Marlins 4 Mets 1

Mr. Willie makes my blood boil.

Willie Randolph is a moronic, despicable robot who has no understanding of the human body, pitching talent, nor pitching management. Sure, the bunkheads of the world will say Aaron Heilman blew the game, but there is no way a sane person can blame the game on Heilman; it was all Randolph’s stupidity.

The Mets have a 13-game lead in the NL East. They are playing an overachieving, self-destructing young team that is almost 15 games away from them. With a 1-1 tie, yes, it would be nice to put your top relievers in the game. HOWEVER, when your top setup reliever has already been used in back-to-back games, AND historically has had trouble pitching back-to-back games, there’s absolutely no reason to force the issue and use him again.

Did I mention Willie Randolph is a freakin’ idiot?

Someone, please, explain to me why Royce Ring was called up to the Majors, if he is not to be trusted in close games on a team that has a 13-game lead. Better yet, please tell me why Heath Bell — a guy who is coveted by 29 Major League teams as a potential setup man — is toiling in AAA after the Mets lost their top setup reliever? Even if you disagree with using Ring or having Bell on the ML roster, then please explain to me why Willie Randolph insists on managing every game like it’s the seventh game of the World Series?

Going into this rubber match, we knew that pitching management would be an issue. D-Train was pitching for the Fish, meaning it likely would be a low-scoring game. It was only the second start in a month for Pedro, so he likely wasn’t going to go beyond the sixth. Roberto Hernandez is 42 years old and made clear at age 41 that he could not pitch back-to-back games. Aaron Heilman had already pitched in back-to-back games, and his issues recently can be traced to overuse by any logical observer. Chad Bradford and Billy Wagner also pitched in back-to-back games, though they didn’t throw too many pitches in the combined nights so they might have been OK to go a third game in a row. Meantime, Pedro Feliciano is fairly fresh, Royce Ring is fresh, and Darren Oliver is fresh. So, with a 13-game lead and a 1-1 tie in the seventh, who does Willie send to the mound? Bert and Aaron, of course!

Is it me? Am I too sensible, logical, and intelligent to watch the cement-head robotic “managing” style of Willie Randolph? I think we’re beyond the point where Mr. Willie is termed a “manager”; he’s like a guy in Atlantic City with a cheat sheet at the blackjack table: stay on 17, hit on 13 if the dealer shows a face card, double up on 11, etc. He treats his bullpen arms as if he’s playing a baseball game on XBox: all the players are machines and the results based on mathematical formulas.

Of course, we have to listen to the numnuts on SNY — Ron Darling, Keith Hernandez, — tell us how the Mets are missing Duaner Sanchez and Aaron Heilman needs to step it up. WRONG! The issue is not with Heilman, or Sanchez, or anyone else in the bullpen. It is with Mr. Willie, who naturally would have used Sanchez in all three games and been just as surprised when he blew the lead in game three. His “MO” is frighteningly similar to his protege Joe Torre: use and abuse a reliever’s arm until the thing falls off, then blame it on the fatigued reliever when he blows the game. You call that management? Ha!

Disagree with me if you wish, tell me that the guys in the dugout know more than we do. Fine. But look me straight in the eye and say that Aaron Heilman had his effective arm angle and command of his pitches. You can’t. He’s fatigued because he can’t physically handle the day-after-day strain of relief. Being fatigued, his arm angle drops an inch or two (screw the Jacket, it’s not “higher”, you friggin’ blind jackass!). The angle goes down, and the pitches go up and in to the righty batter. Very simple formula, it’s seen every day at every level from little league to the bigs. When you see that formula, you take the pitcher out of the game before he either 1. blows the game or 2. blows out his arm. Unless of course, you’re Willie Randolph, and you say “his velocity is there, so he’s not fatigued, let’s leave him out there”. Or better yet, throw the pitcher under the bus with the stupid question “are you OK to go today?” OF COURSE Aaron Heilman is going to say he’s OK to go today! The guy is a competitor, and one of the toughest sons of bitches you are going to see on a pitching mound in the 21st century. He could pitch complete-game doubleheaders four days in a row and he’ll still say he’s “OK” to pitch; he’s a warrior, a samurai, and any other answer would be unexpected. That’s why it is so important for a “manager” to keep a close eye on his pitchers, and have a strong understanding on who to throw and when. It’s amazing to me how a person can be so oblivious to the obvious, and continually make the same mistake over and over (isn’t that called insanity?).

Notes

David Wright more or less broke out of his first slump of the year, going 2 for 4. Jose Valentin was the only other starter to do anything against D-train, collecting three hits in four at-bats.

Julio Franco, suffering from a flu and showing it, played a wonderful head game against Dontrelle Willis. First, he took about eight minutes getting ready for his pinch-hit appearance. That may have been partly due to his illness, but part of it was making D-Train wait. Franco was further assisted by the home plate umpire, who was not calling any strikes below the waist. He took the low inside pitches — ticking off Willis — until he found one he liked and stroked it into right field. A great and enjoyable at-bat.

Pedro Martinez threw a great game, and it was a shame the Mets bats couldn’t score some runs and get him a win. No biggie; the important thing is that he finds his form and gets back into the groove that establishes him as the Mets’ ace. He has two months to get there.

El Duque vs. Ryan Madson and the Phillies tomorrow. Let’s hope it is a “good” outing for El Duque, the kind where he throws a complete-game shutout. Otherwise, expect the insane Mr. Willie to bring Bert and Aaron in AGAIN (while Ring and Oliver continue to rot on the bench).

Mets 6 Marlins 5

Yikes! It looked like deja vu all over again, as Yogi says …

Billy Wagner came startlingly close to blowing a second game in as many days, but luckily the combination of Hanley Ramirez’s inability to bunt, and Marlins manager Joe Girardi’s stubborn refusal to recognize the obvious, Wagner was able to squeak out of danger.

With men on second and third and none out, Girardi ordered Ramirez to bunt the runners over. Hanley failed miserably on the first two attempts, but Girardi kept the sign on, despite the fact that Ramirez has been hitting fairly well lately. Predictably, Ramirez popped up the third attempt for an out, and Wagner recovered from early-inning command issues to strike out the final two batters to end the game.

After allowing a single to Wes Helms, Wagner had unbelievable trouble throwing a strike to pitcher Brian Moehler, who was sent up to the plate as a pinch-hitter for the express purpose of bunting. With Carlos Delgado and David Wright charging to within 15 feet of home plate, all Wagner had to do was throw a simple strike to Moehler, but was unable to in three tries. On the fourth try, he hit Moehler, and it looked like another Wagner meltdown; he seems to have these games where he can’t find the plate and someone needs to run out there and pull him off the mound. The inability of Ramirez to get a bunt down saved Wagner and shifted the momentum against the Marlins; the Mets were damn lucky to get away with a win.

Interestingly, the Mets had no business putting Wagner into that situation, as they had a six-zip lead early in the game. However, Steve Trachsel did his typical routine of pitching just well enough to lose, and the return of Roberto Hernandez was less than inspiring. Bert got into trouble in the seventh, leaving the game with two runners on for Pedro Feliciano, who walked the one batter he faced before allowing his partner in crime, Chad Bradford, to give up a two-run single that pulled the Marlins within one. Although, you can’t blame Bradford, who has been pitching lights out lately and had to give up a hit eventually.

In the top of the ninth, the Mets had the bases loaded and none out with David Wright at the plate, and couldn’t score a run against a struggling Joe Borowski. Shame on D-Wright, Uncle Cliffy, and Jose Valentin for not getting at least one run across against the Bayonne Bullet. Wright popped up, Floyd struck out looking on a pitch he should have been swinging at (he was tossed from the game for arguing) and the Stache flied out to center to end the inning. In that situation, someone HAS TO either hit a ground ball — even if it’s a double play — or put the ball in the outfield to score a run. Instead, both D-Wright and Cliff were swinging for the granny, and after two out Jose didn’t have many options to get the runs home.

On the bright side, Carlos Beltran did not hit a home run but went 2-4 with a walk and a run scored. Carlos Delgado did the right thing and accepted three walks and smacked a run-scoring single the one opportunity he was given. Jose Reyes and Paul LoDuca remained red-hot at the top of the order, going a combined 5-10 with three runs scored and an RBI. LoDuca is now hitting just under .320 and Reyes is at .292. Endy Chavez had a great game, both in the field and at bat; he’s having a career year as a platoon player and has established himself as the top player coming off the bench. With Xavier Nady gone, it appears that Endy will do his job to pick up the slack; we can only hope that Lastings Milledge can hold his end of the bargain.

Notes

Aaron Heilman pitched another perfect inning in the 8th; it was the 8th time this year he’s pitched in back-to-back games. However, I’m concerned about tomorrow, because Bert can’t throw back-to-back games, and both Heilman and ChadBrad have thrown back-to-backs already. If it’s another tight game, Mr. Willie will no doubt use the Joe Torre philosophy of abusing arms and put Heilman in the game again tomorrow. If he does, he’s an ass. With a 15-game lead, there’s no reason not to use someone else in a meaningless game against the Marlins. Wouldn’t it be nice to find out if Darren Oliver can do something more worthwhile than long-duty mop up? How about seeing if Royce Ring can pitch in pressure situations now that he’s a sidewinder? Somehow I don’t see either of these guys getting a chance late in a tight game, but who knows?

Notes

Mike Pelfrey was sent down and Royce Ring (finally) brought up, in a smart move by the Mets. A six-man rotation was a little silly, and without Dirty in the ‘pen another relief arm was necessary. Since changing his arm angle — a similar adjustment to what Pedro Feliciano did last year in Japan — Ring has been lights out at the AAA level. Hopefully he can bring that effectiveness to the big leagues.

As much as I like the idea of Lastings Milledge cutting his teeth in the bigs, I’m slightly surprised that the Mets didn’t bring up Heath Bell instead, and use a combination of Eli Marrero, Chris Woodward, and Endy Chavez in right field. Bell’s pitched fairly well in the limited situations Mr. Willie allowed him (just what did Heath do, and who did he piss off, to deserve this fate?), and you’d think that the Mets would need another arm in the bullpen more than an outfielder, at least for a week or so while they figure out how to replace Dirty. Five outfielders, plus Woody, plus Julio Franco, equals a lot of bats on the bench. And Marrero is not that far removed from a .320 season in 2004. In fact, Marrero, when given an opportunity to play semi-regularly, has been a grand success over the course of his career. His poor performances have only been in seasons in which the manager forgot he was in the dugout. In my mind, his presence stuck to the bench is a complete waste of talent. With his long loopy swing he has the potential to get into hot streaks starting a few times a week, but that same swing is a detriment in his pinch-hitting role.

Pedro tomorrow vs. D-Train. Let’s hope Pedro can muster the strength to go eight innings, and the Mets can mount a nice five-run lead, so Ring can close it out with no pressure. (Somehow I don’t think it will work out that way.)

Marlins 6 Mets 5

What a shame … this was a game the Mets absolutely should have won, and it would have been nice for Mike Pelfrey to earn another win. Unfortunately, Billy Wagner threw three pitches and lost the game, in one of the quickest come-from-behind wins I’ve ever seen.

If you blinked, you missed it; Wagner literally gave up two hits and two runs on three pitches, culminating with a two-run homer by pinch hitter Josh Willingham. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

The blown save spoiled another big game by MVP candidate Carlos Beltran, who hit another home run, added a double, and drove in two. Jose Reyes — perhaps in competition with Beltran for the MVP — also hit another homer and went 2-4 with three runs scored. Paul LoDuca also remained hot, going 3-5 with a double.

Pelfrey pitched OK — not great, not bad, very Traxlike — giving up four runs, seven hits, four walks, and striking out four in six innings. Far from lights out, and possibly a step backward. But hey, it’s still his first pro season, and he pitched just good enough to win.

ChadBrad and Heilman were perfect again before Billy blew it. How many more times can they be perfect before yielding?

Notes

Lots of deals on the trading deadline, and horrible news for the Mets, who have likely lost their best pitcher — Duaner Sanchez — for the season. Sure, Pedro and Wagner may be tagged as the pitching stars, but Dirty has clearly been the Mets’ most effective and consistent pitcher this year. The Mets brought back Roberto Hernandez and Oliver Perez for Xavier Nady in a panic deal, and hopefully Bert can do something close to what he gave in 2005. It is a bit embarassing when you consider that, effectively, Mike Cameron was traded for a 41-year-old pitcher who we could have re-signed. But that’s what happens, and Omar had to do the deal. We can only hope that former phenom Oliver Perez can somehow regain the form that made him one of the top young lefties just two years ago. I wonder if the Mets would have made a deal with the Dodgers for Danys Baez had the Braves not beat them to the punch a few days earlier? Oh well, I like the idea of Bert coming back for one last swan song.

Mets 10 Braves 6

Wow! The first time the Mets swept the Braves at home since Fidel Castro overthrew Batista!

OK, maybe not that long (maybe since Ramon Castro overthrew Tony Batista on a steal attempt), but pretty close.

The story begins and ends with Carlos Beltran, who is making a major run for the MVP. His grand slam in the second put the game away early, and he added another bomb in the fifth for good measure. It was his third granny of the month, and he’s on the same kind of tear that earned him his 100-million-dollar salary in the second half of 2004. If he doesn’t get another hit the rest of the year, he’ll still get a good number of MVP votes.

In Beltran’s shadow was the other Carlos, Delgado, who hit a bomb in the first and “quietly” went 4-for-5 with a walk, a run, the homer, two doubles, and three RBI. He’s back — with a vengeance.

Jose Reyes had three hits, and D-Wright, X-man, and the Stache all had two apiece.

As awesome as the lineup performed, starting pitcher Tom Glavine was in stark contrast: horrible. Given an early 7-zip lead, Glavine struggled mightily, giving up three runs in the bottom of the second and another three in the fourth before Mr. Willie reluctantly removed him from the game. He was denied a five-inning outing, and thus his 12th win, but Randolph had no choice. Glavine was struggling with his command and his velocity from the get-go, and used neither his curveball nor an inside fastball. I’m not sure what the problem is, but he has two months to figure it out and get himself right. As much as it pains me to see him throwing like a frightened old man, I’d rather he have his slump now than the beginning of October. Cause for concern? Certainly. However, he’s experienced really bad times before and come back fighting and remarkably effective. With this perhaps his last opportunity to pitch in the playoffs / WS, he’ll no doubt find a way to win when the big games come, even if it means reinventing himself once again. In the meantime, I’ll kick and scream and throw things at the TV as he squanders away mountainous leads.

On the bright side of the mound, the bullpen remains lights out. Darren Oliver, ChadBrad, Pedro Feliciano, Aaron Heilman, and Billy Wagner held the Braves scoreless from the fifth inning on. It’s too bad it took six pitchers to win a 10-run game, but at least they have Monday off.

Notes

Chipper Jones went on the DL, one day after his sub Wilson Betemit was sent to LA. Willy Aybar led off and had a great game in Chipper’s place, going 4-for-6 with 2 runs and 2 RBI. So maybe the Braves knew just what they were doing with that deal.

Former Met phenom Tyler Yates pitched two scoreless innings of relief, striking out 4. Annoying to see him in a Brave uniform.

Mets 11 Braves 3

Reporting again from “HOTlanta”, where the temperature cooled down to 99 degrees …

The final score does not properly portray this game, as it was a very tight contest until the dam broke in the sixth inning.

At the beginning, it looked like it might be another one of those bad games for Orlando Hernandez. His starts seem to go one of two ways: magnificently, or horribly, with no in-between. After giving up three runs in the first two innings, and having no command of the strike zone, I was looking for Darren Oliver to run in from the bullpen early. But for the second day in a row, the starter righted himself: El Duque — like Pedro the day before — settled down and pitched an outstanding game. The three runs in the first two were also the end of the Braves scoring, and he did not give up another hit until the eighth inning. Despite throwing 113 pitches, I’m sure El Duque could have finished the game, as he was cruising and setting down the Braves batters like it was nobody’s business. However, with an eight-run lead, it made perfect sense to hand over the last inning to ChadBrad, who yielded a double to some nobody named Thormon and otherwise pitched a perfect ninth.

Outside of El Duque’s performance, the story of the game was Carlos Beltran, who went two for five with five RBI and a home run. Oh, yeah, and Paul LoDuca had a nice game, going 4-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored; he’s now batting .313.

Notes

Before the game, the Braves announced the trade of Wilson Betemit to the Dodgers for Danys Baez and Willy Aybar. Fascinating deal on both sides, for several reasons. First, Betemit seems to finally be coming into his own, after years of teasing the Braves with his “high ceiling” tag, and would seem to be a very important player with all the issues Chipper Jones and Marcus Giles have suffered this year. At the same time, Aybar looks to be, potentially, a similar player to Betemit, but a few years away from that level. Baez is a guy the Mets have been after since last year, but has struggled mightily in 2006 after saving over 40 games last year; he’d lost his job as LA’s replacement closer. It is a strange deal on the Dodgers’ end, since they seem to have 22 infielders on their roster so what are they going to do with another one? You would think they’d be able to get more for Baez, as every team is looking for quality pitching at the deadline. Straight up (Baez for Betemit), the deal seems more even; I think the Dodgers overpaid for Betemit, a guy who won’t have a position in a few weeks when Nomar Garciaparra and Jeff Kent return from the DL. It’s hard to believe that Aybar, Joel Guzman, Cesar Izturis, and the other Dodger youngsters aren’t enough to get them through the next two weeks.

Mets 6 Braves 4

I was actually in Atlanta at Turner Field to watch this game. Lucky me, it was the largest crowd in Turner Field history and the best I could do were standing room only tickets. It figures: the Braves can’t sell out a World Series game, but the Mets are in first and Pedro’s pitching and it’s fireworks night and suddenly fans are coming out of the woodwork.

Anyway, who cares about me? The Mets pulled out yet another come-from-behind victory, “Chipping” away at the Braves over the course of the game. After Jose Reyes led off the game with a home run and the Mets handed a 2-0 lead to Pedro in the first, it looked like it might be easy sailing. Then Pedro gave up four runs in the bottom of the inning and it was a minor miracle the total was only four. It looked seriously like it was going to be a very long, double-digit scoring game, and the Mets would need a ninth-inning field goal to win it.

Instead, Pedro settled down and didn’t give up another run, and the bullpen followed suit. The Stache hit a sac fly in the third to put the Mets ahead for good. A nice win to start off the series.

Mets 1 Cubs 0

Ahh … back to the winning ways …

Could John Maine be the answer? He pitched beautifully through the first five innings, and when faced with a challenge in the sixth, responded in spectacular fashion.

After Mark Prior struck out to lead off the inning, Juan Pierre reached on a swinging bunt. Maine was too preoccupied with Pierre on first, and ended up walking Todd Walker — though in defense, a few of the pitches were borderline. Still, Maine was clearly concerned with Pierre, possibly because Mark Prior was throwing a no-hitter on the other side; he may have felt that one run would mean the game. Mr. Willie made a rare appearance for a quick chat, and Maine proceeded to strike out Africa-hot Aramis Ramirez and get Jacque Jones to bounce out weakly to second base to end the inning. Whatever Willie said seemed to unleash the monster within Maine, as he immediately relaxed and turned it up a notch by adding a few MPH to his fastball.

If that wasn’t enough to impress anyone, he came back in the seventh and struck out the side.

All game he was consistently hitting good spots; even the balls were around the strike zone or well-placed. His only issue seemed to be the breaking ball, which was occasionally wild.

Watching him pitch, and with his lean build, he reminds me a lot of, ironically, Kris Benson. Think about it: he relies heavily on a well-spotted, moving yet not overpowering fastball, mixes in an inconsistent curve, and occasionally shows a nice change-up. If Maine can give the Mets Benson-like performance, at the ML minimum salary, we may well have found our #3 starter.

Too bad he went over the 100-pitch limit (118). It would have been nice to see him pitch the 8th and 9th and possibly finish with a second consecutive shutout.

The Mets batters had a difficult time, getting no-hit through six innings. It took a Jose Valentin popup lost in the sun to fall just beyond the reach of shortstop Ronny Cedeno to put an H on the board. That’s about all the Mets were doing on this sunny afternoon: popping up. Prior induced 7 fly balls, I’d guess all or most of them were popups. Reason? Not sure, but maybe the early 12:10 start had something to do with it. Perhaps the Mets are not used to hitting so early, and/or tired from the night before and were simply lazy with the bat. It’s a valid argument, considering that the Cubs batters looked just as groggy.

After walking the leadoff batter and then giving up a sacrifice and a fluke infield single to Ronny Cedeno, it looked like Aaron Heilman was going to give up the lead in the top of the tenth. However, he bore down and squeaked out of danger by inducing two 3-2 popups. Had he given up a hit there, you could blame him for the leadoff walk, but the single was really a potential double-play grounder that somehow caused David Wright to fall flat on his kiester.

In the bottom of the tenth, with two outs, the Mets bats finally woke up. Carlos Beltran hit a single, Carlos Delgado chopped an opposite-field double, and David Wright was intetionally walked. Jose Valentin hit a solid single to drive in the winning run and give the Mets their first win in four days.