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.

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.
  1. gary s. June 17, 2011 at 12:04 am
    Brutal loss.Braves looked like garbage,Had no life till k-thug grooved the pitch to Conrad.Only 2nd blown save all year, so can’t go crazy.Just hate to miss the chance to sweep the braves in atlanta.Good comparison of Hairston to Barajas.Neither one has a clue at the dish.Just seems like they make up their mind to swing at anything and sometimes the ball hits the bat by accident and it goes over the fence.Maybe they are related.
  2. Josh Burton June 17, 2011 at 12:20 am
    I try to be positive about the Mets especially with the depletion of their roster by injury, but was tonight a game only the Mets could lose? What other team in baseball gets a game-tying, 3-run home run by a bench player, scores a run off a pitcher with a sub-0.50 era, promptly loses the game on a balk!

    I love the Mets and would love nothing more than playoff appearance this year, but for every two steps they take forward, they seem to take two steps back.

  3. Dan N. June 17, 2011 at 6:12 am
    K-Rod has to do his job.
  4. izzy June 17, 2011 at 8:23 am
    An incredible loss. Somewhere in heaven or in Iowa, Marvelous Marv and Harry Chiti and Joe Ginsberg are smiling down on the boys from the Metropolitan Baseball Club.
  5. Mic June 17, 2011 at 9:48 am
    Poor, poor, poor.

    Krod is a great closer, i am firmly on his side. But this is on him. You knew back in the 4th he was going to be called.
    He needs to get a pair of noise cancelling headphones and sit in the clubhouse on a bike untill called. Instead of tossing in the pen, warm up by throwing darts in the training room ( at a picture of armando benitez).

    To boot, this is the second or third time but a 3 game swing would mean alot in the standings and mets clubhouse.

    Joe. Those at bats by turner are EXACTLY, why i criticise dave wright. Dave is 400 times the player turner is..but i guarantee DW takes a swing were j. Turner takes a walk.

  6. A4ANTE June 17, 2011 at 12:59 pm
    Agree that K-Rod needs to do his job and he has not looked reliable as of late, which hurts trade value. Beato looks like he is being tutored by K-Rod and Wathen needs to step in and show him video (Darling pointed it out on tv as well) that he is not following through on his pitches. Unfortunately, Collins made another managerial mistake (about 5 at least that changed the course of winning to losing) in the 10th inning. The Braves had a man on 2nd with 2 out and a hot hitter for the day, Shaeffer at the plate (4 hits going in). Didn’t Collins learn with what happened to Tulowitski earlier this year? Granted, Shaeffer is not Tulu, however you don’t pitch to a hot hitter and set up a force around the infield. They go 3-0 to him and I thought they were going to unintentionally/intentionally walk him, but then they start to throw strikes and he puts the ball in play and Duda misplays it. Instead of first and second with two out, its now first and third two out and the Braves win without having to put wood on the ball! Between Collins making mistakes and the bullpen, this team could be 5 games above .500. Instead, they are where they are, just a medicre team at best with the July 31st trading deadline getting closer that will only take away any resemblance to a competative team.