Braves 7 Mets 3

There were so many things wrong with this game.

First and foremost, the Mets blew the “gimme”. In every series, there is one “gimme” — the game that the Mets should and must win, usually based on the starting pitching matchup. With the Braves #4 starter going against a guy who is arguably one of the Mets best starters, this was the game the Mets were supposed to — and needed to — take.

As much as you may want to fault Oliver Perez, he really didn’t pitch all that badly — much like his previous two starts. He wasn’t lights out, and his velocity was mysteriously down, but he had good command and threw a ton of strikes (78 out of 109). The first at-bat of the game encapsulated the “problem” with Perez on this evening: it took eight pitches — six of them strikes — to retire leadoff batter Yunel Escobar. The next batter, Matt Diaz, blasted the first pitch he saw into the bleachers. That’s pretty much how the rest of the game went for Perez — he’d get ahead of guys, but couldn’t finish them off. The Braves batters consistently drove up the pitch count by fouling off pitch after pitch, and would eventually take a half-hearted swing, resulting in a bloop hit. Naturally, the occasional hard-hit ball would occur immediately thereafter, driving in a runner. In all, Perez allowed ten hits in five innings — but it seemed like at least seven of them were bloops or grounders that just eluded an infielder. Bottom line? Perez wasn’t missing enough bats, and by putting the ball in play, the Braves scored runs.

On the other hand, the Mets struggled to get anything going with the bats. While Perez struggled through long innings of 24-25 pitches at a time, the offense reverted to their June style of quick outs. Jose Reyes was one of the main culprits, first-pitch swinging as the leadoff man in the bottom of the first, and popping up weakly. That set the tone for the rest of the offense, who handed journeyman Buddy Carlyle at-bats with over-aggressive, unintelligent at-bats throughout the game.

Now don’t get me wrong — there’s nothing wrong with an aggressive approach, so long as it’s an intelligent approach as well. I like to see Jose Reyes taking a hack at the first pitch of the game — if it’s where he’s zoned in — because he’s quite a few times popped an extra-base hit. But if you’re looking to hack, and you pop up as meekly as he did, then you didn’t get the location you were looking for, and you hold back. What Reyes did to start off the game was the old Mickey Rivers approach — don’t think, just hack, and maybe if you’re lucky the ball will find its way to the barrel of the bat.

OK, we can’t get all over Jose for the loss, because there were seven other batters who also had atrocious at-bats. For example, Moises “Mr. DP” Alou. Here’s a scary stat (which grows scarier every game): in 168 plate appearances, Alou has grounded into 11 double plays. To put it into perspective, that’s once every 15 times up. Not helpful? OK, how about this: he’s tied for second on the team for most GDPs — and he’s only played in 41 games. Worse: if he were to have played a full season, and get about 625 plate appearances, he’d ground into a DP 42 times. That’s A LOT, folks. Remember how Mike Piazza was a DP machine? Well the most GDPs he ever had in a season was 27. Alou might reach that in less than half a season.

Alou grounded into two DPs, and though one allowed a run to score, both completely destroyed mini-rallies that might have turned the tables on the Braves. At this point, I’d consider making Alou sacrifice bunt if there were no outs and a man on first.

Somehow, the Mets scored three runs. One on the aforementioned double play, one on a triple by pinch-hitter David Newhan (hands-down, the most exciting moment of the game for Mets fans), and a third when Jose Reyes swung at the first pitch again but drove in Newhan from third with a weak grounder to second base.

This game was so bad, my wife texted me from home (I was agonizing at Shea) with this statement: “Mets – depressing. Now watching Tori Spelling reality show. sigh”

Well there you go — this game was so bad, it was more interesting to watch a webcam follow Tori Spelling around. A new low.

Notes

Jeff Francoeur nearly hit for the cycle, going 4-for-5 and hitting everything but a triple. Larry Jones went 3-for-5 with two runs scored.

How is the Braves depth? Consider this: one of their best all-around players, Edgar Renteria, is out, and his replacement, Yunel Escobar, goes 2-for-5 with an RBI double as the leadoff batter and makes a half-dozen sparkling defensive plays that make you consider the possibility that he’s a better defender than Renteria. For comparison, what in the world would the Mets do if Jose Reyes ever went down?

More frightening: even without Renteria, there is not one hole in the Braves’ lineup. It’s easily stronger than the supposedly “best offense in the NL (with or w/o Beltran)”. The Braves 6-7-8: Francoeur, Brian McCann, Kelly Johnson. The Mets 6-7-8: Shawn Green, Paul LoDuca, Lastings Milledge. Yeah.

The air was thick at Shea this evening, holding up balls in the air — particularly drives toward centerfield. I think Mark Teixeira might have hit two out if not for the humidity, and Shawn Green might have gotten one over the fence as well. The balls just died in the thick haze over the field.

Willie Randolph solidified his stature as a knucklehead. With two outs in the top of the seventh and the Mets already down 7-3, Willie removes Aaron Sele after an inning and two-thirds, with the pitcher’s spot coming up in the bottom of the inning. Scott Schoeneweis threw one pitch, got a ground ball, and left the game. Just what in tarnation is Willie thinking? Did he really believe that the Mets had a chance to win this game, four runs down and the Braves ready to send Octavio Dotel, Rafael Soriano, and whoever they pleased to finish out the game? The whole point of Sele’s existence on the roster is to eat up innings as the long man. So he gave up a double with two outs, so what? You’re already down by four, you have nine outs left to do something against nasty pitchers, and you’re going to start managing like it’s the seventh game of the World Series? Stupidity! By wasting The Show in that spot, Willie was forced to use another arm for the eighth, and of course another for the ninth. Couldn’t someone have reminded Willie that “tomorrow is another day”, and the Mets might need some of the better bullpen arms in the event there’s a valid opportunity for victory in the next two days? His gross mismanagement of the bullpen is part of the reason guys like Guillermo Mota, Aaron Heilman, and Pedro Feliciano are so inconsistent. It makes no sense to burn through four arms in the last four innings of this ballgame. Let Sele finish the seventh, give Schoeneweis the ball until his arm falls off or the game is over — whichever comes first. You can’t tell me you’re going to use The Show against the Braves in a tight situation, at Shea, in the next two days … ain’t gonna happen. Keep Mota, Heilman, Sosa, Feliciano fresh for the REAL opportunities to win games — don’t waste them in these situations, especially when Moises Alou is going to kill any rally you start anyway.

Enough ranting … tomorrow is another day.

Next Game

Another 7:10 PM start, with Orlando Hernandez going against John Smoltz. We need El Duque to step up and have a great game. Another humid evening should help his curveball, and keep fly balls in the park. Let’s cross our fingers that Smoltzie has an off day.

Mets 8 Cubs 3

In Tom Glavine’s second attempt at 300, Willie Randolph again removed his cagey veteran before he should have. However, this time, the bullpen didn’t blow the victory.

With one out in the seventh, Glavine spotted a nice change-up on the outside part of the plate, fooling Angel Pagan, but Pagan got lucky, sticking his bat out and bouncing the ball down the third base line. The rhyme or reason behind Willie’s walk out to the mound at that point is anybody’s guess. While it was true that Glavine was on pitch #102, he showed no signs of tiring in that inning nor the inning before. He still had excellent command, and was keeping the Cubs off balance with an array of fastballs in, change-ups, and even curveballs. The deuce, especially, was in his favor — a pitch he normally throws no more than 2-3 times a game as a “show” pitch.

(By the way, I’m writing this WHILE Tommy is walking off the mound, so it’s not a Monday morning quarterback whine.)

I can sort of understand Randolph wanting to insure Glavine’s victory, but there was something he completely missed about this particular evening: Glavine had gotten into the Cubs’ heads. Even if Glavine had been tiring — which he wasn’t — he had won the mental matchup. Anyone who has played baseball at any level knows what I’m talking about. A guy is on the mound, he’s mowing people down, and suddenly, you’re getting yourself out, because the history of outs in previous innings has psyched you out. You’ve convinced yourself it’s that pitcher’s night, and succumbed to the belief that, on this night, there’s no beating the guy. Professionals will never admit to such a thing, but it happens all the time. Glavine had that advantage going for him — the Cubs had accepted the fact that this was his night, and they were going to be part of history — perhaps because the “baseball gods” decided it was time. Once Willie took him out, the veil of doubt had been lifted. Without Glavine on the mound, it was no longer his night. Suddenly, the Cubs had a fighting chance, against fresh meat who had no association with historic achievements nor blessings from baseball gods. In short, Randolph let them back into the game.

(End of fury, back to the game.)

Guillermo Mota came in with Pagan on second and promptly gave up a single to Jason Kendall to move Pagan to third (Pagan held because Shawn Green got to the ball quickly and made a perfect throw to the cutoff man.) That was all for Mota as Randolph returned to the mound and summoned Pedro Feliciano, who retired Jacque Jones on a groundout that allowed Pagan to score. Mike Fontenot followed with a cheap bloop hit down the third base line to score the second run of the inning, and Randolph left the dugout for a third time to bring in Aaron Heilman, who hurried to get loose on the sidelines. Heilman got Ryan Theriot to fly out to center to end the inning.

Jorge Sosa pitched a scoreless eighth to retain the lead. Billy Wagner pitched the ninth with a five-run lead, but had no problem getting amped up for the historic evening. Wags was humming close to triple digits and throwing his typically nasty sharp slider.

Oh, there was more to the game than Glavine’s pitching … there was Glavine’s hitting, for example. Tommy drove in the first run of the game with a two-out single in the second, scoring Lastings Milledge. The Mets tacked on two more runs in the fifth on doubles by Delgado and Green, and extended the lead to five-zip in the sixth on an RBI single by Jose Reyes and a run-scoring groundout by Delgado.

After the Cubs took advantage of Glavine’s absence in the seventh, the Mets marched right back and took two runs back, thanks to another double by Delgado and an RBI single by Paul LoDuca. Delgado’s shot was a screamer into the ivy in the right-center alley, and he lifted it with just his bottom hand; that’s diesel, bro.

Notes

Glavine’s line: 6 1/3 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K. The Wrigley fans gave him an impressive and respectful standing ovation when he walked off the mound in the seventh.

Once again, it appeared that fellow veteran Shawn Green, as well as Carlos Delgado, played just a notch above their normal games in the field. In reality, I’m sure everyone on the field stepped it up, but those two guys are normally so awful, their inspired play is that much more noticeable. Green was getting to balls more quickly, and making throws back to the infield like he was 25 and in Toronto again. Delgado also harked back to his Blue Jays days, reaching down past his waist for balls on at least two occasions. Nice to see the two vets playing like it was the World Series to help Tommy get to 300.

Lastings Milledge had three hits and a walk when he came up in the 8th with the bases loaded and one out, but popped up on the first pitch from reliever Michael Wuertz. Milledge scored twice in the contest.

Luis Castillo was 4-for-5 with two runs scored, but left the game with an undisclosed injury after scoring on Delgado’s double in the top of the eighth.

Delgado was 2-for-4 with 4 RBI. His last RBI came on a line drive to rightfield that nearly took Matt Murton’s glove off. It was a sacrifice liner, not a sacrifice fly, it was hit so hard.

For trivia buffs, Ruben Gotay fielded the last groundout of the game, putout by Delgado, on a grounder by Mike Fontenot.

Shame about the relative lack of celebration on ESPN, in comparison to what we’ll likely have to endure when Barroid hits his 756th homerun (345th tainted). Especially considering that the homerun “record” will likely fall again within the next ten years, while we most likely won’t see another 300-game winner for at least another generation. The media’s got their valuation on records a little mixed up, eh?

Next Game

The Mets have off on Monday, traveling back to New York to host the second-place Braves. Oliver Perez takes the mound against Buddy Carlyle in a 7:10 PM start. If you go to the game, stop by the Loge, section 20 and say hello. I’ll be wearing a Mr. Met shirt.

Cubs 6 Mets 2

If not for one inning, the Mets might have won this game.

John Maine started out the game well, retiring the first six batters he faced. However, the third inning went much differently.

Jacque Jones doubled to lead off the third, and Jason Kendall walked. Ted Lilly then attempted a sacrifice, but Jones was thrown out at third by Carlos Delgado. (That was the most aggressive play I’ve ever seen by Delgado, BTW.) Things were looking really good when Alfonso Soriano followed with a grounder back to Maine, who had plenty of time to turn a double play. However, he bobbled the ball, and was only able to get Soriano out at first. No harm done — there were then two outs and no one scored — but Maine completely lost focus after botching the DP, and proceeded to have a meltdown of epic proportions.

First, Ryan Theriot reached safely on an infield hit to short, scoring Kendall (it was a REALLY close play at first — the replay showed he was probably out, in which case the inning would have ended right then and there). Then Maine walked Derrek Lee to load the bases. He then walked Aramis Ramirez to score Lilly, and hit Cliff Floyd to score Theriot. Mark DeRosa followed with a two-run single, and Jacque Jones singled in another run before Maine was finally replaced by Aaron Sele, who induced a flyout from Kendall to end the inning.

Ted Lilly had great command of his fastball all game, jamming up batters inside as the main part of his strategy. He didn’t walk a batter until the eighth inning, and allowed only two runs on seven hits — both runs the result of Moises Alou solo homers.

Notes

In the top of the eighth, with Alou on first and David Wright on second and two out, Damion Easley struck out on a check swing and the ball got away from catcher Jason Kendall. Instead of running, Easley stood there and argued with the home plate umpire. I know, I’m nitpicking as the at-bat meant nothing, but, c’mon Damion — get your butt in gear and head down the line! You never know, maybe Kendall rushes the throw and throws it down the rightfield line and Wright scores. At least do something other than stand there and wait to be tagged.

Lastings Milledge struck out looking twice on ball that were close enough to hack at. I hope he’s not getting two-strike advice from Carlos Beltran.

Next Game

Tom Glavine takes his second shot at #300, going against Jason Marquis in an 8:05 PM start. The game is carried by ESPN, which means you still have to put the game on “mute” but at least it won’t be the camera crew from “The Blair Witch Project”. That Fox telecast made me seasick. Another benefit: the San Francisco Giants game will be long over, so no “look ins” of Barroid Bonds.

Mets 6 Cubs 2

Ryan Dempster solidified his position as my favorite Cub.

Dempster characteristically had a meltdown, set off by a few calls that didn’t go his way, and the Mets took advantage by pounding him for four runs in their last at-bat, sending nine batters to the plate.

It all began with a walk to David Wright, during which Dempster disagreed with a couple calls by the home plate umpire. As Yogi Berra says, it was deja vu all over again, with Dempster barking at the umpire and completely losing his focus on the mound. Carlos Delgado followed by driving a double into the rightfield corner, scoring Wright, and on the relay home Delgado took third. Dempster managed to retire the next two batters, but the gates opened up again, as Shawn Green slashed a double of his own down the third base stripe to score Delgado, Ruben Gotay followed with a single to score Green, Moises Alou moved Gotay to third on a pinch-hit single, and Jose Reyes hit another single to drive in the fourth run of the inning — the third with two outs.

Orlando Hernandez brought his “A” game to the mound in this afternoon contest, matching Carlos Zambrano pitch for pitch through five innings. Zambrano dominated in that he did not allow much contact, but patience was practiced perfectly by the Mets hitters in their garnering seven walks against the Cubs ace. Zambrano left after allowing a solo homerun to Ramon Castro — although the official reason for his removal was “heat-related cramping”. Apparently he wasn’t drinking his Vitamin Water between innings (the potassium-filled “Revive” with the great fruit punch flavor would have been ideal).

Castro’s blast stood as the sole run until there were two outs in the bottom of the sixth, when Derrek Lee jumped all over a fastball by El Duque and deposited it into the bleachers to tie the game one-all.

The Mets answered in the top of the seventh when David Newhan walked, stole second, and was driven home on a single by Marlon “Play Me on a Hunch” Anderson. However, the Cubs charged right back with a run of their own, chasing El Duque to the showers and tying the game at two.

Notes

Interesting that if you watched the MLB.com coverage of the game — carried by the Cubs local broadcast — the hometown announcers commented that they thought at least two of the pitches called balls to Wright in the ninth looked like strikes. Yet, when you watched the replay on SNY, Gary Cohen and Ron Darling agreed with the umpire’s calls.

Next Game

The Mets and Cubs do it again at Wrigley Field in a 3:55 PM start because, you guessed it — it’s being carried by FOX. That means we’ll have the wonderful pregame covered by stoneheads and the game itself broadcasted by Tim McCarver — with the added bonus of getting “look ins” to every Barry Bonds at-bat … yippee! I might rather watch the game on the choppy, slow-mo image on MLB.com and listen to Ron Santo again (ouch). Anyway it’ll be John Maine vs. Ted Lilly. Should be a good one.