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June 23, 2012 Mets 2012 Games Joe Janish

Mets Game 72: Loss to Yankees

Yankees 4 Mets 3

Through the first two-thirds of the game, it looked like it might be an easy win for the Mets. But, we found out why you shouldn’t count your chickens before they hatch.

Mets Game Notes

Chris Young‘s smoke, mirrors, and voodoo act stymied the Yankees through six. But the seventh was another story, as the Bronx Bombers blasted three runs to chase Young from the mound, then added another when Eric Chavez hit a Jon Rauch 0-2 pitch into the left field stands. It was stunning to see the big sluggers of the Yankees swinging through 83-MPH, chest-high fastballs against Young. Is he throwing just slow enough to throw batters off? Maybe his pitches move more than they seem to be from the centerfield camera? Maybe there’s something to the theory that his height and closer release point add a “foot” to his fastball? I don’t know; is there a physics expert out there who can prove that theory one way or the other? I can’t believe his height is adding 10 MPH (i.e., shortening reaction time to what would be a 93 MPH fastball from someone 6’2″, for example), but maybe I’m way off base. It looks like Young is throwing BP, yet he gets outs.

Kirk Nieuwenhuis hit a ball near where Chavez’s tater landed for his seventh homer of the season. However, Captain Kirk also struck out three times; he’s now struck out 73 times in 230 at-bats. As much as I love Kirk, that’s way too many swings and misses — that’s about 200 Ks in a full 600-at-bat season. Despite all the whiffs, I still want to see him starting every day in centerfield.

What’s with Daniel Murphy‘s porno mustache? He looks like Matt Dillon in There’s Something About Mary.

Jeremy Hefner threw a clean inning of relief in the top of the ninth. Maybe he can be a decent reliever?

Usually, it’s the Mets who make errors but hit in the clutch and the Yankees who avoid miscues and can’t hit with runners in scoring position. But in this game, the Yankees made two errors and the Mets were 1-for-14 with RISP.

Though, it was a poor defensive play that wasn’t charged with an error that hurt the Mets: Lucas Duda completely bungled a routine fly ball off the bat of Nick Swisher that fell safely, bounced past Duda, and turned into a double; about a minute later, Raul Ibanez hit a three-run homer to tie the ballgame.

Next Mets Game

The final game of the series begins on Sunday night at . R.A. Dickey goes to the hill against C.C. Sabathia.

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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. Lee June 24, 2012 at 2:16 am
    Honestly, just hit Swisher and Cano. Even with a knuckle ball. The Yankees have just got no class. They hit home runs, and that’s about it. I haven’t fact-checked it yet, but does Ike Davis have more RBI than Cano? And with Ike hitting less than .200?

    In any case, hit Swisher. Or take the high road. It’ll hit him some day what a moron he is. Maybe not, actually.

  2. Dan June 24, 2012 at 6:45 am
    Before last night Chris Young had started 142 games, his innings completed were:
    5th 120
    6th 92
    7th 49
    His magic clearly fades after 5 innings,
    expecting more than 6 innings from him is an accident waiting for a place to happen.
    http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=youngch03&year=Career&t=p#innng
  3. DaveSchneck June 24, 2012 at 7:45 am
    Joe,
    Good thing I missed this game because it looked like a brutal loss – 15Ks and bad D to open the floodgates. You are dead on with Murphy’s stache, perhaps with the way he is hitting he is secretly working on a career in film.
  4. argonbunnies June 25, 2012 at 6:18 pm
    With Cano up, 2 on, and a 3-run lead… in the 7th inning… isn’t that THE spot for Byrdak? Yeah, Young didn’t “deserve” to be pulled after Duda’s misplay, but who cares? Let’s win the damn game.
    • Joe Janish June 25, 2012 at 10:44 pm
      On Planet Earth, yes. On Planet Collins, no. Unfortunately we mere mortals have minds that are too simple to comprehend the complex reasoning behind Byrdak not facing Cano in any situation during this particular series. Be humble and accept our limitations, is all we can do.
  5. argonbunnies June 25, 2012 at 6:25 pm
    Joe, I think Young is hard to hit because it’s hard for hitters to track the plane of the ball. I don’t think his fastball seems faster than is is, I think it’s simply hard for batters to gauge whether it’ll be at the top of the zone or above that. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard opponent hitters say that about Young — “his ball’s impossible to get on top of”, etc.

    6’10” + weird, late motion + pitching at the top of the zone = all things batters aren’t used to. Mix in a curve with a decent down break to change elevations, and it makes sense to me that he’d be baffling. Kinda of like a knuckleballer.

    Mix in Santana’s changeup, and we may not have a rotation of dominators, but we have awkwardness-inducers!

    • Joe Janish June 25, 2012 at 10:46 pm
      Or maybe hitters spend their time in the box wondering why he’s so hard to hit, rather than simply focusing on finding the ball?

      No matter which way you slice it, he’s an awkward-looking “athlete.” He was similarly dorky on the basketball court as well.