Tigers 15 Mets 7

It went from bad to worse to embarrassing.

The Detroit Tigers pounded Mets pitching for 15 runs on 21 hits and four walks — first chasing Tom Glavine, then Aaron Sele, and finally erupting on Joe Smith before swing fatigue set in.

The Mets, meanwhile, did manage seven runs on ten hits, so there was a positive: at least the bats are back.

Other than David Wright extending his hitting streak to 11 games, and his homerun streak to four games, there really isn’t much else to report from the Mets’ side of things. If you ate something bad, and need to regurgitate it, feel free to check out the boxscore.

Notes

OK, there was one other mildly positive action in the game: Carlos Gomez hit his first big-league homerun. It looks like he might be the one to stay around when Shawn Green comes off the DL, with Ben Johnson going down. Gomez has shown some remarkable skills and a penchant for the exciting, while Johnson just hasn’t done enough to impress anyone in his limited audition. However, in my mind it makes more sense to get Gomez more at-bats, and regular playing time, because he clearly needs more polishing. Further, I think if given more of a chance, Johnson could evolve into a fine fourth outfielder. His inability to hit better could be due to pressing, instead of letting himself play relaxed.

In the third inning, Andrew Miller threw the ball away on a pickoff attempt of Damion Easley, and the ball rolled well down the rightfield line. Had he been running hard, Damion should have “Easley” made it to third base, but instead jogged to second. Carlos Delgado followed with a slow bouncer that Carlos Guillen couldn’t handle, moving Easley to third. Even on that bouncer, Easley did not run full speed, and might have had a chance to score if he did. If Easley was dogging it, he should have been removed from the game. If Easley’s knee was bugging him, he definitely should have been taken out, as his inability to run full speed cost the Mets a run in what at the time was a close (3-2) game. With both Jose Valentin and Ruben Gotay available to play second base, it doesn’t make sense to put Easley on the field — assuming he’s less than 100%. Should Easley indeed be hurt, he may be the one to go to the DL when Green returns on Monday.

Next Game

The Mets continue westward to face the Dodgers in a 10:10 EST (yawn!) start. Orlando Hernandez goes against Randy Wolf.

Tigers 8 Mets 7

Tough game for the Mets, in many ways.

Jeremy Bonderman had good, hard-sinking stuff that kept the Mets batters befuddled for much of his six innings of work. The only hitter who seemed to have a clue early in the game was Carlos Beltran, who was very patient in his first at-bat. He watched several sinkers dive down and outside the strike zone, worked the count full, and forced Bonderman to elevate his pitches. As a result, he got a nice waist-high fastball to drive into right for a hard single. Later, he stole second, the throw from Pudge Rodriguez went wide and bounced off Beltran and into leftfield, which allowed Carlos to scamper all the way home with the Mets’ first run.

In the bottom of the first, Oliver Perez seemed to have a handle on things, getting two of the first three batters out (Placido Polanco hit a single). However, he had a hard time getting his breaking pitches over the plate, missing up and out to the righties. One of those righties — Magglio Ordonez — worked a two-out walk to put men on second and third, and Carlos Guillen followed with a three-run homer. Actually, he hit two — the first one was only about fifty feet inside the leftfield foul pole. Both blasts came on flat sliders that hung over the middle of the plate.

Perez had similar trouble with his command the entire game — missing with a flat slider, and unable to spot the fastball where he wanted it. He appeared to be rushing his body forward a bit, and leaving his throwing hand just a bit behind. That’s the problem with Perez: his mechanics are so unorthodox, that if one element is just a hair out of sync, his effectiveness is gone. He’s a tough-enough competitor to fight through, but is nowhere near the same pitcher as when he’s “on”. But, when he’s “on”, he may be the toughest lefty in all of baseball.

Ollie pitched five innings, allowing five runs on five walks and seven hits, but left the game within striking distance — a 5-3 Detroit lead. Unfortunately, Guillermo Mota could do no better in relief of Perez. I’m not certain what the issue was with Mota, but from his first pitch he appeared to have a confidence problem — he simply did not look like his smooth, swaggering, cocky self. Maybe he was having flashbacks from his time in Cleveland, or perhaps he has a mental block when it comes to the American League Central. Whatever the case, he was pitching with fear for the first time since becoming a Met, missing all over the place with his fastball or laying pitches chest-high over the middle of the plate. Before he could be rescued, Mota was battered for four hits, a walk, and three runs in one-third of an inning.

At the time, with the way Bonderman was dominating, it seemed like an insurmountable lead, but the Mets fought back with three runs in the seventh and another in the eighth to close the gap to one run — both rallies instigated by David Wright.

In the seventh, Wright led off with a base hit off Bonderman, and Paul LoDuca did the same. Ricky Luh-DEE then ripped a line-drive double into the rightfield corner to score D-Wright and chase Paulie to third. Yorman Bazardo came on in relief and gave up a sacrifice fly to Ramon Castro, scoring LoDuca. MetsToday’s favorite second baseman Ruben Gotay then pinch-hit for Carlos Gomez, and rapped an infield hit off Bazardo’s glove to score Ledee and cut the Tiger lead to 8-6. David Wright hit a solo homer in the following inning, but that was the end of the Mets scoring for the day.

Notes

When I watched Gotay play for Kansas City and in the Caribbean Series over this winter, he seemed to be a wild swinger, a sucker for off-speed stuff and sliders in the dirt. It appeared — to me, anyway — that he guessed a lot and swung for the fences, which seemed a strange strategy for a player his size. However, what he’s shown this year is good-to-excellent discipline, and controlled, fluid swing from both sides of the plate. Is it possible that he’s maturing? Will anybody with the last name Randolph notice and give the kid some starts already?

The Mota meltdown was incredibly disturbing, mostly because of his body language and the frightened look on his face. He hadn’t pitched that poorly against the Tigers in the past — he had a 3.60 ERA against them before the outing — so it couldn’t have been something specific to Detroit. In contrast, the Tigers batters looked like they couldn’t wait to get into the box to face him, from the beginning of the inning — it was like watching a hungry crowd of wolves turning a pig on a spit. Maybe Mota was hurt, or not feeling right, or something else on his mind? It was all very strange, bordering on the surreal.

Beltran, Wright, LoDuca, and Ledee all went 2-for-4 on the day. It’s nice to see the Mets finally hitting, and scoring in ways that don’t include the longball. Hope the Phillies had fun with their little spurt, because once the Mets sticks start supporting the spectacular starting pitching, it’s all over for everyone else in the NL East.

Next Game

The rubber match in Detroit pits 41-year-old Tom Glavine vs. 22-year-old Andrew Miller. Glavine throws puss, Miller throws gas — it couldn’t be a more different matchup. Let’s hope Tommy can finally grab career win #296. Game time is 1:05 EST and will be carried on CW11 (so instead of interesting postgame interviews and highlights, you get “Everybody Loves Raymond” reruns … ugh).

Mets 3 Tigers 0

Who is this guy in Jorge Sosa’s skin?

With each game, it becomes more clear that he picked up more than mechanical improvements while in N’Awlins … there had to be some voo-doo involved as well.

Sosa won his sixth game in seven starts, shutting out the MLB leader in runs over eight innings, allowing only four hits and two walks and striking out five, using 116 pitches in the process.

Sosa’s slider was devastating, and his fastball had good movement, but he also benefitted from a generous strike zone and some fantastic fielding plays — particularly by Jose Reyes, Carlos Gomez, and David Wright. The Mets defense seems to turn it up a notch when he’s on the mound, so the survey to the right — who is the Mets’ stopper — may well be answered with Jorge Sosa.

As well as Sosa pitched, Tigers’ journeyman Chad Durbin was nearly as good, also going eight full innings. He gave up only six hits and three walks, but made mistakes against David Wright and Carlos Delgado that wound up over the fence. Wright’s fourth-inning, two-out blast was sent over the opposite-field, rightfield wall, and Delgado drove a prodigious shot well into the right-center stands leading off the seventh. Delgado added a shallow sacrifice fly in the ninth to score Carlos Gomez — who by the way left a bit early but got away with it.

Notes

Paul LoDuca was the DH and remained hot, going 2-for-4 while Ramon Castro caught.

The homers by Wright and Delgado were the tenth of the season for each batter.

Ricky Ledee made it to Detroit in time to start in leftfield. My stomach felt great until I saw his name etched into the ninth spot in the order. Luckily he didn’t hurt anyone.

Billy Wagner pitched a perfect ninth, striking out two and touching 97 MPH a few times on the radar gun.

Next Game

The Mets and Tigers do it again at 3:55 PM EST, with Oliver Perez going against Jeremy Bonderman in what promises to be another pitching duel. Unfortunately, the game is carried by FOX. Fortunately, most TV remote controls today come with a MUTE button.

Phillies 6 Mets 3

It’s not a good week to be a Mets starting pitcher.

John Maine matched Cole Hamels nearly pitch for pitch, throwing seven strong innings, allowing two runs on six hits and no walks, striking out two. Personally, I would have let him pitch the eighth, as he looked very strong in the seventh despite throwing 98 pitches. However, Willie Randolph opted to pinch-hit for him in the bottom of the seventh, as the Phillies had Chase Utley due up third and Ryan Howard fourth in the 8th. As it turned out, Damion Easley pinch-hit in a bunt situation, popped two attempts foul, and ended up striking out.

Meantime, Hamels was like a lefthanded steamroller, flattening the Mets bats for five innings, with no sign of slowing down. However, in the sixth, he began throwing wild high. Ben Johnson led off with his second single of the game, but was erased when Carlos Beltran hit a hard ground ball to Jimmy Rollins for a double play. Carlos Delgado came up next and hit a solo bomb into the parking lot beyond rightfield, and David Wright followed with a deep fly to center that appeared to bounce off the top of the wall. Wright ended up on third, but on-deck hitter Paul LoDuca alerted the umpires to the replay on the scoreboard, which showed that the ball actually deflected off an advertising sign behind the wall — which would make it a homerun. The umpires had a three-minute conference, and ruled the blast a homer. Phillies manager Charlie Manuel came out to argue and wound up ejected. Nonetheless, the homer stood, and LoDuca jumped on the first pitch from Hamels for the third consecutive homerun of the inning to put the Mets ahead 3-2.

Pedro Feliciano induced the first two outs of the eighth, but walked Utley and Randolph brought Billy Wagner in for a four-out save. Wagner walked Ryan Howard, but struck out Aaron Rowand to end the inning.

Then in the top of the ninth, Pat Burrell led off and worked the count full before mashing a fastball over the fence in deep left-center to tie the game three all. Wagner retired the next three batters without incident, but the damage was done.

The Mets couldn’t score in the bottom of the ninth, and Randolph decided to give the game to the Phillies by bringing in Scott Schoeneweis. My guess is that Willie’s plan is to give the Phillies a sense of false confidence by sweeping the Mets at home. There’s really no other explanation behind inserting “The Show” for a third straight night. As if the game were following a prewritten script, Jimmy Rollins led off the inning with a line-drive single, was bunted to second, and scored on a line drive double by — who else — Chase Utley. At that point, Joe Smith was brought in, but he allowed a single to Aaron Rowand to score Utley for an unneeded insurance run. As if that weren’t enough, Pat Burrell followed with a double to put the game out of hand.

Naturally, the Mets went down one-two-three, looking about as formidable as a wet rag.

Notes

Can’t decide which Phillie I hate most — Rollins, Utley, or Burrell. I guess it’s OK to hate them all equally.

Ben Johnson had two first-pitch hits, but struck out in the ninth with two outs and runners on second and third.

Carlos Gomez also had two hits in the game, neither of which amounted to anything substantial. He also stole a base, his fourth of the year.

Other than the flukey sixth, when the back-to-back-to-back homeruns appeared out of nowhere, the Mets did absolutely nothing on offense. They had trouble reaching base, could not advance runners, and failed miserably in clutch situations. I think this is what one would call “pressing”.

Next Game

The Mets travel to Detroit for Bud Selig’s tired old interleague schedule. Jorge Sosa goes to the mound against Chad Durbin.