Mets Game 111: Loss to Phillies
Phillies 6 Mets 5
Not even seven homegrown players in the lineup could beat Roy Halladay and the Phillies.
The Mets had seven fruits of the farm in their lineup: Jose Reyes, David Wright, Angel Pagan, Ike Davis, Josh Thole, Ruben Tejada, and Fernando Martinez. Yet, all that fruit — some of it very fresh — did not produce a win.
Though, the two individuals who were NOT home-grown — R.A. Dickey and Carlos Beltran — did nothing to help the team win. In fact, the loss was more or less the fault of Dickey. So perhaps if the Mets try this again with Jonathon Niese or Mike Pelfrey on the mound, the result will be different. It may even help to bring back Jesus Feliciano or Nick Evans so that there can be a full nine from the farm in the lineup. Such a setup would have to bring success.
Game Notes
Not a good day for R.A., whose knuckler was pounded pretty hard. He was gone after 3 innings and 6 runs (4 earned), and gave up 8 hits and a walk. Jerry Manuel thought Dickey looked “too strong”, whatever that means. Something about him being in Dire Straits?
Homegrown catcher Josh Thole went 3-for-4 with a double and a run scored and threw out Greg Dobbs attempting to steal. What was Dobbs doing trying to steal? Not sure, since he already has his one for the year (he has 9 in 7 seasons in MLB).
Thole’s performance was encouraging. I now think he has a good shot to be at least as good as Jason Phillips. Similarly, Tejada has been impressive in these last two games with his flashy defensive play, leading me to believe he is ALREADY as good as Anderson Hernandez.
The “farm team” did a nice job of fighting back, but it was too little, too late. Roy Halladay didn’t have his best stuff, but somehow gritted his way through 7 innings. Somehow, Brad Lidge managed not to blow it in the 9th. Compare / contrast to Johan Santana and Francisco Rodriguez in the first half of 2010.
Carlos Beltran went 0-for-4 before being double-switched out of the game when Pedro Feliciano came on in relief. Did anyone ever think THAT would happen, ever?
Jose Reyes and Angel Pagan were a combined 4-for-8 with 3 runs, 2 RBI, and 2 SBs as they set the table all day. Unfortunately, Beltran, David Wright, Ike Davis, and Fernando Martinez were a combined 2-for-16 behind them.
The Mets have not won back-to-back in something like 41 games, going back to late June. Think about that.
The Braves won on Sunday, so the Mets are now 9.5 games out of first place.
Next Mets Game
The Mets get a day off on Monday so they can travel all the way back to Flushing (I assume they are walking, or going by horse and carriage). On Tuesday at 7:10 PM they host the Colorado Rockies, who will be sending Cy Young candidate Ubaldo Jimenez to the mound. The Mets may or may not counter with Mike Pelfrey, who has been working on keeping his arm speed consistent. Why he is working on that, I have no idea, since it has little to do with his recent lack of command.
I assume most would’ve expected Roy to have completely shut down New York. Instead, the team, led by a group of homegrown players, almost took the game. Had Beltran or Wright actually put the ball in play, the outcome might have been different.
Speaking of level of play, why the sarcastic remarks about Thole and Tejada? Would another lineup featuring Castillo and Blanco have been a better choice?
The point is that I watched a much better game than I expected to see. It’s a shame David Wright is standing in the on deck circle when he’s batting and Beltran is still in his first week of spring training.
As for Thole and Tejada, I do not understand what you mean by “sarcastic remarks” — I was paying both of them compliments. Last September I never in a million years thought Thole would ever be adequate enough all-around to be a backup MLB catcher. However I now believe he could be as good as Jason Phillips, who had a very nice 7-year career in the bigs. Tejada I do not believe belongs in MLB right now but I do believe he MIGHT be as good as Anderson Hernandez, who is an above-average MLB fielder. I still need to see Tejada over a longer stretch of time, but he has shown some impressive skills so far.
Additionally, both Phillips and Ahern were personal favorites of mine, so comparing these two unproven youngsters to them is a slightly bigger compliment than normal (for me). My guess is that you either have a much higher opinion of Thole / Tejada or a very low opinion of Phillips / Ahern.
What was that you said about people’s perspectives? 🙂
Surprisingly, Roy has only won 20 games in a season twice in his career. But he’s going to need some of that “Philly Magic” to win 20 this year.
I was not aware that Phillips and AHern were in your “Yes” pile. To me, Phillips’ career seemed to nosedive after one good season. Bummer.
Same with AHern. He’s on his 5th ML team and he’s in his 6th year in the Majors. Let’s hope that young Rubes has a higher ceiling than what other organizations have thought of Andy.