Mets Game 47: Loss to Cubs
Cubs 11 Mets 1
This was an overall sloppy, lackadaisical game by the Mets. Maybe Wilpongate had nothing to do with it, but it sure was an incredible coincidence that their worst-played game of the year followed Fred Wilpon’s public tongue-lashing.
Mets Game Notes
Yes, I’m back from a business trip spent abroad. Many, many thanks to young Josh Burton (not to be confused with young Josh Thole) for filling in during my absence. I sincerely appreciate Josh’s effort and I thank you, the reader, for supporting him.
Much of the damage was done in the second inning, as ten Cubs came to bat and scored five runs. But the linescore looked worse than it was, as most of Cubs who reached base did so via flares, squibs, seeing-eye grounders, errors, and hits that could’ve been charged as errors. In other words, Niese was throwing strikes, but the Cubs were “hittin’ ’em where they ain’t”. At the same time, Niese didn’t have great stuff; to me, it looked like his arm was dragging a bit and its angle was lower than usual — resulting in flat pitches and slightly decreased velocity.
Carlos Beltran had a rough night in Wrigley’s right field. He had some trouble negotiating the ball bouncing off the side wall, but in the grand scheme of things it didn’t affect the final score.
Ronny Paulino had an even rougher night, allowing one run to score on a dropped ball, another on a wild throw to first, and allowing runners to advance on a passed ball.
Trying to make a reliever of Pat Misch is like trying to push a square peg into a round hole. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Misch sent back to AAA for a fresh arm (Bobby Parnell?).
By the way, it occurred to me that Misch is a cross between Tom Glavine and Danny Noonan (of Caddyshack).
From the “that was weird” department: slugger Carlos Pena struck out in the second inning when he attempted to bunt for a hit with two strikes. Apparently he has succeeded twice before in such situations, but that still doesn’t make it an intelligent decision.
Aramis Ramirez is a dog. Very disappointing. He could’ve scored on a two-out double in the seventh but lollygagged to third instead (he did eventually score, but the ends do not justify the means). In the ninth, he let a ball go by him rather than knock it down. I don’t care that the Cubs were up by ten runs — there is no excuse for playing less than your best, especially considering the salaries today’s players make.
Darwin Barney? That’s really his name?
Next Mets Game
The Mets and Cubs do it again at 7:30 PM EST on Wednesday night. Dillon Gee goes to the hill against Casey Coleman.
The fact this factoid was readily available suggests we have data for most everything. And, Gary Cohen can rattle off about 90% of it.
Niese wasn’t helped by having to get at least five outs in the second. One earned, and that was generous. That dropped ball there was an error.
Misch was tossed there for garbage time. Made more sense than the “huh?!” move on Sunday.
I thought you might find it interesting with regards to your recent comments about Young’s injury. I might have misunderstood the whole thing, but It seems to me that Bauer and Bundy have a different take on the subject. Anyway, I’m curious who’s right and what’s the Mets organizational philosophy here.
Actually, I’m not completely up to speed on Fred Wilpon’s comments; I’ve only heard a bit about them from talk radio and only had time to quickly scan some of the articles.
As for the long toss debate, thanks very much for pointing out that article. I’m going to take a good long look at it and provide my comments shortly; hopefully by tomorrow.