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April 21, 2011 Mets 2011 Games Joe Janish

Mets Game 19: Win Over Astros

Mets 9 Astros 1

Maybe Terry Collins should get thrown out of the first inning of every game.

Mets Game Notes

Collins argued a call in the first inning and though he didn’t exactly go crazy on the umpire, he apparently spoke enough expletives to get himself tossed. Did that fire up the Mets and motivate them to win this game? You be the judge.

Chris Capuano was outstanding, allowing only one run on 6 hits and 2 walks in seven innings, striking out 4. He also laced his second double of the season, and remains the team’s best hitter with a .400 average and .800 SLG.

Mike Nickeas blasted his first MLB homerun in the third to give the Mets a lead they’d never relinquish. Astros starter JA Happ sped up Nickeas’ bat with a flat slider that Mike knocked high into the left field seats.

Ike Davis also went yard, a pile-on tater to dead center in the 8th.

Hunter Pence “Harrised” a Jason Bay fly ball in the 8th, allowing it to drop and roll to the wall, good for a four-base error that plated both Bay and David Wright.

Oh, and BTW Wright finally broke out of his slump in a big way: 2-for-3 with a walk, a homer, a double, and 3 RBI.

Next Mets Game

The Mets open a weekend series against the Diamondbacks beginning Friday night at 7:10 PM. Mike Pelfrey faces Joe Saunders.

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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. Steve S. April 21, 2011 at 10:33 pm
    The HP umpire should be fined for not asking the 1B ump this question: “What happened?”

    Pagan looked bad at the plate. Who took over his body, Russell Brand?

    If Gee pitches well in his next start, whose place in the rotation should he take, Pelfrey’s?

    Pagan is out for 2-3 games. The Mets will be short on the bench again.

    • Joe Janish April 21, 2011 at 11:55 pm
      HP umpire doesn’t have to ask for help if he doesn’t think he needs it. Apparently he believed he saw the play clearly.

      Depending on what Pelfrey does on Friday, I’d say, yeah, Gee should take Pelf’s place. Would it actually happen? Not sure.

      At least Russell Brand could talk his way into a base hit.

      Not only will they be short on the bench, they’ll have some combination of Harris / Hairston in CF. So much for Bay returning to make the lineup deeper.

      • Izzy April 22, 2011 at 9:28 am
        The umpire didn’t have to ask for help, but what is the big deal. He flaunted his ego and when he looks at the replay he will see how foolish he looked. Isn’t the idea to get the call right? It would have taken 2 seconds to check. I remember when some umpires had egos that prevented them from asking about check swings. Now its the way the game is to make calls better. It was bad umpiring.
      • Steve S. April 22, 2011 at 12:43 pm
        Agree completely with Izzy. Umps need to check their egos with the locker-room attendant.

        Pelfrey SHOULD be demoted if he sucks tonight.

        • Joe Janish April 22, 2011 at 3:06 pm
          I don’t think it is ego as much as it is about establishing authority and protocol.

          Look at this way: if the umpire sought for help every single time a manager ran out to argue, then we’d be seeing manager run out to argue a heckuva lot more often and games would run about 4-5 hours.

          It’s often easy for us to see the “stupidity” of a call from view of the TV camera — especially the CF-mounted TV cam in this case — and to have that stupidity compounded when seeing the slo-mo replays. But in real-time, on the field, it’s a completely different perspective. And umpires DO ask for help — fairly often — without the manager arguing and often on less obvious plays.

          This particular play was a bad call. Even though the umpire thought he saw it clearly, he probably should have asked for help. But he didn’t, and if he didn’t think it was necessary before Collins came out to argue, he certainly should not have done so after Collins asked him to — it’s undermining and challenging to the umpire’s authority.

          That’s not to say Collins shouldn’t have argued — he should have, and should have done so at least a few more times earlier in the season. The reason a manager goes out to argue — generally — is not to influence that particular call but to try to influence future calls and decisions by the umpire.

  2. Joe April 22, 2011 at 8:15 am
    Chris Capuano has basically did his job so far. The job is being the fifth starter, so it is not too strenuous, but going 2-1 and the ‘1’ helped by repeated bad play in the field in the sixth inning against a very good team is quite acceptable. Given the state of the team at the moment, that is appreciated.