Mets Game 54: Win Over Cardinals

Mets 6 Cardinals 1

Wins come easy when you don’t let the other team score.

Mets Game Notes

Jonathon Niese seems to be following a pattern: good game, bad game, good game, bad game. On this Sunday night, it was “good game” time, and he pitched as the pattern might have predicted, striking out 10 and walking only one while shutting out the Cards through six strong innings.

Despite his stunning performance, I still don’t like Niese’s arm angle and his side-to-side momentum — it keeps his fastball flat and usually prevents him from getting on top of the curve. In this game, though, he stayed on top of the curve well, and got many of the swings and misses from his tight-breaking deuce. I have to wonder, though, if opposing hitters will eventually be able to see the arm angle difference between the high overhand release on the curve and the low 3/4 release on all other pitches.

What’s going on? Are the Mets starting pitchers THAT good, or the Cardinals hitters that bad? And if the Mets pitchers ARE that good, why did it take this long for them to work their way into first place? Or maybe it’s just a matter of timing — hot pitching running into cold hitting. Though, I don’t put much stock into the theory of pitching running hot and cold.

Speaking of cold, where was Matt Holliday this weekend? Isn’t he supposed to be a decent hitter? The only time I noticed him was when he was misplaying balls in left field.

Elvin Ramirez made his MLB debut, and it looks like he can throw pretty hard and keep it down in the zone. I will reserve any other judgment, though, as pitchers tend to be nervous and/or amped up in their debuts. With that in mind, entering a 6-0 game was a perfect time to make his first big league appearance.

Usually I prefer to watch the Mets with Gary, Keith, and/or Ron in the booth, but I enjoyed listening to Orel Hershiser and Terry Francona do the color commentary for ESPN. Both give great insight as to what the players and manager are thinking at different moments during a game.

Next Mets Game

Mets go for the sweep on Monday afternoon, game time is 1:10 p.m. Pitching matchup is Dillon Gee vs. Kyle Lohse.