Mets 6 Marlins 3

Thank goodness. For a minute there, it looked like the Mets were going to get swept by the Fish in Shea — something that absolutely, positively, cannot happen. Ever.

After giving up a quick run in the first inning, Oliver Perez kept his composure and pitched masterfully before running out of gas late in the sixth. He struck out 2 batters in each of the first five innings, finishing with 10 while walking 3 and allowing 3 hits. For a four-inning stretch, he was in a groove and downright dominating, retiring nine in a row at one point.

In an encouraging contrast to the last week and a half, the Mets offense showed some signs of production. In response to falling behind 1-zip early, the Mets quickly evened the score, courtesy of a leadoff double by Shawn Green and Ruben Gotay’s first hit as a Met. The offense had Anibal Sanchez on the ropes in that second inning, loading the bases, but not until after depleting two outs, and Carlos Beltran popped up to end the inning.

In the fourth inning, Oliver Perez helped himself by bouncing a leadoff single past a diving Dan Uggla and into right field. Anibal Sanchez flaked out and made a pickoff attempt with first baseman Aaron Boone playing back, sending Perez to second. Moments later, Jose Reyes lashed a line-drive double to left field, driving in Perez with the go-ahead run. The Marlins continued their circus-like play, as Endy Chavez bunted back to Sanchez, who had a shot at getting Reyes at third but couldn’t wait for Miguel Cabrera to get there (Cabrera’s strained oblique isn’t helping his already lackluster defensive efforts), and as a result nearly threw the ball away in getting Chavez by a step at first. Carlos Beltran followed with a Texas Leaguer in front of rightfielder Joe Borchard to score Reyes and expand the lead to 3-1.

Ringling Brothers returned in the fifth, as Perez blooped another single, then made it safely to second when Dan Uggla played hackey-sack with the baseball on a routine double-play grounder by Jose Reyes. With both runners safe, pitcher then threw a wild pitch to advance them to second and third for Endy Chavez, who came through again with a two-run single. (Someone put a tent on that circus!) Carlos Beltran grounded out, moving Chavez to second base, and the Marlins walked Carlos Delgado intentionally. David Wright followed with a single to drive in Endy. It turned out to be the end of the Mets’ scoring for the day, and all they’d need to win the game.

Notes

Though they won the game, still problematic was the fact that the Mets left ten runners on base in the first four innings, scoring just three runs in the process. With that many people on, you have to find a way to push a few more runners home.

Shawn Green continues to stroke, stroke, stroke, burying any doubt about his abilities with the bat. He’s now hit in ten straight games, and is spraying the ball all over the field. The way he’s swinging the bat, I really would have liked to see him tee off on a 3-0 pitch with two outs and two runners on in the fourth — but he was taking all the way and eventually walked to load the bases. While, it would be wonderful if he could recapture the power that made him a 40-homer threat, but if he can continue getting good at-bats and poking line drives, he’ll be extremely valuable in the #6 or #7 spot in the order. He’s being very smart, understanding that he’s playing in a big, pitcher’s park, getting into batter’s counts, and hitting the ball where it’s pitched — rather than trying to force the ball over the fence. Let’s hope he can keep it up the Tony Gwynn impersonation over the next five months.

David Wright had two more hits, and nearly a third, and appears to be out of his slump. However, he made two errors in the game, including on in the sixth that allowed two runners to score.

Oliver Perez went 2-for-2 with 2 runs scored and a sacrifice bunt.

Ruben Gotay had a nice debut, driving in the tying run in the first and taking charge on popups in no-mans-land in short right-center.

Mighty Joe Smith came on with two out and two on in the sixth to strike out Mike Jacobs on four pitches to end the Marlins threat and preserve Ollie’s win. This guy is unbelievable. Smith also had his first Major League at-bat, and though he didn’t look great, he took a healthy hack on the first pitch. He got into a bit of trouble in the 8th, but it was to be expected — he’s been pitching nearly every day for the last two weeks, and threw 37 pitches in this game. He’ll likely get a day or two off after this lengthy appearance.

Interesting that in a “must win” game, Willie Randolph hung with the rookie Smith as long as he did, with veterans Scott Schoeneweis and Pedro Feliciano well rested. An unusual, strong vote of confidence from Randolph, who tends to be wary of trusting rookies in tight situations.

It took Billy Wagner 11 pitches — 9 for strikes — to close out the game.

Mets pitchers retired the leadoff batter in every inning. That’s one way for a pitcher to make his life easy.

Next Game

The Mets travel cross-country to begin a three-game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday night.

Tom Glavine goes against Micah Owings in a 9:40 PM (Eastern Time) start.

Marlins 5 Mets 2

It’s time to invite Mo Vaughn and Eddie Kranepool back to Shea to compete with Carlos Delgado in a 30-yard dash to see who is the slowest first baseman in Mets history.

You wouldn’t mind the fact that Carlos carries a piano on his back around the bases, but does he have to stop and play it, as well?

OK, it’s not fair to blame the game on Delgado’s lack of speed. His getting thrown out at home to kill a 4th-inning rally was only a symptom of the Mets’ most glaring problem lately: lack of offense.

What on paper is the National League’s most powerful offense is losing to the scissors in the baseball version of ro-sham-bo. The 2007 Mets looked more like the 1977 Mets against the second-worst pitching staff in the NL — the Nationals — over the past weekend. In a grand stroke of luck, the Shea-men had the chance to change their luck against the WORST pitching team in the NL, the Marlins. You would think the Mets hitters would have been licking their chops looking at who would be on the mound against them: Scott Olsen (6.24 ERA), Ricky Nolasco (0-3, 19.72 ERA vs. Mets in 2006), and Anibal Sanchez (averaging 5 innings per start). On Monday afternoon, one would think the Mets would make quick work of of Olsen and Nolasco, and maybe be challenged against Sanchez. A sweep seemed likely.

Well here we are two games later and the Mets offense is a fuming, stinking pile, and a sweep sure does seem likely — but with the Mets as the dirt. There’s really no other way to describe it. They’re not moving runners, not drawing walks, not building rallies, not getting clutch hits, and running the bases poorly. It seems like every time they get a runner into scoring position, it’s when there are two outs or the pitcher coming to the plate — or they hit into a double play to squash the rally.

Too bad, because Mike Pelfrey finally seemed to make a breakthrough. I for one am not sure that Pelfrey should be at the big league level right now, but with El Duque down the Mets don’t have much choice but to forcefeed the big righty. After a shaky first inning, Pelfrey settled down and pitched 5 1/3 excellent frames before yielding the game to Joe Smith. It wasn’t a dominating performance, but it was encouraging in that he didn’t panic, found his composure, and stayed focused on the task at hand (hopefully Chan Ho Park was taking notes). I still don’t think he has enough weapons to compete as a starting pitcher, but he did show the courage and gumption necessary to succeed at this level — and heart can take you a long way in this game.

Pelfrey left the game with one out and runners on first and second, but Mighty Joe did his usual thing — 7 pitches, four for strikes, resulting in a strikeout (victim: Hanley Ramirez), a ground ball, no harm done. When is this guy going to break?

Aaron Heilman, on the other hand, was not nearly as effective. He gave up two hits in the 8th, including a two-run homer. He continues to push the ball — his body is way ahead of his arm and he has a frighteningly low elbow at release — and the result is that his pitches are flat, up, and without downward movement. If it’s a simple mechanical issue, OK, but I have great fear that it is a symptom of a physical problem.

The Mets (lack of) Offense

Carlos Delgado took advantage of the shift and poked two soft liners through the left side hole vacated by the third baseman. However, when it takes four hits and a blind catcher to score Delgado from first, the singles don’t help very much.

On a positive note, David Wright finally broke out, blasting his first homerun of the season and adding a double in going 3-for-4. Willie Randolph had him in the #2 slot, which may have been partly to get him more fastballs and to force him to focus on going the other way. Whatever the reason, it worked, though if he’s going to start hitting it makes good sense to switch him back to #5 and get Paulie back in the second spot.

LoDuca, by the way, went 2-for-4 and was extremely angry with himself for popping up in his two hitless at-bats. He also seems to be out of his slump.

Shawn Green had one hit, extending his streak to nine games. His single came in the fourth, the result of an excellent at-bat where he worked the count to 3-2, fouled off a pitch, then drove a tough pitcher’s pitch into the hole between short and third.

A few moments after Green’s single — which put Delgado on second with two outs — LoDuca followed with a line drive to center. Delgado rounded third and then inexplicably turned around to watch the throw coming in from centerfielder Alfredo Amezaga. The throw was up the line, and had Delgado not slowed down by turning around, he likely would have passed catcher Miguel Olivo before the ball was caught. As it was, Olivo caught the ball about 15 feet up the line from home plate as Delgado was two steps away. Delgado might have had an opportunity to barrel Olivo, but again, because of turning around, didn’t have enough of a head of steam to make any kind of impact. Instead, he tried to dance around the tag, failed miserably, and ended the inning. Again, with the offense struggling, you can’t completely blame third-base coach Sandy Alomar for being aggressive in sending Delgado — many times you force the defense to make a mistake. But the Marlins, again, executed well, and Delgado didn’t add any difficulty.

Jose Reyes was a disappointing 1-for-5, striking out three times. The Marlins pitchers offered a steady feed of overhand curveballs to get him to swing and miss. Reyes also was thrown out attempting to steal home on a strikeout by Carlos Delgado and steal attempt of second by David Wright. The throw went through to second base, but Hanley Ramirez received the ball in front of the bag and quickly zipped a return throw to Miguel Olivo to nab Reyes. With the Mets struggling offensively, it wasn’t a bad idea, because a lot could go wrong defensively. You have to tip your cap to Olivo and Ramirez for perfect execution.

Notes

Pelfrey had a lot of trouble spotting his off-speed pitches again, and threw too many balls, but started to get some sink on the fastball as the innings wore on. A big, big issue is with runners on base — he simply does not keep them close. His move to first is only adequate, and has no secondary (or “good”) moves to mix in. Additionally, he doesn’t mix up the timing of his delivery from the stretch; for example, pausing a few extra beats before starting. Further, his high leg kick and long arm arc make him very slow to the plate. (A slide step might be something to incorporate on occasion, if he’s not going to shorten his knee lift.) Add all these factors up, and smart opposing teams will run at will. In effect this eliminates Pelfrey’s greatest strength: the ability to get ground balls that turn into double plays. Holding runners seems like a small thing, but it can mean a lot to a pitcher’s effectiveness, and Pelfrey sorely needs to improve in this area.

The Mets began to mount a rally with two outs in the ninth and a hard rain falling, but it was too little, too late. Had it still been a 3-2 game, it might have been a different story, but Josh Willingham’s 2-run homer in the 8th gave inexperienced closer Henry Owens plenty of room for error and the ability to remain relaxed.

Next Game

The Mets face the Marlins at 1:10 PM on Wednesday and hope to avoid a sweep at home. Oliver Perez faces Anibal Sanchez. This early in the season, it’s difficult to say there’s such a thing as a “must win”, and it’s no time to panic. However, the Mets are already making a habit of losing series (it took three months before they lost one in 2006), and don’t want to start getting swept — especially at home.

Marlins 9 Mets 6

Let’s play pretend.

Pretend it is the top of the third inning, there are two outs, and there is a 1-2 count on the opposing pitcher.

How would you guess the inning would turn out?

If you guessed five runs scored on two walks and four hits, you’d be right.

Mets announcer Gary Cohen insinuated (several times) that Chan Ho Park was the victim of poor Mets defense. While it’s true that a line drive popped out of Damion Easley’s glove, and two perfectly-placed pop flies eluded the Mets middle infielders and outfielders, you can’t ignore the fact that Park walked two batters to load the bases for the Marlins’ best RBI man Miguel Cabrera. And you can’t expect the wind-blow flies to safely drop into Mets’ leather.

Normally I enjoy Gary Cohen’s banter, but it’s irritating to hear judgmental criticism of the defensive plays from a guy who’s never been on a field above Little League. It’s easy to say a defender should have caught a ball from the comfort of the broadcast booth — quite another when you have actually been on a baseball field, and have had to deal with Major League popups hit into the lights and pushed around by the wind. Keith Hernandez was tellingly quiet in response to Cohen’s opinion on balls that “should have been caught” — and he is usually much more critical of defensive shortcomings.

As if the debacle of the third inning weren’t bad enough, light-hitting Alfredo Amezaga hit a monster solo shot over the rightfield fence in the fourth. Hanley Ramirez did the same thing two batters later to make the game 7-zip.

The Mets didn’t score until the fifth inning, when Carlos Beltran hit another solo homer from the right side. They scored three more in the sixth to chase starter Scott Olsen, and scratched out another two in the 8th, but never really put together enough of a rally to threaten the Marlins’ lead.

Notes

After this start, comparisons of Chan Ho Park to Jose Lima are not completely out of line. It would just be the Mets’ dumb luck that their worst AAA pitcher would be due for a start on the day they needed a replacement. My guess is we’ll see Jorge Sosa or Jason Vargas the next time El Duque’s spot in the rotation comes up.

Kind of scary to be Chan Ho Park, and honestly believe you belong in MLB.

One of the bright spots in the game was Carlos Beltran, who is suddenly hot — especially from the right side. Beltran had four hits including a solo homerun.

Jose Reyes went 3-5 with 2 doubles and 2 RBI. He’s hitting .356.

Shawn Green extended his hitting streak to eight games by ripping a two-run single in the sixth.

Moises Alou has cooled off substantially over the last few days, but worse, he’s become a double-play machine. His recent rally-killing, easy-bouncing grounders to shortstop are reminiscent of Mike Piazza in his DP prime.

How many hard line drives does Carlos Delgado have to hit into short rightfield for outs before he starts dropping bunts? This is getting downright stupid, and I don’t care how much money Delgado is making — if the infielders are going to play in excess of 120 feet away, he MUST start using the bunt. He did it once, and with some practice, he can do it again. For the short term, it will get him some easy singles, and over the long term, it will discourage teams from using the shift.

As much as we’d like to believe Jose Reyes is the best, young, all-around shortstop in the NL — maybe all of MLB — the Marlins have their own superstar shortstop in the making in Hanley Ramirez. Ramirez has equal or better numbers than Reyes in every offensive category other than stolen bases, and also bats leadoff. Oh, and when we start thinking the Mets have the beBst young left side of the infield in baseball (in Reyes and David Wright), consider that the Fish have Ramirez and Cabrera. Between the young “mainstay” infielders on the Marlins and the Phillies (Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins), the NL East promises to be an exciting division for quite a while.

Am I crazy, or is there a significant problem with the decibel levels on SNY? I know that commercials tend to be louder than the regular programming, but the disparity during Mets games is obnoxious. During the third inning interview with Omar Minaya, I put my TV volume on 55 and still had to stand next to the speaker to hear the conversation. Yet once the inning was over, I had to turn the volume down to 15 so that the neighbors wouldn’t call the cops. It’s understandable that the advertisers want to be heard if you’re making a bathroom break, but you shouldn’t be able to hear the ads if you’re walking to a “common toilet” at the end of a fraternity hall — or to a keg party across campus.

The Florida Marlins have a bunch of lazy-ass slackers, led by Miguel Cabrera. In that ugly third inning, with two outs, both Cabrera and Mike Jacobs were taking their sweet time around the bases on Jacobs’ Texas-leaguer fly ball. I highly doubt either of those players would be jogging around the bases in that situation if Joe Girardi were still managing the team.

Next Game

Mike Pelfrey faces Ricky Nolasco at 7:10 PM. If you are attending the game, look for me in the Loge level, section 20. I’ll be the only man in the stadium wearing a Mo Vaugn jersey. Tap me on the shoulder, mention MetsToday, and I will buy you a refreshing beverage.