Mets 6 Cubs 5

Players suspended for drug use … controversy over cutting a rap song … Lou Piniella struggling to stay in second place … New Yorkers jumping on the Mets bandwagon … the Yankees languishing behind the first-place Red Sox … Julio Franco starting on the left side of the infield … the Mets coming from behind to win in the last of the ninth …

Is this 1986 or what ?

After falling behind 5-1, with the B-squad on the field and a young lefty giving up gopher balls, this game looked like a giveaway in the late innings. Manager Willie Randolph was committed to keeping his regulars on the bench, to enjoy a well-deserved day off. If the second-stringers couldn’t muster up the gumption for a win, so be it — tomorrow is another day.

Then, Ryan Dempster entered the story.

The Mets faithful might have seen it coming, but the Cubs fans were blindsided. Dempster came into the game with a 2.37 ERA, dominating 0.84 WHIP and .159 BAA, and only one blown save in nine chances. He’d been part of the reason for the Cubs’ early success and second place standing. So when manager Lou Piniella put him in to close out the game, it appeared to be all but in the bag.

The inning started innocently enough — a David Newhan single followed by a Ramon Castro fly out. But Castro’s liner was the last out the Mets would make for the rest of the day, as the next seven hitters reached base, en route to a 5-run rally that won the game. If not for the fact the Mets were the home team, they might still be up.

After Castro’s out, Carlos Gomez singled to right-center, chasing Newhan to third. Carlos Beltran was sent up to pinch-hit, and after he took two balls from Dempster, Piniella ran out to the mound in a huff — strange panic move, since the Mets had yet to score a run in the inning. Eventually, Beltran walked to load the bases, as did Endy Chavez to bring in a run. Then Ruben Gotay came up and hit a single to drive in another run. With Shawn Green coming up, Piniella had seen enough and called for lefthander Scott Eyre, against whom Green was 0-for-22 in his career. Apparently, Piniella didn’t realize that Randolph had most of his starting lineup waiting on the bench, and Willie countered with David Wright, who deposited the first offering by Eyre into centerfield for a one-run single. With Mets down 5-4 and the bases still loaded, Carlos Delgado dribbled the second pitch he saw into rightfield to score Chavez and Gotay to win the game.

Ambiorix Burgos, who pitched two stellar innings of relief — no hits, no walks, 2 Ks, 14 pitches, 11 for strikes — earned the win.

Notes

Jason Vargas was pitching a great game until the sixth inning, when he gave up two two-run homers. It was the third time through the lineup, and it was indeed a charm for the Cubs. Vargas finished the inning and pitched a hitless seventh, so overall it wasn’t that bad of a start: 7 innings, 6 hits, no walks, on 90 pitches. While the two dingers were damaging, you have to admire the kid’s aggressiveness and lack of fear. He showed good composure and challenged hitters, going right after everyone, including Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez.

The Mets “B” lineup featured Julio Franco playing 3B (and batting fifth), David Newhan batting sixth and playing 2B, and Ruben Gotay batting second and playing shortstop, among other anomalies. Newhan had a 2-for-3 day with a walk and a stolen base, and Gotay was arguably the hero of the game. Ruben went 2-for-4 — including the clutch single in the ninth — with 2 RBI and he scored the winning run.

Next Game

The Mets play the “other” team in New York, the crosstown Yankees. Game time is 7:10 PM. It will be a battle of the lefties, as Oliver Perez faces Andy Pettitte.

Mets 8 Cubs 1

Will Jorge Sosa ever fall back to Earth?

Sosa breezed through seven shutout innings, allowing one hit, two walks and striking out five before running out of gas on his 96th pitch in the 8th.

Speaking of people playing over their head, Damion Easley hit another homerun — a two-run job, just to the left of the bleachers, of course — to put the Mets ahead 4-0 in the bottom of the fourth. Earlier, Easley scored the Mets’ second run on a sac fly by David Wright in the second. The first Met run was also the first Major League RBI for Carlos Gomez, which came on a Texas Leaguer into rightfield that scored Shawn Green.

Gomez collected his second big league ribbie in the seventh, this time on a legit two-bagger down the leftfield line that scored David Wright. That run capped a three-run inning for the Mets, and included an RBI double by Wright, a sac fly by Paul LoDuca, and a

Notes

In the bottom of the 7th, with a 6-0 lead, Shawn Green hit a weak bouncer to the second baseman. It was a routine grounder, but Green hustled down the line like it was the last out of the World Series. That’s one of the reasons I truly enjoy watching Green — and this Mets team. These guys — young and old, ahead or behind, in conditions wet or dry — play the game the way it is supposed to be played. Rarely will you see a Mets player “dog it”.

Wright was 2-for-3 on the night with 2 RBI and an SB and has lifted his average to .276. He’s officially hot.

Carlos Delgado went 1-for-3 with an RBI and a stolen base. He is officially tepid.

Joe Smith will not be the recipient of any steak dinners courtesy of Jorge Sosa. For the second time, Smith allowed an inherited runner to score — a run charged to Sosa.

Jose Reyes had two hits but limped out of the game after his second hit in the 8th. Hopefully it was just a muscle cramp or something similarly minor.

Billy Wagner wrapped up the game with a 1-2-3 ninth.

Every Met in the lineup — other than Sosa — had at least one hit.

Next Game

Thursday afternoon’s 1:10 PM game has Angel Guzman pitching for the Cubs against the Mystery Met. Most signs point to Jason Vargas.

Cubs 10 Mets 1

It was an ugly game from start to finish.

John Maine was awful, and though he allowed “only” three runs in five innings, he pitched much worse than that. After three innings, he’d already thrown 72 pitches, so the fact he went as far as he did is a miracle in itself. His command was way off — he walked four, and went into deep counts on nearly every hitter — and often had to serve up straight fastballs to avoid more walks. As a result, when the Cubs weren’t walking they were teeing off — even the outs were hard line drives to the outfield.

Remarkably, though, Maine kept the Mets in the game, and indeed the contest was still very much within the grasp of the Shea Men; Maine exited behind 3-1. Unfortunately, Willie Randolph made the stupefying decision to bring in Scott Schoeneweis to pitch the sixth — the entire sixth. However, the LOOGY was spent after the first batter, and 29 pitches later the Cubs lead swelled to an insurmountable 7-1. Aaron Sele — the guy who should have started the inning (if not Amby Burgos) — rushed to get ready in the pen, but all he could do was throw gasoline on the fire. By the end of the inning, the Cubs were ahead 9-1, and the fans at Shea who weren’t heading for the #7 train were ordering the maximum two beers at a time.

It’s not even worth going into the details … if you’re a sadist and must know exactly what happened I suggest you visit our friends at BleedCubbieBlue.

Notes

The one bright spot on the Mets offense was Shawn Green, who went 2-for-3 with a double and a solo homer to centerfield. Though Green had been 1 for his last 18, he’d only struck out twice in that time and a number of his outs were bullets right at people — so his timing was still on and his stroke fine.

Carlos Delgado was hit by a Carlos Zambrano pitch in the sixth and mashed his pinky; he’s getting X-rays and is day-to-day. I wonder if Randolph will consider playing Green at first and Carlos Gomez in right field, if Delgado isn’t ready by Thursday’s game?

There isn’t any other noteworthy event to mention.

Next Game

Jorge Sosa will try the voo-doo he picked up in N’awlins while Rich Hill takes the hill for the Cubs. Game time is 7:10 PM.

Mets 5 Cubs 4

If you were a Major League manager, would you ever load the bases intentionally in the bottom of the ninth inning of a tie ballgame in order to face Carlos Delgado?

Lou Piniella did just that, ordering pitcher Mike Wuertz to walk Carlos Beltran and load the bases with two out. How often in Delgado’s career has that occurred?

It turned out to be a poor decision, as Delgado had a tremendous at-bat, working the count full, then fouling off several pitches before taking ball four, a high fastball, to score Jose Reyes from third base.

What ended as a fundamentally sound game for the Mets, however, did not begin as such.

Though no errors lit up on the scoreboard, the Mets played sloppy defense in the first two innings behind Tommy Glavine to give the Cubs a quick 4-0 lead. Actually, that may be too critical a judgment — perhaps it was dumb luck that four balls just barely eluded the grasp of Carlos Beltran, Damion Easley, Shawn Gree, and Endy Chavez.

In the first inning, with two outs and Alfonso Soriano on second base, Aramis Ramirez lifted a fly ball to center that missed the webbing of Beltran’s glove and nearly bounced off his shoetop, allowing Soriano to score with the first run of the game.

In the second, a walk to Mark DeRosa was followed by a dying quail toward leftfield off the bat of Angel Pagan. Endy Chavez made a valiant, diving effort, but the ball fell safely out of his reach. You can’t blame Endy after that kind of effort, but the ball seemed to find a way to miss his glove. It turned out to be a double, putting runners on second and third for pitcher Jason Marquis. Marquis hit a grounder toward second base that bounced three inches past Damion Easley’s glove, scoring both runners. Why Easley didn’t dive, or do something to keep the ball in the infield, is anyone’s guess. After Ryan Theriot flied out for the second out of the inning, Cesar Izturis hit a Texas Leaguer between Shawn Green and Damion Easley. Green wanted no part of the ball, and Easley couldn’t get to it, so the ball fell safely between them, scoring the Cubs’ fourth run of the game. As it turned out, that would be all they’d get on the evening.

After that rocky start, Glavine pitched very well, retiring the next nine batters in a row before pitching around everyone in the fifth. After getting two quick outs, Glavine unintentionally intentionally walked the heart of the Cubs lineup — Soriano, Ramirez, and Murton — then went to a full count on Mark DeRosa before inducing an inning-ending fly ball to center. Glavine hung on for one more scoreless inning — but not before giving up Marquis’ second base hit. Because of the extended first two innings, and the wild fifth, Glavine was not very efficient with his pitches, throwing 106 over six, and Joe Smith took over in the seventh. All in all, in Glavine’s bid for his 295th victory, he did not pitch well enough to win, but pitched just well enough not to lose.

Marquis, on the other hand, pitched well enough to win in the first five innings, save for a two-run homer yielded to David Wright in the fourth. However, Marquis ran out of gas in the sixth, when he gave up consecutive singles to Delgado and Wright to lead off the inning. Piniella brought in lefty Will Ohman to face Shawn Green, who struck out on six pitches. Ohman was then replaced by my favorite ice cream flavor, Rocky Cherry, who gave up a one-run double to Paul LoDuca and a sac fly to Damion Easley to tie the game. LoDuca looked to be zoning “middle in”, and ripped an inside, hanging slider down the third base line.

The Mets had a chance to put the hammer down on Cherry in the seventh, but could not scoop out a run. Endy Chavez bounced a one-out infield hit and Carlos Beltran followed with a walk. However, Carlos Delgado ended the threat with a weak double-play grounder to second base. They couldn’t gather another rally until there were two outs in the ninth, when Jose Reyes started things with a ground ball single up the middle.

Notes

David Wright went 3-for-4 on the day, including the two-run homer, and scored twice.

Endy Chavez went 2-for-4 with a walk, and Reyes had one hit, one walk, and two stolen bases (he now has 23 on the season).

Joe Smith threw a scoreless seventh, then got one out in the eighth before Pedro Feliciano finished off the inning without incident. Feliciano got two quick outs in the top of the ninth before allowing a double to Ryan Theriot. Aaron Heilman was then brought in and induced a weak comebacker from Cesar Izturis. In the end, Heilman threw one pitch to scam his fourth win of the year.