Mets 3 Phillies 1

Did the Mets really lose the opener? I hardly remember it now … it seems so long ago.

The “new” Mets completely blew off their devastating loss on Tuesday, and took not only two games from the Phils but sole possession of first place.

In the most important game of the year to this point, Oliver Perez was up to the task. Ollie set down the fightin’ Phils through 7 and two-thirds, allowing one run on six hits. He walked only one and struck out 12 in a 108-pitch effort.

However, it wasn’t enough to get the win — Perez exited with the game tied 1-1, bases loaded, two outs, and Met killer Jayson Werth stepping up to the plate. Much to the chagrin of the Shea faithful, Aaron Heilman was summoned from the bullpen, and Aaron induced a harmless fly ball for the third out, preserving the tie.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Phillies sent J.C. Romero to the mound — the guy who had retired 61 of the 65 lefthanded hitters he’d faced this year (he allowed a total of three singles and one homer). It was a good move by Charlie Manuel, as it would force the Mets to use one of their lesser pinch-hitters, and Endy Chavez was due up third. And if it got that far, Carlos Delgado would be fifth.

Romero’s first two batters, however, hit from the right side. Pinch-hitter Robinson Cancel led off with a single, and was sacrificed to second by Jose Reyes. Chavez then became Romero’s 62nd victim, and David Wright was intentionally walked. This set the stage for exactly the matchup the Phillies were looking for: Romero vs. Delgado, who, despite his recent hot streak was hitting about .215 vs. lefties. But oftentimes the best-laid plans fall astray. Delgado drove a 2-2 offering from Romero into left field, chasing home both Cancel and Wright with the deciding runs of the game. To everyone’s astonishment, Delgado was thrown out digging for third. No matter, the Mets were up by two with their closer ready.

Billy Wagner set the Phillies down in the ninth to earn his 26th save of the season. So much for not being able to save “big” games.

Notes

The Mets were so surprised and concerned about Delgado sliding head-first into third that they assumed he had fallen face-first from all the exercise and excitement of running around the bases with a full head of steam. Trainer Ray Ramirez rushed to check for a pulse and associated vital signs, and Delgado assured him that the slide was all part of the plan. Still skeptical, Ramirez shoved smelling salts under Delgado’s nose and informed him of all the dirt on his uniform. Again Carlos responded that he was aware of the situation and was OK with getting dirty. At that point Ramirez called for a stretcher.

Crazy that the Mets couldn’t manage more than two hits against Jamie Moyer, who threw a slew of slowballs and lollipop curves. Note to self: do not recruit any of these Mets for a slo-pitch softball team.

The only Met hits before the ninth came off the bats of David Wright and Fernando Tatis.

Aaron Heilman’s three-pitch effort was rewarded with his first victory of the season.

Next Game

The Mets open a weekend series at home against the St. Louis Cardinals. First game is on Friday at 7:10 pm, with Mike Pelfrey going to the hill against Mitchell Boggs.

Mets 6 Phillies 3

What a difference Billy Wagner makes.

Armed with their closer, the Mets were able to hold a three-run lead in the final frame, moving back into a tie for first place with the Philadelphia Phillies.

John Maine re-filled his role of “stopper”, pitching seven strong innings, allowing three runs on six hits and two walks and striking out five. And he did it efficiently, expending 104 pitches. I still see issues with his mechanics, and his command wasn’t great, but he looked a lot better than his previous three starts.

The game was tied 3-3 until the sixth, when Ryan Madson came in relief of Philly starter Brett Myers. He was immediately greeted by an infield single off the bat of Damion Easley, followed by a Brian Schneider single. John Maine failed to get the bunt down and struck out, but Jose Reyes made that moot by blasting a homerun to the scoreboard, putting the Mets ahead to stay.

Scott Schoeneweis and Joe Smith combined to pitch a scoreless eighth, and Billy Wagner threw a 1-2-3 ninth to notch his 25th save.

Notes

Easley had three hits on the day — all infield singles.

Carlos Delgado batted cleanup for the first time since 1942, and went 1-for-2 with two walks. David Wright also collected two walks, hitting in his usual third spot. Carlos Beltran was 1-for-3 with a walk, a hit, and an RBI from the five hole. After Beltran, the lineup was pretty scary.

In the third, Carlos Beltran hit a single up the middle with David Wright on second base and one out. Luis Aguayo held up Wright at third, despite the fact that the Mets had Marlon Anderson, Damion Easley, and Brian Schneider coming up. No offense to those three guys — I LOVE Easley and Marlon — but they’re not exactly the type of hitters who strike fear in a pitcher’s heart. I really wonder if Aguayo would have held Wright if not for his numbskull imitation of Don Quixote the previous evening, waving home Endy Chavez with no outs and the Mets’ best hitters coming up next. Third base coaching is not easy, and it’s not an exact science. But, the coach has to take into consideration the situation, and ignore the tabloids. Aguayo appeared to be coaching not to make a mistake, rather than to the benefit of the team. As it turned out, Damion Easley rapped an infield single to score Wright, so the point it moot.

In that same inning, Brian Schneider came up with two outs and the bases loaded, and swung at Myers’ first offering, slapping a grounder to Chase Utley to end the inning. Apparently, Schneider did not notice the 3-2 count Myers struggled through while Brian waited on deck, nor his plunking of Carlos Delgado. In other words: Myers was having control issues, and was not getting his fastball over. If this knowledge was used for Schneider’s at-bat, he either would have been looking for a hanging curveball, or at least making Myers throw a strike. Instead, he took the easy way out that most inferior hitters take — put the bat on the first pitch you can handle, to avoid the stress of a two-strike count. Good hitters zone in on a particular area or pitch, and are comfortable falling behind 0-1 if they don’t get it.

Next Game

The rubber match is an early one; a 12:10 pm start for the day camps. Oliver Perez pitches against Jamie Moyer. Whoever wins will have sole possession of first place, as the Marlins have already lost their 48th game and can’t be any better than second place tomorrow.

Phillies 8 Mets 6

Another collapse.

That’s really the only way to describe this loss — a collapse. The SNY announcers termed it “devastating”, but I’m not sure Tom Glavine would agree.

This game was neatly wrapped, signed, sealed, and about to be delivered. However, somewhere between the end of the eighth inning and the third out of the top of the ninth, the package was dropped.

Instead of an easy 5-2 victory, the Mets were stunned by an 8-5 deficit, and found themselves having to take another turn at the plate in the last of the ninth.

Johan Santana finally performed at the ace level we’ve been waiting to see — 8 IP, 2 ER, in perhaps his biggest game of the year to this point. EXCEPT: a true “ace”, knowing the closer was unavailable, and on pitch #105, would have finished the game. Ask Tom Seaver.

OK, OK, we’re not be fair to Johan. He’s been the victim of very tough luck this year. But at what point is the “luck” analyzed as something else? No doubt, he pitched well enough to win this game. He’s pitched well enough to win at least four or possibly five other games. But the bottom line is, he did not win those games. Thus, talk radio has another four days to find fault with the best pitcher on the Mets.

After falling behind 1-zip, the Mets found their way to a 3-1 lead thanks to an RBI double by David Wright and a clutch two-run homerun by Carlos Delgado. It could’ve been a three-run homer, but third-base coach Luis Aguayo sent Endy Chavez home on Wright’s double, and Endy was nailed on a perfect relay from Pat Burrell to Jimmy Rollins to Carlos Ruiz. Red-hot Ramon Castro blasted a two-run dinger in the sixth to extend the lead to 5-1, and it appeared the Mets had the game in the bag.

However, the fightin’ Phils never quit, and got to within three thanks to a solo homer by Shane Victorino. Still, when the ninth inning began, a three-run lead felt pretty cushy, even with Billy Wagner unavailable. After all, the Mets had yet to dip into their bullpen, and had access to everyone else.

The final frame began with Duaner Sanchez on the mound. Sanchez gave up three straight hits to load the bases, and was relieved by Joe Smith. Smith did his job, getting a grounder to Jose Reyes, but Reyes made an ugly, awkward attempt to force out Victorino at second, rather than going for the easy out at first, and missed the bag. Everybody safe, score 5-3, bases still loaded. Lefthand hitter Geoff Jenkins was announced as a pinch-hitter, so Jerry Manuel called for Pedro Feliciano, and the Phillies countered with another pinch-hitter, righthand hitter So Taguchi — who was 0-for-16 as a pincher before this at-bat. As you might guess, Taguchi got his first hit — a double over Endy’s head in rightfield, scoring two to tie the game (it was an excellent, pesky at-bat by Taguchi, by the way; he fell behind 0-2, worked it to 2-2, then fouled off three tough pitches before the blast).

Feliciano remained in the game to face every Mets’ fans’ favorite Phillie, Jimmy Rollins, and Rollins ripped a double to score two more and put the Phillies up 7-5. Feliciano got a groundout from Chase Utley for the first out of the inning, intentionally walked Burrell, then induced Ryan Howard to hit a perfect double-play grounder back to him. However, instead of turning to second base with the ball, or throwing home to get Rollins running in from third, Feliciano unbelievably turned to first, dropped the ball, then had no play except to first. It looked like he didn’t know how many outs there were, or at least didn’t consider before the pitch what he would do with the ball if it came back to him. So Rollins scampered home with the 8th run, and Howard was retired for the second out at first. Aaron Heilman then came in to finish up the mess.

Notes

Hindsight is 20-20, but I was wondering why Argenis Reyes was pinch-hitting for Santana in the eighth with one out and no one on. On the one hand, the bullpen should be able to hold a three-run lead for one inning. On the other, you don’t have Wagner, you don’t have anyone close to Wagner’s dominating stuff to take his place, but what you do have is a pitcher in a good rhythm slicing through the Phillies like a hot knife through butter. At 105 pitches, Santana shouldn’t be out of gas in a game this big. If he were the type of guy who regularly throws tons of pitches — an Oliver Perez or John Maine — OK then, replace him. But Santana is a guy who regularly tosses low-pitch innings, and had an emotional advantage over the Phillies. Take it from someone who has played this game — when the other team’s ace is on the mound, and he’s cruising, and you’re down by three with three outs left, you’re not feeling good about your chances. In fact, in that situation, you’re ROOTING for a relief pitcher. Tough call, though, either way. As a manager you’d really like to believe your bullpen can get the job done with a three-run lead.

Duaner Sanchez has been pitching well, but far from dominating. To me it appears he has yet to adjust to his reduction in velocity — and that may affect his confidence more than anything.

Endy Chavez was 3-for-5 but was thrown out at home twice. Wright and Castro had two hits apiece.

Ironically, the relief pitcher who did his job — Joe Smith, who induced what should have been a groundout — was tagged with the loss.

Joe Blanton was less than impressive in his first NL start. In fact, he looked a little scared in front of the New York crowd. Strange, since he’s been to Shea before … but, not as a Phillie.

Next Game

The Mets will try to come back from this tough loss in another 7:10 pm start on Wednesday. John Maine is scheduled to face Brett Myers. Maine needs to correct his mechanical flaw ASAP in order to re-find his command. He might have some luck in that this will be Myers’ first start in the big leagues since June 27th, when he lasted only two innings in an 8-7 loss to the Rangers. He’s been in the minors for the past few weeks.

At MetsBlog, Ted Berg opens our eyes to the second base conundrum — mainly, the fact that the Mets have three second basemen who don’t produce very much offensively, two of which happen to be godawful in the field as well.

Personally, I’d like to believe Luis Castillo can be a better OBP guy and therefore an ideal #2 hitter behind Jose Reyes — then his lack of range would be more palatable.

Interestingly — though I doubt it matters for this season — Dan Murphy has moved from third base to the keystone. We mentioned just last week that it would be no surprise to see him move to the outfield — but this makes even better sense.

Speaking of moving young infielders around, Reese Havens looks like he might have the bat to move quickly through the system. He has a nice short stride, compact and quick stroke, and is hitting with power in Brooklyn. Of course, he’s a 21-year-old playing against kids who just started shaving, and he has yet to play the field, but I really like what I see from his swing and his approach. I hope the Mets promote him to A-ball before the end of the season, to see how he handles more advanced pitching. My guess is he’ll be moved to second base as well, eventually. If Havens or Murphy get on the super fast track, Castillo could be an expensive utility man in the very near future.

For those of you worried we would lose Chris Aguila, do not despair — he cleared waivers and returned safely to New Orleans. Since his demotion, Aguila is 6-for-10 and hit his 18th and 19th homers. Some guys are labeled “AAAA” for a reason.

On the injury front, Angel Pagan is likely getting surgery and is done for the season, Trot Nixon is out for at least four weeks after hernia surgery, El Duque is back on the shelf, Pedro may or may not pitch next weekend, Ryan Church is out “indefinitely”, no one knows what’s going on with Jason Vargas, Matt Wise or Tony Armas Jr., and we think that Ambiorix Burgos is throwing bullpens.

Oh, and Billy Wagner may or may not be getting an MRI on his “tight shoulder”. As much as some fans can’t stomach Wags, or feel he can’t close the deal in big games, you have to admit the Mets are up the creek without him handling the ninth. And a shoulder issue would explain Billy’s sudden dropoff in speed — yeah, 95 MPH is still hummin’, but this is a guy who was 97-99 a year ago. There’s a BIG difference between 95 and 99 … just as there is a difference between 89 and 93 (one is “non-prospect”, the other is “sign on the dotted line”).