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July 31, 2011 Mets 2011 Games Joe Janish

Mets Game 108: Loss to Nationals

Nationals 3 Mets 2

You can’t blame Scott Hairston for this one.

Mets Game Notes

Scott “The Hammer” Hairston came in as a pinch-hitter in the 7th and blasted a solo homer off LOOGY Sean Burnett. Hairston hit a second homer off of closer Drew Storen in the ninth. And that was the extent of the Mets scoring. One wonders if Hairston had started the game, might he have hit four dingers? Only The Shadow knows.

Jonathon Niese allowed two runs on 8 hits and no walks in 5 1/3 innings. It wasn’t a terrible outing, but it wasn’t tremendous, either. Niese threw well through the first five frames, then kind of came apart in the sixth. I’m not sure if he was throwing cutters that didn’t cut or poorly placed fastballs, but Niese was giving the meat of the Nats order flat, belly-high pitches over the middle of the plate, and as a result was hit hard.

Meantime the Mets offense collected nine hits but couldn’t get anything going. Jordan Zimmerman successfully worked out of a couple jams and no one other than Hairston had a hit off the Nats bullpen.

Jose Reyes ended his temporary skid with a 2-for-4 day. Dan Murphy also went 2-for-4.

Next Mets Game

The Mets return to Flushing for a ten-game homestand, and will be hosting the Marlins for a three-game set beginning on Monday night at 7:10 PM. Mike Pelfrey faces Javier Vazquez in the opener.

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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. Midwestern Met July 31, 2011 at 5:13 pm
    So we went 6-4 on the road trip, pretty good, but series losses in Florida and Washington kinda put a damper on things. Could’ve done more.
    • SiddFinch July 31, 2011 at 6:54 pm
      They could’ve and should’ve went 8-2 on the trip, bookending an inspiring sweep of the Reds with lackluster series vs Fish and Nats just doesn’t cut it. Neither does Parnell’s double dip of Sunday horror shows. A 6-4 road trip is definitely nice, but they left some W’s on the table too.
    • Joe August 1, 2011 at 7:16 am
      The Mets went 6-4, ending up with scoring two runs against a mediocre team in two games, against mediocre teams, helped by the Reds playing particularly lousy. That isn’t really good. The five game winning streak just made it seem that way. They lost two of three series. No sale.

      That slow water torture ending didn’t help any.

  2. gary s. July 31, 2011 at 11:30 pm
    Collins has been great this year, but i wish he would stop putting willie harris in the lineup.If i see him take one more strike 3 with the bat on his shoulder, i’m going to scream.Also he should bench Bay and play Hairston every day in left the rest of the year,Hairston is not much of a hitter, but he haa legitimate power and in part time play he has more homers than Jason Bay.Bay nas now reached Castillo and Ollie Perez territory for me.He is painful to watch and he is killing this team.Hairston might actually scare a pitcher or two with a bat in his hand.The only people Bay scares are Met fans
    • Joe August 1, 2011 at 7:17 am
      Bay is actually showing a bit of life of late and has two more expensive years. So, let’s bench him! 🙂
      • gary s. August 1, 2011 at 9:53 am
        Your parameter for “a bit of life” is much wider than mine.He was signed to hit home runs and knock in runs.He is an utter failure after 2 years and with beltran gone we need at least one outfielder who can hit a home run once a week.Pagan stinks and duda is a question mark.I am through waiting for Bay to hit.Wright got closer to the plater since his return with great results.Bay is 2 miles from the plate and seems content to steal the mets money for another 2 years.Collins should try someone elsde who’s name is not willies harris in ledt field
        • Joe August 1, 2011 at 10:42 am
          Your comments on how bad the Bay signing was is not responsive to my comment.

          Bay is here and will continue to be here. He is actually hitting some now. It is perverse to sit him now of all times. In the last four games alone, he has four RBIs. It’s nice to have a bat like Hairston on your bench. He did his job yesterday. Let him continue to do it.

        • gary s. August 1, 2011 at 11:46 am
          six bombs and 38 rbi’s in august equals a place on the bench for me.Do you want another 2 years of this has been killing us with men on base?I don’t.
        • Joe August 1, 2011 at 1:38 pm
          I don’t know what either will do in August.

          Anyway, you are talking past me. You think the Bay trade was lousy. I’m not saying it wasn’t. I’m not saying I want to keep Bay for two more years.

          But, Bay is here. He actually has been hitting of late. This is a pretty ironic time to bench the guy. If you want to put him on waivers, go right ahead. If not, let him play and hit, and we can dream that some team will think he has some value and if the Mets eat a lot of salary, they will take him.

        • izzy August 1, 2011 at 3:48 pm
          If you want to bench Bay for the year you would have a bit of credibilityif you called for giving the job to a kid to see what he can become but to call for Hairston as a regular gives you no credibility. Unless of course you think that trading Beltran and KROD was to let you win the wild card this year.
  3. Timo August 1, 2011 at 9:30 am
    Too bad Scott Hairston didn’t do this on Sat. We could have traded him 🙂 I don’t understand this team, we are not good but not bad. It actually has been more enjoyable watching the Mets this year than the last 2 years. Don’t understand why we didn’t at least trade our “loogy” (as joe would say). BUT I hope some of these guys get thru waivers and we can get something for them in Aug. We’ll see. Sandy has a plan in place BUT I don’t understand what it is.
  4. Walnutz15 August 1, 2011 at 2:19 pm
    Boy, that Daniel Murphy really has a high Baseball IQ – doesn’t he?