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June 28, 2011 Mets 2011 Games Joe Janish

Mets Game 79: Win Over Tigers

Mets 14 Tigers 3

Finally, the Mets break the Flushing 500, and do it with a flourish.

Mets Game Notes

R.A. Dickey was struggling through the first four frames, and used smoke and mirrors to work out of jams. Then the Mets exploded to give him a 9-0 lead, and the rest was easy.

Seton Hall Prep graduate Rick Porcello looked like he was throwing BP. Just prior to leaving the game, he threw three straight sinkers that didn’t sink over the heart of the plate, and they were mashed. When Josh Thole goes yard and Willie Harris reaches the wall among those three pitches, you know something is wrong with the pitcher. Yes, you have to credit Thole and Harris for whacking those meatballs (which was mildly surprising, since both have been “take” machines all season), but those long drives occurred because the pitcher allowed them to happen. My point is, don’t expect these two slap hitters to turn into extra-base sluggers anytime soon.

In addition to Porcello having a bad day, the Mets lucked out by facing Daniel Schelereth when he hadn’t thrown in ten days and was rusty. Nice combination that resulted in an offensive explosion.

Jose Reyes was 4-for-4 for the second consecutive game, while also drawing a walk, whacking his 15th triple, and scoring three runs. It was the first time a Met went 4-for-4 in back-to-back games since 2006 — when Jose Reyes accomplished the feat.

Another feat that hasn’t been seen by a Met in a long, long time was the grand slam. After not hitting one since August 1, 2009 — 23 months ago — the Mets hit two grand salamis in back-to-back innings. Jason Bay officially ended the drunken drought in the fourth with a blast off of Schlereth, and it was deja vu all over again when Carlos Beltran victimized Schlereth with another one in the fifth.

Every Met starter had at least one hit; they collected 18 as a team, the most they’ve had all year in a 9-inning game.

Next Mets Game

The Mets and Tigers do it again at 7:05 PM on Wednesday night. Chris Capuano takes the mound against Phil Coke.

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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. gary s. June 28, 2011 at 11:39 pm
    If reyes keeps this up, he will replace carl crawford as the benchmark free agent contract in mlb.Sadly, i don’t think the mets will give it to him.
    • Joe Janish June 28, 2011 at 11:51 pm
      Fred Wilpon was right — Reyes WON’T get “Crawford money”. He’ll get more.
  2. daxmontana June 28, 2011 at 11:50 pm
    Metsblog has this to say about Bay’s slam: “As has been recited ad nauseam, it was the Mets first grand slam since August 1, 2009 and it should take a ton of pressure off the club in future RBI situations.” [sic].

    The missing possession-signifying apostrophe notwithstanding, this conclusion is so ludicrous that I punched my compy screen after re-reading it.

    I’m not a strict Jamesian. I believe pressure can affect performance, even for mlb’ers. But to say that one home run hit in a big rbi situation will have any lasting effect on the team’s psyche is indefensible and pure homerism babble.

    I’m sincerely troubled that this brand of analysis is implicitly sanctioned by the club.

    • Joe Janish June 29, 2011 at 12:02 am
      I’m with you, dax.

      It was a storyline. We need to jump on every little detail in this age of information overload and this city of unreal competition for attention.

      I doubt any Met player ever thought about the no-slam streak while standing at the plate with the bases juiced, even if it had been brought up to them. As a player myself, I never once considered or tried to make up for other people’s past failures. And few players actually try to hit homeruns — especially not in bases loaded situations — so it’s hard to even define it as failure.

      We in the media make up a lot of crap to create storylines; after all, newspaper articles and blog posts need to be published daily and silence needs to be filled. This non-salami streak was one of those fabricated points of interest that never leaked onto the playing field. I’m sure that Bay and Beltran find it comical and sad that anyone even cared that a Met hadn’t hit one in nearly two years.

      BTW, I’m not a strict Orwellian. 🙂

      • daxmontana June 29, 2011 at 12:52 pm
        haha, but isn’t that just what an Orwellian would say? thanks for the thoughts.
  3. gary s. June 29, 2011 at 12:23 am
    Btw, Beltrans grand salami would have been an out at citifield.As would have Reyes double off the fence.Detroit brought their fences in.It’s time for the mets to do the same in 2012..
    • Joe June 29, 2011 at 7:43 am
      If they do, the hitters on other teams will also hit home runs, sometimes more than the Mets. If you like offense, go right ahead. If you want advantage for the Mets, not seeing it.
      • Mike June 29, 2011 at 10:48 am
        Joe, no idea what gary said because I refuse to read his poor grammar and punctuation, but I have a hunch its about Citifield being bigger than Comerica.

        Comerica Park 1.54 HR/game
        Citifield 1.45 HR/game
        AT&T (Giants) .74 HR/game
        Ameriquest Field (Rangers) 2.82 HR/game

        http://www.hittrackeronline.com/stadiums.php

        I put the Tiger’s and Mets field here for comparison. Comerica is basically the same park as the Mets, the .09 difference is really negligible for this argument. I also found it interesting that the two WS teams from last year were at exact opposite ends of the list. Ranger were number one, Giants in last. And the Giants won the WS last year hitting virtually no HRs. Yes they have great pitching, but the Mets would like to have a great pitching staff too in order to win. The Mets would prefer to be the Giants than the Rangers. There’s more than one way to win. Most importantly you need to be good, which the Mets have not been on offense since moving to Citifield. They might be finally putting it together offensively.

        • Joe June 29, 2011 at 8:39 pm
          Interesting. Overall, success would be pitching and good hitting overall. Focusing on HRs is a bad way to go imho.
        • Gary S. June 29, 2011 at 10:36 pm
          I will state my case one more time about the absurd dimensions at citicavern.Shea was a fair stadium to hitters and pitchers.Why not bring the same dimensions to the new ballpark?Hey Mike, you are a baseball fan and you don’t know what a grand salami is?I find that more offensive than my perceived bad punctuation.
  4. SiddFinch June 29, 2011 at 12:54 am
    Since their atrocious one run and blown lead riddled 5-13 start the Metsies are 35-26. Last year after 79 games the Mets were 44-35 and a few weeks away for their collapse. It will be interesting to see what happens in 2011. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see the perceived overachieving continue and the team surprise a lot of doubters going into September.

    The Phils are beginning to look like they might be a redux of the ’07 Mets. The Braves meanwhile are playing over their heads. It’s still a ways off but I predict a September shoot out in the NL East.

  5. SiddFinch June 29, 2011 at 1:10 am
    Mets blog tries to make a comparison between this years team and the 2000 Mets. I don’t see it at all. This is a more talented group and the NL East is stronger. Also, the 2000 Mets weren’t nearly as good as the ’99 team. That being said this year’s Mets have no one of the caliber of Leiter or Hampton in the rotation but I’d give 3 through 5 a slight edge to this year’s squad.