck is Adam Bostick, and if he’s not here now, why is he taking up a spot on the 40-man roster?”

The one bright spot of the ballgame was Daniel Murphy, who is on fire. He hit another double — his 36th — and another homer (11th). He is now the Mets’ most ferocious slugger and maybe all those nasty bloggers need to pipe down about his perceived lack of power. Oh wait, that includes me, doesn’t it?

Though Murphy jacked one, no other Mets did. Hmm … every other team can hit balls over the fence at Citi Field …

I feel like every time Bobby Parnell takes the mound, Ron Darling can’t prevent himself from saying “the kid’s got GREAT stuff”. Ron, please elaborate. I see a “live arm”, meaning, he can throw the ball in excess of 95 MPH. Otherwise, I’m not seeing much at all in the way of “stuff”. No sharp breaking ball, no hellacious change-up, no outstanding movement (nor command) on the fastball — nothing that I would define as “great stuff”. Great arm, yes. Great stuff, no.

Brian Stokes is doing this strange extra-rotation thing when he lifts his leg, which I’ve never noticed before. I guess he’s trying to get a little extra on the ball, since he’s no longer hitting 97-98. Or maybe it’s been a while since I’ve seen him on the mound. He’s thrown 62 pitches in the last two days — which is like a K-Rod four-out save attempt.

The Mets have now lost 14 of their 20 games in September. That’s exactly 70% of their ballgames. But here’s one way to look at it: they’re failing as often as the best hitters in the game.

Next Mets Game

The Mets and Braves do it again at 7:10 PM on Tuesday night. Nelson Figueroa faces Jair Jurrjens.