Mets Game 114: Win Over Padres
Mets 9 Padres 8
The Mets pitchers did everything they could to give the game to the Padres, but those gosh-darn Mets hitters insisted on winning the game. Many thanks to former Met Heath Bell for making this victory possible.
Mets Game Notes
Kind of a disappointing performance from Mike Pelfrey. It wasn’t a terrible outing by any means, but it wasn’t great and further, he lost a three-run lead that his offense had given him. Pelfrey allowed 4 runs on 9 hits and 2 walks through 6 1/3 innings. Again, not bad, not great, but from Mike Pelfrey we hope for so much more. Maybe it’s just me, but one of these days I’d really like to see Pelfrey turn nasty, plow through the opposition, and take a victory. Unfortunately I don’t think he has the demeanor — the “killer instinct” to take full advantage of his god-given physical skills. Sad.
As disappointing as Pelfrey was, the bullpen was even worse — Ryota Igarashi in particular, who did not look confident nor comfortable during his one-inning stint. He nearly threw away an easy bunt play, and after blowing a 93-MPH fastball by Will Venable to get to a 2-2 count, inexplicably decided to throw him offspeed junk (and wound up walking him). The fastball is your friend, Iggy!
But hey, the Mets won, in dramatic fashion, so we should focus on the positive, right? Such as the fact Lucas Duda collected his first MLB walkoff hit, and went 3-for-5 with 2 RBI? Or that the Mets ditched their small ball strategy for long-ball in the first three innings?
Queens native Mike Baxter hit the first pitch he saw as a Met and turned it into an RBI double. In truth, it probably should have been scored a two-base error on Kyle Blanks, who did his best impression of Wily Mo Pena in completely misjudging the fly ball. But hey, Baxter is a hometown kid, and it’s a feel-good story, so let’s not split hairs. Congrats to Baxter; looking forward to seeing more from him.
On another positive note, Jason Bay stayed hot, hitting his ninth homer of the season and 200th of his career. With the blast he joins Larry Walker and Matt Stairs as the only Canadians (not to be confused with Canadiens) to hit 200 HRs.
Next Mets Game
The Mets and Padres do it again on Tuesday night at 7:10 PM. Chris Capuano goes to the hill against Wade LeBlanc.
And so despite the bashings Gary Cohen takes on here at times, I enjoyed his “Little Team That Could” reference at the end of the broadcast.
Ever noticed when Reyes and Wright came back, Bay started to hit. Now Mets needs to IMPROVE their bullpen and I think Mets should shop for bullpen or trade Murphy for a set-up guy for next year. Mets pitchers gave up 8 runs to lowly offense team Padres??? Can Josh Satin play SS? If so, give him a chance. I really dont understand how Mets won today until I forgot Mets were playing outside of their division, go figure.
Free Agent Relief Pitchers:
Danys Baez PHI
Miguel Batista STL
Matt Belisle COL
Heath Bell SD
Rafael Betancourt COL
Blaine Boyer
Jonathan Broxton LAD
Tim Byrdak HOU
Shawn Camp TOR
Matt Capps MIN
Todd Coffey MIL
Clay Condrey MIN
Francisco Cordero CIN *
Lance Cormier TB
Juan Cruz TB
Octavio Dotel TOR *
Kyle Farnsworth TB *
Randy Flores NYY
Frank Francisco TOR
Ryan Franklin STL
Jason Frasor TOR *
Chad Gaudin WAS
Mike Gonzalez BAL
John Grabow CHC
LaTroy Hawkins MIL
Brad Lidge PHI *
Scott Linebrink ATL
Javier Lopez SF
Ryan Madson PHI
Damaso Marte NYY *
Sergio Mitre NYY
Joe Nathan MIN *
Hideki Okajima BOS
Darren Oliver TEX
Jonathan Papelbon BOS
Joel Peralta TB
Chad Qualls SD *
Jon Rauch TOR *
Chris Ray TEX
Dennys Reyes BOS
Arthur Rhodes TEX *
Fernando Rodney LAA
Francisco Rodriguez NYM *
George Sherrill ATL
Rafael Soriano NYY (may opt out)
Brian Tallet STL
Koji Uehara BAL *
Jose Valverde DET
Tyler Walker WAS
Kerry Wood CHC
Jamey Wright SEA
Michael Wuertz OAK
Joel Zumaya DET
I wonder how this guy is.
Sunday, in the 9th, Pagan grounded into a DP to in effect end the game. Monday, Pridie barely advanced to second in what could have been a K/DP started by Pagan.
That’s baseball for you.
What’s even worse is HOU gave up on him and the Mets picked him up just like we gave a flyer on Izzy. Both would have been GREAT trade bait. BUT, never got traded. Go figure.