Astros 4 Mets 0

The Mets were swept by the Astros for the first time in 15 years, and were shut out to boot.

Oliver Perez pitched adequately — not great, but not awful — but his performance was negligible since the Mets bats ran cold against Randy “Koufax” Wolf

Wolf improved his record against the Mets to 11-5 lifetime, as he threw up zeroes through five innings, striking out seven. Strangely, he allowed 9 baserunners in those five frames — nearly two per inning, but as has been the case all year, the Mets were unable to push the runners home. And you wonder why I was crying about the Mets not picking up a veteran run producer in the days and hours before the trade deadline.

Notes

John Maine was placed on the DL (thankfully, in my opinion) and replaced with reliever Eddie Kunz, who made his Major League debut in the seventh and threw a scoreless, though messy, inning.

As if the bullpen weren’t bad enough, Billy Wagner has “tightness in his elbow” and was unavailable for the contest. My many years of being around pitchers tells me that he could be on the verge of an elbow issue — likely some form of tendinitis, such as epicondylitis (a.k.a., tennis elbow). It’s not a major injury, but when you’re a reliever who throws full speed several times a week, it can develop into a chronic issue. Cortisone shot and rest is the usual treatment.

Nick Evans started in left and made two outstanding throws to nail runners trying to stretch singles into doubles. However, he also committed a key miscue and continues to be overmatched at the plate.

Carlos Delgado was 3-for-4 and inching close to .270. I will soon be eating several helpings of humble pie and will be down on my knees begging him for forgiveness for my scathing criticism of a month ago.

Jose Reyes stroked two hits for the fourth consecutive game, and for the seventh time in the last eight games. However, the Mets are 3-5 in those contests, so the theory that “as Jose goes, so go the Mets”, doesn’t exactly hold water.

Carlos Beltran also had two hits, and seems comfortable in the two-hole. He certainly isn’t comfy in clutch RBI situations. But hey, just because he’s making $18.6M this year, doesn’t mean he can’t be a table setter. Ichiro makes that kind of money, right?

Robinson Cancel bunted for a hit in the third, then lost his mind and was caught stealing third for the third out with David Wright at the plate. Apparently he caught “Temporary Delgado Disease”, an illness in which a bulky man suddenly thinks he’s faster and smarter than Rickey Henderson. I really want to believe he missed a sign, but apparently that wasn’t the case. I felt awful for Robby, who otherwise has been an inspiration for his hustle and tenacity.

Next Game

The Mets receive a WELLLLLLLLLLLLLL deserved day off on Monday as they trek back to Shea for a 7-game homestand that begins with three games hosting the San Diego Padres. Mike Pelfrey (6’7″) pitches the opener against Chris Young (6’10”) in what promises to be one of the tallest pitcher vs. pitcher contests of the season (has Young faced Randy Johnson?). Judging the Mets’ inability to drive runners in, and the complete collapse of the bullpen, Big Pelf will need to pitch a 9-inning shutout and hit the game-winning homer to take this game.

At least they have all day to plan for it.

Astros 5 Mets 4

Billy blew another one.

Handed a two-run lead to protect, Billy Wagner was tagged with his seventh blown game of the season after giving up a two-run single to Geoff Blum to make it four-all.

Johan Santana allowed one run on 3 hits and 2 walks in 6 1/3 innings, striking out 3 and hitting 2 batters. It was a valiant effort, but he walked away with another no-decision.

The bullpen, however, couldn’t hold down the fort. In addition to Billy Wagner’s blown save, Scott Schoeneweis allowed a solo homer in the eighth, and Duaner Sanchez was darn lucky to escape the seventh inning without giving up a run.

Notes

The two runs scored in the bottom of the ninth came almost simultaneously. Mark Loretta misread the hit by Blum and retreated to third base, while Hunter Pence was racing around from second at the crack of the bat. Pence was only inches behind Loretta as the throw came home, and scored a millisecond after Loretta crossed the plate. Loretta plowed into catcher Ramon Castro in an ugly half-slide, half fall that knocked the ball out of Castro’s glove and Castro out of the game.

Castro was diagnosed with a “mild ankle sprain” by the crack medical staff of the NY Mets.

Jose Reyes went 2-for-5, marking his fourth straight multiple-hit game. The only other Met with more than one hit was Damion Easley, who was 2-for-3 with a walk and 2 RBI.

Rookie Dan Murphy started in left field — only the fifth time in his life he played the position — and batted sixth, sandwiched between Fernando Tatis and Damion Easley. He rapped a base hit in first MLB at-bat, and scored moments later when Damion Easley knocked one over the fence. Later, Murphy make a spectacular, jumping catch on a fly ball deep to left and then doubled up Pence on second with a perfect throw to save Duaner Sanchez from a big inning.

Murphy’s stance and stride remind me a bit of George Brett. Wouldn’t it be spectacular if he can come close to Brett’s career? He doesn’t swing like Brett though … Murphy hits more off his back foot, and tends to move his hands forward too quickly, whereas Brett kept his hands back longer and had a full weight shift (a la Hank Aaron), often making contact with all of his weight on his front foot.

Sanchez continues to look uncomfortable and lacking confidence — not to mention his lack of both speed and command. His changeup was either way off the plate or high in the zone, and he seems afraid to challenge hitters. Gary Cohen mentioned that Sanchez is still suffering from a bruise on his right leg, the result of line drive a while back. I’m sure he’s also affected by not pitching for two years — his endurance is sure to be an issue through the end of the season.

Kaz Matsui continues to destroy the Mets — he hit a homerun and a triple in this game and a homer the night before. He’s now hitting .480 since he shed the orange and blue. Not sure what he feels he needs to prove to the Mets, they did after all give him every chance in the world to succeed. Maybe the Mets should reacquire Kaz and Jeff Keppinger to platoon at second base.

What a surprise, Aaron Heilman was used again — and was nailed with his second loss in as many nights. He looked exhausted from the first pitch he threw, and it was no surprise that he gave up a walk to Lance Berkman and a hit to Carlos Lee. Yes, his velocity was fine (96 MPH), but he was reaching that speed through compromised mechanics that affected his command. Heilman has appeared in 6 of the last 9 games and 10 of the Mets’ 15 since the All-Star break. But then, the rest of the relivers have been asked to shoulder a similar load — and we’re wondering why the bullpen is breaking down?

The Mets need to add at least one if not two arms to the roster right away — maybe they can DL John Maine and Sanchez.

I’ll never understand the “logic” behind walking the bases loaded against the home team in extra innings of a tie ballgame. But then, I rarely agree with ANY intentional walks. Pedro Feliciano was ordered to walk the righthanded-hitting Hunter Pence with one out and runners on the corners. Why not pitch to him? A ground ball might produce a double play to end the inning. Pence is hitting .282 vs. lefties, which means there’s at least a 72% chance he’ll make an out. Loading the bases only puts more pressure on the pitcher to make perfect pitches to the next batter. Feliciano had no room for error once he got to three balls on Darin Erstad, who fouled off a few pitches before delivering the game-winning sac fly.

Next Game

The Mets try to avoid the sweep by sending Oliver Perez to the mound against newly acquired Randy Wolf. Perez subs for the ailing John Maine, who is recovering from a “mild strain of the rotator cuff”. Game time is 2:05 pm.

The Mets are making two big moves that will significantly impact their starting lineup this evening.

First, Carlos Beltran will bat second, with Carlos Delgado remaining in the cleanup spot. Who will protect Delgado is not known as yet, but we can speculate that the #5 hitter will be Fernando Tatis.

Secondly, top prospect Dan Murphy was so impressive in his one AAA game, that he has been promoted and inserted into the starting lineup — playing left field.

Huh. MetsToday readers may remember me suggesting the Mets would do exactly that two weeks ago. I don’t believe any other pundit or “expert” made that suggestion at that time nor since — particularly not after Murphy was moved from native position of third base to second base.

To my knowledge, Murphy has played all of four professional games in the outfield, and never before this season. He spent the bulk of his career at third base, mixing in 13 games at first base, before being transitioned to second base for all of 17 games. He played third base in his one game at New Orleans.

Strange that the Mets would start him in left, rather than second, and have Endy Chavez play one of the corner outfield positions. Apparently they weren’t satisfied with his development at the keystone.

Tough assignment for the kid — not only is he making his debut at a position in which he is unfamiliar, but it is against Roy Oswalt, arguably one of the top 5 pitchers in the NL.

OK, these moves may not be that big … all depends on your personal perspective. After the trade deadline passed silently for Mets fans, these moves could be considered “big” in comparison.

Astros 7 Mets 3

That one hurt.

The game was a dogfight from the beginning, with both teams scoring in the first frame — the Mets on an RBI single by David Wright and the ‘stros on a solo homer by Kaz Matsui. Opposing pitcher Brandon Backe then blasted a solo shot of his own to put Houston up 2-1. In the top of the fourth, the Mets scored two to go up 3-2, then gave the lead right back in the bottom of the frame on yet another solo shot, this one by Carlos Lee.

The contest remained tied until the 8th, when the Astros finally moved away from the solo homer and upgraded to the much more efficient 4-run variety. After loading the bases, Aaron Heilman served up a gopher ball to Mark Loretta, giving the game to the Astros. While it is difficult to come back from a four-run deficit with only three outs left, the opposing team’s closer on the mound, and the bottom of your lineup coming to the plate, the circumstances probably didn’t matter. The Mets had a bases-loaded, no-out opportunity of their own in the seventh, and squandered it. It simply wasn’t the Mets’ night.

Notes

Carlos Delgado kept up his hot hitting with a 2-for-4 evening, including a double. Jose Reyes also went 2-for-4.

Aside from Wright’s first-inning RBI, the Mets received run-scoring singles from Damion Easley and Fernando Tatis. Even though Tatis and Easley produced runs, their presence in the lineup doesn’t help to strike fear in many pitcher’s hearts. The meekness of the Mets’ lineup, in fact, is disconcerting, but could look a lot better when Carlos Beltran starts hitting.

For reasons unknown, Endy Chavez hit for himself with the game tied, none out and the bases loaded in the seventh, against LOOGY Tim Byrdak. Chavez is hitting .212 with one RBI against lefties this year. Ramon Castro, Robinson Cancel, and Nick Evans were all available on the bench. I guess the thinking was that Chavez would put the ball in play somewhere. Personally, I would have preferred to have someone like Castro up in that spot, knowing you have a good chance of getting either a fly ball or a double-play grounder to shortstop — and with none out in a tie ballgame, I’m OK with the DP if it scores a run. With all the talk of Jerry Manuel being so aggressive, I’m surprised we didn’t see Endy drop a squeeze. Though I guess that would’ve been difficult with lead-footed Brian Schneider on third and the corners playing in.

Once again Aaron Heilman is the scapegoat. By the way, what is his “role”? Based on recent events, I assume his role is “everyman”. He pitches setup, middle relief, long relief, short relief, and situational relief. He comes in when the team is ahead by a slim lead, ahead by a large lead, behind by margins both slim and wide, and always when the score is tied. It seems the only time he doesn’t pitch are days like Thursday — off days. He’s being (ab)used by Manuel the same way as Willie Randolph — keep putting him out there as long as he’s “hot”. Here’s the crazy thing about the Joe Torre theory of riding the “hot” pitcher — there’s no such thing. Pitchers may appear to go on streaks the way hitters do, but there’s nothing streaky about relief pitching. Eventually, a pitcher who is overused gets either overexposed or fatigued. Fatigue has been an issue with Heilman since 2006, when the “Proctor Rules” first were bestowed upon him. Few managers have an inkling about the human body and the biomechanics of overhand throwing, so they “play the hot hand” until the pitcher “goes cold” — not realizing that the pitcher would be very consistent if only there was a hint of rhyme or reason to his workload. It’s not rocket science, folks — if you keep pushing a pitcher out there, eventually he’s going to break.

I’m not understanding the logic behind putting Heilman out there for second innings. Is it really because Manuel has the green light to “stretch him out” for starting? I don’t think so. As usual, Heilman’s arm angle at release began to drop at the beginning of his second inning of relief — his elbow was a good two inches below his normal three-quarter/sidearm delivery on the ball that Lance Berkman crushed for a double. When he’s throwing from that low a release, it’s only a matter of time before someone jumps all over a meatball high in the zone. Don’t blame Aaron — blame the idiocy of the people who put him into these situations. The shame of all this is that the fans see Aaron as the bad guy, and Aaron blames himself.

The stupidity is spread by the propaganda machine known as the SNY broadcasters, most notably Keith Hernandez, with asinine, uneducated quips such as “… you think he’s coming out, and he takes two steps back.” No Keith … if you showed up to more than half the games, you’d see that the minute he starts pitching well, the Mets whip him like a racehorse until he fails. He’s not Turk Wendell, and has never responded well to overuse. Some guys are rubber arms, Heilman isn’t one of them. We’ve been watching him break down from abuse for three years, and still no one sees the pattern. His delivery is too complicated to be entrusted to knuckleheads. If he can’t be managed properly out of the ‘pen, then put him in the rotation, where a consistent training regimen is more suited to his unusual delivery.

By the way, Mark Loretta is now 4-for-10 with two homers in his career against Heilman.

Pedro looked terrible in his first game back since the death of his father, and he will be a question mark for some time. First and foremost, there is the emotional side of the equation — as much as we’d like to think that professional ballplayers can flip a switch, the truth is, they’re human, just like us. Imagine how you would perform at your job a week after the death of one of the people closest to you in your life — not well, most likely. From the physical perspective, Pedro was out of sync with his mechanics, had no rhythm, but most concerning, was pitching with a very low arm action and release point. We expected him to be a little rusty, and not sharp, but he’s not going to get sharp throwing below his usual three-quarter delivery. Most of his pitches were delivered from a sidearm angle, with a low elbow. I suspect he is still suffering from problems with his shoulder. Low elbow = high pitches (ask Heilman). That’s why you saw three gopher balls. Pedro was all guts and guile in this game, and his physical condition is worrisome.

Next Game

It will be a battle of the aces on Saturday night, as Johan Santana faces Roy Oswalt at 7:05 pm in Houston. Catch it on SNY, WFAN, or XM 185.