Mets Game 151: Win Over Braves
Mets 12 Braves 2
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.
Mets Game Notes
The Mets exploded for four runs in the first frame against Derek Lowe, and just kept piling on. If this offensive outburst had anything to do with Terry Collins motivating the club, then tell me: what does that tell you about a) the other 150 games of this season; b) the players’ internal motivation; and c) the manager’s ability to motivate over the course of a 162-game season? Feel free to discuss in the comments.
After failing repeatedly in clutch situations and treating the ball like a hot potato over the past week, David Wright blasted two homeruns, drove in five, and didn’t make an error. His errorless streak has now extended to nine innings.
Lucas Duda had a walk and four hits — including a double — and scored three runs. Three hits were also collected by Josh Thole, David Wright, Jose Reyes, and Nick Evans, with Thole driving in three runs.
Reyes also stole his first base since Mackinaw peaches were in season. Boy, you take a bite into one of those luscious stone fruits and it’s like a circus in your mouth … they make Georgia peaches taste pedestrian in comparison.
The Mets pitchers did a brilliant job of holding the big lead. Chris Capuano put forth his typical five-inning effort, allowing two runs on six hits and two walks, striking out six, and the bullpen shut out the Braves the rest of the way. Even Ryota Igarashi threw a clean inning.
Atlanta manager Fredi Gonzalez pulled Chipper Jones from the game in the seventh, sending reserve infielder Jack Wilson to pinch-hit for the future HOFer. I wonder how many times Chipper has been replaced by a pinch-hitter in his career?
Gonzalez continued to pull starters through the final nine outs of the game. Braves fans should be angry, as it was clearly a case of Gonzalez folding it up. For shame, for shame.
The other Gonzalez — Alex Gonzalez — made maybe the best play seen by a shortstop all year. Gonzalez went deep in the hole to snare a Jason Bay grounder, then made a turn-jump-throw to nail Bay by a step. Nearly as impressive was the pants-splitting stretch by first baseman Freddie Freeman that made my groin hurt just watching it.
Next Mets Game
The Mets and Braves do it again on Saturday afternoon at 4:10 PM. R.A. Dickey goes against Tim Hudson.
The Mets also struggle at home. I don’t quite see the point of moving in the wall on that front. Mets pitching is not exactly superior, so wouldn’t that help the other team as much or more? Also, it is not like the guys on the team are hitting too many homers AWAY from Citifield either. Anyway, last week or so the NYT had a good article about the pitchers’ perspective on the subject.
MikeT has a point and it also might be that the game as a whole was going well, which could also lead him to be more relaxed.
Done deal or not, I’m not one to think it some essential thing or something I’m that thrilled about.