Mets Game 10: Loss to Cardinals
Cardinals 4 Mets 3
If I told you Oliver Perez pitched into the seventh inning, allowing only one run on four hits, you’d probably think that either I had the wrong information or that the Mets won the game.
Yet, Perez DID put up that performance, and the Mets lost.
Wasting a rare occasion of superbness by Perez, the Mets bullpen finally caved, as Felipe Lopez blasted a grand slam homer in the seventh off 32-year-old rookie Raul Valdes to give the Cardinals all the runs they needed to win the game.
As well as Ollie pitched, Chris Carpenter pitched just as well — maybe a bit better — as he held the Mets offense to 4 hits and 3 walks and struck out 10 in 7 full innings. The Mets rallied for two runs against “closer” Ryan Franklin in the ninth, but it was too little, too late.
Game Notes
The Mets hitters were a woeful 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position. They left 8 runners on base.
Jeff Francoeur, buried in the #6 spot, remains red hot, going 2-for-3 with a walk (!) and two runs scored. He’s now hitting .457, and has a hit in every game this year, but it makes more sense to bat Mike Jacobs ahead of him against a righthanded pitcher because, after all, Jacobs hits from the left side.
Frank Catalanotto rapped an RBI single for the Mets second run on the first and only pitch he saw, as a pinch-hitter in the ninth.
Garry Mathews, Jr. scored the Mets’ third and final run but struck out three times.
The Mets’ first run of the game came on a throwing error by Brendan Ryan on a sac bunt by Ollie Perez.
Yes, the bullpen failed. Did you expect them to be perfect through 162 games?
Felipe Lopez hit his first grand slam since April 4, 2008 — he hit that one against the Mets, too, but as a member of the Nationals. For those unaware, Lopez plays both SS and 2B, hits from both sides, and was a free agent this winter. He signed a one-year, $1M contract at the end of February. However, he doesn’t have the clubhouse presence of Alex Cora.
You can get frustrated watching the Mets lose this game, thinking, “jeez, they finally played a good game for nine full innings, and battled, and they still lost”. However, what the Mets need to do is compete and perform like this EVERY game, and eventually the wins will outnumber the losses. You can’t expect a team to win just because they play well — this is the big leagues, and to be a contender you must play well all the time.
Next Mets Game
The Mets and Cardinals do it again at 4:10 PM on Saturday in St. Louis. Johan Santana faces Jamie Garcia.
This was a frustrating one to give away, but Joe, I like your healthy thinking. This was about as “normal” as a loss as we’ve had in a while. Let’s make this kind of game not feel like the end of the world and instead just another game. We’ll definitely win more than lose if we keep playing like we did today, especially as we did for the first 6 innings! If we can beat Carpenter, we can beat anyone!
Eventually you have to question what the small difference is that causes the other teams to be able to close out these games while the Mets come close but can’t pull it off. Jerry Manuel, perhaps?
This loss was just more of the same crap we’ve unfortunately gotten used to and accept as a “tough loss.” And when we look back upon 2010, much like we looked back upon 2009 and 2008, we’ll see a boatload of these tough losses in which this team tried so gosh darn hard only to fall short. This is the big leagues. It’s not pee-wee softball. Trying doesn’t cut it, winning does. And the Mets too often like to think they tried hard enough to win, but things just didn’t break right for them. And that’s crap. Winners win, triers lose.
You really gotta wonder, though: how many more games would the Mets have had a better chance at winning if Chris Carter’s stick was batting 5th or 6th instead of Mike Jacobs’. Forget about batting Jacobs in front of Francoeur; he shouldn’t even be on a ML roster. I’ll steal a line I saw by someone else on a previous thread: only the Mets would bat a guy released by the Royals in the middle of their lineup. They are so far beyond clueless it defies description.
I used to be an overly optimistic fan of the Mets. Now, I’m cynical. My daughter, who was born two-and-a-half years ago today, may be posting pics of her firstborn before the Mets have a decent season again.
I’d rather have jerks who win running this team, than nice guys who lose. Didn’t Leo Durocher (sp?) say something about how nice guys finish?