Yankees 6 Mets 2

For the second consecutive start, it was not a good day for John Maine. In fact, he appears to be in something of a slump, when you compare his latest performances to the first six starts of the season. It looks like he’s not finishing his pitches, following through near his waist instead of below his knee — as a result the ball is higher in the strike zone than it should be.

Of course, all the number-crunching statheads are running forward now, screaming their “I told you so’s”, pointing at the FIP, BABIP, and other nonsensical numbers spit out by their calculators.

Personally, I don’t need any complex formulas to explain why John Maine pitched poorly — regardless of what the “batting average on balls in play” is. With my two eyes, I saw: Paul LoDuca set up outside, Maine pitches inside. LoDuca set up inside, Maine throws outside. Maine hangs a flat change-up. Maine misses high and out with the fastball when LoDuca’s target is down and in. This visual experience suggests that Maine does not have his command, is missing his spots, and throwing fat pitches that are easy to hit.

Maine’s debacle of a game resulted in: 5 innings, 8 hits, 3 walks, 4 strikeouts, 5 earned runs, 2 homers, 107 pitches. He seemed to go full count on every batter, as the Yankees suddenly remembered how to take pitches. A bad, bad game for Johnny Maine — but he’ll find his way again.

For the Yankees, Tyler Clippard chose his Major League debut to have the greatest day of his life — and it wasn’t even his birthday. It’s amazing what a little bit of confidence can do to propel performance — in addition to his remarkable pitching, he also laid down a good bunt and blasted a double — this from a guy who probably hasn’t had an at-bat since PONY League (actually, he looks like a 15-year-old in PONY League). Clippard should have been knocked out of the game in the second inning, when David Wright blasted an opposite-field homer and then Mets loaded the bases — capped by a walk to the offensively challenged John Maine. Jose Reyes came up and worked a 3-1 count, but could not take advantage and popped out to leftfield. It was the turning point in the game, as it gave Clippard a boost of momentum. Had Reyes come through with a base hit in that situation, I bet my bottom dollar the game would have gone very differently from that point forward. As it was, Clippard retired 11 of the next 13 batters, as the Mets didn’t come close to mounting anything of a threat from innings three through six; it was as if the offense turned their switch to “off”.

Notes

Why isn’t Ruben Gotay getting any starts at second base — other than day games after night games? Damion Easley is NOT an everyday player, so there’s no point in exposing his deficiencies day after day, when the Mets have a much better fielder, faster runner, and equal hitter available. I understand Willie Randolph’s thing about playing “his guys” and his trust in the veterans, so it’s fine if he wants to play Easley for the majority of the time. But I don’t understand why the “majority” can’t be 3 games out of every 5, or four games per week, and then giving Gotay more than one start every full moon. This game, with a rookie righthander on the mound, was a perfect opportunity to give Gotay a start.

Maybe Gotay remained on the bench because Randolph had a hunch that Easley would hit a meaningless homerun in the ninth inning of a 6-2 game

Jose Reyes is having a difficult time discerning the inside strike lately. He struck out twice looking on inside fastballs in this game, and has struck out looking several other times in the last two weeks on similar pitches.

Scott “The Show” Schoeneweis had a fantastic outing, allowing NO RUNS in his one inning of work. And it only took him two dozen pitches! The Show walked one, allowed one hit, struck out two, and lowered his ERA to six and a half.

Aaron Heilman threw two effective innings of relief in mop-up duty.

Paul LoDuca was 2-for-4, the only Met with more than one hit. Ruben Gotay and Shawn Green both hit doubles, Gotay as a pinch-hitter.

The Alex Rodriguez phenomena reared its ugly head once again in this game. With the Yankees down 1-0 in the top of the third with one out and men on second and third, A-Rod whiffed on three pitches. He did, however, manage to rip a line-drive homer in the seventh when the Yanks were already up 5-1. Rodriguez also hit a solo homer in Saturday’s game, when the Yankees were down 8-3. Oh, and while he had that crazy April, hitting 14 homers and batting .355, his team spent most of the month mired in last place. He might be the most talented player in baseball history, but he’s yet to prove that he’s a winning ballplayer.

There was a point in the game — or was it the entire game? — when Joe Morgan was rambling on about something for several minutes, and I’m certain no one heard a word he said. My guess is that most viewers were like me, and managed to completely tune him out after the top half of the first inning. Hopefully the subconscious mind didn’t pick up and store any of his mindless drivel.

Morgan’s monotony was occasionally broken by the “Boston Bore”, Peter Gammons. ESPN might want to consider playing some soft jazz music in the background, in lieu of paying several non-personalities to provide color commentary (actually, the ESPN team should be termed “pallid commentary”.

Hey, anyone remember Victor Diaz? He’s the guy I thought should have been starting in front of Xavier Nady last year. A bad call, in retrospect, but maybe I was a year off — he went 4-for-5 with two dingers against Houston, and now has four homers in his last five games, batting .308 on the season in limited duty.

Next Game

The Mets have Monday off, then travel to lovely Atlanta to play the second-place Braves. Tuesday’s game starts at 7:35 PM, and has Jorge Sosa facing Kyle Davies.

Mets 10 Yankees 7

What began as a blowout ended as a near-nailbiter.

The storyline was impressive: it was wet, it was wild, it was boring for a while, yet by the end you were on the edge of your seat, hoping that Billy Wagner was not made of sugar and be melted down by the pouring rain (he’s not, and so he wasn’t).

With plenty of offensive support, Tom Glavine cruised to his 295th career victory, and fifth of the season. His stuff was mediocre, command slightly off, and the home plate umpire squeezed him — but somehow Glavine held the mighty Yanks to three runs on nine hits and two walks. He tossed 101 pitches in six innings, only 58 for strikes, as he picked around the plate to patient Yankee hitters. No doubt he benefitted from a quick launch of the Met offensive, which afforded Glavine an 8-2 lead in the fourth inning. The Mets scored early and often, and combined with Glavine’s assorted slowballs, the Yankees were lulled into near sleep.

Robinson Cano, in particular, appeared to be sleepwalking. He committed three errors, and would have been charged with a fourth if not for the technicality that you can’t assume a double play. Looking back, his miscues may have been the difference in the ballgame, as the Yankees rallied late and eventually lost by three runs.

The Mets pounded out 12 hits and 10 runs, with David Wright making a statement by hitting two two-run homers. The statement was heard — loud and clear — as Wright was walked intentionally the next three times he came to the plate.

Believe it or not, the scoring began in the first inning with — guess who? — Jose Reyes, who led the game off with a single, stole second, moved to third on an Endy Chavez infield hit, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Carlos Beltran. That story sound familiar?

The Yankees were struck by yet another stroke of incredibly bad luck, as starter Darrell Rasner had to leave the game after allowing the aforementioned single to Chavez. Endy bounced a ball back through the box, which deflected off Rasner’s hand and fractured his index finger. Rasner had to leave the game and was relieved by LOOGY Mike Myers. Myers performed well, considering that he collects a paycheck for the sole purpose of retiring David Ortiz. However, his submarining style was no match for the bat of Wright, who blasted one of his offerings high over the leftfield bleachers, extending the Mets’ first inning lead to 3-1.

In the second, the Mets let up on Myers a bit, scoring only one on a single by Legendary Endy. However, Carlos Delgado led off the third with a single, and David Wright reminded Myers of his skillset by launching his second homer off of the outstretched glove of Johnny Damon and over the centerfield wall. That second tater must have sparked the memory of Joe Torre, who suddenly realized Ortiz wasn’t on the Mets and therefore removed Myers from the game.

Luis Vizcaino came in to keep the Mets from scoring further in the third, but in the fourth was victimized for two tack-on runs on a double by Delgado and a fielder’s choice by Shawn Green. By then the Mets were tired from so much swinging, and took a break for four innings.

Meantime, Glavine slopped his way through six before Willie Randolph felt bad for his old mentor and team and chose to throw a bone: Scott Schoeneweis. “The Show” gave up a run-scoring single to Derek Jeter in the seventh and back-to-back homers to A-Rod and Jorge Posada to start the eighth. Randolph saw that as a fair amount of runs to give away, and called Pedro Feliciano in to clean up the mess. Instea, Pedro made things more interesting, giving up a run-scoring double to Josh Phelps and putting Yankees on first and third with Jerky Deter at the plate. Aaron Heilman was summoned to put an end to the madness and he retired Jeter on a groundout.

With the Yankees now within striking distance, the Mets decided to get the offense going again. Carlos Beltran walked, D-Wright was walked intentionally, and with the wet weather pulled off a double steal without drawing a throw from Posada. Seeing that Robinson Cano had dropped the ball every time it came near him, pinch-hitter Julio Franco guided a grounder in Cano’s general direction and, lo and behold, Robinson booted it — literally. Cano made a diving stop of the ball, tumbled over and attempted to throw to first while laying on his back, but instead bounced the ball against his foot, allowing both Beltran and Wright to score.

Billy Wagner came on to close out the ninth, but not before giving up two singles and a run on his throwing error. He rebounded though, striking out Cano and Phelps swinging, stranding men on first and third to earn his 11th save.

Notes

Endy Chavez went 4-for-5, and is now hitting .390 on the year. My wife would like to know why he isn’t an everyday player, and that’s getting to be a more intriguing question each week.

Jose Reyes stole two bases, and the Mets stole five on the day — including one by Shawn Green that went uncontested.

Delgado was 2-for-5, and looked more comfortable at the plate than he has all year.

Schoeneweis threw 25 pitches, 11 for strikes. His ERA is now 6.88.

The Boston Red Sox whipped the Atlanta Braves 13-3, extending their lead over the Yankees while simultaneously helping the Mets. Nice work, boys.

Next Game

The series finale pits John Maine vs. Tyler Clippard, who will be making his Major League debut. If it wasn’t bad enough to have to listen to the “smooth as velvet” Joe Buck and eternally annoying Tim McCarver today, tomorrow’s game is an 8:05 PM start on ESPN. I can’t WAIT to hear Joe Morgan tell us about his days with the Colt .45s and similarly inane comparisons to what may or may not be happening on the field.

Mets 3 Yankees 2

Manhattan will bask beneath the glow of Mets blue and orange for at least one night.

In the feature pitching matchup of the series, both starters struggled ever so slightly in the initial inning. One yielded a run as a result, the other managed to strand a runner at third. At the end of the game, that first frame was all the difference.

Oliver Perez may have his meltdowns, but he has a penchant for rising to the occasion in big games. Though interleague play may have lost its luster, Friday night with the Yankees at Shea was a different ballgame than, say, Mets-Marlins. The stadium was packed, the fans were loud, the media present en masse, and the atmosphere abuzz with an edge of electricity.

And Ollie was awesome.

Perez went one out short of eight full innings, allowing just two runs — courtesy of a two-run homer by Hideki Matsui — five hits and two walks, while striking out five. He was “on”, he was focused, and he was cool as a cucumber. His stuff was short of dominating, but good enough to win. Other than the Matsui homer, the Yankees never threatened after the first inning — in fact, other than the first, the Yanks did not have more than one runner on base in any inning.

However, Andy Pettitte matched Perez inning for inning, and was much more efficient. Pettitte threw just 87 pitches in his seven strong innings of work, allowing five hits and one walk. However, he made one big mistake: a gopher ball to “Legendary Endy” Chavez in the bottom of the fifth, which followed Paul LoDuca’s leadoff double. Those two runs, added to one scratched out in the bottom of the first on a Carlos Delgado sacrifce fly, were the difference in the ballgame.

Perez received a standing ovation when he left the game with two outs in the eighth. Joe Smith — and not Aaron Heilman — came on to strike out Derek Jeter looking on a 3-2 pitch.

Billy Wagner’s ninth was a little more exciting than we would have liked, but through no fault of his own. The potential game-ending grounder was mishandled by Damion Easley and his throw to first pulled Delgado off the bag — though the play was ruled a hit. Wagner went to a full count against pinch-hitter Jason Giambi, who fouled off several pitches before swinging over a nasty slider.

Notes

Endy’s legend grows a little more each week. He may be the most beloved Met of all time before it’s all over, if he keeps pumping out these crowd-pleasing dramatics. In addition to the deciding homer, Endy also threw out Johnny Damon trying to stretch a single into a double in the first. Had Damon made it, the Yankees might have scored at least one more run, since Perez had some trouble with his control at the beginning of the game.

Paul LoDuca was the only Met with multiple hits, going 2-for-3 with two doubles. The Yankees were playing him toward rightfield, but Paulie was zoning middle-in and drove two balls down the leftfield line.

Why was Damion Easley in the field in the ninth inning? Ruben Gotay may not be Anderson Hernandez, but he’s significantly better defensively than Easley. Willie takes the “my guys” thing a little too far sometimes … you’d think he would have seen the 1986 World Series Game Six at least once (SNY plays it every two days, after all) — remember, that game that Boston manager John McNamara left in one of “his guys” at first base?

Interesting to see Smith come in to finish the 8th instead of Heilman, since both were well-rested. Jeter’s 1-for-4 lifetime against Heilman, so it probably wasn’t a statistical matchup thing. The conspiracy theorist in me thinks Heilman is hurt. The logical part of me says Willie liked the idea of putting Smith out there because no one on the Yankees had seen him before, and he is nearly unhittable to the uninitiated.

These are not the Yankees of years past. They were flat, boring, and lifeless. It seemed like they didn’t even want to be on the field.

Biggest boos went to A-Rod and Derek Jee-Duh.

Next Game

Tom Glavine goes for win #295 against rookie Darrell Rasner. Game time is FOX-mandated 3:55 PM.