In four innings against the Wild Card leading Braves, the Mets score double the amount of runs they mustered in four games against the previously fourth-place Nationals. Go figure.
A nice outburst, but it doesn’t really take the sting out of that four-game fold-up in Flushing.
Yet again, the Mets take a lead into the seventh inning, and wind up with a loss.
“Six in a row to make it go” is an old gear head / car enthusiast term referring to an inline six-cylinder engine. Perhaps it is also Terry Collins’ new mantra for getting his team going — six losses to get them moving toward a win? Or something. I’m trying here.
I realize the Mets stink, but I was hoping they’d win at least one of these.
After sweeping the Pirates in four straight, the Mets were swept by the Braves in three straight, in their home park.
Not even the feel-good story of the year, R.A. Dickey, could hold back the Bravos. Dickey allowed 4 runs on 10 hits and 2 walks in 6 innings, and though he allowed far too many baserunners, for the most part he did an admirable job to keep them from crossing home plate. Dickey had only allowed two runs until the 7th frame, when he was removed after allowing two singles to start the inning. Pedro Feliciano relieved him and got two outs that sandwiched an intentional walk, then manager Jerry Manuel chose to play the matchup game, calling on Manny Acosta to face the righthanded-hitting Derrek Lee with the bases loaded. Acosta proceeded to serve up a 430-foot grand slam to Lee to give the Braves the lead and eventually the ballgame.
On the bright side, both Carlos Beltran and Ike Davis went 2-for-4 with a run scored. David Wright blasted his 24th homerun of the game, a two-run, 370-foot blast in the first frame.
The Mets have the day off on Monday to travel to Miami, then begin a quick two-game set vs. the Marlins beginning on Tuesday. Game time is 7:10 PM and pits Mike Pelfrey vs. Adalberto Mendez.
This is EXACTLY the reason the 2010 Mets are so endearing: when they are backed up against a wall, they come back fighting!
Shame on all the impatient, critical naysayers who hit the panic button after the Mets dropped the opener in Atlanta — this team is for real and is poised to go on a rampage! In this dramatic come-from-behind win, the Mets proved they have guts, grit, and a tenacious will to win. My guess is that the locals will recall memories of General Sherman by the time the Mets leave Atlanta.
And who would be the one to carry the Mets to a ninth inning victory? None other than the team’s #1 clubhouse personality and all-around great guy Jeff Francoeur, who silenced the critics with an opposite-field solo homer off of former Met Billy Wagner to put New York ahead for good. Prior to the game, many wondered why in the world Jerry Manuel wrote Francoeur’s name into the lineup against Derek Lowe. After Francoeur’s game-winning blast, is there any question? It amazes me that amateurs are always second-guessing Manuel, thinking they know better. It’s nights like these that make it obvious why we are all doing what we’re doing for a living, while Manuel makes three-quarters of a million dollars to do what he does. The man knows how to play the matchups, and has a knack for making great hunches — no amount of experience, intelligence, or calculator-punching can re-create that skill; it’s innate.
R.A. Dickey impressed with yet another strong outing, this time plowing through 6 innings and allowing 2 runs on 5 hits and 4 walks. He ran into a few jams but worked out of them with a dancing knuckler and uflappable demeanor. I think his performance was something of an inspiration for Francoeur.
Speaking of, Francoeur scored two of the Mets runs — and his doghouse roommate Luis Castillo scored the third. So there, all you judgemental critics!
As great as Francoeur and Castillo were in this game, one cannot overlook the spectacular performances of Manny Acosta and Francisco Rodriguez. Acosta was throwing BBs through an inning and two-thirds, earning the victory while bridging the gap to K-Rod. Francisco was fabulous, expending a baker’s dozen worth of pitches in a perfect ninth to seal the victory and earn his 23rd save of the season.
Bobby Cox made some very strange moves in this game, and his players made some very un-Coxlike non-executions. In particular, I’m not sure why Cox had Rick Ankiel bunting at the first pitch with none out and a Alex Gonzalez on first after a leadoff walk in the 7th, especially when Acosta appeared to be struggling to throw strikes. Cox took the bunt off after one strike, but why give Acosta a strike there and why take a strike away from Ankiel? Maybe Cox thought Ankiel was still a pitcher. Later that inning, Gonzalez took off for second and was thrown out by ten feet in what must’ve been a missed hit-and-run. Since Gonzalez just joined the team recently, maybe he misunderstood a sign? Or maybe Melky Cabrera missed the sign. In any case, the caught stealing was huge, as it was the second out of the inning and Cabrera walked on the very next pitch. Acosta would have been in a very sticky situation had it been one out and men on first and second rather than two out and a man on first — who knows how things might’ve turned out?
The rubber match begins at 7:10 PM on Wednesday night in Atlanta. Mike Pelfrey goes to the hill against Chris Medlen.
Thank goodness this game was played on the same night as the premiere of House MD. And thanks to Patrick Misch for allowing the score to get out of hand with minutes to spare before the 8 PM start time for House.
Unfortunately, the first episode of House MD was nearly as bad as the game. So it was a tough night all around. The good news for Dr. Gregory House is, he’s out of the mental hospital. The bad news for the Mets is, there are still 11 games to play in 2009.
Misch was blasted in his 1 1/3 innings. Three of the first dozen batters he faced hit homeruns. I won’t get into the gory details.
Meanwhile Derek Lowe and Kenshin Kawakami combined to allow three runs on seven hits in nine innings, walking none and striking out eight. It took the Mets six pitchers to give the Braves eleven runs.
Even my wife wanted to know why it took so many Mets pitchers to finish this laugher. No one could play the role of sacrificial lamb? The only surprise was that we saw neither Sean Green nor Pedro Feliciano.
It’s games like this when I wonder, “where the heck is Adam Bostick, and if he’s not here now, why is he taking up a spot on the 40-man roster?”
The one bright spot of the ballgame was Daniel Murphy, who is on fire. He hit another double — his 36th — and another homer (11th). He is now the Mets’ most ferocious slugger and maybe all those nasty bloggers need to pipe down about his perceived lack of power. Oh wait, that includes me, doesn’t it?
Though Murphy jacked one, no other Mets did. Hmm … every other team can hit balls over the fence at Citi Field …
I feel like every time Bobby Parnell takes the mound, Ron Darling can’t prevent himself from saying “the kid’s got GREAT stuff”. Ron, please elaborate. I see a “live arm”, meaning, he can throw the ball in excess of 95 MPH. Otherwise, I’m not seeing much at all in the way of “stuff”. No sharp breaking ball, no hellacious change-up, no outstanding movement (nor command) on the fastball — nothing that I would define as “great stuff”. Great arm, yes. Great stuff, no.
Brian Stokes is doing this strange extra-rotation thing when he lifts his leg, which I’ve never noticed before. I guess he’s trying to get a little extra on the ball, since he’s no longer hitting 97-98. Or maybe it’s been a while since I’ve seen him on the mound. He’s thrown 62 pitches in the last two days — which is like a K-Rod four-out save attempt.
The Mets have now lost 14 of their 20 games in September. That’s exactly 70% of their ballgames. But here’s one way to look at it: they’re failing as often as the best hitters in the game.
The Mets and Braves do it again at 7:10 PM on Tuesday night. Nelson Figueroa faces Jair Jurrjens.
Shades of ’62 re-emerge.
Once again, the Mets find a creative way to lose.
The Mets jumped ahead 3-0 in the second inning, but that lead was quickly squandered by Bobby Parnell, who allowed 4 runs (3 earned) on 7 hits and 3 walks in 3 1/3 innings.
Remarkably, the Mets fought back to tie the game and then went ahead 5-4 on a pinch-hit homerun by Omiracle Santos (nickname hat tip to TheRopolitans).
Then, it was up to the bullpen to hold the fort. Brian Stokes got two outs before walking Nate McLouth, which led to Jerry Manuel’s inexplicable decision to bring in Frankie Rodriguez to convert a four-out save. Ask Mike Scioscia how many times he called on K-Rod to get more than three outs in the last three years — and his team was ALWAYS playing “meaningful games” in September.
Anyway, as expected, Frankie Fantastik failed to clean up. He got that last out in the eighth but quickly faltered in the ninth, allowing a leadoff double to Garret Anderson down the right field line (that might have been stopped by a better-fielding first baseman — or not) and hitting Brian McCann to put the tying and winning runs on base. Frankie then misplayed a sac bunt by Yunel Escobar that nearly loaded the bases with none out, but K-Rod recovered in time to get the first out of the inning by a hair. The next batter hit a deep sac fly to score the tying run, and then Ryan Church hit a two-out bouncer to first base that Dan Murphy mishandled three times in Throneberryesque fashion to allow the winning run to score.
In an incredulous lack of class, K-Rod was quoted by Kevin Burkhardt as saying about Murphy’s error (or possibly the double down the line), “That ball has to be stopped”.
Nice. Seems there’s only one driving school in Venezuela — and the vehicle is a teflon-coated bus.
Hmm … I didn’t see Murphy on the mound when Anderson hit the double, McCann was hit with the pitch, or Gorecki hit the deep fly … but yeah, let’s blame him for the loss. Makes plenty of sense. Not.
This is the sixth blown save of the season for Frankie Fantastik, out of 37 tries. Billy Wagner blew 7 of 34 last year, so K-Rod’s still doing better. But not by much. So much for the “improved bullpen”.
And for all his questionable quotes and public dress-downs of his teammates, I don’t recall Wags ever blaming someone else for a loss. Stay classy, K-Rod.
On the bright side, Parnell lasted longer than Derek Lowe, who left after 2 innings and allowing 3 runs. Both Jeff Francoeur and David Wright went 3-for-5, and Josh Thole went 2-for-4 in the two hole.
The Mets pounded 16 hits, and still couldn’t win — they left 14 on base.
The series finale begins at 7:00 PM on Thursday night. Nelson Figueroa faces Jair Jurrjens. If nothing else the Mets will have a standup, respectful guy on the mound, who will take responsibility for his actions. So there’s that.
At least the Mets have the opportunity to play the role of spoiler.
This game began like a typically bad Ollie outing — early on, they fell behind 4-0 and looked like they wouldn’t do much against Atlanta ace Derek Lowe.
Then in the fourth frame, a line drive ricocheted off Lowe’s glove hand, and it was as if a light switch turned off his effectiveness, because the Mets then exploded for 8 runs on 10 hits to knock Lowe out of the game.
Meanwhile, Oliver Perez managed to “hold” the Braves to “only” those four runs through the fifth, before yielding to Elmer “Glue” Dessens. Dessens, Pedro Feliciano, and Brian Stokes finished it up to preserve the victory.
The bright side: Ollie earned a victory. The not-bright side: he wasn’t terribly effective. Perez allowed four runs on five hits and a walk, including a three-run homer by Matt Diaz and a solo shot by Adam LaRoche. Jerry Manuel got him out of the game as soon as he could while still pitching long enough to be credited with the win. Two more years and $24M for a pitcher who has evolved into a fifth starter.
The Mets banged out 17 hits on the evening.
Luis Castillo, Gary Sheffield and Jeff Francoeur all went 3-for-5 on the day, with Castillo and Sheff driving in two runs apiece. In any other park, Francoeur might’ve had two homers — he hit two blasts off the Soot Monster.
In the remarkable fourth frame, every Met in the lineup had a hit except for Dan Murphy, who made two outs in the inning.
The Mets and Braves do it again at 7:10 PM on Wednesday night in Flushing. Bobby Parnell faces Jair Jurrjens.
