Photo from NJ.com

The Mets held on for a 1-0 victory over the Brewers, moving their record to 6-5 on the season. Johan Santana was dominant again – striking out 7 over 7 scoreless innings. Santana struck out 7 and didn’t allow a walk.

JJ Putz worked a scoreless 8th and Francisco Rodriguez closed it out in the 9th with a ‘strike ’em out, throw ’em out’ to end the game.

Game Notes:

• Jerry Manuel wisely put Gary Sheffield in left field, taking pressure off of Danny Murphy – who was largely responsible for Santana’s loss to the Marlins last Sunday.
• Sheffield still doesn’t look like he is firing on all cylinders at the plate or in the field, but he recovered on a misjudged line drive to make a shoestring catch. That alone was probably worth giving him the start, as Murphy probably would have had trouble on that play.
• Ramon Castro led off the 7th inning with a walk. Omir Santos ran for Castro and advanced to third when Rickie Weeks misplayed Prince Fielder’s throw to first on Alex Cora’s sacrifice bunt. Jose Reyes then followed with a line shot that knocked off pitcher Carlos Villanueva’s glove – which looked like it wasn’t even on his hand correctly – scoring the only run of the game.
• Danny Murphy was on deck to pinch hit for Santana in the 7th, but was called back when Castro walked… Jerry Manuel wisely decided to save Murphy from attempting another sacrifice bunt.
• The last batter of the game – JJ Hardy – inexplicably fouled off a breaking ball in the dirt when Ryan Braun had second base stolen. A few pitches later, Braun again attempted to steal second. This time, Hardy watched a fastball on the corner for strike three. Omir Santos threw a strike to Luis Castillo to throw out Braun to end the game.

The Brewers look like they could be headed for a 90-loss season with their shaky pitching and a combination of mental and physical errors in the field and at the plate. That said, the Mets have won consecutive one run games – this one being much cleaner and better played. Good teams are supposed to win ugly and clean games and that is exactly what the Mets have done in this series. You can’t ask for much more than that.

Tomorrow is the final game of the series. Jeff Suppan (0-2, 12.91) goes against Nelson Figueroa, who is making his first start of the season for the Mets. It should be a wild, high-scoring game.

Gary Sheffield hits his 500th career HR (photo from NJ.com)

Final score: Mets 5, Brewers 4

Again, the Mets got out to a 3-0 lead.

Again, the Mets offense was barely visible in the middle innings, especially with runners in scoring position.

But today, the outcome was different, thanks to newcomer Gary Sheffield. Sheffield’s 500th career home run tied the game at 4-4 tie in 7th inning. NJ.com’s Brendan Prunty has a fact-packed paragraph that sums up the home run nicely:

He is the first player in major league history to have his 500th home run be his first home run with a new team. Plus, in a strange twist, Sheffield’s 500th came against the very team that he hit his first for — the Brewers. His first home run came against the Seattle Mariners Mark Langston on Sept. 9, 1988.

Tonight’s game was downright scary. I don’t have the numbers on the Mets’ performance with runners on base, but it was horrible. Jerry Manuel continues to outmanage himself and the Mets continue to look listless. I can’t find many positives except for the fact that the Mets were able to push across the winning run against future Hall of Famer Seth McClung on a Luis Castillo infield single.

But hey, it’s only April, right?

Abbreviated game notes:

• When the Mets opened the bottom of the 1st with three consecutive hits, WFAN’s Wayne Hagin was quick to mention that Jerry Manuel oversaw a special team BP session today, complete with words of encouragement and special tips to get the team’s bats going. The BP talking point wasn’t mentioned after that, as the Mets offense was virtually invisible until Sheffield pinch hit in the seventh. Beware of announcers getting notes from the PR department…
• Danny Murphy can’t bunt to save his life, but at least he continues to fail in the most hilarious ways imaginable
• If Jerry Manuel wanted to advance Reyes, why not let a pitcher hit for Murphy and then put Tatis in LF?
• Livan Hernandez has nothing but brains and craftiness – kind of like Pedro over the last few seasons, but with more stamina. That just might be enough for him to win 12 games this season. Either way, his starts are already more fun to watch than anyone, except for Santana.
• Carlos Beltran hit with the bases loaded twice. Result: Strike out and pop up to shortstop
• David Wright made a great defensive play on a Bill Hall ground ball in the second inning. Looking back, that play may have made the difference in the game
• The Mets used JJ Putz instead of Francisco Rodriguez in the top of the ninth, despite being tied at home. Not sure what that was all about, especially since K-Rod was warming up during the 8th inning.
• If I’m not mistaken, Jerry Manuel managed to use his entire bench during a 9-inning game
• The Mets are back to .500 (5-5)

UPDATE: The Mets left 13 runners on base, but they did go 3 for 10 with runners in scoring position. For a full boxscore, visit MLB.com.

Thanks to wohjr in the comments section for pointing out that Sheffield’s HR tied the game at 4-4. The original post has been corrected.

John Maine didn't have it (Photo from NJ.com)

Hey gang – I’ll be filling in for Joe while he spends the weekend studying abroad.

The Mets dropped the first series at their new ballpark with a painful 6-5 loss to the Padres. At times, it seemed like starting pitchers Jake Peavy and John Maine were trying to see who could get fewer outs on more pitches. Each starter had an inning where they threw over 40 pitches and each went five innings before handing it over to the bullpen. It was, at times, excruciating to watch.

Turning Point: The Mets were leading 3-2 in the 3rd inning, with two on and two out and Adrian Gonzalez coming to the plate. Although Gonzalez had struck out in his only prior at-bat, Mets manager Jerry Manuel elected to walk him to face Headley. It should be noted that Headley was the only Padre in the first two innings who had a hit and he looked like he had Maine figured out from the get-go. Predictably, Headly got the hit and the Mets trailed 4-3.

Although Duaner Sanchez did his best to hand the game to the Mets in the eighth inning, it was not to be. Heath Bell closed it out for his second save of the series… The Mets have now dropped 5 of their last 7.

To get the conversation started, here are my game notes (after the jump):

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