Mets Game 27: Loss to Phillies
Phillies 2 Mets 1
Holding the opposing team to two runs usually means you have a great chance to win — particularly when playing at a hitter-friendly park such as Citzens Bank. Unless, of course, you are facing Roy Halladay.
Mets Game Notes
Jon Niese matched Roy Halladay pitch for pitch through 6 1/3 innings, allowing just two runs on 6 hits and 2 walks. I don’t think you can ask a lefthanded pitcher to do much better than that in Citizens Bank Park — unless his last name rhymes with “free”.
Niese seemed to keep his all-important release point fairly consistent, at an angle I would estimate is around 10:45 to 11:00. That angle allows him to get great rotation on the curveball and good natural sink on his fastball and change. However, the angle dropped to around 10:15-10:30 in the seventh inning, when he hung a curveball to John Mayberry, Jr. that was redirected into the left-field seats. Though, it seemed as though the release point dropped more once Wilson Valdez singled and Niese was pitching from the stretch. So now I wonder if the drop was due to fatigue, or is somehow connected to the stretch position. Hmm….
Meanwhile, Roy Halladay threw 18 consecutive strikes to begin the game; he didn’t throw a ball until there were two outs in the third inning. The last time a MLB pitcher started a game that way was when Sid Fernandez did it in 1990. Halladay finished the game with 109 pitches, 80 for strikes.
All that strike throwing reminded me of Ollie Perez, how about you? BTW Jose Reyes was the batter who watched that first ball, and in fact, Mr. Low OBP saw two balls in that at-bat.
Seeing Halladay still in the game in the 9th inning sent me back to when I was a little kid watching MLB games — the days when pitchers expected to finish what they started and took offense to being removed from the game. It’s unusual in this day and age to see a starter give up a walk in the ninth inning a one-run game and have complete confidence that the manager is not even considering walking out to the mound nor getting someone warmed up in the bullpen. Ah, the old days …
Halladay is now 8-2 all-time vs. the Mets.
Ike Davis’ 11-game hitting streak came to an end.
On a positive note, the Mets did score a run against Halladay.
Next Mets Game
The Mets attempt to avoid a sweep tomorrow by sending Chris Young to the mound against Cliff Lee. For reasons unknown, it is an 8:00 PM start.
Ike Davis failed to tack on a run with less than two outs early one and made the last out. So, if you wanted him up, you had him, but he didn’t do the job this time around.
Hard luck loss for Niese, especially since it required a hit and a sacrifice fly to be given up by Taylor to happen. Had to keep it tied, but the Phillies feed off many a pen late.