Happy Recap: Mets 1 A's 0
The Mets second 1-0 victory of the year.
I don't believe in momentum, but I do believe in confidence and it's importance in determining who wins and who loses. But games like this, especially after a big win the night before, could really give a struggling team a boost. At the very least the Mets won the series, breaking a string of 6 consecutive lost series.
El Duque was awesome tonight, he didn't have his best fastball but he was keeping the A's off balance with a variety of offspeed stuff. He struck out Chavez on an eephus pitch. It went so high, then came straight down, the gun called it 55 mph.
The only problem was that Joe Blanton might have been even better, shutting the Mets down for 8 innings.
But Blanton got a break in a very interesting 6th inning. First, Ledee ripped a double down the line. Then El Duque failed to get him over with a sac bunt. Failure by pitchers to bunt drives me crazy. But Blanton returned the favor later in the game but at least he has the excuse of being an American League pitcher.
With one out and Ledee on second Blanton walked Reyes. Then LoDuca took a pitch for a strike. The second pitch was inside (replays showed it caught the corner) and LoDuca said to home plate umpire Marvin Hudson, "that ball was inside Marv." Then he said something else and pointed at home plate. He walked away and got ready to get back in the box, as he stepped in he shouted something else and Hudson ejected him.
LoDuca ran into Hudson's face and said "I didn't say anything to you," then SNY turned off the mic that had been picking up the exchange. After that LoDuca completely lost his cool. He was making a crazy eyes face, and screaming and generally going nuts. Willie Randolph tried to hold him back.
Crew chief Ed Montague tried to hold him back.
Then he completely lost it. On the way off the field he threw his helmet, bat and wristbands. Then he went into the dugout and threw a bunch more stuff, shin guards, chest protector on the field as well.
Castro replaced LoDuca and struck out, but it gets credited (or blamed) to LoDuca.
Beltran ripped a single to left but Ledee got thrown out at home plate by Travis Buck. He had to try it with two outs, but Buck made a perfect throw and Kendall had a perfect block of the plate and the game was still 0-0.
The A's had runners on in almost every inning but couldn't get them across. Feliciano and Heilman teamed up in the 8th and Wagner had the 9th.
After 8 shutout innings Oakland finally took out Blanton and Castro who is so freakin awesome doubled to left. The whole time Gary Cohen was making fun of how slow Castro is. Then he was blaming LoDuca for getting ejected because now they couldn't pinch run. But if LoDuca had been in there, he might not have doubled.
Cohen and Darling kept harping on the fact that they would need to get a home run to get Castro from second but after Beltran walked Wright hit a blooper to right. Buck (he;d switched to right field by now) got a bad jump on the ball then dove to try to reach it. He couldn't and it rolled far enough away to bring Castro around with the winning run.
During the celebration at home plate someone hit Castro in the eye.
The Mets fifth walkoff win off the season.
Momentum is only as good as the next day's starting pitcher so let's see if John Maine can be as good as he was against the Twins.
I don't believe in momentum, but I do believe in confidence and it's importance in determining who wins and who loses. But games like this, especially after a big win the night before, could really give a struggling team a boost. At the very least the Mets won the series, breaking a string of 6 consecutive lost series.
El Duque was awesome tonight, he didn't have his best fastball but he was keeping the A's off balance with a variety of offspeed stuff. He struck out Chavez on an eephus pitch. It went so high, then came straight down, the gun called it 55 mph.
The only problem was that Joe Blanton might have been even better, shutting the Mets down for 8 innings.
But Blanton got a break in a very interesting 6th inning. First, Ledee ripped a double down the line. Then El Duque failed to get him over with a sac bunt. Failure by pitchers to bunt drives me crazy. But Blanton returned the favor later in the game but at least he has the excuse of being an American League pitcher.
With one out and Ledee on second Blanton walked Reyes. Then LoDuca took a pitch for a strike. The second pitch was inside (replays showed it caught the corner) and LoDuca said to home plate umpire Marvin Hudson, "that ball was inside Marv." Then he said something else and pointed at home plate. He walked away and got ready to get back in the box, as he stepped in he shouted something else and Hudson ejected him.
LoDuca ran into Hudson's face and said "I didn't say anything to you," then SNY turned off the mic that had been picking up the exchange. After that LoDuca completely lost his cool. He was making a crazy eyes face, and screaming and generally going nuts. Willie Randolph tried to hold him back.
Crew chief Ed Montague tried to hold him back.
Then he completely lost it. On the way off the field he threw his helmet, bat and wristbands. Then he went into the dugout and threw a bunch more stuff, shin guards, chest protector on the field as well.
Castro replaced LoDuca and struck out, but it gets credited (or blamed) to LoDuca.
Beltran ripped a single to left but Ledee got thrown out at home plate by Travis Buck. He had to try it with two outs, but Buck made a perfect throw and Kendall had a perfect block of the plate and the game was still 0-0.
The A's had runners on in almost every inning but couldn't get them across. Feliciano and Heilman teamed up in the 8th and Wagner had the 9th.
After 8 shutout innings Oakland finally took out Blanton and Castro who is so freakin awesome doubled to left. The whole time Gary Cohen was making fun of how slow Castro is. Then he was blaming LoDuca for getting ejected because now they couldn't pinch run. But if LoDuca had been in there, he might not have doubled.
Cohen and Darling kept harping on the fact that they would need to get a home run to get Castro from second but after Beltran walked Wright hit a blooper to right. Buck (he;d switched to right field by now) got a bad jump on the ball then dove to try to reach it. He couldn't and it rolled far enough away to bring Castro around with the winning run.
During the celebration at home plate someone hit Castro in the eye.
The Mets fifth walkoff win off the season.
Momentum is only as good as the next day's starting pitcher so let's see if John Maine can be as good as he was against the Twins.
Labels: a's, el duque, happy recap
posted by Paul at 10:17 PM
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