Mets 1 Marlins 0
With this victory, the Mets have reached a significant milestone: 70 wins on the season! It also puts them one game closer to that elusive and magical .500 mark.
Speaking of wins, the Phillies have 90, and the Braves over 80. But so what?
Mets Game Notes
The Mets gave R.A. Dickey an early 1-0 lead in the first inning … and that’s all they gave him for the rest of the evening. Luckily, R.A. had that knuckler dancing, and one run was all he needed.
Dickey went seven strong innings, allowing just four hits and three walks in a 106-pitch effort. The bullpen held up the slim margin, thanks to shutout innings from fill-in setup man Josh Stinson and fill-in fireman Manny Acosta.
Not much else to say. The Mets had ten baserunners in the ballgame, from five hits and five walks; half of those baserunners were Jose Reyes (two walks, one hit) and Jason Bay (two hits). The lone run is credited to Reyes, who raced home on an opposite-field double by Lucas Duda. If not for Florida leftfielder Logan Morrison falling on the ground while chasing Duda’s drive, we might still be waiting for someone to score.
The Mets were 1-for-10 with RISP, the Fish were 0-for-8, and that was the difference in the ballgame.
Next Mets Game
The Mets rush home to play a doubleheader against the Braves on Thursday afternoon. Game one begins at 4:10 PM and unveils Chris Schwinden, who is making his MLB debut, against Mike Minor. Game two is scheduled to start at 7:30 PM and has Dillon Gee going against Julio Teheran. FYI the recap here may come late, as I’ll be working as of 4 PM and won’t see the games on DVR until later in the evening.
And, in the other half of the split squad game, Dillon Gee going against Julio Teheran.
Every now and then, an opening band at a concert steals the show from what’s supposed to be the main act. Springsteen once opened for Anne Murray, believe it or not. Well, I found it a lot easier watching the “fill-ins” pitch the 8th and 9th innings today than last night’s headliners, Izzy and Parnell. Particularly enjoyed watching Stinson pitch. He moves the ball in and out, ties guys up with inside pitches, seems composed. Curious to see how he fares against some better teams this month.
The soft Hand was no match for the rigid Dickey.
What a feeling!!
As the season winds down to completion I have been thinking about who the “keepers” on this team are. Over the last two years I have been very impressed with Dickey, who is never “great” but is consistently very good to good. There are plenty of pitchers who are “one-year wonders” , abd initially I had that concern about him, but his work over the last two years has proven that he is a big league pitcher. I hope the Mets keep him.
Now, as for Acosta….
With the bad weather and the game not on the original stadium will there be more than a thousand people at the park tonite? Meaningful September games Freddy!!!!
As most of baseball play basically meaningless games this month, even the playoff teams often don’t have that much to play for giving the standings, let’s look to the future.
http://blog.nj.com/mets/2011/09/mets_2012_forecast_-_more_of_t.html
Well, there’s always this year’s charming story, the Pirates. I mean the Diamondbacks. The NL team to root for now!
Seriously, the article isn’t that off. But, we knew that. We knew, or should have knew, that the Mets got themselves in a hole and it would take time (including stop digging, even if that means in the short term a not that good team) to get out of it. A big moment will be this coming off-season. The moves made this season was reasonable (with a few bad ones too); a few steps in the right direction.
Meanwhile, a bit of baseball. Let’s see how Chris Schwinden (promoted as “Gee-like”) does today. With rain this morning, let’s see if we get two in.
The article you cite says that Alderson wants to build a perrennial winner. How can that be when the ownership hasn’t changed and the main goal is to lower payroll. While teams with moderate and low payrolls win now and then, the perrennial winnersin the last decade are the big spenders. Phils/Yanks/RedSox. So even if these kids all become stars, which never happens how is the genius going to m fill out the spare parts and July needs with the Wilpons holding him back. We won’t be Pittsburgh or KC but I don’t think the Yanks have a fear of becoming the number 2 team in town.
The payroll goal is still high enough that in the long term the team can be a winner. This was shown by other teams (other than those three) with comparable payrolls. I also don’t know what that term means. Being in the playoffs every year? Is Tampa a ‘loser’ this year?
If you expect general managers to say the team will be a loser until the ownership changes, or be disdainful if they don’t, go right ahead. If the team (which easily could have occurred) didn’t blow it, the ownership could have had three straight playoff teams recently.
You are the one, not I, who keep on harping on the “genius” here. Since actually remaking this team is going to take years, perhaps some time needs to pass before we are so scornful. I still don’t understand what exactly he did this year that was so pathetic.
There was no real chance, even if they changed owners last winter, that the team would be good this year. Two sucky contracts were disposed of. Two others were mid-summer at the last minute, getting something in return. The bullpen on the cheap did credible; actually spending more money to get a few more pointless wins this year would have been moronic. Unlike past years, throwing money away in effect wasn’t done. And, in a year when assumed possible contenders like the White Sox eke out a winning record at best, the team actually played decent baseball much of the year.
Yeah, the Mets won’t replace the Yanks. Is that your standard? Good luck with that.