Game 69: Loss To Braves

Braves 9 Mets 8

Halley’s Comet did not appear after all. And the Mets didn’t sweep the Braves in Atlanta, either.

Though, it is rather rare to witness a balk-off victory.

Mets Game Notes

R.A. Dickey was awful, but the Mets hitters bailed him out of a loss. Yes I know the Mets lost the game but Dickey was not charged with it. The knuckleballer gave up 6 runs on 6 hits and 3 walks in 4 innings.

Pedro Beato pitched a perfect inning of relief but I do not like the way he looks. He’s following through completely upright, which is different from what he was doing earlier this season. When you finish like that, without bending your front knee and getting your head in front of the knee at the release, the arm and shoulder absorb all of the stress of the arm’s deceleration. He’s also losing velocity and extending the distance between release point and the plate by staying upright. Bad, bad, bad.

YAMHGFJR (Yet Another Multi-Hit Game For Jose Reyes). Reyes also has 100 hits already. As Mel Allen might say, “How about that???!!!”.

In addition to driving in a run and scoring two, Justin Turner walked three times and saw 32 pitches. 32. That’s, like, a lot.

Scott Hairston was 2-for-4 with a game-changing 3-run homer while starting in CF. The Mets signed him because he hits homeruns, and that’s what he did. I still have a hard time separating him from visions of Rod Barajas.

A key point in the game came when Jonny Venters threw a third-strike wild pitch to Scott Hairston, allowing Carlos Beltran to score from third. Kids who catch, take note: do not EVER, EVER try to catch a wild pitch. Once the ball hits the ground, your job is to block the pitch with your body. Your glove should be plugging the hole between your knees. On that pitch, McCann moved less than three inches laterally and tried to catch the ball like an infielder. Sometimes a catcher can get away with that and make a flashy play, but usually, the ball will get by. The proper technique is to get the glove behind the ball, touching the ground, and angled back toward home plate; then the rest of your body will follow behind the glove, in position to block the baseball.

In the top of the 8th, Angel Pagan was ruled safe after eluding a tag on a wild throw by Chipper Jones to first baseman Freddie Freeman. However, Pagan never touched first base, and Freeman tagged him after Pagan fell to the ground — the result of being accidentally tripped by Freeman. I’m curious as to why Pagan was called safe; was it because the umpire thought Pagan touched first base, or because he felt it was obstruction on Freeman’s part?

As a Mets fan, I’d like to stab Chipper Jones in the eye with a pencil As a baseball fan, I stop everything and focus on his at-bats, and have come to appreciate what he does at the plate. He had three hits including a homer and 3 RBI. The man is a ballplayer, and a likely HOFer.

Also as a baseball fan, these do not look like Bobby Cox’s Braves. Their ability to execute fundamentals is seriously lacking. In fact they remind me of the 2006-2010 Marlins. Oh, what a coincidence — Fredi Gonzalez was managing the Fish during that period. But hey, Chipper says Fredi is great and the Braves say he’s great so he must be.

Next Mets Game

The Mets begin interleague play on Friday night in Flushing by hosting the Anaheim/California/Los Angeles Angels. Game time is 7:10 PM and will feature Chris Capuano and Joel Pineiro.