The Happy Recap

Mets Sign K-Rod

2008-12-09T20:48:00.001-08:00

The Mets addressed their biggest weakness by signing closer Francisco Rodriguez aka K-Rod for 3 years and 37 million dollars.
It's a great move, but a pretty obvious one. With the Mets bullpen in complete shambles (even with a healthy Billy Wagner), they needed a closer desperately now that Wagner will likely miss the entire year.
The Mets filled their biggest need, with the best available option and did so relatively cheaply. For instance, three years ago the Mets spent $6 million more (albeit for one more year) on Billy Wagner. So they gave an extra year to a closer who was 8 years older then than K-Rod is now. Obviously the market for top closers isn't as big as K-Rod thought.
But there are some worries that come along with this signing.
While his stats are incredible, some of his underlying numbers are cause for concern.
His hits are on the rise, while his strikeouts are falling. He also blew 7 saves last year, which means he failed about 10% of the time.
Will Mets fans tolerate that rate?
Some are also concerned about his durability because his velocity was down last year and he is getting older (he'll be 27 on Opening Day) leading to worries he could be exiting an early prime.
Also he has never been a 2-inning pitcher and likely won't be with the Mets.
Despite those worries this was a great move for the Mets, a crucial first step toward building a team that won't implode (from the bullpen out) next September.

Unhappy Recap: Marlins 4 Mets 2

2008-09-29T03:56:00.000-07:00

Another season ends just like the last one, with bitter disappointment.

What happened here was a microcosm of the whole season.

Oliver Perez pitched pretty well but it was clear he ran out of gas in the 6th.

Then the bullpen came in and held it for a while, but Manuel used too many guys and it resulted in back to back home runs.

But the real problem once again was an offense that didn't show up. Three games to determine their playoff lives, and the Mets scored 5 runs total. Absolutely inexcusable.

And it's been such a common theme throughout the season, the Mets just cannot get runs when they need them.

Carlos Beltran once again showed his guts with what at the time was an incredibly clutch 2-run game-tying home run.

Jose Reyes went 2 for 13 in the Marlins series. Carlos Delgado went 2 for 11. Ryan Church went 0 for 9 with 6 strikeouts. All when the Mets needed them most.

An incredibly disappointing ending to another incredibly disappointing season.

Happy Recap: Mets 2 Marlins 0

2008-09-27T19:53:00.000-07:00

What a performance by Johan Santana!

He was the definition of clutch. When the Mets needed him most he single-handedly won the game for them. On 3 days rest. After throwing a career-high 125 pitches in his previous outing.

Earlier in the season I complained that Santana pitched just well enough to lose (believe me, I feel bad about it now), but in this case he pitched so well he could not lose. For three months and 17 starts now he has been unbeatable (or at least unbeaten) today he was unhittable.

And it didn't even seem for a moment that there was any doubt. Once the Mets gave him one run it seemed like he knew (and his teammates knew) that he was going to make that one run stand up.

With this virtuoso performance Santana earned the eternal respect of all Mets fans, he earned $137 million dollars, he earned a place in the pantheon of great games ever pitched by the Mets (Seaver's near-perfect game, Cone's 19 Ks, Bobby Jones's playoff 1-hitter, Maine's near-no-hitter in the second to last game of last year, Al Leiter in the 1-game playoff in 1999), he earned a reptuation as a clutch pitcher, and he may have earned a Cy Young Award.

An absolutely incredible, wonderful, magnificent, superb, splendid performance by Johan Santana.

But one adjective I didn't use was "inspiring." Hopefully with one game left to go and a possible 1-game playoff looming, this performance by Santana will prove to be an inspiration to his teammates.

Unhappy Recap: Marlins 6 Mets 1

2008-09-26T19:04:00.000-07:00

It amazes me how a team that showed so much heart the night before, could die like dogs with no fight at all the very next game.

It amazes me how a team that is so good at getting runners on, is so bad at getting runners in.

Once again that's what this game came down to. After the starting pitcher put the Mets in an early hole again Delgado struck out with first and second and Church flied out with the bases loaded in the first inning.

In the second it was Reyes and Murphy who failed with two men on.

And in the third it was Church who evidently didn't break out of his slump, again failing, this time hitting into a double play with 2 on.

The Mets had one more chance in the 7th inning when a base running mistake by Ramon Martinez may have cost them, but best case it would have been a runner on third and 2 out so no big deal. But at the time it seemed big because the lead was only 3-1.

But then the bullpen took over. Of all the horrible games and innings turned in by bullpen this year, this was one of the worst.

Bobby Parnell showed the rest of the relievers have been rubbing off on him as he allowed a walk and a wild pitch, then a hit, allowing a run to score when Daniel Murphy committed another error. Then came Pedro Feliciano who can't get anyone out anymore. He hit the only batter he faced and may way for Aaron Heilman. Heilman actually got two outs, but he also walked 2 batters, including one with the bases loaded. I am so sick of this guy coming and walking batters. It's so sickening to watch. I hope this was his last ever appearance as a Met.

Joe Smith, the only reliable reliever came in to get the last out but it was too little too late as the offense let the Mets down again.

Now it falls to Johan Santana again who is going to come back on 3 days rest, after the most pitches of his career, to try to keep the dream alive for one more day. Doesn't seem like the best situation for him, but we shall see.

Happy Recap: Mets 7 Cubs 6

2008-09-26T04:26:00.000-07:00

Oh the angst of being a Mets fan. After the most disheartening loss of the season, comes the most exhilirating win.

I know there are a lot of complaints about Carlos Beltran but say what you want, add this to a growing list of incredibly clutch base hits he's gotten during his career with the Mets. He'll forever be dogged by the strikeout against Adam Wainwright in the 2006 NLCS, but this was a hit, a run, a game, the Mets absolutely had to have -- and he delivered it.

Meanwhile David Wright struck out again. This time he did it with Reyes on first, but another big situation where he couldn't even put bat to ball. At least he got a sacrifice fly in the first inning.

I'd love to know what was going on with Daniel Murphy there. Did he miss signs, was Manuel giving the swing away motion to trick the Cubs? Either way he never should have been bunting in the first place. The play isn't beneficial to run production even with a good bunter at bat and pparently he's never had a sac bunt in pro baseball. I understand Reyes couldn't steal because it was muddy, but Murphy has a great chance of getting Reyes over by reaching base himself, without using an out. And once he looked so clueless they should have yelled "swing away" to make sure he took his hacks.

Ryan Church was awesome in this game, but his three hits were the least of his contributions. His amazing adroitness to avoid the tag when he scored the tying run was really the key (other than Beltran's hit) to winning this game.

The Mets also got amazing contributions from Robinson Cancel and Ramon Martinez. I think Manuel has to play Martinez, even if it's only three more good games, that's all they need.

Of course Pedro sucked as he has done so often this year. But after he allowed a run to leadoff the 3rd, he buckled down and gave up only 2 hits, one walk over the next four innings, while striking out 6. He showed some guts which will eventually separate him from the other Hall of Famer whose last Mets start was an absolute disaster.

Stokes, Schoeneweis and Smith all did their jobs to keep the Cubs at 6 long enough for the Mets to stage a comeback. No reliever is blameless in this season but it's no accident that Joe Smith is 6-3 while Aaron Heilman is 3-8.

It should be noted that this monumental win came against a Cubs team that sat its five best offensive players, all of whom hit more than 20 homers this year. And still, someone named Micah Hoffpauir went 5 for 5 with 2 homers and 5 RBI.

But anyway you slice this team has a habit of lifting fans up, then letting them down with a thud. But for now the Mets are tied with the wild card, a game behind the Phillies and looking to make the playoffs, or crash once again.

Unhappy Recap: Cubs 9 Mets 6

2008-09-24T19:21:00.001-07:00

Of all the hard losses, and all the monumental disasters and all the unhappy recaps, this has got to be the worst.

And I don't want to hear one thing about Luis Ayala, or even Oliver Perez. The Mets offense is completely to blame for this loss.

Five guys made outs with a man on third and fewer than 2 outs and none were able to hit a deep fly ball to get a run in. That's disgraceful.

First it was Daniel Murphy in the 7th who hit the ball hard but lined into a double play. That was bad luck.
In the 8th inning Ryan Church struck out (make contact, please) and Ramon Castro hit a weak grounder to third.
And in the 9th it was David Wright striking out (how many times have I written that?) and Ryan Church again with a weak grounder.

But let's be fair here, there is plenty of blame to go around. Oliver Perez sucked. I'm not ready to give up on him as a big game pitcher (and I hope this is not his last start as a Met, I don't want him going out in infamy like Tom Glavine) but he did allow 11 base runners in 4 1/3 innnings. You can only walk the tightrope for so long.

And Luis Ayala did give up three runs, but the hit to Lee was an opposite field dunker and it was in his second inning of work, on his third straight day of pitching.

Daniel Murphy's triple was an attempt to atone for an earlier mistake when he misplayed a single to allow the tying run to score. But another hit did come after that, meaning the run would have scored anyway.

I love Ramon Castro but not only did he ground out with 2nd and 3rd and one out in the 8th, he struck out with the bases loaded in the 9th. He's batting .150 in his last 40 at bats, which covers all of August and September.

And let's not leave the coaching staff out of this, they need to be more aggressive. Reyes should have been running in the 7th. Even if Murphy's line drive were still caught, it probably wouldn't have been a double play if Reyes had already been on second base.

And Luis Aguayo needs to be a little more aggressive also. We've seen it several times this year, he holds a runner with no outs, assuming the Mets could get him home, but they can't.

The Mets blew a golden opportunity here to regain control of their destiny. Now they are almost definitely out of the division race, and in a tie with Brewers and fighting for their lives to fend off a second collapse.

But as we've seen so many times before this team always has a little bit left to reel you in again, usually just so they can break your heart one more time.

It saddens me that I wrote this entire post and didn't even think about mentioning Delgado's grand slam, which at the time it was hit, may have been the biggest moment of the season.

Happy Recap: Mets 6 Cubs 2

2008-09-24T04:00:00.000-07:00

Midway through this game it was looking like my worst nightmare, the Mets weren't hitting and Johan Santana was getting clobbered. Then all of the sudden, one lucky bounce completely reversed the course of the game, and possibly the season.

With one out and Nick Evans on first Johan Santana hit what should have been a 1-6-3 doubleplay, but the magic bat not only distracted the pitcher, it ricocheted the ball away from the shortstop, giving Santana an infield hit.

After Reyes struck out an even bigger miracle occurred. Luis Castillo made his first contribution in weeks, working out a walk. Then David Wright ripped a single to left to tie the game. Wright came into that at bat with a .188 batting average with the bases loaded.

It was around this time in the game when Johan Santana started to turn it around. Through four innings he gave up 2 runs, 6 hits and 4 doubles. Then he retired the side in the 5th inning on 6 pitches and allowed only 1 hit over the next four innings. Santana once again earned his money, won his 8th straight decision, and hasn't lost in 16 straight starts and he set a new career high in pitches with 125.

The third piece of our triumverate to build around for the next 6 years came through with his own big hit in the 6th inning. After another lucky break (an infield single for Castro and an error to score Delgado) Jose Reyes came up with the bases loaded. He was only 2 for 19 with the bases loaded so far this season, but he ripped one down the line for the bases clearing triple, and enough runs to let the Mets cruise to the victory.

Unhappy Recap: Cubs 9 Mets 5

2008-09-22T23:40:00.000-07:00

This game doesn't make me angry. This was a game the Mets were supposed to lose, it was Jon Niese on the mound, against the Cubs, and they got their asses kicked. That happens sometimes. But it just makes all those other games, the ones where one play, one hit, one out could have made a difference, seem even more important.

It does add a little insult to injury that the Mets were done in by Jason Marquis. A grand slam by a pitcher? The last three times a pitcher hit a grand slam were all against the Mets. There was Dontrelle Willis back in 2006, and Felix Hernandez earlier this year.

Even despite that grand slam the Mets did have a lot of chances, going 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position.

Even though they got blown out, they had several chances, to come back or at least cut into the lead. In the 4th and 6th they got the first two men on -- and promptly hit into double plays.

It's so frustrating to watch Luis Castillo because he can't even hit the ball out of the infield. And he is signed for 3 more years. I hope Omar can dump him during the offseason (even if he has to eat 90% of his contract) and move Daniel Murphy there next year (assuming he goes to winter ball and becomes proficient enough at the position).

Once again the Mets are putting all their eggs in Johan Santana's basket.

Unhappy Recap: Braves 7 Mets 6

2008-09-21T22:44:00.000-07:00

How many times we have seen this same game? I bet there's been at least 25 times this year the Mets played a game with the following characteristics: Mets score early off the starter then go in the tank, the starting pitcher pitches fairly well, but allows too many baserunners and doesn't go deep enough and then the bullpen implodes.

I don't even blame the bullpen all that much for this loss. Schoeneweis, Smith and Heilman all gave up extra base hits in the same inning, but they got a little unlucky and were hindered by a horrible decision by Jerry Manuel.

Why the hell did he intentionally walk two guys in the 8th inning? It made no sense to put extra runners on base. He knew they were going to pinch hit Chipper if he walked Norton. So he added an extra runner AND put him in scoring position, and gained nothing. He should have gone after Norton and at least given the offense a chance.

Not that the offense would have done anything with it. Before I go any further though it's important to mention that you can't view this game as a one-run game. Carlos Delgado's homer only came because Mike Gonzalez was challenging him with a 3-run lead. Without that lead Delgado would have been pitched differently, most likely to a different result.

David Wright and Carlos Delgado are exempt from the blame for this game, they had 5 of the 6 RBI and 6 of the 8 hits. It's everyone else who sucked.

In the 6th the Mets started off with two walks, but Pelfrey couldn't get the bunt down. Inexcuseable. Reyes and Murphy went quietly and that was that.

In the 7th Wright and Delgado got on and on the first pitch to Beltran he squared to bunt? Why? He does this so often, and every time I hear he's doing it on his own. Why doesn't Manuel tell him "don't bunt on your own. Don't bunt ever, you're too good a hitter. Our bullpen is too bad to EVER play for just one run. Get up there and get a hit." Then on 0-1 Beltran swung at a pitch in the dirt and his at bat was wasted. When Church grounded into a double play the Mets had wasted two great chances to add to their lead.

With 17 games to go the Mets held a 3 1/2 game lead over the Phillies. During the last 10 games the Mets went 4-6 and the Phillies went 9-1. Sure seems like a replay of last year.

Unhappy Recap: Braves 4 Mets 2

2008-09-20T19:21:00.000-07:00

The Mets can't win when they don't score 5 runs and they can't win when Pedro pitches.

He is absolutely awful. He puts them in a huge hole every time out, usually giving up only one run in the first inning, this time it was 3. But if it weren't for his bat the Mets would have gotten shut out.

A good job by Schoeneweis to at least keep the game close. And it was nice to see Parnell come into the game as well.

The 4th run for the Braves did come as the result of a bad call at second base. Jones was clearly out at second.

I have never seen Ramon Castro look worse in an at bat than he did striking out in the 7th inning with Castillo on base. In fact he looked like Castillo does in every at bat, where he just flails at the ball.

Castillo did get one hit, improving his September batting average to .154.

David Wright got two of the Mets hits which is nice because they really need him to play better at bat and in the field.

Happy Recap: Mets 9 Braves 5

2008-09-19T17:23:00.000-07:00

In the last 12 games the Mets are 12-0 when the score 5 or more runs. And 1-7 when they scored 4 or fewer. And in those 12 wins they allowed 5 or more runs 5 times. This is how it's going to be for the rest of the season. As Gary Cohen said, they're going to "have to outscore their bullpen.

The big difference so far between this September and last, is Jose Reyes. I don't care what anyone says, he is the unquestioned MVP of this team. The three big boppers are all great, but the Mets can win if one of them isn't hitting, because there are two more just like him. But if Reyes isn't on base, they don't win. And when he starts them off by scoring in the first inning, the Mets usually win. He's also very underrated as a run producer, I feel like he constantly drives in runs when he gets the opportunities.

David Wright also got two running scoring hits, waking up out his doldrums, although the first one was a weak swing that he just got inside the first base line. Good thing because he is absolutely killing this team with his defense. He should have been charged with 2 errors in that second inning, but the official scorer let him off the hook on one of them.

And that's I'm giving Oliver Perez some credit for this outing, even though it was only mediocre. Not only did he have to deal with Wright's bad defense, which cost him 2 runs, he had to deal with the inconsistent and very small strike zone of the home plate umpire.

Jerry Manuel did a good job of mixing and matching pitchers to get through the 7th and I was glad to see Heilman get a big strikeout. And I was glad Manuel left Stokes in for the 9th inning. The guy has been pretty good and I like that he is going with the hot hand. If a guy is having a good night, stick with him, no matter what the matchup says, because chances are bringing in a guy who throws with the correct hand will turn out to be the wrong move.
Oliver Perez bounce back from bad defense and small strike zone

Happy Recap: Mets 7 Nationals 2

2008-09-19T03:35:00.000-07:00

Even the easy wins don't seem so easy.

I really thought the Mets were going to lose after getting only one run in the first inning. Reyes led off with a double down the line, Murphy singled to center and Milledge misplayed it, letting it roll all the way to the wall. I thought Murphy could have scored but I realized it was prudent to leave him on third for Wright and Delgado. And Wright struck out, and Delgado popped out and the Mets stranded Murphy.

Seems like every time this year the Mets left runs on the table like that, it came back to bite them. But thankfully not this time. The Mets continued to pound out hits, scoring in each of the first five innings.

Brian Schneider continues to kill the Nationals. Four of his 9 home runs are against them. He has 3 homers at their home field this season. He had only 2 homers at their home park last year, when he played for them.

David Wright sank back into his slump. After 2 4-hit games in 4 days last week, he went 1 for 18 in this series, with 7 strikeouts. He now has 13 strikeouts in 52 at bats, with a man on third and fewer than 2 outs. He also has 13 hits in those situations.

Johan Santana once again did the job. He now has 15 straight starts without a loss, the second longest streak in Mets history. The Mets are 11-4 in those starts, a streak that began on July 4th, continuing Santana's second half dominance.

I disagreed at the time with bringing in Joe Smith in the 8th inning with a 6-run lead but I understand Manuel's panic. Personally I would have gone with Parnell and saved the better relievers (Smith has been great) for more high-leverage situations, but you can't believe that a 6-run lead is safe.

Happy Recap: Mets 9 Nationals 7

2008-09-18T01:42:00.000-07:00

This bullpen makes sure there is no such thing as an easy victory. The offense is going to have to keep putting up these huge numbers because the relievers can't hold a lead.

This time there isn't much to blame on Jerry Manuel. Even though he used 8 pitchers his hand was forced in most of those situations. He couldn't leave Brandon Knight in for another inning, he's just not ready go to that long. He showed remarkable restraint not to yank Rincon and Stokes because they were both terrible. And Aaron Heilman made only his 3rd appearance in 14 September games, allowing hits to the first 2 batters he faced.

I even agree with pulling Schoeneweis after he got 2 quick outs, because Joe Smith has been so good lately. Smith hasn't allowed an earned run in his last 13 2/3 innings over 18 appearances. And leaving Smith for the 9th was exactly the correct move, but it didn't work out because of Wright's error, and Smith's walk.

And those mistakes were compounded by the eminently hittable Pedro Feliciano who got two outs before he allowed the hit that drove in 2 runs and put the tying run up to bat.

Thankfully Luis Ayala shut the door or the Mets would have been the Mets would have lost their second game after holding a 7-1 lead.

Thank god the offense finally woke up, the Mets needed every run they could get.

Jose Reyes and Carlos Delgado got the evening off to a great start with solo homers in the first, once again the Mets scoring runs in the first inning and going on to win the game.

I was a little worried about Delgado because over the past few games I've seen him jump at balls and tap them to the right side again, but I'm glad to see he isn't falling back into his bad habits.

Carlos Beltran is awesome, I don't care what anyone says. He takes more criticism than any other Met (because of his contract) but he's a really great player. He does everything well and contributes with his bat (two homers) and his glove (turned a double play and went back gracefully to catch Zimmerman's ball that could have been disaster).

Once again the Mets are relying on Johan Santana to pitch them to a victory. Jerry Manuel is counting on him for "Hopefully nine innings, 170 pitches."

Unhappy Recap: Nationals 1 Mets 0

2008-09-17T02:05:00.000-07:00

This is how the meltdown starts. First it was the bullpen, then the starting pitching, now the offense has gone completely in the tank, scoring 2 runs in 2 games against the Nationals.

I'm not ready to give up on this season yet, but this is starting to look exactly like last year. No one can make the play, get the hit, or get the out that's needed to win a game.

The Mets didn't get enough base runners to have a lot of serious chances to score but when they did, it was disaster.

They didn't even get a baserunner in innings 2 through 5 so the first failure came in the 6th inning when with 2 on and 1 out Ryan Church flied out and David Wright hit one hard, but it was caught for the third out.

The only other chance came in the 8th when Ramon Castro and Robinson Cancel singled with one out. Reyes tapped out the pitcher and Ryan Church struck out on a pitch in the dirt. And that was all she wrote.

Mike Pelfrey was excellent again after one bad start, but something always seems to go wrong when the Mets hit one of these skids.

David Wright, Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado are a combined 1 for 23 so far in this series.

And the Mets lost Fernando Tatis for the season. Tatis was the one guy who had been hitting over this stretch and he is the Met who had proven himself to be most reliable in clutch situations through the year. His absence is going to force Manuel to play Church everyday and platoon Murphy and Evans in left.

Unhappy Recap: Nationals 7 Mets 2

2008-09-15T23:56:00.000-07:00

I think I've been on this ride before, and I want to get off. It seems like a lot of things from last year are starting to repeat themselves. Mainly, there was a huge psychological component to last year's meltdown and it already seems that doubt is creeping into the minds of Mets players and especially Mets fans.

I think that's why we saw Mets fans booing Luis Castillo (even though he'd been out for weeks) and Luis Ayala (even though he'd been doing fairly well as closer before Sunday) at Shea this weekend. Or maybe they just don't like players named Luis.

A big question coming down the stretch is going to be about Jerry Manuel's handling of the bullpen. It's clear that his strategy right now is to pitch the starters as long as possible, and the relievers as short as possible. He has shown that he doesn't want righties to face lefties or lefties to face righties. Unfortunately, this strategy maximizes the number of relievers he is going to use in each game. So every time a guy gets a few batters out, Manuel removes him, which is basically rolling the dice.

This bit him in the ass in the 7th inning. After Ricardo Rincon retired 2 batters with no problem, Manuel went to Duaner Sanchez who gave up a walk, a single, a wild pitch and a 3-run homer to put the game completely out of reach.

Before this outing however, Sanchez had pitched 4 1/3 in his last 5 appearances allowing only 1 hit and no runs.

I think Manuel needs to adjust this strategy by leaving in guys who are going good and diminishing the number of pitchers he uses in each game and the number of outings for each pitcher over the next two weeks.

Because this slide (should it continue) has such a huge psychological component, I think David Wright's double play in the 8th was a huge hit to the team's confidence. Even if they could have cut the lead to 7-4 or 7-5 and still lost, it wouldn't seem like such a blowout.

Wright, Beltran and Delgado were a combined 0 for 11 in this game. The Mets need them to regain their form, or they can definitely kiss this season goodbye.

Bobby Parnell looked good in his inning, maybe he can contribute out of the bullpen.

Pedro Martinez is terrible. The Mets are now 7-13 when he starts. First off, he seems to allow a run in the 1st inning of every single game. And as I talk about a lot in this space, the Mets usually pick up an advantage by scoring first, Pedro almost always gives away that advantage. But he just gives up so many hits and so many runs. He has a 5.47 ERA, most guys would be out of the rotation if they pitched that poorly for three straight months, but the Mets continue to rely on him, for at least 2 more starts.

Unhappy Recap: Braves 7 Mets 4

2008-09-15T00:28:00.000-07:00

So much for Luis Ayala as the savior (and saver) out of the bullpen. For the second time in two days the Mets blew a 2-run lead and lost a game they should have won. This time however the lead was blown in the 9th, making it the 7th time the Mets lost a game they were winning after 8 innings. That's just an astronomical number.

Maybe the offense can stay hot and get the Mets back into the playoffs but with the bullpen the way it is there is just no way a Met fan can be confident at all.

And it wasn't just Ayala who sucked, Pedro Feliciano got the first man he faced, then put on four batters in a row. He'd been doing better recently (6 straight hitless appearances) but I have no confidence in him either.

Joe Smith came in and did his job though, striking out two batters with two men on in the 8th inning.

Oliver Perez wasn't bad but his pitch count was very high and he was constantly in trouble, but 2 runs in 7 innings certainly should have been good enough.

David Wright is now officially on fire. In the last 5 games he is 12 for 19 (.632) with 4 homers and 9 RBI.

Happy Recap: Mets 5 Braves 0

2008-09-14T03:48:00.000-07:00

What a performance by Jon Niese. He obviously shook off the nerves that affected him in his first start. He was in control the whole time because he was able to control his curveball. His curveball was awesome and he was able to get it over for strikes. I think we're going to see with him throughout his career that when he can get that curveball over for strikes he'll be very hard to hit.

And I love the fact that Jerry Manuel let him pitch into the 8th inning, and left him in there even though he allowed a hit to the first batter of the inning.

There wasn't much for Niese to worry about because once again the Mets jumped out to a big lead with 3 first inning runs.

David Wright looks like he might be starting to get hot.

Beltran also getting hot hitting a home run and raising his batting average to .285, which is higher than he's had in any season with the Mets.

If Carlos Delgado continues his hot streak while Wright and Beltran are hitting this way, the Mets are going to be very dangerous.

Unhappy Recap: Braves 3 Mets 2

2008-09-13T17:03:00.000-07:00

The Mets lost this game when they reverted to their former ways and were unable to get runners home. Particularly when Schneider and Easley both grounded into double plays with the bases loaded and none out.

Schneider's came in the 4th and did bring a run home, but Easley's hurt a lot more. He got doubled up after the Braves cut off the run at home and the inning ended without the Mets get anything home.

And that failure to tack on runs cost the Mets when Santana faltered in the 8th. Manuel did the right thing by trying to stretch Santana but he faded because he threw too many pitches early in the game.

The Mets bullpen has been pretty decent but when Santana put the first two men on in the 8th, Schoeneweis and Stokes each allowed a hit to the first batter they faced.

Santana allowed 9 hits and struck out only 4 in 7 innings, a disappointing outing for him.

Carlos Delgado stayed hot with two more hits.

The Mets must win game 2 of this doubleheader.

Happy Recap: Mets 13 Nationals 10

2008-09-11T00:04:00.001-07:00

I've said all season that the Mets biggest problem isn't their bullpen, but the lack of clutch hitting. That doesn't seem to be a problem anymore. The Mets are getting every key hit and are winning despite bad starting pitching.

Carlos Delgado went 0 for 3 but I'm still impressed by him. With the game tied in the 7th inning he went the other way and hit a sacrifice fly to score Wright with the go-ahead run. Home runs come and go but making contact with runners on 3rd and 1 out will always be there.

Carlos Beltran had another big game with 3 hits and 2 RBI, including a 2-out hit to drive in the first run.

And David Wright may have finally broken out. Four hits in four at bats culminating in that crucial home run to give Ayala some breathing room. Jerry Manuel says the extra time Wright has been spending in the batting cage with Howard Johnson is starting to pay off. If the Mets can ever get Wright, Beltran and Delgado all hitting at the same time, they're going to be very tough to beat.

Of course, the Mets seldom get this much offense with contrbutions from Jose Reyes who was on base 3 times. He also broke the Mets record for career stolen bases with 282. A record he later extended to 283. I expect Reyes to hold this record quite possibly forever.

Unfortunately Mike Pelfrey followed up a bad outing by Oliver Perez with a bad outing of his own. But this is a team game and it's so encouraging to see this team pick up their teammates during bad games.

With 17 games left the Mets now have exactly half the lead they had last year with 17 games left. But I'm much more confident they can hold it this time.

Happy Recap: Mets 10 Nationals 8

2008-09-10T00:08:00.000-07:00

Carlos Delgado is absolutely incredible right now. There doesn't seem to be anything else to say about him. He's on one of the greatest rolls I've ever seen. And when you compare it to the way he was (or wasn't) hitting earlier this season, it's even more remarkable. And he's not just hitting homers and driving in runs, he's doing it at crucial times.

For the second straight game he hit 2 home runs and once again they were both big shots in distance and in consequence. Both times he extended a 1-run lead, and in the second case, gave the bullpen a much needed insurance run. Not lost in all this is his single that started a rally in the second inning.

Carlos Beltran also delivered a big home run, turning an 8-7 deficit into a 9-8 lead. Beltran has had a subpar season but he has come up with a number of big home runs.

David Wright also got his first big hit in what seems like weeks. In the first inning with Church on first, Ron Darling said Manuel shouldn't send Church with a struggling Wright at the plate. He did, and Wright struck out and Church was caught stealing to end the inning. But in the 4th inning Wright got a key 2-out hit to tie the game.

Oliver Perez was awful, but it was his first truly putrid start (more than 4 runs) since June, so I'll give him a pass. I'm encouraged that walks weren't his undoing this time.

I'm also incredibly impressed with the bullpen, which held the Nationals without a run for the last 4 innings. Joe Smith got to pitch to more than one batter for a chance, and he was excellent. And Luis Ayala continues to try to erase the memory of Billy Wagner. He's now 6 of 7 in save chances as a Met.

This is the third time this season the Mets won a game in which they allowed 8 runs or more.

Happy Recap: Mets 6 Phillies 3

2008-09-08T04:49:00.000-07:00

Carlos Delgado is absolutely ridiculous right now. I can't believe what's going on with him. If he can keep this up for 3 more weeks he could very well be the first MVP in Mets history.

The two home runs were nice and showy, but the big hit was the single that scored 2 runs and put the Mets right back in the lead after the Phillies had scored in the top of the 1st.

This is excatly the reason they got Johan Santana. They needed him for these big games down the stretch and he's been stepping up big time. The Mets have won his last 7 starts.

The Mets did get a couple of lucky breaks starting with the catcher's interference that put Wright on first and set up Delgado's big hit in the first.

Then there was the neighborhood play by Chase Utley, when he was clearly off the bag before he caught the ball.

Unfortunately they didn't convert on that opportunity because of David Wright. He has been absolutely horrible lately, striking out almost every time he's had a man on third and fewer than 2 outs.

As hot as Delgado is I don't know how much longer he can carry this team if Wright doesn't start hitting.

This was a game the Mets absolutely had to have, and they got it. It wasn't the best result for this 3-game series but at least they still have a lead on the Phillies and they don't have to play them anymore this season.

Unhappy Recap: Phillies 6 Mets 2

2008-09-07T18:24:00.001-07:00

The Mets picked the wrong time to play one of their worst games of the year.

The offense was non-existent as the Mets didn't get a hit to the outfield until the 8th inning, when they got 2 runs.

But it was too little too late because Pedro got bombed.

There isn't too much else to analyze from this game because the Mets never really had a chance. There were no strategic turning points. The Mets couldn't hit Moyer and Pedro got bombed, that's the recap in its simplest form.

Greg Dobbs has 3 of his 8 home runs this season against the Mets.

Unhappy Recap: Phillies 3 Mets 0

2008-09-06T12:28:00.001-07:00

This was a tough game to lose, but not really a bad loss, Brett Myers was just too good. His curveball was incredible. They just couldn't hit him.

They did get a couple of good chances, but just couldn't get that key hit. Their best chance came in the ninth inning against Brad Lidge but Church's ball couldn't find the gap.

Mike Pelfrey was great again, but that homer by Dobbs really hurt. If Church had jumped a little higher, or a little straighter he might have been able to catch it.

I love the way Daniel Murphy plays. Two more doubles plus a great at bat against Lidge in the 9th, which unfortunately didn't end in a walk or a hit.

David Wright continues to struggle, especially with men on base.

I liked what I saw out of Ricardo Rincon against two very tough lefties.

The Mets need to get at least one of the next two games to avoid complete disaster.

Happy Recap: Mets 9 Brewers 2

2008-09-03T23:02:00.001-07:00

The Mets complete a huge sweep of a potential postseason opponent.

Once again the Mets got off to a fast start and were able to hold on to the lead, with a little help from the bullpen. And also some tack on runs.

It's amazing that the Mets struggled so much early in the season with the bases loaded and now they have two grand slams in one week. Ryan Church really improves the lineup when he is batting 6th and hitting for power.

Brian Schneider's power surge continues but I'm not quite sure why Manuel hit him behind Castillo.

Daniel Murphy survived his first slump as a Major Leaguer and is 9 for his last 18 starting with that key double against the Phillies.

Another good start for Oliver Perez. Too many walks, too many pitches and too many deep counts, but if a bad start for him is two runs in nearly 7 innings then I think the Mets will take it.

Once again the Mets bullpen came through with 2 1/3 scoreless innings this time. But I don't understand why Manuel went to Sanchez and Schoeneweis with a 6-run leads. He needs to be judicious in the way he uses those guys down the stretch. And a huge lead like that probably would have been a good time to get Carlos Muniz, Al Reyes or even Bobby Parnell in the game.

But other than that there is nothing to criticize about the job Jerry Manuel is doing. Let's hope he can keep it up against the Phillies.

Happy Recap: Mets 6 Brewers 5

2008-09-03T00:43:00.000-07:00

Another huge win and this time the big contributions came from some unexpected sources.

The bullpen pitched 7 shutout innings, which is quite remarkable. Nelson Figueroa and Brian Stokes are proving to be very valubale additions to the bullpen. It seems clear that Manuel is not going to use Smith or Feliciano for more than one batter for the rest of the season. And Ayala got another save, but it's never easy.

But the Mets pitchers also got help from some great defense. David Wright is playing a great third base even though he hasn't been hitting.

But Carlos Beltran came up big with the glove and the bat. First was his 3-run homer in the third to give the Mets the big lead. It was his 5th homer in the past 9 games, maybe a sign that is going to get hot at the right time. But he also made the biggest play of the game by nailing J.J. Hardy at the plate to end the 4th inning and keep the Mets out of further trouble. And a great job blocking the plate by Robinson Cancel.

Also coming up big with the bat and glove was Endy Chavez. What a beautiful throw he made to second to get Weeks. And then he hit the game-winning sacrifice fly. It shocked me to learn this but the Mets actually lead the NL in sac flies.

And the Mets capitalized on a huge mistake by the Brewers. Jose Reyes should not have been bunting in the 10th inning, he's too good a hitter. But because he did, and because Weeks was late covering and because Kendall's throw was into the runner, the Mets won the game.

Now on to Jonathon Niese. I put no stock in his performance in this game. He was clearly nervous in the first inning. And he may have run out of gas by the fourth. Hopefully he can come out on a more even keel next time, start better and last longer. But if we've learned anything this season, it is not to write off a young pitcher too soon.

Happy Recap: Mets 4 Brewers 2

2008-09-02T00:45:00.000-07:00

Carlos Delgado is absolutely unbelievable right now. For the third time in 2 weeks he got an absolutely huge late game hit to turn a likely loss into a win. His turnaround is just incredible.

I said through most of the early part of the season that the Mets struggles were mostly caused by lack of timely hitting. Well, they are certainly starting to get timely hitting now. Three of the last four wins have come on huge late game home runs that turned deficits into leads.

Excellent performance by Johan Santana, after the first inning he was dominant, striking out nearly everyone, and I think he might have gotten out of that mess in the 6th had it not been for that balk. Which was a good call by the way.

The Mets dodged a major bullet when Ben Sheets left the game.

The bullpen was also excellent and Feliciano and Joe Smith struck out all 3 batters they faced. Hopefully they can excel in reduced roles.

And Luis Ayala racking up another save. They are going need him to continue to nail down that closer's role.

Carlos Beltran has two more hits, but let's hope he wasn't seriously hurt when he slid into the umpire.

What is wrong with David Wright? He struck out again with a man on third and only one out. Then he struck out with a man on second and nobody out. In man on third, fewer than 2 out situation he has 9 sacrifice flies, and 9 strikeouts.

Why was Daniel Murphy bunting in the first inning? What a horrible decision. It's too early to play for one run and worst-case a lefty should be able to make an out to the right side that gets Reyes to third.

Here are the stats on Delgado's turnaround:
Before June 26: 280 at bats, 11 homers, 35 RBI, .232 BA, .304 OBP, .400 SLUG
After June 26: 225 at bats, 20 homers, 60 RBI, .298 BA, .385 OBP, .627 SLUG

Happy Recap: Mets 6 Marlins 2

2008-08-31T15:16:00.000-07:00

The Mets needed this game to avoid losing the series. As long as they keep winning series I think they will be all right.

Carlos Beltran came through with a big home run to answer the Marlins' 2-run first inning.

After that they got back-to-back homers from Nick Evans and David Wright to take the lead.

And Pedro pitched pretty well after his rough first inning. He put tons of guys on in the first three innings but then retired 8 in a row to build the bridge to the bullpen.

Manuel was able to manipulate the bullpen to get Schoeneweis and Heilman through the 7th, then Feliciano and Smith in the 8th and turned it over to Brian Stokes in the 9th. Right now Stokes is the Mets most reliable reliever, but like everyone else he seems to pitch everyday (5 of the last 6 games) so he'll likely break down eventually, like everyone else.

But the key here was the Mets added insurance runs in the 7th on hits from Reyes and Church and tacked one more on with a sacrifice fly from Beltran.

That cushion seemed to give the bullpen the confidence to pitch 3 good innings and close this victory out.

Unhappy Recap: Marlins 4 Mets 3

2008-08-30T22:33:00.000-07:00

There's a good reason Aaron Heilman leads the Mets in losses. He's absolutely gutless in a big spot. He comes into games and is afraid to throw strikes. He started the inning with a walk to Ramirez and ended it with a bases loaded walk. Inexcusable. I'm so sick and tired of watching this guy blow game after game.

But he's far from the only culprit in this horrible bullpen. Pedro Feliciano can't get anyone out right now.

And Duaner Sanchez allowed the game-winning home run. But at least he got the strikeout that ended the 7th.

It looks like Brian Stokes is the go-to guy out of the bullpen right now.

Mike Pelfrey pitched very well he just lost it in the 6th inning. Unfortunately this came right after Keith Hernandez said he was "cruising" and "dominating" and suggested he might be able to pitch another complete game. It was about that time he allowed 2 hits, a walk and another hit, to cut the lead to one. A lead way too small for the bullpen to protect.

And once again the Mets offense got out early, scoring 2 in the first on a David Wright home run. It was the 18th game of the last 22 that the Mets scored in the first inning.

They added a run in the third after a Reyes triple. Before tonight the Mets won 75% of the games in which Reyes scored.

But after that triple the Mets went in a complete funk, and it happens so often, and it's utterly inexplicable. The Mets got no hits from the 5th inning on, until Daniel Murphy led off the 9th with a single.

And then Jerry Manuel bunted him over. That move never works for the Mets. When you do that you are asking two guys to get one hit. In this case it was Easley and Reyes who failed but the Mets never seem to push that run home after a sacrifice bunt.

Another bad loss for a horrible bullpen in a game when Mike Pelfrey deserved better.

Happy Recap: Mets 5 Marlins 4

2008-08-29T21:22:00.000-07:00

What a win! Following up on the other night's game, this was an absolutely huge come from behind victory for a team that seldom gets those wins.

And the fact that it came off the bat of Carlos Beltran is even better. Now that Delgado has caught fire many Mets fans were turning their dissatisfaction towards Beltran but if Delgados homer the other night saved the season, this one damn near did the same thing, only with less of a psychological aspect because it came against the Marlins and not the Phillies.

Beltran has always fallen just short of expectations during his career with the Mets but he's still an excellent player and he does have a history of some big home runs. An absolutely monumental night for him.

Now if I could say a negative word about the golden boy, David Wright. I know he has an OPS above .900, he has 100 RBI and all his underlying splits are either average or better, but he just doesn't seem (and perceptions can be wrong) to be coming through in the big spots all that often. In the first inning he struck out with a man on third and less than 2 outs, the 9th time in 44 at bats in that situation. That's a strikeout rate only slightly higher than in all his other at bats, but still frustrating. Then he had the chance to make amends in the 7th inning, with 2 outs and the bases loaded, but he struck out again. But in the 9th his single extended the inning for Delgado and eventually Beltran to win it.

Oliver Perez battled but didn't have his best control. He only allowed one earned run and 3 hits in 6 innings but the 5 walks constantly put pressure on him. Still, it's amazing how he only has 9 wins considering this is the 12th start in which he's allowed 1 or 0 earned runs.

Luis Ayala got the save which is all that matters, even though it was definitely a little too scary. But one thing I liked about his performance was that he was throwing strikes. He started Hanley Ramirez with a pitch right down the middle, because he knew Ramirez would be taking. Then he got one on the outside corner to put Ramirez in an 0-2 hole. He eventually got him to hit a weak grounder, but he's just too fast. 95% of hitters would have been out on that play. On a team where every reliever seems scared to throw strikes, at least Ayala is challenging hitters. And what really matters is that in this game he got the job done and the Mets pulled out a huge victory.

Happy Recap: Mets 6 Phillies 3

2008-08-28T12:04:00.000-07:00

Carlos Delgado is officially off the hook with me. That home run was absolutely huge. It wouldn't be straining credulity at all to suggest that his home run saved the season. If he doesn't hit a home run the Mets don't score in the 8th, and I doubt they'd score in the 9th off Lidge in a save situation. And if they lose that game and fall 1.5 games back, I don't think they'd be able to come back, becaues of the previous game's circumstance. But with one swing (to the opposite field), Delgado put the Mets back on top of the Phillies and maybe gave them a taste of their own medicine.

With three games left in the season series the Mets are 10-5 against the Phillies this year. But it sure doesn't feel that way.

If this two-game series were a basketball game it would have started with a 7-0 run by the Mets. Then the Phillies went on an 11-1 run and the Mets answered with 5 straight runs.

Daniel Murphy also was very impressive because it can be hard for a young player to shake off a slump (he was 0 for his last 16) before hitting that HUGE double to give the Mets the lead.

Brian Schneider got lucky with his bloop double but it still counts, and those two insurance runs were huge.

Carlos Beltran also got lucky a couple times, but his third hit led to the go-ahead run.

If Delgado doesn't bail him out, Johan Santana gets blamed for once again pitching well enough to lose in a huge spot. And while he obviously didn't have a good game (beyond the runs allowed, he put a lot of men on base) he did keep the Mets in the game which allowed them to come back and win it.

Excellent bullpen work from Pedro Feliciano, Joe Smith (ok, so it was only one pitch) and then Luis Ayala nailed the game down.

An absolutely huge victory for the Mets, to avoid feeling like last year is repeating itself.

Unhappy Recap: Phillies 8 Mets 7

2008-08-26T22:57:00.000-07:00

Another absolute disaster against the Phillies. This loss was so awful it threatens to torpedo the whole season the way the series of bad losses to them did last year. I just can't fathom how this continues to happen.

Once again the bullpen failed, but it was the least of the team's problems. Pedro Feliciano is not getting anyone out right now. In his last four appearances, totaling 2 innings, he's allowed 6 hits and a walk. So he's more likely to put a man on, then to get him out.

Luis Ayala landed with a thud, blowing his first save as a Met. But Brian Schneider really should have fielded that ball, and Werth would have been out. Amazing how thin a line it is between incredible victory and crushing defeat.

Aaron Heilman actually pitched three scoreless innings, despite his best efforts to blow the game by constantly getting behind hitters and putting men on.

I think Schoeneweis got a little unlucky to lose this game, Victorino just ripped one down the line, putting it in the right spot.

The biggest reason they lost was Pedro Martinez. He was getting a lot of strikeouts but he put so many batters on, eventually it was going to catch up to him and it did in the 5th inning.

But even more inexlpicable is the consistent inability of the offense to score any runs late in games. Even more shocking in contrast to the constant instant offense nearly every first inning.

As bad as this loss was, the Mets have Santana going and can regain first place if he turns in another masterpiece. But he's probably going to need to pitch a complete game to earn the victory.

Happy Recap: Mets 9 Astros 1

2008-08-25T19:58:00.000-07:00

The Mike Pelfrey and Carlos Delgado show. Delgado was awesome. I've said it all season, when he goes the other way he is a much better hitter. That first home run down the left field line was crucial.

That gave the Mets 3 more 1st inning runs, pushing their league-leading total to 111. That's an incredible 17% of their runs scored in the 1st inning. The only problem is, they usually don't add on to those leads. But they did this time, thanks another homer by Delgado, crushed to dead center. And the Mets cruised from there.

My only question is, why didn't Jerry Manuel get Pelfrey out of there after they took a 7-0 lead in the 7th. I think it's a good idea to try to conserve his innings, but not in close games, they need to do it in blowout games. As bad as the bullpen is, Manuel should have tried to use relievers for 2 innings to hold a 7-run lead.

There is just so much good going on for Pelfrey right now. Over the last 17 starts (exactly half a season's worth) Pelfrey has a 3.00 ERA. But even more impressive than that, his record over that span is 11-2 and the team is 14-3 in those starts. There is a lot of hope for the future for him, he is emerging as a very strong number 2 behind Johan Santana.

And the last time a Mets pitcher won back-to-back complete games was 1995. And it's been 7 years since a Mets pitcher pitched consecutive complete games.

Jose Reyes was in the middle of the action again getting on base both times before Delgado homered, and then tacking on 2 more runs with a triple, and chasing Pelfrey around the bases. The only thing more fun than watching Reyes leg out a triple is watching Reyes leg out a triple with a pitcher running the bases in front of him.

Now Pedro and Johan take the mound in a huge 2-game series with the Phillies.

Unhappy Recap: Astros 6 Mets 4

2008-08-25T01:06:00.000-07:00

If the Mets bullpen gets enough chances, eventually they'll blow the game. This time it was Feliciano but it could have been anyone.

Rough game for Oliver Perez, but as I've said before, his bad starts are getting better, giving the Mets a chance to win them. But Heilman was Heilman and allowed the inherited runner to score. Thankfully he got bailed out by a horrible third base coaching decision.

I have liked just about everything Manuel has done with this team since taking over but I feel that he uses too many relievers. He makes too many changes based on lefty-righty nonsense. With a bullpen this bad if you use every guy someone will be having a bad day. He could have stuck with Schoeneweis, Smith and Ayala a little longer.

The biggest problem with this loss though is that Carlos Beltran's two homers came in vain. He's been struggling recently and if that second homer could have stood up as the winning run it might have been big for him.

Once again the Mets got out early, and couldn't score in the last 7 innings, and the last 15 batters of the game went down in order.

Unhappy Recap: Astros 8 Mets 3

2008-08-24T08:31:00.001-07:00

This game was a microcosm for life; some days you get your ass kicked. But in baseball and in life you usually get another chance tomorrow.

So we can't get too upset about one bad loss but there are serious concerns about the health of John Maine. They won't need him should they make the playoffs, but they won't get to the playoffs unless he pitches better down the stretch, especially as they try to take the foot off the gas a little with Mike Pelfrey.

For whatever reason, Maine just doesn't look right out there on the mound. I'm not sure if they need to DL him again, or let him pitch and get stronger, but I know for sure they're not going to move him to the bullpen as speculated about.

I love the new Brian Schneider. Unbelievably he has 4 homers in his last 6 starts.

I also love Daniel Murphy. His star is starting to fade a little bit and his average is dipping, but his approach at the plate is great. He's working counts, getting walks and is really showing that he's ready mentally to be a major league player right now.

Happy Recap: Mets 3 Astros 0

2008-08-22T20:57:00.001-07:00

Johan Santana was awesome again. He wasn't even at his best but he still dominated the Astros. Where he was losing games earlier this season by allowing one big hit, now he is getting out of every jam.

His first start after the All-Star break was a bad one but in the 7 starts since then he's 4-0 with a 1.52 ERA. He's currently working on an 18-inning scoreless streak.

Once again the Mets took an early lead by getting a Reyes run in the first inning. Gary Cohen gave the stats but I didn't copy them down, but the Mets are on an incredible run of 1st inning scoring, putting the opponent in a hole and giving the starting pitcher confidence.

Brian Schneider has really woken up. The platoon seems to be working for him, even though Castro has slowed down recently.

It's good to see Ryan Church back in the lineup.

Jerry Manuel seems to have gotten the point that he has to extend his starters as deep into games as possible. First it was Pelfrey pitching a complete game, then he sent Pedro out for the 8th inning and now Johan Santana threw a career-high 121 pitches. I agree with the sentiment but I hope he doesn't overdo it and exhaust a starting staff that is carrying this team. He should keep this strategy in close games, but he needs to look for chances to pull his starters if ever the Mets have a big lead.

And the decreased workload seems to be helping the bullpen. Aaron Heilman pitched a good 8th inning, but only after he threw a strike on a 3-2 count to Berkman to leadoff the inning, getting him to ground out. It seems all of his blowups began with a leadoff walk.

And Luis Ayala could be the new closer. His stats with Washington were terrible but so far for the Mets he's been doing just fine.

Happy Recap: Mets 5 Braves 4

2008-08-21T20:24:00.000-07:00

Another exciting victory where Carlos Delgado came through in the clutch. But you have to admit his 5 for 5 in the box score is a little specious. His last two "hits" were both pretty much errors by the Braves. And if Infante doesn't lose the ball in the lights Delgado is a goat.

And maybe if Ohman covers first on time on Delgado's grounder in the 7th, the Mets would have lost this game.

But once again, the Mets were up against a bad team, a bad team that made mistakes, and the Mets capitalized on them. And that's all that matters.

Pedro pitched pretty well, and settled down after that leadoff homer. Why is he having so many problems in the first inning this year? He's allowed 5 homers and 14 runs in 14 1st innings. But I love the fact that he bounced back from a rough 6th inning and pitched a great 7th, and even tried to get back out there for the 8th.

After Pedro left the Mets got a little bit lucky when a bad bunt turned into a double play. But Pedro Feliciano insisted on trying to blow the game. But evidently Luis Ayala hasn't been here long enough to know he's supposed to blow the game because he cleaned up Feliciano's mess, then pitched a scoreless 9th, and got his second win of the season, first as a Met.

Happy Recap: Mets 6 Braves 3

2008-08-21T10:15:00.000-07:00

This is the Mets formula for success, scoring early with a few key hits then getting good starting pitching and keeping the bullpen out of it.

Pelfrey was great even though he allowed 3 runs. He went 9 innings, threw only 108 pitches and took care of the early lead. The only time he got in real trouble was a bout of wildness in the 6th when after a cheap infield hit (one of only 3 he allowed) he walked 2 guys and threw a wild pitch. But I'm so impressed with him that he was able to shake that off and pitch 3 more good innings, actually 3 more perfect innings.

The Braves defense was so awful, basically gifting the Mets 3 extra runs in the first inning. But you don't win by having teams make mistakes against you. You win by capitalizing on those mistakes and Pelfrey was the one to make them pay.

I love Daniel Murphy, he's slowed down but he's still getting a hit per game pretty much and contributing whenever he's in there.

Happy Recap: Mets 7 Braves 3

2008-08-20T06:51:00.000-07:00

This may very well have been my last game at Shea Stadium and I thank Carlos Delgado for making it a victory.

Delgado had fallen back in his slump, lunging at pitches and tapping them to the rightside, so when he came up with the bases loaded and one out with the Mets down 1 run in the 8th inning, I just wanted him to avoid a double play. Delgado had been 1 for 10 with the bases loaded so far this season. But he crushed one to left field that was just a couple feet too low to be a grand slam.

After Tatis was walked to set up a doubleplay for Easley, both Easley and Castro came through with run-scoring hits to give the Mets a big lead, a key because they have been notoriously deficient at adding on runs to support a weak bullpen.

But Schoeneweis came in, threw strikes and got through the 9th inning with ease.

Plus the Mets even got a good inning, well a scoreless inning from Aaron Heilman, good enough to earn him his 3rd win to go with his 7 losses.

It was a rough game for Oliver Perez, he was walking guys, getting behind but I was encouraged that Manuel gave him the chance to get through the 7th inning, despite a high pitch count. After that great 6 start stretch where he had an ERA of 1.36, Perez has cooled down significantly. But unlike earlier in the season, his bad starts are a lot better, (4 runs in 6 innings, 3 runs in 6 2/3 and 3 runs and 6 1/3) and the Mets won 2 of those 3 "bad" games and 8 of his last 10 starts overall.

I'll take any game where Jose Reyes walks 3 times.

Before those 2 hits by Delgado and Easley the Mets had been in a 3 for 42 stretch with the bases loaded.

But they came through this time, for an unexpected comeback win, probably the last one I'll ever see at Shea.

Unhappy Recap: Pirates 5 Mets 2

2008-08-18T13:36:00.000-07:00

After a 6-game winning streak the Mets returned to their old formula of poor clutch hitting and worse relief pitching.

Let's start in the first inning where the Mets got 2nd and 3rd with nobody out and David Wright struck out, again. Beltran got a run in with an out (I don't complain about that) and Delgado left a runner stranded.

The Mets did get an unlucky break in the 3rd when Joe West ruled Argenis Reyes turned towards second. I guess he did by the strictest letter of the rule, but only much more egregious cases than that get called.

In the fourth it was once again 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Then Delgado hit a weak tapper to first (like he did every at bat for the first 3 months of the season) and after Tatis walked, Easley grounded into a doubleplay.

Easley also grounded into a doubleplay in the 7th, the 4th one he hit into in the past 2 games. He has 13 this season, more than anyone else on the team. He grounds into a double play once every 22 plate appearances, an almost impossible ratio.

Nick Evans led off the 6th with a double and after Wright flied out Beltran struck out (I guess he already reached his productive out quota for the game. And once again Delgado stranded a runner on third.

But he wasn't through, the most disappointing of all the disappointing innings came in the 8th when the Mets could have bounced back to take the lead, only to see Delgado make out again. And of course there's no way Endy should have been bunting on a 2-1 count to lead off that inning. He has no confidence in himself to reach base any other way.

And even though Jerry Manuel got ejected I still think it was his call to take out Maine after 5 innings. I know he had thrown 96 pitches, and gotten through a tough 5th (after a single on a pitchout) but when will they learn that the bullpen will ALWAYS blow these games. I'd rather lose by stretching the starter than asking the bullpen for four innings.

Almost immediately Brian Stokes blew the lead, but got through the inning, and then the 7th with help from Schoeneweis.

Here's where Alomar/Manuel made the biggest tactical error of the game. When Schoeneweis came in he should have double-switched in Jose Reyes and tried to stretch Schoeneweis. This is another huge problem with the Mets, it's as if they are trying to use every reliever in every game. They have so many guys, and they all suck, so when a guy comes in and gets 2 outs, stick with him.

They didn't, Feliciano gave up a hit and then Duaner Sanchez imploded. Something is definitely wrong with him as he nothing like the pitcher he was two years ago before the injury.

We can't complain about a 6-1 road trip except for the fact that it should have been an 8-game winning streak. It seems the only way the Mets can win is if the starters don't give up any runs, because the offense doesn't score enough and the bullpen blows every lead.

Happy Recap: Mets 4 Pirates 0

2008-08-17T13:49:00.000-07:00

Now that's the Johan Santana we've been waiting to see. Clearly his best performance as a Met. He's been very good, and today he was great. He's always been a second half pitcher, and he's starting to live up to that this season as well.

Through the end of June, he made 17 starts (half of what he'll probably get) and he was 7-7 with a 3.01 ERA, with 103 Ks in 113 2/3 innings.
Since then, in 9 starts, he's 4-0 with a 2.27 ERA. But his strikeout rate is down with only 45 in 63 1/3. Just a great performance by Santana, and he didn't make that same mistake (nor did Manuel let him) of pitching only 8 innings. This bullpen still needs their rest.

Brian Schneider is starting to hit. He had 2 homers through 100 games, and now he has 2 this week. Either he is getting motivated by Ramon Castro or the extra time off is helping him produce better.

Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez had some funny moments on this road trip. There was Keith complaining that the hotel bed hurt his back. Then Gary was explaining different kinds of pierogies, and Keith saying he would prefer cabbage. Gary said "eat that on a day when you're not working with me." And Keith replied "I save the black bean soup for you." To which Gary answered "you're a real gentleman."

Over the last 5 games, one time through the rotation with all 5 starters healthy, the Mets have allowed 0 runs in the first 6 innings of a game. There were 2 shutouts, and in the other games Perez allowed 3 in the 7th, and Pedro allowed 1. And the bullpen allowed 3 in Pedro's start and 1 in Pelfrey's start. So zero runs in 30 innings and 8 runs in 15 innings. The Mets still need to shore up their late game pitching.

But this is a very successful road trip. I said before it started that this 8 game stretch against these two awful teams needed to be no worse than 5-3, but 6-2 would be great. Now 6-2 is a minimum and if not for that collapse at home, they could be going for an 8-game winning streak.

Happy Recap: Mets 7 Pirates 4

2008-08-16T19:58:00.000-07:00

Once again the Mets bullpen had to make this one exciting. I guess this will end talk that Eddie Kunz should be the closer. I think this is the way Manuel has to do it, rely on matchups.

Another good start by Pedro Martinez, definitely his best of the year. In his last 6 starts Pedro is 2-1 with a 2.48 ERA, not allowing more than 3 runs in any of them. I think he is once again getting back to being a finesse pitcher, throwing more curveballs than fastballs.

The worst moment of the game for Pedro was when he almost got run down by Jose Reyes. Reyes homered in the first and tripled in the second, scoring both times. Right now Reyes has better numbers across the board in the average categories then he did in his breakout season of 2006. He won't do as well in the counting categories of runs and RBI because the team isn't as good. But after one bad month last season, the Mets really have nothing to worry about with him, he's awesome.

Of course, I have to mention Ramon Castro who seems to do something every time he plays.

I know these are bad teams the Mets are playing but winning 5 in a row is winning 5 in a row. The Mets are scoring first, pitching well and avoiding disasters by the bullpen.

Happy Recap: Mets 2 Pirates 1

2008-08-15T22:43:00.001-07:00

It's never easy, is it?

What a play by Argenis Reyes after Delgado whiffed on that ball in the 9th inning. With Aaron Heilman's weak mental state and fear of throwing strikes, he saved the game with that play.

The Mets also got another huge defensive play from Carlos Beltran, gunning down a Adam LaRoche at home to preserve the 2-0 lead in the 7th inning.

Good defense also helped Pelfrey in the second inning, and in the 6th it was his good play that nailed Nate McLouth at third.

Why do the Mets score so many runs in the first inning (Gary Cohen said second most in the league) and so few after that? We've seen them take an early lead so many times and fail to build on it, only to have the bullpen blow it.

That almost repeated itself here after Duaner Sanchez allowed a homer, but Pedro Feliciano came in close down the 8th.

And a gutsy move by Manuel to give Heilman one more chance as a closer, and this time he got it done. I still have no confidence in him but he can't blow every single game, even though it seems that way.

Happy Recap: Mets 9 Nationals 3

2008-08-15T04:51:00.001-07:00

Another laugher for the Mets, but this one wasn't quite as easy as it could have been.

Oliver Perez pitched really well, he just got in a little trouble he was one pitch away from getting out of, but couldn't quite do it. Amazing how quickly 0 runs in 7 innings can become 3 runs in 6 2/3.

In his first 12 starts Perez was 4-4 with a 5.70 ERA.
In his last 13 starts Perez is 5-3 with a 2.61 ERA.

His walks are way down to just above 3 per 9 innings during that recent stretch. I love what Perez has done and demand he be resigned.

And then there's Joe Smith. He came in to get Perez out of trouble (he's been good with inherited runners) but to start the 8th he refused to throw a strike and had to be pulled from the game.

Duaner Sanchez and Aaron Heilman both had good appearances, much needed.

Before I get to the offense, I want to make it clear that the Nationals suck. But the Mets still need to beat them. The Phillies play them the same number of times, so do the Marlins, so it's all equal. The Mets need to start pounding these inferior opponents. I had hoped for a 6-2 stretch against the Pirates and Nats, which seemed unlikely after Monday's meltdown but now seems possible again.

The way the Mets got on the board in the 4th made me so happy because they drove in runs with a groundout and a sacrifice fly. If the Mets were more effective at scoring runs with outs, they'd have 5 more wins this season.

I guess Brian Schneider likes playing against his old team. He has 2 homers against the Nationals, and 1 against everyone else.

The add-on runs were key, coming as they did from Murphy (now batting .441), Tatis and Easley. The last two runs came courtesy of terrible Washington defense.

Happy Recap: Mets 12 Nationals 0

2008-08-14T04:20:00.000-07:00

It's nice to take a breath and have an easy victory for a change.

Great job by Brian Stokes to give the rest of the bullpen a day off. Maybe he can stick around as a long man.

John Maine looked good through 5 innings and it was nice to be able to work him back in slowly and not worry about the bullpen blowing it.

The offense was just great, everyone deserves to be commended, but a lot of it probably had to do with bad pitching by Jason Bergmann who melted down in the third inning.

David Wright actually got a sacrifice fly in the first inning.

Daniel Murphy is awesome. There's always the doubt that he can keep this up (obviously he can't) but so far so good for this guy.

Ok the third inning was so awesome I have to run it down:
David Wright reached on infield single
Carlos Delgado walked
Carlos Beltran grounded out to first
Daniel Murphy singled to left, Wright scored
Fernando Tatis singled to left, Delgado scored
Brian Schneider walked
John Maine walked, Murphy scored
Jose Reyes singled to left, Tatis and Schneider scored
Argenis Reyes struck out
David Wright walked
Carlos Delgado walked, Maine scored
Carlos Beltran doubled to center, Reyes and Wright scored
Daniel Murphy lined out

Happy Recap: Mets 4 Nationals 3

2008-08-13T05:12:00.000-07:00

How's this for a change? Santana pitches less than spectacularly, but the offense bails him out and the bullpen saves the game for him.

It's not like Santana gave up 6 runs, but he still pitched much worse in this victory than he has in many of his no decisions, and even some of his losses. It's a real shame that it took him this long to get to double-digit wins.

The two Carloses came through with RBI hits -- both times with 2 outs -- to give the Mets two early leads. But Santana blew them both putting him in a tenuous position heading into the 8th.

After he allowed the tying home run to Ryan Langerhans the Mets built a big rally with two singles, a walk and a bases loaded hit batsman (sounds like an inning the Mets bullpen usually has)to score a run.

But with one out Daniel Murphy struck out with the bases loaded. Then Brian Schneider pinch hit for Santana, and also struck out. I don't have a problem removing Santana there because a hit is worth 2 runs and Schneider is much more likely to get a hit.

I love David Wright and I know he has a lot of RBI but I still feel he fails in a lot of key spots. With Reyes on third and one out in the 5th, Wright struck out.

Amazingly Joe Smith and Pedro Feliciano were able to get through the 8th and 9th without trouble and the Mets got themselves a much-needed win.

Unhappy Recap: Pirates 7 Mets 5

2008-08-12T00:49:00.000-07:00

Another unmitigated disaster as the Mets continue to try the same thing, expecting different results. These relief pitchers, in these roles, are not working. Something has to be done beyond crossing our fingers and hoping Aaron Heilman figures it out.

Aaron Heilman sucks. There's no surprise he's lost 7 games each of the past 2 years. He's terrible, especially in the clutch. He should be a mop-up guy and nothing more, ever.

Joe Smith faded at the end of last year and is fading again now. He can't get anyone out and they might need to demote him to make room for someone else.

Pedro Feliciano also sucks, but Manuel doesn't give him a chance, only giving him one batter at a time.

Their ERAs since the All-Star break, Heilman 11.66, Smith 12.91 and Feliciano 7.56. You can't win like that. The Mets need to try something different to get this bullpen, the most obvious of which would be making Eddie Kunz the closer and seeing how he does while Wagner is injured.

Pedro Martinez deserved better. He pitched really well but unfortunately he threw 99 pitches and obviously Jerry Manuel thought his bullpen could hold a 4-run lead, even though they've proven so many times they can't.

The offense produced 5 runs, which should have been enough, but it never is with this bullpen. Which is why the offense needs to pick up the slack and score even more runs.

In the fourth inning, Evans doubled and Wright and Beltran stranded him.
In the seventh, Wright go to third with one out and Tatis couldn't hit a sacrifice fly.
And in the eighth, Wright struck out with two men on.

This is just the latest example of why this team is going nowhere this season. Digusting.

Unhappy Recap: Marlins 8 Mets 2

2008-08-11T05:10:00.000-07:00

Not much to say about this one, except that Mike Pelfrey got killed. It's too early to get worried about him, but this is 2 out of 3 bad starts and he might be falling into some bad habits again.

Specifically, he gave up 3 straight 2 out hits in the 4th, and he could have gotten out of it by getting the 8th place hitter (I would have walked him to face the pitcher). And again in the 5th, after he got 2 outs he allowed a walk, a double, a hit by pitch and another walk before he got yanked.

The offense wasn't much to speak of, but Daniel Murphy got another hit, but his average fell to .478.

Happy Recap: Mets 8 Marlins 6

2008-08-09T19:40:00.000-07:00

After a 4-game losing streak the Mets fired back with a 3-game winning streak, thanks to a powerful performance by the offense.

It was key for the Mets to get off to that big start to give Brain Stokes some room to work. Carlos Beltran almost hit a homer in the first inning, but instead it was a 2-run double.

Then when he got up in the 7th SNY showed a stat that Beltran hadn't homered in 82 straight at bats. On the next pitch he homered.

Carlos Delgado also contributed a 2-run homer in the first to help pad the early lead. It was his 25th homer, one more than he had last year. And he will very likely get 15 more RBI to pass last year's total in that category as well.

In addition to pitching capably, Brian Stokes also got his first big league hit. The ball was thrown in so that it could be kept as a souvenir for Stokes. But Mike Jacobs threw the ball on top of the Mets dugout and the ball bounced to a kid. An usher immediately came over, and Carlos Delgado popped out of the dugout and offered the kid a different ball in exchange for Stokes's memento.

Daniel Murphy also got a milestone in this game, his first Major League home run. This kid is absolutely incredible. 10 for 20 so far in the big leagues. Plenty of guys in the history of baseball have come up and had starts like this and never turned into anything but for a franchise starved for good young players, Murphy's early play is a much needed revelation.

As was the relief appearance of Aaron Heilman. After Joe Smith laid the groundwork for another bullpen meltdown, Heilman came in for the save and pitched well. He did walk a batter but it was almost more encouraging that he didn't give up a home run with a man on base for a change.

Scott Schoeneweis was the one who really bailed out Smith, getting an inning-ending doubleplay. It was the second time this week the Mets got a key double in the 8th inning to preserve a lead.

Happy Recap: Mets 3 Marlins 0

2008-08-09T04:39:00.000-07:00

What a game by Oliver Perez. Considering a lot of people wanted to dump him from the rotation earlier this season, his turnaround is nothing short of amazing. The Mets absolutely have to resign him in the offseason and a guy pitching this well, this young, could definitely get a 5-year, $70 million contract. I think once he got out of that trouble in the second inning, he relaxed and got ahead of hitters. And when he pitches that way he is damn near unhittable. I think it was wise for Manuel to stick with him for that extra inning even though his pitch count was high. I don't believe in pushing guys over 100 consistently, but in this case it was warranted.

Who was that guy wearing Aaron Heilman's jersey? Whoever it was retired 6 straight batters and struck out 3. I thought Manuel did the right thing by giving him two innings. First of all, he was going well, so you stick with the hot guy. Also, you give the rest of the bullpen the night off, which will be key with a rookie starting the next game.

In the span of 4 at bats for the Mets, David Wright hit 2 2-run homers.

And I think with Perez especially it's key to get him a lead early because all the starters probably feel if they don't pitch a shutout, and leave with a 4-run lead, the bullpen will blow it. Getting that early lead took some of the edge off.

Carlos Delgado also had a solo homer. He has slowed down a little, but hasn't fallen into that huge slump he was in for 3 months. The Mets need him to be a consistent performer.

Daniel Murphy is awesome. What a start to a major league career.

This was a big victory because the Mets need to take this series and will have trouble winning with Brian Stokes on the mound.

Happy Recap: Mets 5 Padres 3

2008-08-08T05:18:00.000-07:00

Nothing is ever easy with this team, unless to subscribe to the "all's well that ends well" theory of life.

An exciting game and an exciting moment for David Wright, his first ever walk off home run, but the bullpen's inability to hold a lead is going to doom this team at some point.

Pity poor Johan Santana. I've beat home the point this season that he's the best pitcher in the league, and the highest-paid, and with a bullpen so bad he needs to pitch better and longer, but this is just getting ridiculous.

This was the sixth time in 24 starts this season that the bullpen cost Santana a potential win. Five of those collapses came in the ninth inning. He has eight no-decisions, and in seven of those he allowed two runs or fewer. If he wins 5 of those games he's among the leaders in wins.

What an incredible game-saving double play by Argenis Reyes and Nick Evans.

Unhappy Recap: Padres 4 Mets 2

2008-08-07T04:24:00.000-07:00

Another tough loss where the Mets did everything wrong.

They couldn't get a key hit, they made a key error and the bullpen gave up an add-on run making a comeback impossible.

And their starting pitcher dug them an early hole by giving up 2 more home runs. Other than that Pedro was pretty good but I don't understand why he is allowing so many homers this season. He's now allowed 13 homers in 56 innings (roughly 1 in 4) which is absolutely atrocious.

David Wright did not get fooled by the spin on that ball. He took his eye off the ball.

Carlos Beltran is in a terrible slump and he is killing the team right now. It's the same thing we had most of the season with Delgado. A free out in the middle of the lineup, especially when runners are on base.

You can't kill Eddie Kunz for allowing a run but he's going to fight right in with the rest of the Mets bullpen.

Once again the Mets need Santana to pitch a great game to avoid losing a series to the one of the worst teams in the league.

Happy Recap: Mets 6 Padres 5

2008-08-06T04:59:00.000-07:00

This sure doesn't feel like a happy recap. But maybe there is a bright side (in addition to winning), the Aaron Heilman as closer experiment ended before it started, and without costing the team a single victory.

Obviously Aaron Heilman sucks and there's nothing that's going to fix him. He's allowed runs in four of his last five outings and been the losing pitcher in four of his last seven. He did have a string of 10 scoreless appearances in late June, so he can be effective but right now he's just awful. He's allowed 9 homers in 60 innings but I agree with Jerry Manuel that his big problem last night was the leadoff walk. He had to have known that with a 4-run deficit the first batter would be taking a strike. Yet he didn't throw a fastball and got himself in a hole.

I know there were other things affecting him, the dropped popup, the missed double play (though Wright was right to take his time) but he gave up the walk, and the home run, and it falls on him.

But thanks to two other players, the Mets won this game. Mike Pelfrey bounced back from a rough outing with another good performance. He did give up a lot of hits, but always managed to avoid major trouble. That's the key to his growth as a pitcher, being able to work out of jams instead of imploding during them.

And of course there's Fernando Tatis. What amazes me is people still want to get another corner outfielder. How could we get someone better than him? The guy has been absolutely incredible, shows almost no signs of slowing down and almost every home run he hits comes in a key spot.

He has 9 homers this season, let's look at the situations:
5/23 vs. Colorado: 6th inning, Mets leading 3-2, solo homer to make it 4-2, but Mets later lost.
7/6 vs. Philadelphia: 12th inning, tied 2-2, 2-run homer gives Mets 4-2 win in the game Billy Wagner blew.
7/8 vs. San Francisco: 8th inning, Mets leading 6-0, solo homer made it 7-0.
7/10 vs. San Francisco: 7th inning, tied 3-3, 2-run homer gives Mets 5-3 lead, they win 7-3.
7/17 vs. Cincinnati: 6th inning, Mets losing 5-4, 2-run homer gives Mets 6-5 lead, they win 10-8 but not before blowing lead and reclaiming it.
7/26 vs. St. Louis: 9th inning, Mets losing 8-7, solo homer tied the game and sent it to extra innings, where the Mets lost.
7/27 vs. St. Louis: 6th inning, Mets winning 3-0, 2-run homer gave Mets 5-0 lead in game they'd win 9-1.
8/5 vs. San Diego: 4th inning, Mets losing 1-0, solo homer ties game.
8/5 vs. San Diego: 6th inning, Mets losing 2-1, 3-run homer gives Mets 4-2 lead in game they'd win 6-5.

Only one of his homers came before the 6th inning. 4 of his homers gave the Mets the lead, 2 tied games, and 2 were in games they were winning. 2 of them were absolutely huge in addition to some other huge hits he's had. Of all the problems this team has, Fernando Tatis is last on the list. I love Fernando-mania.

Unhappy Recap: Astros 4 Mets 0

2008-08-03T21:05:00.000-07:00

If you needed any more evidence that this is not the team that won 10 games in a row earlier this month, this game was it.

This time it was the offense's turn to shit the bed with some of the worst clutch hitting I've ever seen.

First inning: Beltran singles but gets caught stealing.
Third inning: Robinson Cancel gets caught stealing third with two outs and David Wright up. Why he was running I have no idea.
Fourth inning: Bases loaded and one out for Evans and Cancel and they both strike out. At this point, it's only 1-0 so almost any contact by Evans would tie the game.
Fifth inning: With two on, David Wright hit it hard, but right at the second basemen. Tatis flied out with the bases loaded.

So in five innings the Mets had 6 hits, 3 walks and a hit batsman and didn't score.

And I think this is starting to have an effect on the starting pitchers. They know that if they don't leave the game with at least a 4 run lead the bullpen will blow it. And I think in this game Perez knew if he gave up more than one run he was going to lose. That doesn't explain the four straight 2-out hits but you really can't blame a guy who has been as good as he has been and gotten almost no support.

Bright spots: Nick Evans threw two runners out at second base.
Eddie Kunz made his Major League debut and got out of the inning unscathed, though it wasn't easy.

The Mets got out-homered 6 to 1 in this series. Brandon Backe and Mark Loretta each hit 1 homer, same as the whole Mets team. And Kaz Matsui hit two.

The Mets broke a streak of 7 straight wins on Sunday.

Randy Wolf owns the Mets. He's beaten the Mets in his last 4 starts against them, which he's made for 4 different teams (Phillies, Dodgers, Padres and Astros).

Unhappy Recap: Astros 5 Mets 4

2008-08-02T16:52:00.000-07:00

The disasters never cease with this horrible bullpen. This is now the 5th time since the All-Star break that the bullpen allowed 4 runs or more in a game.

Billy Wagner sucks. I don't want to hear anything about the fact that his ERA is only 2.30. He has 7 blown saves already. That's bad for a hole season, but he's gonna blow 10 games this year. That's awful. Every time you lose a game that you lead going into the 9th it's also a huge mental blow.

That play that tied the score was crazy. Two runners crossing home plate at the saem time. The last time we saw that LoDuca turned 2 in the playoffs against the Dodgers. This time it didn't work out so well. Tough play for Castro but I think if he holds on at least one of the guys is called out.

This game unfolded in a very similar fashion to a lot of Santana's starts this year. He pitches well but he either gives up a couple runs or doesn't go deep enough. What's happening to him in terms of this tough luck isn't his fault, but he deserves some blame. The Mets bullpen is so bad they need him to pitch a complete game every time. It's not a question of if with this bullpen. In fact, it's not even a question. If this pen has to pitch 2 innings or more, they'll blow it at least 50% of the time.

The Mets offense did enough to win this game, but went into a slumber after the third inning. Once again failing to get that one big hit that makes the difference between winning and losing.

An impressive Major League debut by Daniel Murphy. He singled and scored in his first at bat, then made an incredible catch in left field, right in front of that scoreboard, and fired the ball into second for a double play.

And this is what Keith Hernandez had to say about their pregame introduction:

"I introduced myself to him before he took his swings in the batting cage, and he turned around and said 'Oh, Seinfeld.' I know I'm getting old."

Hernandez also compared the fenced in bullpens in Houston to a concentration camp before quickly correcting himself, "prison camp! Prison camp."

Unhappy Recap: Astros 7 Mets 3

2008-08-01T19:50:00.001-07:00

This is the game that proves the Mets did the right thing by not making any trades at the deadline. This team is a .500 team. Take out that 10-game winning streak and they're actually below .500. They have a hot offense but they still can't get a hit in the clutch. They have a horrible bullpen and they have 3 good starters and 2 huge question marks in the rotation.

It is inexcusable how this team constantly leaves runners on base. Bases loaded and no one out and they don't score? In the 7th inning of a tie game. And it happens all the time with this team. As I've been saying that's the biggest reason this team isn't going anywhere, they can't hit in key spots with men on base. For two weeks they were hitting, not they're back to this mess. It's sickening to watch.

But now as sickening as watching this awful bullpen. This is the fourth time in 10 games that the bullpen has allowed 4 runs or more. This time it was Heilman, but they've all been guilty, except Wagner on this recent stretch.

And Pedro sucked again, but was actually better than he's been. He only allowed solo homers this time. He allows about 2 homers every 9 innings so far this year. If he stayed healthy for a full year he'd allow more than 40.

Unhappy Recap: Marlins 7 Mets 5

2008-08-01T05:05:00.001-07:00

So Mike Pelfrey finally had a bad game. I'm hoping it's just an anomaly but I'm a little worried because he had several chances with 2 outs to get out of the inning and couldn't extricate himself from the situation. That was a problem that plauged him earlier in the year and hopefully it won't start again.

I'm angrier at Joe Smith for allowing that home run to Dan Uggla. I think the Mets have actually lost more games because the bullpen blew close games wide open, then they did because the bullpen blew leads.

Damion Easley sure hits a lot of big home runs, doesn't he?

Happy Recap: Mets 4 Marlins 1

2008-07-30T02:27:00.001-07:00

Oliver Perez ends his July the same way he started it, by being awesome. In five starts this month he allowed only 5 runs for a 1.38 ERA, but thanks to some anemic offense he only went 1-1. But if you throw in his late June start against the Yankees he's been awesome for six straight starts.

In this game though he didn't really have his best stuff and was behind a lot of hitters but somehow found a way to avoid trouble.

Carlos Delgado is ridiculous. Another home run, this time coming in a key spot to give the bullpen some breathing room. I have nothing else to say on the matter because I've exhauster all original thoughts I have on the guy. His recent success is mind-blowing.

But how does he even consider bunting there? He can't bunt and he's been hot as a pistol. Plus a sacrifice bunt in that situation doesn't work. We've seen it so many times this year, bunting a guy to second with no outs is a bad percentage play. With Endy Chavez, with a pitcher but especially with Carlos Delgado. Thankfully, he didn't get it down.

I don't have a major problem with Jose Reyes's play in the first inning, because I want him to be aggressive, but there are several reasons he should have stayed on second with a double. First of all, the ball was hit to left field, making the throw much shorter. Second, he was the first batter of the game. If you should never make the first out of an inning at third base, it should go double in the first inning. But there's no guarantee that the Mets would have gotten a bigger inning if he stops at second.

It was nice to see Carlos Beltran get the tie-breaking hit because he's been struggling so much with runners in scoring position and 2 outs. He's now hitting .156 in those situations on the year.

Delgado also deserves credit for working out a walk that pushed Evans to second putting him in position to score on Beltran's single.

And of course Aaron Heilman's 2 scoreless innings were a welcome salve for a troubled bullpen.

Unhappy Recap: Marlins 7 Mets 3

2008-07-29T02:47:00.000-07:00

An old problem is popping back up and threatening the good feelings that have surrounded the Mets this month. The Mets are 4-3 in the last 7 games and in all 3 losses the bullpen imploded, blowing a lead and allowing at least 4 runs in an inning each time. If they don't figure out something (and I'm not advocating a trade) the bullpen will surely combust at the wrong time and cost the Mets a playoff spot for the second year in a row.

John Maine's health is now another worry. He hasn't been great lately but the Mets can't afford to lose him, especially while we don't know what kind of performance Pedro will provide when he comes back. Maine says he'll be ok but clearly Dan Warthen noticed something in his delivery and the next pitch after their meeting was hit for a home run.

Fernando Tatis drove in 2 more runs.

David Wright scored a run for the 12th straight game, tying a Mets record.

Happy Recap: Mets 9 Cardinals 1

2008-07-28T05:40:00.000-07:00

That was the Johan Santana Mets fans wanted and needed all season. He was magnificent, and he went the distance. Although with an 8-run lead, as opposed to a 3-run lead, it might not have been so bad to give him an inning off. But I'm not complaining, nor were the Mets fans at the game who gave Santana quite an ovation.

That catch by Beltran was incredible. That was seriously one of the best home run-robbing catches I have ever seen because he reached way past the wall, not just over it. And it almost slipped out of his glove from the impact but somehow he managed to hold on. I think it was definitely better than Endy’s catch in the 2006 NLCS though not nearly as important because of the situation.

Another home run for Ramon Castro, it's becoming quite commonplace these days. Castro is 9 for 22 with 4 homers and 9 RBI in his last 5 starts. And those 5 starts have come over 15 games, why is he only playing a third of the time. He should be playing two-third of the games, at least. If his stats were extrapolated over a full sesaon he'd be one of the top 5 catchers in the majors. Even if he experienced a significant dropoff in his numbers, he'd still be top 10. His .903 OPS is second on the team, behind David Wright.

Right before Castro's 2-run homer was a 2-run homer by Fernando Tatis. Tatis is also having an excellent season and in addition to judging him purely on his numbers it should be noted how many of his hits have come in crucial situations.

I think the problem fans (and management) have with Tatis and Castro is there's a feeling that they will slow down eventually if they play everyday or for too long a stretch. Even if that were true, why not ride them while they're hot and figure out a backup plan later.

This was a nice bounceback game after a tough loss the night before. Santana went the distance to save the bullpen and with 3 more homers the Mets are continuing to bash the ball.

Unhappy Recap: Cardinals 10 Mets 8

2008-07-28T05:09:00.000-07:00

The starting pitching was bad, the relief pitchers allowed 4 runs in one inning and eventually lost the game and the Mets couldn't get a hit with runners in scoring position. This game had all the trappings of an early-season frustration, but there was actually a lot to get excited about here.

Brandon Knight didn't pitch well. But I think nerves were clearly a major factor in the first inning which was compounded by the highly unusual occurrence of Endy Chavez misplaying a flyball. After that Knight settled down and pitched four good innings.

The key to the Mets comeback was getting 2 runs right back in the bottom of the first. The key was Endy Chavez's triple which was the only hit with runners in scoring position in the entire game. After that the Mets went 15 at bats without a hit.

Obviously, another huge game for Carlos Delgado. I think the key to his recent success is that he is laying off bad pitches early in the count. That allows him to get ahead and focus on getting his pitch. Both his homers were hit off pitches down, but in the strike zone. In the 8th, he struck out with a man on second and two outs, in the 10th he grounded into a double play with first and second and one out and in those at bats Cardinals pitchers started to hammer him in, then got him to chase away.

How awesome is Fernando Tatis? Nothing this guy does amazes me anymore. He has gotten so many huge hits and I really thought his homer to tie this one in the 9th would lead to a Mets victory.

But my favorite development of this game was that the pitchers were leaning over the dugout rail with their caps inside out. Something has materially changed about this team and I love it. They're having fun, they're playing better and they think they can win every game, no matter how far behind they are. There is a definite link between the emergence of this new attitude and the team's newfound success, this game notwithstanding.

I don't blame Aaron Heilman for the loss, stretching him for a third inning was an unfortunate consequence of some circumstances from earlier in the game. Also, I'm glad he lost on a home run to Pujols instead of a walk and a bleeder by pitching around hitters.

Losses happens but the attitude they showed in this game is going to lead to a lot more wins.

Happy Recap: Mets 7 Cardinals 2

2008-07-25T18:50:00.000-07:00

This team is back on a roll, great starting pitching, timely hitting and it just seems like they're going to win every night.

Let's start with the great Mike Pelfrey. He's won his last 7 decisions. The Mets won the last 9 games he started. His ERA is 2.12 in the 7 starts he's made since Dan Warthen became the pitching coach. I just can't express how impressed I am with the sudden turnaround he's made this season. And the fact that it coincides with a similar drastic improvement made by Perez, it seems Warthen is definitely having an impact on those two.

Another monster home run by Carlos Delgado. I'm not quite sure how he's doing it but he's definitely changed his approach. Not sure if it's confidence, or laying off the inside pitch, or the slider away but he's doing something different and he's awesome.

Another huge hit with a couple RBI for Jose Reyes.

Argenis Reyes hits his first major league home run, and everyone in the dugout gives him the cold shoulder. Awesome. I love this kid by the way, and wish Luis Castillo would never come back.

What is wrong with Duaner Sanchez. At least this time Manuel yanked him and Feliciano and Heilman cleaned it up for him before it became another blown lead.

Happy Recap: Mets 3 Phillies 1

2008-07-25T02:39:00.000-07:00

Now would be a good time for me to praise Carlos Delgado. For most of the last year I've killed Delgado and said he was washed up. But somehow, some way, Delgado has turned it around and is absolutely killing the ball. And he rescued the Mets from another heartbreaking potential loss to the Phillies. With a double...to left field.

One guy I was right about the whole time though, is Oliver Perez. People were talking about demoting him to the bullpen and I always advocated that he wasn't as bad as he seemed and that his problems were mental, and therefore, potentially fixable. I'm not sure what Dan Warthen did, but it worked. In his last 5 starts, his ERA is 1.04. And he is only 1-1 over that span because of a lack of run support. In the last 4 starts, the Mets have scored only 6 runs while he was in the game.

And one more player who has caught a lot of shit in the papers and from the fans is Billy Wagner. For the second day in a row he mowed down the Phillies for a key save, this one put the Mets in first place.

Now the Mets just need to avoid a letdown against the lesser lights like the Cardinals, but especially the Astros, Padres, Marlins, Nationals and Pirates.

The Mets have won all four series against the Phillies this year for a record of 9-4 against them so far.

Happy Recap: Mets 6 Phillies 3

2008-07-24T03:45:00.000-07:00

Nice to see the Mets bounce back after a horrible loss. But they've taken so many losses like that this year and last I guess they are used to it.

Good performance by John Maine, throwing strikes, keeping his pitch count down and going deep into the game.

And Mets fans have never been so happy to see Billy Wagner. With all the talk about how he does in big games this was a crucial one, and he nailed it down, 1-2-3.

Huge home run by Jose Reyes, reminds me of back in 2006 when he was in the middle of every big rally, often getting a big hit. His stats this season are remarkably similar to back in 2006, except for RBI.

Two hits from Brian Schneider, maybe a couple days off did him some good. Or maybe a couple home runs by Ramon Castro scared him.

Unhappy Recap: Phillies 8 Mets 6

2008-07-22T23:58:00.000-07:00

Another heartbreaking loss in a long line of devastating defeats that came at the hands of the Phillies.

That winning streak means nothing now, the team still cannot win the big game, and when the chips are down, they always make the key mistake to blow it.

As much as Mets fans are afraid of Billy Wagner but the bullpen doesn't look very good without him. An absolutely horrible implosion, mostly by Duaner Sanchez and Pedro Feliciano.

Jose Reyes made a bad play (as he often does by trying to be too aggressive) and I know he needed to make the smart play and get the sure out, but it wouldn't have mattered. The tying run was on second anyway, and I don't think an out there would have changed all that much.

What could have changed this game would have been to leave in Johan Santana. He was finally pitched like we needed him to, and against a big opponent, and without Billy Wagner it should have been a no-brainer to at least give him a chance in the 9th. Manuel has to start realizing that the bullpen is terrible and he has to push the starters further than he'd like.

But it wasn't Santana's fault, he pitched great.

And it wasn't even Endy Chavez's fault. I have no problem with him getting thrown out in the third inning, that was a good, aggressive play. But he should not have tried to score in the 7th because he had to hold up to see if Utley would make the play. And with no one out he should have stayed on third, but he got waved home by Luis Aguayo. I think Chavez also got some bad coaching as he was playing too shallow on So Taguchi's ball and might have been able to catch it if he had been playing deeper.

Also not to blame is Carlos Delgado who has been absolutely perfect lately. He is batting .403 with 5 homers and 14 RBI in July. His 1.213 OPS for the month pushed his season's OPS up to a respectable .818.

And Ramon Castro blasting another home run was also overshadowed by another disastrous meltdown in a crucial game.

Happy Recap: Mets 7 Reds 5

2008-07-21T03:48:00.000-07:00

A crucial win in a game the Mets absolutely had to have. They couldn't afford to go into a crucial series with the Phillies off a 3-game losing streak. And it looked like that's what would happen as Mike Pelfrey struggled and blew leads.

Pelfrey has been so awesome that he deserves a pass for one bad game but I was shocked and dismayed that he allowed 3 homers in this game, after allowing only 4 through the first half of the season.

Jose Reyes was great in this game reaching base 4 times and scoring 3 runs.

Also awesome was Carlos Delgado who has been on fire lately, and has even been hitting in clutch situations.

The Mets did get a huge break though when Edwin Encarnacion's throwing error brought home the winning run in the 10th.

But none of it would have mattered without Robinson Cancel whose double was the key hit to start the winning rally.

Another home run for Ramon Castro. In his last 28 at bats (starting July 1), Castro has 10 hits, 2 homers and 8 RBI. In his last 28 at bats (starting July 6), Schneider has 4 hits 0 homers and 3 RBI. I know everyone thinks Castro will slow down, or get hurt, but he needs to play more. He can't possibly be worse than Schneider.

Great relief pitching in this one as Sanchez pitched two hitless innings and Wagner struck out the side in the 10th for the save.

Unhappy Recap: Reds 7 Mets 2

2008-07-21T02:09:00.000-07:00

This game was a throwback to the Mets from May and June. Starting pitching was decent but Perez gave back every run he got. The offense put on tons of base runners, but couldn't get the big hit. Then the bullpen busted it wide open.

Even though they ended up losing by 5 runs I think the Mets could have won this by converting on just a few of the following plays:

3rd inning: Carlos Beltran misplayed Ken Griffey's double, allowing Josh Fogg to score from first.

5th inning: With Perez on second Reyes hit a hard ground ball that was snagged by Brandon Phillips on a great play. Perez probably would have scored if it had gone through. Still with one out the Mets should have gotten a run, but Endy Chavez hit into a double play.

6th inning: Damion Easley grounded into a double play with first and second then Fernando Tatis struck out with two men on.

6th inning: Edwin Encarnacion advances to second on a passed ball that should have been a wild pitch. He scored on a two out single and probably would have been stranded if not for that passed ball.

7th inning: This of course was the most obvious inning. First of all, don't blame Nick Evans for not scoring on Argenis Reyes's single, he had to hold up to make sure that ball fell in. David Wright has to hit a sacrifice fly in this situation and he didn't even get the bat off his shoulder, it looked like he was trying to work out a walk. Then Carlos Beltran struck out too and this game was over.

If the Mets can't get back to doing the little things that win games they're going to get back to being a .500 team, or worse.

Unhappy Recap: Reds 5 Mets 2

2008-07-20T20:11:00.001-07:00

Momentum is only as good as the next day's starting pitcher and John Maine was awful again. He continues to have bad control, he throws too many pitches, works too many deep counts and is unable to put guys away with 2 strikes. He's been awful 4 straight times now (14 ER in 19 innings) but was the beneficiary of some good luck and the Mets got two wins in his starts during the winning streak. The Mets need him to start pitching better right away.

All that said, sometimes things happen, which is why every team wins 50 and loses 50. 10-game winning streaks wouldn't be so rare if there wasn't a little luck involved. Though Maine made his own bed with 2 walks and a hit batsman (twice forcing in a run with the bases loaded) he also got unlucky as Wright got fancy on an infield chop (he had time to field it normally and step on third) and then a bloop hit to rightfield. But Maine made his own bad luck and those breaks had been going the Mets way for so long they were bound to turn around.

As I've said numerous times the big failing at the beginning of the season, and the biggest reason (bigger than the starting pitching) for the recent resurgence has been timely hitting, and the Mets didn't get any last night. There's no need to panic or point fingers, it's the nature of the game. But I really thought the Mets could make a comeback after Beltran's leadoff triple in the 7th, but Easley struck out and Tatis grounded into a double play. But both of those guys have been excellent so I have no complaints with them, it's just the way the game goes sometimes.

Happy Recap: Mets 10 Reds 8

2008-07-18T04:02:00.000-07:00

I normally don't believe in momentum in sports because the idea that things will keep going one way, simply because they've been going that way, don't really apply, especially from game to game.

But I do believe in confidence, and early this season the Mets seemed like they were defeated any time they fell behind. Now it seems like they know they are going to win.

Obviously this was a great comeback started by Argenis Reyes, continued by David Wright, huge home run, pushed over the top by Carlos Delgado and punctuated by Fernando Tatis.

If it were not for Heilman and Schoeneweis blowing the lead, I'd be talking about another huge home run by Fernando Tatis that gave the Mets the late lead.

Delgado also had a big home run to give the Mets the early lead, something that has been key to the recent winning streak.

But then Johan Santana went out and blew it by allowing 5 in the 4th. I'm going to panic about Santana because he deserved to get bailed out, but it seems to continue his trend of pitching just well enough to lose.

And I'm not going to panic about Aaron Heilman either. I knew the bullpen had to allow a run eventually.

This was a huge win for the Mets and I can't wait to see how long this winning streak continues.

Happy Recap: Mets 7 Rockies 0

2008-07-15T22:34:00.001-07:00

Mike Pelfrey is now 6-0 with a 2.26 ERA over his last 9 starts. That's an incredible run for a guy who some people had been writing off at the beginning of this season. And if you remember, he pitched the last game of the Willie Randolph Rick Peterson era, pitching poorly but getting the win. In 5 starts since then he is 5-0 with a 1.38 ERA. Even though it seemed he was pitching better before that point, I have to think Dan Warthen has at least a little something to do with that.

The Mets have allowed only 4 runs over the past 6 games, and the 7 hits let up in this game was actually a disappointment.

And the offense once again contributing their fair share as well as an early 3-run homer by Beltran pretty much sealed the deal.

Carlos Delgado also contributed another home run, his 17th, to tie Wright for the team lead.

Hopefully the Mets can continue this in the second half.

Happy Recap: Mets 3 Rockies 0

2008-07-12T19:47:00.000-07:00

This is getting ridiculous now. The bullpen has now pitched 18 1/3 innings without giving up a run. That's about 17 1/3 innings more than we normally expect.

Mets pitchers have allowed 4 runs and 13 hits in the last 5 games. That's incredible. 3 hits 4 games in a row followed by a 1-hitter (the 33rd in franchise history).

I guess there might be a little worry about Pedro because he says he hurt his surgically repaired shoulder (though he says it happened because of his injured groin) which could land him back on the disabled list, but things are going too well right now to even worry about it.

Fernando Tatis got another key RBI when his easy grounder pushed through a drawn in infield after Beltran stole third base. That steal was key in setting up the run.

Reyes homered and the Mets tacked on another and that was more than enough to continue this incredible winning streak.

Happy Recap: Mets 2 Giants 1

2008-07-12T04:57:00.000-07:00

Another day, another big home run by a bench player, and the Mets now have a 7 game winning streak, their longest since 2006.

Damion Easley is batting .422 in his last 13 games, while filling in for Castillo, including this huge game-winning home run in the 8th.

I guess those people who wanted to put Oliver Perez in the bullpen can stop complaining about him now. I knew the Mets should have resigned him then when his value was low. But hopefully he can keep this up and earn himself a big contract from the Mets in the offseason. Even Ollie haters among Mets fans would love to see him pitch well enough to get paid millions in the offseason.

I also don't want to hear anymore complaints about poor tough luck Santana. In Perez's last 3 starts he has given up 2 runs in 20 innings (0.90 ERA), and he has 1 win to show for it. In fact over his last 7 starts he has 5 games in which he allowed 1 run or fewer, and he has only 2 wins in those 5 starts. Every starter is the victim of lack of run support at times, especially those who pitch for the Mets.

The bullpen continued its hot pitching, tossing 3 more scoreless innings, but it wasn't so easy this time. Aaron Heilman struck out Tavares and Barmes to strand the bases loaded in the 7th, then Pedro Feliciano came on to get out of a bases loaded jam in the 8th. Billy Wagner cut through the Rockies for the save and the Mets are on a roll!

Happy Recap: Mets 7 Giants 3

2008-07-12T04:35:00.000-07:00

Fernando Tatis comes up with another huge to hit to keep the Mets incredible run going.

I absolutely love this guy. There seems to be some kind of intangible about him that he is able to deliver when the Mets need him most.

Obviously his late home run was huge but his early double was also a key to victory. On this current streak the Mets have been able to take early leads and hold onto them, their formula for success back in 2006.

John Maine has now replaced Oliver Perez as the most frustrating pitcher on the Mets. He continues to throw way too many pitches, which forced him out of this game in the 5th inning. But even when he pitches well his pitch count seems to go too high too soon. He had 3-2 counts on 9 batters in this game, including the first four.

The bullpen was excellent in holding the Giants scoreless for 4 1/3 innings, especially a day after the pen contributed 4 perfect innings.

Now that Alou is out for the season I think he needs to stick with Tatis in left until his bat either slows down or his glove starts to hurt them (which I don't think will happen). Endy Chavez should play right and bat second while Church is hurt.

Happy Recap: Mets 5 Giants 0

2008-07-10T01:03:00.000-07:00

A 5-game winning streak. 2 straight shutouts. And finally a win for Johan Santana.

He only went 5 innings but that was enough to get him off the schneid and enough for him to show off some really good stuff.

For some reason Manuel elected not to bring him back after the rain delay.

And speaking of the rain, why were the announcers freaking out about the rain delay and if it would be an official game or not. It was never predicted to be a massive storm, they knew the game would be completed. Yet for some reason the announcers acted as if Randy Winn killed the President when he swung at the first pitch. Maybe he thought Santana would throw a fat pitch and if he hit it he could get his team back in the game for after the rain delay.

And of course I thrilled to be able to write that the great Ramon Castro came through with a big 3-run homer to give the Mets an early lead. I love Castro and whenever he plays he seems to contribute to a victory. I love the fact that Jerry Manuel is getting him into more games.

Happy Recap: Mets 7 Giants 0

2008-07-09T00:45:00.000-07:00

What a game by Mike Pelfrey. I'm so impressed with him lately but I want to point out what impressed me much. So much went wrong for him in the first inning (Easley's error, bad no-call by the umpire when Lewis ran out of the baseline on what should have been called a doubleplay, hitting Molina with an 0-2 pitch) but he didn't get rattled. He kept throwing his pitches and got out of the inning with no runs.

His ERA is now below 4, his record is above .500 and I'm sure his confidence is at an all-time high.

In his last 8 starts (a significant stretch amounting to about a quarter of the season), he is 5-0 with a 2.62 ERA.

He's getting more groundball outs, more strikeouts, fewer walks, everything about Pelfrey has been wonderful.

He has given up only one home run in his last 12 starts (78 1/3 innings), and only 4 all season.

And the offense is pounding the ball as well racking up another huge night with 14 more hits.

Carlos Beltran hit an early 3-run homer which I think was huge because when the Mets were struggling it seemed if they got down early they felt like they would lose. Now if they get an early lead, they feel like they are going to keep adding on, and hold on to it (as evidenced by the 10-9 win, they did hold on). That attitude reminds me of the 2006 team.

There have been false starts for this team before but this is now the longest winning streak since April, and there are many underlying reasons to be encouraged.

Other offensive stars in this game included Jose Reyes (now batting above .300), Damion Easley (continues his hitting streak in lieu of Castillo), Carlos Delgado (16 homers, on pace for 30) and Fernando Tatis (his third homer).

Weird statistical note: The first 7 players in the Giants lineup (excluding Omar Vizquel) are all batting between .279 and .299. Pretty decent batting averages for a team that is 14th in the league in runs scored. Their team batting average is actually 6th in the NL but they are 13th in OPS because they have only 57 homers, last in the league. Three teams have more than twice that many.

Happy Recap: Mets 10 Phillies 9

2008-07-08T03:27:00.000-07:00

"They win the damn thing by a score of 10 to 9."

In a blog that pays daily tribute to the memory of Bob Murphy you knew I had to break that one out for this game. This meltdown was actually more subtle than the one in 1990 when Murphy made that comment.

As bad as this game seemed, I really think we should focus on the positive.

The Mets won, they took 3 of 4 from the Phillies, in Philadelphia, after losing the opener, a game in which Johan Santana pitched against J.A. Happ.

The offense is really pounding the ball, they have 48 hits in the last 3 games.

Endy Chavez had 3 more hits. The reaction to him is so funny. When he's playing everyday and doing poorly everyone says "he's exposed," but when he's playing everyday and doing well everyone says "he's in the groove because he's playing everyday." The truth is, he's a decent player who would probably be a weak outfielder if he were an everyday starter. But when he starts only in short spurts he has hot streaks and slumps, just like any other player. But the fact is, he's a near perfect number 2 hitter for this team (he lacks a little patience at the plate) and a Gold Glove caliber outfielder. He's started 8 of the last 9 games and is 16 for 37 (.432) over that span.

Damion Easley is also filling in remarkably well for Castillo, but I expect him to slow down because he is old. With his 3 hits in this one, he is now 14 out of 30 (.467) in 7 starts in July.

David Wright had another good game, bringing him to 70 RBI and Jose Reyes reached base and got things started.

And Pedro Martinez gave his second best effort of the season, looking a lot better in doing so. And dropped his ERA below 7.

But when he started to peter out in the 6th, that's when the trouble started.

Tony Armas allowed 3 runs, the last 2 on a disputed home run by Ryan Howard. It should have been called a double. The obnoxious Phillies fan had his arms so far over the wall it was at least possible the ball wouldn't have gone out. In which case it has to be called a ground rule double. At the time it seemed meaningless, but it loomed large later.

Heilman got out of that inning but allowed 2 more runs of his own.

Then came Billy Wagner. All you can judge a closer on is saves and blown saves. And he got the job done here. So while I am still very worried about him down the stretch in crucial games, he got the save here, and for a closer that's all that matters.

And for a team too. If they had held on to the 10-1 lead or if they eked out a 10-9 victory, it counts the same in the standings.

And right now the standings are looking pretty good for the Mets. They're over .500 for the first time in more than a month. They're only 2 losses behind the Phillies and they've possibly exorcised some of last season's demons by beating the Phillies 7 of 10 times so far this season.

A win is a win and the Mets needed one, and got one.

Happy Recap: Mets 4 Phillies 2

2008-07-07T03:58:00.000-07:00

There is no such thing as a coincidence.

It's not an accident that Billy Wagner keeps blowing saves in crucial situations.

Nor is it a surprise that Fernando Tatis keeps coming through in those big spots.

I can't say enough about how much I love Tatis and his knack for getting that game-winning hit.

Nor can I say how much I despise Billy Wagner for his inability to nail down a game when the Mets need it most. This is now his 6th blown save of the season. I don't care about his 2.31 ERA, that's way too many blown games.

The Mets are now 9-9 in Oliver Perez's starts, the exact same record as they have when Johan Santana starts. That doesn't mean Perez is as good as Santana, but it does show that the Mets are a .500 team, and has bad as Perez has been, he's not killing them. It also demonstrates that when he's on, he's awesome. They just need to figure out how to get him to be on in 75% of his starts, instead of 50%.

In fact Perez seems to only get up for the big games. This year in 3 starts over 18 1/3 innings against the Phillies he has yet to allow an earned run. Against the Yankees over the last 2 years, Perez is 4-0 with a 1.52 ERA and only 7 walks compared to 23 strikeouts. If only he could pitch like that against the bad teams too.

In addition to Perez, perhaps the other most maligned Met was key to yesterday's victory. Carlos Beltran's homer was the only run in the first 8 innings, and his 2 out single in the 9th drove home Reyes with a key insurance run, after David Wright struck out.

Excellent job by Joe Smith in 2 roles he is unfamiliar with, long reliever and closer.

Endy Chavez made another incredible catch. He really could be a gold glover if he hit well enough to play everyday.

An absolutely huge victory but if form holds, this is a .500 team so they will lose the next game, making it their third straight split of a 4-game series. Pedro Martinez has been awful but the Mets need him to come up big to help give them a leg up on the Phillies.

Happy Recap: Mets 9 Phillies 4

2008-07-07T02:55:00.000-07:00

This was an important win for two reasons. Obviously it was crucial because of the heart-breaking defeat in the first game of the series. But also because of the way this one unfolded. Ever since last year the Phillies have dominated the Mets in terms of bullpen performance. During any game that was close late the Phillies bullpen would shut down the Mets offense, until the Mets bullpen gave it up. The opposite happened here.

Maine actually pitched better than his 3 runs in 5 2/3 innings line would indicate. The only hit he allowed was a homer to Ryan Howard, but it happened to come after a hit by pitch and a walk.

I love Ryan Church batting second, but I think unfortunately they need him to bat 5th.

I also like the fact that Manuel isn't afraid to use his backup catcher as a pinch hitter. Sure it's a risk, but a remote one, and his gamble already paid off as Schneider delivered a big hit. I hope he continues this because Castro is one of his best righthanded bats off the bench.

Damion Easley has been doing a great job during Castillo's absence. He's 10 for 21 with 6 RBI in 5 games during July.

Two injuries put somewhat of a damper on this one, but Maine's problem was in his left arm and shouldn't force him to miss a start, and Church says his migraines are something he's had since his youth (it runs in his family) and not related to that pesky brain injury.

Unhappy Recap: Phillies 3 Mets 2

2008-07-07T01:01:00.001-07:00

The devastating losses keep coming for Johan Santana.

The Mets are now 9-9 when he starts, and they haven't won a game he started since June 1. Even though he has a 2.48 ERA over 6 winless starts since then. The Mets scored a total of 12 runs in those 6 games.

But even though this stretch is not Santana's fault, he's not quite blameless in all of this.

He had a 2 run lead, with 2 out and 2 on in the 6th, and he allowed 2 straight hits, to Howard and Burrell to tie the game.

But of course there are others much more culpable in this loss than Santana.

Starting with David Wright who popped out with Reyes on third and 1 out in the first inning.

Then there's Carlos Beltran who struck out after Wright in the first, then struck out again with the bases loaded and 2 outs in the 6th. He is batting .133 (6 for 45) with runners in scoring position and 2 outs.

And of course there's Duaner Sanchez who in this game filled the familiar role of "reliever who blows the game" by allowing 2 out hits to Feliz and Victorino to lose the game.

Happy Recap: Mets 11 Cardinals 1

2008-07-03T20:28:00.000-07:00

This is the kind of game that's a fan's delight.

The Mets got some breaks early and took advantage of them and starting pounding the ball.

The first inning was a mess. The Mets got three runs on 2 walks, 2 infield hits and an error.

The third started with a little more luck but ended with a single by Pelfrey, a bases loaded triple by Reyes and a double by Chavez.

Then Delgado crushed a meaningless homer (his specialty).

But you can't ignore how great Mike Pelfrey has been. The Mets won the last 5 times he started, and 6 out of his last 7. And the 7th was one of those 2-1 games against the Padres, and he allowed only a run in 6 innings.

The only problem with this game is that David Wright may have gotten hurt.

Unhappy Recap: Cardinals 8 Mets 7

2008-07-02T20:56:00.000-07:00

Another atrocious start by Pedro Martinez. No one has the right to expect him to be the Pedro of old, but this guy is horrible right now. He is getting bombed pretty consistently every time out. If his name were Jose Lima or Claudio Vargas he would have been released by now.

Carlos Beltran did have a big hit but he continues to frustrate me with his inability to get home runners from third with fewer than 2 outs. I cannot understand why it is so hard for the Mets to hit sacrifice flies.

And of course with this horrible bullpen a 2-run lead is not nearly enough.

Pedro Feliciano has been absolutely awful lately, even though his stats don't necessarily reflect that.

The Mets offense battled back from 4-0 and 5-4 deficits but this offense has only so many bullets in their gun.

And that's what makes this loss so heart breaking, because we've been waiting all season for this team to battle back from a deficit, and they finally did, and took the lead, and the bullpen blew it.

Just another example of why this team can't get a foothold and break free above .500.

Happy Recap: Mets 7 Cardinals 4

2008-07-02T12:44:00.000-07:00

A good bounceback performance with the offense working. But good hitting has to come more than 50% of the time.

I hope Jerry Manuel will see that Ramon Castro needs to play more often. He doesn't stay healthy enough to play everyday but for right now I see no reason why he doesn't start against every lefty and even some righties. I know he hit into a key double play against the Yankees but he also had a home run against them, and now two key hits in this game.

Also a big night for David Wright who appears to be breaking out of that little slump he was in.

And a good night for Ryan Church as well. Nice to see him back in the lineup and hitting well again. The Mets really missed his bat while he was injured.

Not a great performance from Tony Armas but certainly passable. Right now the Mets don't need another starter but Pedro will probably end up back on the DL at some point and Armas at least earned himself another chance. Or maybe a role in the bullpen as a setup man.

Unhappy Recap: Cardinals 7 Mets 1

2008-07-02T07:08:00.000-07:00

John Maine was awful in this one but it wouldn't have mattered since the Mets couldn't score any runs of Kyle Lohse.

The defense didn't help him much either as Wright's error led to a run, but at least he was trying to make a play. When Castillo let a grounder go right through his legs for a run it was embarrassing. There was nothing difficult or challenging about that grounder, he just didn't bend, or didn't keep his eye on it.

This is the third time the Mets got blown out in one week. It was 11-0 to the Mariners, then 9-0 to the Yankees, now 7-1.

Maybe that proves the theory that when they get down they don't fight back.

Happy Recap: Mets 3 Yankees 1

2008-06-29T20:47:00.000-07:00

The Mets saved a little faced and took the Subway Series 2008 in this one, thanks to good Ollie.

This guy is so frustrating to Mets fans because we know he has this in him. It would be unfair to expect this performance every time, but why not two-thirds of the time, instead of just half the time?

Perez always seems to bring his A game against the Yankees, improving to 5-1 lifetime against them.

He really was dominant in this one, setting down the first 10 guys in a row and never losing his composure, even though he had chances to.

His first show of strength was in the 4th inning when Jeter singled and went to second on a wild pitch. A-Rod fouled off several good pitches before Perez finally struck him out.

Then in the 7th Betemit homered, and Reyes made an error, but Perez buckled down and got the last out.

I know people are making a big deal out of Reyes's error but I think he was only mad at himself.

Why did Manuel bring in Tatis for defense at first base and not Phillips.

That was a monster shot by Delgado.

Nice to have Ryan Church back.

Luis Castillo sucks. His numbers are so misleading. He always tries to bunt in the first inning which is a bad play, but when Reyes got to second, which makes it a good play, or at least a better one, he tried to swing away and struck out. And his RBI hit only drove in one run because he can't get the ball out of the infield.

Huge save by Billy Wagner.

Unhappy Recap: Yankees 3 Mets 2

2008-06-29T20:39:00.000-07:00

Another disappointing loss for Santana.

I know it is not all his fault because the team never scores any runs for him, but they really need him to be better. He always pitches just well enough to lose.

It's not the hitters' fault that he walked the first two guys in the 4th inning. I know you can't expect the guy to be perfect but he is not blameless in his recent losing streak. He is 0-4 over a 5 start span, despite having a 2.53 ERA during that stretch. But the grand slam to Felix Hernandez isn't counted there, but it was certainly Santana's fault.

That said, the Mets offense is putrid at times, especially for Santana. They scored 27 runs in the last 6 games (4.5 per game) but 23 of those were in 2 games.

They can't get the big hit to drive runners home, or even the out to get them over.

What was Reyes doing getting picked off second base? An idiotic play to be sure, but it did not cost the Mets the game as some have said. Wright still would have needed a hit in that situation.

Unhappy Recap: Yankees 9 Mets 0

2008-06-28T12:22:00.000-07:00

Man does Pedro suck. We've been waiting three years for him to come back and be a good pitcher and he is absolutely awful.

But this is what a .500 team is like. Score 15 runs in the first game of a doubleheader, get shutout in the second game.

Combined score in the two games, Yankees 15 Mets 15.

We keep trying to deny it and holding onto hope but facts are facts, this is a .500 team.

But the Mets did have their chances early in this one but left the bases loaded in the second and third innings. The first time it was bases loaded and no outs.

Although it wouldn't have mattered if Pedro pitched the way he did. He allowed 11 base runners in 5 2/3 and the 6 runs allowed ballooned his ERA up to 7.12 in 30 1/3 innings overall.

He's had one good game, one decent game and four horrible games. Yet everyone praises Pedro and thinks he's great but those same people want to send Oliver Perez to the bullpen even though he has a 1 to 1 good to horrible start ratio.

The Mets need more out of Pedro.

Happy Recap: Mets 15 Yankees 6

2008-06-27T20:16:00.000-07:00

Wow, what an offensive explosion.

Obviously the big story here is Carlos Delgado setting a Mets record with 9 RBI in one game. The first 2 came on a double which was key because it broke a 4-4 tie. The rest were just gravy. Tasty gravy, but just gravy.

The other player I malign frequently in this space also had a huge game. 5 runs scored for Luis Castillo.

I was a little disappointed with Pelfrey because he blew a 1-0 lead and then a 3-1 lead. And I wish he could have gone more than 5 innings in a game they led by so much, especially because it was the first game of a double header.

But there was little not to like about this game as the Mets pounded the Yankees into oblivion and completed the sweep of the series at Yankee Stadium.

Happy Recap: Mets 8 Mariners 2

2008-06-26T19:22:00.000-07:00

The Mets really needed this one. But I'm still not going to get too excited. This has been their MO all season, win a few lose a few. That's what a .500 team does.

It was nice to see David Wright break out of his slump with two huge home runs. But I promise you there is no possible way there can be such a direct correlation between his day off and his 2-homer day.

There were a couple discouraging signs in this game however.

After exploding for 8 runs in 3 innings they didn't even get a single base runner off the Mariners' bullpen in the last 5 innings.

Also, once again John Maine threw way too many pitches in 6 innings (102) and had to come out of the game. Heilman, Smith and Sanchez all had to come in, which is unfortunate because it would have been nice to give them 2 days off before the big doubleheader against the Yankees.

Unhappy Recap: Mariners 11 Mets 0

2008-06-24T19:52:00.000-07:00

If you're going to lose you might as well lose in spectacular fashion.

A quick word on Oliver Perez even though I've said it before. When he's bad he's horrible and your team has no chance of winning. When he's good, he's great. The Mets are 7-9 in games he's started, which isn't terrible on a .500 team. And he's admittedly having a very bad year. The Mets should definitely sign him for next year and should probably do it now while his value is low. I think a lot of his problems are mental and maybe they can be fixed or at least improved.

A lot of attention is focused on Perez and Santana losing these two games, but the offense has scored exactly two runs. The lack of hitting is the major reason why this team is so bad.

The Mets are now 3-4 in the Manuel era, not yet enough to prove that the manager wasn't the problem, but it's a pretty good indication.

And Mets fans are so glad so happy that we have a manager with fire. So he got himself thrown out of the game. Big deal.

The umpire was way out of line, and I have no problem with the way Manuel handled it, but don't think him getting ejected is going to light a fire under this dead team.

Unhappy Recap: Mariners 5 Mets 2

2008-06-24T05:17:00.000-07:00

This team just cannot seem to build any momentum. With each loss like this it becomes quite clear they are a .500 team no matter who is managing.

The Mets have lost Santana's last 4 starts, even though his ERA is 2.08 over that span. He got better support in Minnesota. Overall the Mets are 9-7 in his starts.

And I know it was Wright's fault for booting the ball with 2 outs. But how can Santana groove one to the pitcher for a grand slam? An American League pitcher no less. First grand slam by an AL pitcher in 38 years.

The offense of course is mostly to blame, because they couldn't get any hits, except for Reyes and Beltran.

David Wright is in a brutal slump right now. He's fallen below Reyes and Beltran in OPS.

When the Mets started to get something going, Carlos Delgado came up. I don't know how he ever gets a hit. It seems when pitchers commit to pounding him inside with fastballs, they get him out 100% of the time.

The play at home with Felix Hernandez was unfortunate. But it was his fault. He's supposed to keep his feet behind the plate, receive the ball and swipe the tag. His legs were in harm's way and he gave Beltran no room to slide. I hope he's not out too long.

Happy Recap: Mets 3 Rockies 1

2008-06-23T06:55:00.000-07:00

I think we are witnessing the maturation of Mike Pelfrey. Over his last 5 starts he has a 2.76 ERA. He is made 14 starts this year, he's allowed 2 runs or fewer in 8 of them. That's a very strong ratio. Of the 7 starts when his ERA for that start is 3.00 or lower he is only 3-1 taking one very tough luck loss and 3 tough no decisions.

The bullpen pitched great on this road trip, allowing only 2 earned runs in 18 1/3innings. And those two runs came in the last 2 games and didn't really affect the outcome. Now the bullpen sunk Willie Randolph by blowing four games in a row. Is this recent stretch just the natural reversal of fortune, poorly timed (for Willie Randolph) or is it indicative of some kind of change in philosophy or attitude by Jerry Manuel that is helping them perform better? I hope Manuel's presence is the impetus for the improvement but I think it may only be temporary.

Jose Reyes led off the game with a triple for the second day in a row, that's always fun.

Carlos Beltran blasted a 2-run homer (he is really starting to come around).

And that was all the Mets need to cap a very successful, if tumultuous road trip.

Unhappy Recap: Rockies 7 Mets 1

2008-06-22T10:04:00.000-07:00

It seems like we've been waiting for three years for Pedro to come back from injury. And now he finally is back, and he's terrible. I don't want to hear that he had four good innings, he got bombed. No one expects him to be anywhere near as good as the old Pedro but he needs to be as good as Maine and Perez to be a solid 4th starter. And right now he's not even as good as Pelfrey.

The Mets got a run off Ubaldo Jimenez in the first on a Reyes triple, then nothing. Literally nothing. The next hit didn't come until the 8th inning. And Jimenez was 1-7 coming into this game.

At least for once the pitching and hitting sucked in the same game, usually it's one or the other. But the bullpen pitched decently well, 3 2/3 with only one run allowed.

Now the Mets put themselves in the unfortunate position of having to win the rubber game in order to take series and make this a winning road trip. If they lose they will continue to be what they've always been, a .500 team.

Happy Recap: Mets 7 Rockies 2

2008-06-20T20:55:00.000-07:00

I was worried about John Maine after the first inning homer but he settled down and Jerry Manuel gave him tons of chances to keep working through trouble. And when he finally took him out he brought in Smith for one out, and I think he would have left Smith in for the 8th if his spot in the batting order hadn't come up.

The key to this game was Delgado's homer in the first. The Mets are a very weak psychological team right now, they can go either way, and the fact that they got right on the board after going down 2-0 was another key factor.

The Mets need more innings like the 2nd, when everyone keeps getting hits.

Monster home run by Trot Nixon.

Brian Schneider's base running was interesting in this one. First he scored from second on a single by Chavez with a perfect slide, getting his hand in just before the tag. That's a play Alomar never would have sent him on.

But then, when the Mets has bases loaded and no outs in the 7th, Reyes dumped one into right field but for some reason Schneider was bag at the bag, trying to tag up. And he got thrown out at third. I've never seen that before. It was scored as a fielder's choice meaning Reyes didn't get credited with a hit.

The Mets defense was awesome tonight as Endy Chavez, as per his usual, made an incredible running catch with a man on. Trot Nixon made a nice sliding catch to strand two runners in that same inning.

The Mets are back at .500 and need to keep it going with Pedro on the mound.

Great defense
Brian Schneider's base running.

Happy Recap: Mets 5 Angels 4

2008-06-19T05:40:00.000-07:00

If this is the Jerry Manuel era, I'm very happy to see it.

If you didn't think the manager made a difference, now you know better.

Maybe you can't attribute the Mets comeback off the best closer in baseball, solely to Manuel, but that kind of thing never seemed to happen under Willie Randolph.

If you don't want to give that to Manuel, there are a few things you can credit him with.

First off, a more aggressive Reyes. Maybe Manuel gave him a good chewing-out after the tantrum the night before, because he ran out a popup, but he also got three hits and scored three runs.

The key was Reyes running in the first inning, Randolph always seemed to have him standing on second and waiting for a sacrifice bunt. This time he ran, drew a throw, forced an error and scored on an out.

The second big strategical difference was in the handling of Oliver Perez. He stuck with him through that tough inning when Randolph and even I would have pulled him out.

He did get a little lucky to get a fluke 5-2-4-6-5 double play to get out of it when Hunter seemingly forgot how many outs there were.

But he extended Perez for another inning after that. So Manuel did limit the innings by his bullpen but he also got 4 scoreless innings from 4 different relievers, something very uncommon in the Randolph era.

Hopefully, he instilled a little something in Perez which will help him get out of jams in the future.

The fact is the Mets got lucky at several points to win this game, including the wild pitch that put Reyes at second. But luck is the residue of design and the Mets got key hits (wright single, Easley homer) and got the key outs that kept them in the game longer enough to secure one of their biggest wins of the season.

Unhappy Recap: Angels 6 Mets 1

2008-06-18T04:16:00.000-07:00

The Jerry Manuel era looks a lot like the Willie Randolph era so far.

Bad hitting, bad starting pitching, and a new wrinkle, horrible defense. The bullpen actually wasn't all that bad though. Heilman pitched a good inning and Vargas only allowed one unearned, which could have been a lot worse.

This was probably Santana's worst start as a Met and it was disappointing for several reasons. First, they needed a win to get this manager change behind them. Second, they got a run in the first which is always key, but Santana allowed 3 in the bottom of the inning and that was that. Lastly, the runs scored with 2 outs, meaning he was one good pitch away from getting out of trouble.

But the biggest thing that happened was the injury to Jose Reyes and his subsequent temper tantrum. Why did Manuel take him out of the game if he said he wasn't hurt? Was he trying to flex his muscle and show Reyes who's the boss now? Reyes was 100% right to be pissed off about it. It was a stupid thing to do. I would have preferred he showed the new manager a little more respect (because of the way it's going to be perceived by outsiders), but he was absolutely justified in being angry about it.

Two interesting plays in the bottom of the 8th. With runners on first and second, Tatis fielded a groundball and elected not to tag the runner who was right in front of him. Instead he threw the ball to second, low, and Castillo dropped it and nearly broke his wrist. The next play, Easley was interfered with while trying to field a ball, and Matthews was called out.

I thought SNY did a good job of talking about the firing without killing the Mets. They didn't gloss over the poor timing of it, but they didn't hammer away on it. They explained some key differences between what we can expect from Manuel compared to Randolph.

Ron also did a job explaining differences in philosophy between Warthen and Peterson.

Finally Fired

2008-06-17T11:31:00.001-07:00

The Mets finally fired Willie Randolph. And along with him they got rid of Rick Peterson and Tom Nieto.
Jerry Manuel will serve as interim manager and Ken Oberkfell, Dan Warthen and Luis Aguayo were named as new coaches.
Oberkfell was the manager of New Orleans, the Mets Triple A affiliate. He'll be the new bench coach. Warthen was the pitching coach for New Orleans, he'll replace Peterson.

Ok, so now that that's out of the way, here are my thoughts:
First of all, Willie was not being evaluated on a day to day basis so the fact that the Mets won the last two games, and three of four has nothing to do with it. It makes the timing a little weird is all. But he was fired because of a huge collapse, followed by half a season of mediocrity. Does anyone think the Mets suddenly turned it around in the last few games? No, they just happened to win a few, because they're a .500 team, not a .000 team.

The best time to make the move would have been last Monday, on an off-day, after a devastating sweep. I have no idea why they waited. Maybe a different manager could have squeezed out an extra victory on the homestand with better bullpen management, but I doubt it.

I really have almost no hopes that these changes will lead to a sudden and drastic turnaround. The problems with this team are on the field, the players are the ones who have to improve.

That makes Willie an unfortunate fall guy, hut I'm glad he's gone.

I'm glad Willie is gone because he's so stubborn and refuses to make any major changes that might help the team. "Keep battling" is not a plan for improvement, it's the definition of insanity.

I also think he is a bad strategical manager, especially when it comes to using the bullpen. He is also not aggressive enough with base runners, and too often plays for one run with the sacrifice bunt at inopportune times.

To repeat, I'm glad they made this move, I think it's unlikely to start a drastic turnaround but it had to be done because there were no other ways available to make a major change to this team.

Happy Recap: Mets 9 Angels 6

2008-06-17T05:19:00.000-07:00

The last game of the Willie Randolph era.

And as it turns out, he actually managed the bullpen properly, but almost got burned anyway.

He let Pelfrey go as long as he could, then left him in for one more batter. Too bad he couldn't get an out, forcing Willie to go to Feliciano, who of course promptly allowed the inherited runners to score and bringing the go-ahead run to the plate.

Fortunately Aaron Heilman, yes, Aaron Heilman, saved the day with two strikeouts. The strikeout of Guerrero was very impressive,

Withe the up and down nature of the bullpen lately I would have stuck with Heilman in the 8th but thankfully Duaner Sanchez had his good stuff.

I think Wagner might have gotten a little lucky to get out of the inning that way, he was really starting to struggle.

Carlos Beltran is starting to get hot. He's hitting homers and driving in runs. If he can keep that up I think that will help get Wright off the schneid.

Jose Reyes contributed two runs by himself, or what Howie Rose calls Reyes runs.

The first was walk (he's on pace for 70 which is pretty good), move up on groundout, steal third and score on throwing error.

The second Reyes run was a thing of beauty. He singled and took a wide turn to draw the throw behind him. When the throw came Reyes took off for second. Then Randolph had Castillo sacrifice (a smart time to use the sacrifice) and Wright drove him home for an important insurance run.

It's small things like that which make Reyes so much fun to watch.

Although Pelfrey didn't pitch great, I'm glad he got the win. He deserved it after pitching to tough luck in several recent outings. I think it was his first major league win ever on regular rest.

Happy Recap: Mets 4 Rangers 2

2008-06-17T04:59:00.000-07:00

At least the Mets salvaged one game from the doubleheader and got the win in the series but with the hole they're in they need to start sweeping series, not just winning them.

Pedro pitched very well for 6 innings. Willie had to take him out when he did though. As nervous as the bullpen makes me you have to pinch hit with the bases loaded and 2 outs in a time game.

Luckily Robinson Cancel came through, the third big hit by a bench player in the doubleheader.

It was nice to see Billy Wagner bounce back with a save. Especially a strong 1-2-3 inning with 2 strikeouts.

Unhappy Recap: Rangers 8 Mets 7

2008-06-16T14:38:00.000-07:00

When is Willie Randolph going to learn that he has to leave the starters in when they are in trouble. The bullpen blows it way too often for him to rely on them. The Mets actually had a chance in this game until 5 runs scored on the bullpen's watch. He has to let the starters go deeper or this is going to keep happening.

Another thing Willie has to do is let Reyes steal more. He was on in the first and 5th to lead off the inning and he didn't even try to steal.

I'm not going to make the leap that the Mets would have won if the bullpen could have cut off a few more runs, because everything else would have changed. The Rangers pitched much differently because they had a 6-run lead. There's no guarantee the Mets would have scored 7 runs if the Rangers only had 6.

That said I was impressed by 2 great rallies they put together in the 8th and 9th. The only problem was two rally-killing double plays. The first one was totally Sandy Alomar Sr's fault. He should have sent Schneider on Tatis's single. The Rangers probably wouldn't have even let the ball go through because it would have put the tying run on second base if Schneider scored. Also, worst case scenario Schneider gets thrown out, the Mets still have 2nd and 3rd. Instead Alomar held him, but had him tag on a shallow fly ball by Reyes and he was out by 10 feet killing a rally.

In the 9th, 5 of the first 6 batters to come up reached base, the only one who didn't was the awful Carlos Delgado who grounded into a crushing double play.

Getting big hits in this game were: Fernando Tatis, Ramon Castro and Carlos Beltran.

Delgado did have a homer and another run-scoring single.

Just like Oliver Perez, the Mets are 7-7 in games started by John Maine. The only difference is when Maine loses, he gives up 3 or 4 runs, and when he wins it's 1 or 2. As oppoesd to Perez who pitches shutouts or gets bombed. Either way, the Mets win about half the times those pitchers start. They are 2 and 3 in this rotation, so this is where the Mets need to make up wins in order to improve from below .500.

Happy Recap: Mets 7 Rangers 1

2008-06-13T22:19:00.000-07:00

A game to stop the bleeding.

Oliver Perez was excellent after the home run to Josh Hamilton in the first inning. I think Willie learned his lesson and let Perez stick around for the 7th.

This was the third straight game in which the starter pitched 7 innings or more, threw 100 pitches or more and gave up one run or fewer. Except this time Perez got the win.

It was his first win since that gem against the Yankees on May 18. He followed that up with 3 stinkers in a row but has come back with two straight good starts. He's had 14 starts, 7 good and 7 bad. The Mets are 6-8 in his starts winning 1 of the bad ones but losing two of the good ones.

The Mets took advantage of Reyes getting on base twice, once Beltran drove him in with a 2 out hit, then Wright drove him in with a sacrifice fly, two things the Mets could use more of.

Following up on a point I made about last night's game, 3 times this season the Mets sacrificed Reyes to second in the 8th inning or later, he hasn't scored in any of those situations. He needs to try to steal in those late game situations.

Schoeneweis and Sanchez finished the game out. Why couldn't they have allowed 5 runs in this game instead of in the other ones?

Unhappy Recap: Diamondbacks 5 Mets 4

2008-06-13T05:16:00.000-07:00

The season is over, this team is through.

I've never seen a worse bullpen.

Two games in row they get great starting pitching, some early runs and a huge blown lead. They're lucky to have won one of those games.

There's really not much else to analyze other than the pitching but I'll say a few more things.

Santana was awesome, exactly the pitcher we wanted when we traded for him and needed to get us back on the winning ways.

Ramon Castro is awesome, I wish he could stay healthy and show up on time.

David Wright is in a horrible slump.

Willie Randolph from now on has to let his starting pitchers pitch until their arms fall off. If he wants to win he has to forget pitch counts and let these guys go as long as they can. He cannot trust anyone in this bullpen.

Now that the season is over Billy Wagner will start saving games again. And when he gets hot, they should dump him to a contender for a good prospect. I'm sure someone would take him, but who needs a closer when your team sucks, especially one who blows every fuckin important game.

Two things in defense of Wagner. First, the umpire was squeezing him. But the same thing happened on Sunday. The umpires made bad calls so he just threw the ball right down the middle on the next pitch. Second, Willie hung him out to dry twice so far this season when he made a comment, and was 100% right, and Willie made him apologize. I doubt that has anything to do with his performance but it's a real example of how Willie has mismanaged this team.

Why did Willie leave Joe Smith in so long, but is so quick to take out his starters who are doing well. Forget the lefty-righty bullshit when a relief pitcher is doing poorly, yank him.

Also, Willie has to stop bunting so much. When Reyes got on to lead off the 9th he needed to have him steal second and let Chavez swing away. A guy on second with one out is not a great position. You still need a hit, might as well let Reyes steal and Chavez swing. Or if Reyes steals second, then you bunt Endy.

I know the Mets got really unlucky in this game on umpire's calls and Diamondbacks defense, but that's no excuse for blowing every single lead.

In the last 4 games the Mets bullpen has allowed 17 earned runs in 15 innings. That doesn't include an inherited runner charged to Pelfrey and does include 4 good innings after the blown lead in Pelfrey's game.

That is just beyond horrendous.

This team sucks.