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July 18, 2010 Mets 2010 Games Joe Janish

Mets Game 91: Loss to Giants

Giants 8 Mets 4

The good news is that the Mets finally scored. The bad news is they have lost their first series of the second half.

Game Notes

Hisanori Takahashi started out well, retiring the first three batters he faced. Things changed in the second inning, however, when Buster Posey led off with a double to start a five-run rally. Posey hit a solo homer an inning later, and Takahashi was removed from the game after 2 2/3 innings. By the time he found a seat in the dugout, Tak had allowed 6 earned runs on 7 hits and a walk, including two homers. Ouch.

In addition to his offensive prowess, Posey impresses me with his work behind the plate. Particularly, I like the way he receives the ball, catching the side of it instead of the back (as most catchers do). It makes a difference in presenting the pitch to the umpire, and negates the need to “frame” or ease the mitt back into the strike zone. A perfect example was his catch of a called strike three against Ruben Tejada in the fifth.

The Mets were scoreless through 24 consecutive innings before Ike Davis dumped one into the drink. They also had scored in only 3 of their past 45 innings prior to Davis’ blast. The last Met to score before Carlos Beltran was Jesus Feliciano, who was sent to the minors a week ago.

Davis hit two homers, both mammoth blasts. Unfortunately, it didn’t matter.

Josh Thole rapped another pinch-hit and is hitting over .500. Any day now we can expect SNY / the Mets hype machine to start comparing Thole to Pete Rose.

Chris Carter also had another pinch-hit single. At least the subs can hit. Which makes you wonder why they’re on the bench and not in the starting lineup.

Carlos Beltran hit a triple and a single. His defense was a little off, though, as a few baseballs zipped past him in center that he normally would run down. It could be more a matter of not being in the outfield against the speed of MLB hitting as opposed to a physical limitation.

Ruben Tejada was hit by a pitch in the ninth inning — it was his sixth HBP in a little over 100 plate appearances. I’m starting to wonder if young Ruben has a problem seeing the baseball — i.e., maybe he needs an eye exam. I’m not trying to be funny, I’m serious — it seems like he is not recognizing pitch location as early as he should.

The Mets mounted a mild rally in the ninth that was extinguished by Brian Wilson, who threw four pitches to earn his 25th save of the season.

My father-in-law watched the game with me and commented, “one thing you can always count on during a Mets game — you’ll see a lot of hitting”. Um …

Next Mets Game

The final game of this four-game series begins at 4:05 PM EST on Sunday afternoon. Johan Santana faces Jonathan Sanchez in an attempt to avoid a sweep.

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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. gary s. July 18, 2010 at 12:28 am
    turn out the lights, the party’s over.At least we don’t have to worry about a september collapse this year.they have the decency to quit in july this year.
  2. tomterif July 18, 2010 at 2:33 am
    Joe, nice aside about the way Posey receives the ball from the side on a lot of pitches. I’ve been catching off and on for 40 years and along the way I learned how you can get calls on the corners easier by framing the glove horizontally rather than vertically and trying to move the glove to steal a pitch (which most umps don’t appreciate). That Posey is doing this already speaks to his advanced ability behind the plate.
  3. Steve July 18, 2010 at 7:55 am
    Agree that the subs should be starting more. Carter is clearly a better hitter than Francoeur, who should be traded away, now that Beltran is back. And start Thole more! Too bad Cora will be here next year, but at least Tatis will be gone (right, Omar?).

    We should be able to obtain Lilly or even Carmona in a trade, and send Takahashi back to the pen….

  4. gary s. July 18, 2010 at 10:34 am
    the problem with this team is that they never learn from their mistakes,reyes’s injury last year killed this team.how does the front office go into 2010 with a back up for reyes who is washed up (cora) or who is not ready (tejada)??Of course than our idiot manager sits our bestt player (pagan) bats tejada leadoff and bay second?? if that’s not bad enough, the worlds worst starting pitcher, ollie perez will be back in the rotation soon.