For Mets Fans, Putz Lives Up to His Name

Five Run Eighth Inning Dooms Mets in Pittsburgh

The Mets got off to a good start Monday. Jeremy Reed led off with a double in the top of the second. Wilson Valdez followed with a RBI triple. Brian Schneider followed with a single, knocking in Valdez to make it 2 – 0.

The Mets continued the onslaught against Pirates starter Ian Snell in the top of the third. Fernando Martinez walked to lead off the inning, stole second, and then advanced to third on a throwing error by Jason Jamarillo. Daniel Murphy followed with a walk, and then Gary Sheffield grounded into a fielder’s choice making it 3 – 0. Snell got David Wright to fly out for the first out of the inning, but he then gave up another double to Reed. That’s when Valdez struck again, doubling to deep right to make it 5 – 0.

Livan Hernandez, meanwhile, was coming off his best start of the year, a complete game victory against the Washington Nationals. When he put up zeroes in each of the first three innings, it seemed the Mets were well on their way to victory. Then, he ran into trouble in the bottom of the fourth. After striking out Nate McLouth to begin the inning, he gave up a double and a walk. Throughout the inning, he kept missing the strike zone by the smallest of margins, and it seemed like that took him off his game. After the walk, he gave up a 2-RBI triple followed by an RBI groundout that made it 5 – 3. This was followed by a deep hard-hit fly ball that was snagged just a small distance from the fence. After that, things calmed down. Ian Snell recovered after giving up five early runs to throw six solid innings. Meanwhile, Hernandez recovered and made it five-plus innings without any further damage.

In the bottom of the sixth, Pittsburgh threatened and forced Hernandez out of the game. Bobby Parnell came in with runners on first and second and two outs. After a single off Parnell’s glove, the bases were loaded, but Parnell struck out Ramon Vazquez to end the inning. The score was still 5 – 3, and after Pedro Feliciano set down the Pirates 1-2-3 in the seventh, it seemed like the Mets superb bullpen once again had things under control.

But in the top of the eighth, Feliciano gave up a double and a groundout before Manuel lifted him in favor of J.J. Putz. Putz has looked shaky on the mound of late, and on Monday night, he was simply horrendous. Putz faced five batters. He gave up four hits and one walk on just 12 pitches. More importantly, he gave up four runs (three earned) and the runner he inheirited from Feliciano without recording an out. By the end of the inning, the Pirates led 8 – 5. The Mets mustered a small rally in the ninth, but nothing came of it, and in the end the Pirates has dealt the Mets one of their most devastating defeats of the season. And with the Phillies victory later in the evening, the Pirates had pushed the Mets one and a half games back in the NL East standings.

The bullpen, other than Putz, was fairly good. Parnell got out of the bases-loaded jam. Feliciano delivered a solid performance, just giving up that one double to get things started in the bottom of the eighth. Brian Stokes replaced Putz fairly successfully. But Putz’s struggles were enough to derail the entire team.

The offense was good early, but was shut out from the fourth inning on. This failure to tack on runs ended up costing the Mets. On an individual level, Jeremy Reed and Wilson Valdez had fine offensive games. Reed doubled twice, and Valdez doubled, tripled, and knocked in three runs. Valdez did make a big error in the field, but it was an understandable one, a simple error on the transfer, trying to get the ball out of his glove.

The loss is a tough one, but the Mets hope to regain their winning ways tomorrow with Johan Santana on the mound. The game begins at 7:05 Eastern time.

The Mets Lose A Laugher

Part of the magic of baseball, or perhaps of any great sport, is that anything can happen. No two games are the same. The only thing one can expect is the unexpected. And so it was Monday night, as the Mets made mind-boggling error after mind-boggling error in their 11-inning loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Mets starter Tim Redding, just called up from triple-AAA Buffalo, got off to a bad start Monday night as he gave up two runs in the bottom of the first.

The Mets, however, would get one of those runs back in the top of the second on a Ramon Martinez RBI groundout, driving in David Wright, who had doubled to lead off the inning. Meanwhile, Redding found a groove, and ended up going six innings, giving up just the two runs on two hits and four walks.

Yet, for the first several innings of the ballgame, Dodgers starter Randy Wolf stymied what had once seemed a potent Mets offense. In fact, the Mets were still down 2 – 1 when Angel Pagan led off the top of the eighth with a double to deep left field. After Luis Castillo and Carlos Beltran failed to plate the runner, Gary Sheffield hit a little squibber that somehow managed to find the outfield grass, and even more miracously, allowed Pagan to score the game-tying run.

But this was not the Mets night out in the field. The Mets had already made one error (a Martinez fielding error) as the game headed into the later innings. Then, things really started to go sour. In the eighth, Martinez made a throwing error that nearly cost the Mets a run. In the ninth, Sean Green made a horrible throw to first on a ground ball, that put Jean Pierre on third and nearly let him score.

But it wasn’t until the 11th when the mental errors really began to kill the Mets. In the top of the 11th, it appeared that the Mets had taken the lead when Ryan Church singled to left, and Angel Pagan then hit a ball into deep right field. Church came in to score. But wait, he didn’t score because he had never touched third base. The Dodgers touched third base. Three outs. Inning over. Still a tie game.

Then, in the bottom of the 11th, Brian Stokes made his only real mistake of the ball game, walking Mark Loretta to lead off the inning. Then, the next batter, Xavier Paul, hit a ball to left-center field that should’ve been caught but wasn’t due to poor communication between left-fielder Angel Pagan and center-fielder Carlos Beltran. After an intentional walk, the Mets brought the infield and outfield in, literally bringing Carlos Beltran in to play short center field.

Stokes managed to record the first out of the inning on a short fly ball, and then got Orlando Hudson to hit a sharp grounder to first that should’ve at least led to a force out at home if not an inning-ending double play, except Jeremy Reed in trying to get the out at home, threw the ball past the catcher. Ball game over. The Dodgers win, or more accurately, the Mets lose.

It was almost laughable. Church forgetting to touch third. And then, five fielding errors, each one sillier than the last. Most were rookie mistakes. Ramon Martinez, who made two errors, is just up from the minors. Angel Pagan, in left field, also just got back to the majors, and was probably too nervous to hear Beltran calling him off. And then Jeremy Reed, not used to playing first base, got too caught up in the situation, too caught up in trying to make that spectacular double play, and ended up throwing the entire game away.

On the bright side, the bullpen was brilliant for the Mets. Bobby Parnell pitched a scoreless seventh, J.J. Putz worked around Martinez’s second error and a James Loney single to pitch a scoreless eighth. Sean Green was shaky, but managed to overcome his own error and general wildness to pitch a scoreless ninth.

And then what can you say about Brian Stokes? He was fantastic on Monday night. He pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the tenth, and did his best to work through adversity in the eleventh. He made one mistake. The leadoff walk, but after that was perfect. Forcing a fly ball that should’ve been caught. Then, one batter later, getting Rafael Furcal to hit a short fly to left, too short to score the run, with the bases loaded and none out. Then, getting a grounder to Jeremy Reed, what should’ve been a double play ball. Should’ve, would’ve, could’ve. The Mets lost by a score of 3 to 2.

Now, the Mets and Phillies are tied for first. The Braves are two and a half back. The Marlins are three back.

Mets Beat Lincecum on Friday, Give Santana Win on Saturday

Mets One Game Away from Sweeping San Francisco

Friday’s pitching matchup looked unfavorable for the Mets, as they sent Livan Hernandez to the hill against Giants phenom Tim Lincecum. Things looked even worse when they found themselves down 5 – 1 after two innings of play. Yet, in a impressive display of resilience, the Mets offense heated up, scoring two runs in the sixth and four runs in the seventh. David Wright had the big hit. With the team down 6 – 3 in the top of the seventh and the bases loaded, David Wright hit a bases-clearing double, tying the game at 6. The Mets then put together two runs in the top of the ninth to win it 8 – 6.

After giving up five runs in the first two innings, Hernandez settled down ending with a line of: 5 IP, 8H, 5ER, 0BB. Most impressive was the lack of walks. The bullpen pitched an excellent game, giving up just one run in four combined innings. Sean Green gave up the run and looked bad once again, but Pedro Feliciano, Brian Stokes, and Francisco Rodriguez all put up scoreless innings to help the Mets win the game.

Then, on Saturday, Johan Santana had a rare bad game. He was shaky throughout giving up 11 baserunners and six runs, although only four of those runs were earned. Fortunately, Santana was backed by a potent Mets offense, who had an awful lot of success against Randy Johnson.

The Mets got off to a good start, scoring three runs in the top of the first. They were led by a 2-RBI double off the bat of Carlos Beltran. Then after Santana and the defense gave away the lead, the Mets scored four runs in top of the fifth, led by RBI doubles from Carlos Beltran and David Wright and an RBI single by Ramon Castro.

The Giants continued to chip away at the Mets lead eventually turning it into a 7 – 6 game, but that’s when the Mets did something they rarely did last season, which is put the game away. In the top of the ninth, the Mets scored two runs on a Fernando Tatis RBI sacrafice fly and a Ramon Castro single. J.J. Putz then threw 13 pitches, 11 for strikes, to close out the game, and the Mets would end with a 9 – 6 victory and an impressive 21 – 15 record.

The Mets  would end the night with a slim 1.5 game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies. They have a 3-game lead over the Atlanta Braves though, and a 3.5-game lead over the Florida Marlins.

Tomorrow’s game features Mike Pelfrey (4 – 0, 4.89 ERA) versus Matt Cain (3 – 1, 3.00 ERA) of the Giants.

Reds Come Alive Against Oliver Perez, Defeating Mets 8 – 6 In Series Finale

Only 17, 837 fans showed up for Thursday afternoon’s series finale between the New York Mets and Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park. But those who did show up got to see the Reds pick up their first win of the season against an erratic Oliver Perez.

The Mets got off to a good start Thursday, scoring 3 runs with two outs in the top of the third. The inning started with a single from Jose Reyes who was then caught stealing, and a groundout by Daniel Murphy. But with two outs, David Wright walked, Carlos Delgado singled, Carlos Beltran drove in Wright with a single, and then Ryan Church hit a double that drove in both Delgado and Beltran. 3 – 0 Mets.

But then Perez, who had retired the first six hitters of the game, began to unravel in the bottom of the third, giving up four runs on two walks and two hits. The big hit of the inning was a three-run homerun by Joey Votto, who hammered the Mets all series long. 4 – 3 Reds.

The Mets fought back in the fifth, with singles by Murphy and Wright, and then an RBI fielders choice by Carlos Delgado. The game was tied. But once again, the Reds answered. Perez gave up a bunt single, a walk, an RBI single to Votto, a sRBI acrafice fly to Brandon Phillips, and then another walk, before Jerry Manuel finally took him out with two runners on and with the Reds leading 6 – 4. Darren O’Day managed to record the final two outs of the inning but not before letting both inherited runners score on a critical 2-RBI single by Paul Janish. 8 – 4 Reds.

Oliver Perez was horrible. 4.1 innings, 5 hits, 5 walks, and 8 earned runs. Yet, the Mets refused to give up. The bullpen delivered 4 and two-thirds shutout innings, including two sterling innings from Brian Stokes and a good comeback performance from Pedro Feliciano (2 batters faced, 2 strikeouts). Meanwhile, the Mets offense put together a few runs. A sacrafice fly by Alex Cora in the 6th. A sacrafice fly by Carlos Delgado in the 7th. But then the Mets ran into the heart of the Reds bullpen. Arthur Rhodes, David Weathers, and Chad Cordero, who pitched 2 and two-thirds perfect innings to seal the victory for the Reds.

The offense was decent and efficent for the Mets Thursday. They scored 6 runs and only left 5 runners on base. The bullpen was strong. The only real problem was with Oliver Perez. The pressure is really building on Perez, to show Mets fans why he deserves his big paycheck. Mark the date April 15 on your calendar. That’s Oliver Perez’s next start. At Citi Field. ESPN2. Against the San Diego Padres. It will be primetime. It might be exactly what the doctor ordered for Oliver Perez.

Saying Goodbye to 2008

The ball rocketed off Ryan Church’s bat. And for just a second, the melancholy faded. Tie game. The Mets could still be going to the playoffs. On a huge two run home-run by Church. And then the ball fell out of the sky into the right fielder’s glove, at the edge of the warning track. And that was the end of the season. And the end of Shea Stadium. 44 years at Shea. The lovable losers of 1962. The Miracle Mets of ’69. The Mets that believed in ’73. One of the best teams ever to play the game in ’86. And the group of nobodies that somehow made it to the World Series in 2000. And the Chavez catch of ’06. And now, the collapse of ’07 and the near-miss of ’08. Shea is gone.

This was obviously a frustrating game for Mets fans. Oliver Perez was masterful for the first five innings. But, so was Marlins pitcher Scott Olsen. The tension kept adding up. I knew the Mets needed to score, before the Marlins broke it open. We needed to get some runs. Establish the fact that this was our game. Just like the Mets ought to have established weeks ago that this was our season by beating the Phillies at home.

But no, the Marlins scored first. The walk with the bases-loaded was particularly tough to watch. 2 – 0 Florida. But at this time, Milwaukee was still losing toi the Cubs, so for all intents and purposes, the Mets could’ve lost to the Marlins and still ended up tied for the wild-card. And then things got even better. A two-run homerun by Carlos Beltran, an incredible clutch hit that tied the game up and energized the Shea crowd. 

But Mets fans were still nervous. Perez had been replaced in the sixth inning, which meant that the whole Mets season was going to come down to their bullpen and their late offense. Not good. And sure enough, after a strong performance by Joe Smith and a beautiful inning from sudden star Brian Stokes, the Mets bullpen gave it up in the eighth. The first batter Scott Schoenweis faced. Homerun. The first batter Luis Ayala faced. Homerun. At the end of seven and a half, Marlins four and the Mets two.

And at around the same time, the Milwaukee Brewers stromed to a 3 – 1 lead over the Chicago Cubs on a huge two-run shot off the bat of Ryan Braun. So, the Mets needed to win. And as always, they came close, torturing their fans with near-miss after near-miss. With two runners on in the bottom of the eighth, Carlos Delgado lifted a long fly ball to left-center. But if was caught, right at the edge of the warning track. And then with two outs and down to the final strike of the season, Damion Easley walked, bringing up Church, who had struck out his last six times at this plate. But this time he gave it a ride. A ride that fell just short. 

Give credit where credit is due. C.C. Sabathia pitched a marvelous game. A Johan Santana type of performance. And the Brewers fought. And they won. Their first playoff berth in decades. It really is a nice story.

But for the Mets, this was a real heartbreaker.

Saturday Frustration Turns to Sunday Joy for Mets

No Offense Late + Bad Bullpen = Loss

Insurance Runs Late + Good Bullpen = Win

Those two “mathematical equations” pretty much sum up this weekend, as well as the last few weeks, for the Mets. All season long, the Mets have received solid starting pitching, whether in wins or losses. But the bullpen has highly inconsistent. And all season long, the Mets have gotten good starting hitting. They score runs early. But the offense becomes much shakier as the game goes on.

And so, in all three games against the Florida Marlins this weekend, the Mets got a solid effort from their starting pitcher. And in all three games, the Mets managed to score early. Starting pitching and early offense are the two things that the Mets seem to do a good job with every day.

On the other hand, the bullpen and the success of the offense late in games have become the X-factor for this team. On Friday night, the team followed the winning formula: the bullpen was just good enough to hold the lead, and the offense scored four runs in the top of the ninth to get the win. On Saturday, the team followed the losing formula: Duaner Sanchez blew the save in the 8th, and Aaron Heilman walked in the winning run in the ninth. And the offense was shut out from the fourth inning on. Bad bullpen and bad offense late killed the Mets. Then on Sunday, the Mets returned to their winning ways. They not only scored early, but also tacked on three runs in the 7th to take the life out of the Marlins. And the bullpen was great, pitching three shutout innings to seal the series win.

The Mets win keeps the team one game ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East. Now, the Mets head to Milwaukee, where they will have to take on a Brewers team that has been dominant (41 – 24) at home. Meanwhile, the Phillies will have a chance to gain ground on the Mets, as they visit Washington to take on a decidedly bad Nationals team. The Mets will need to play exteremly well these next few days if they want to have the division lead when they wake up on Thursday.

And now, time for tonight’s shoutouts.

On the offensive side of the ball, the shout out goes to David Wright who went 3 – 5 with a homerun yesterday.

And for the pitchers, the shout out goes to Brandon Stokes, who pitched a scoreless ninth for the Mets yesterday, and has really been the only reliable man in the bullpen of late.

Late Surge Propels Mets to Victory

Wednesday, August 27, 2008 at Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia

New York Mets           6

Philadelphia Phillies   3

For all the insults that have been heaped on our bullpen this year, let’s give them credit when credit is due. After an exhausting Tuesday night when the bullpen combined to pitch 8 strong innings in relief of Pedro Martinez, the bullpen gave up only 1 hit in 3 scoreless innings last night to help the Mets earn a 6 – 3 comeback victory over the Phillies. Great job by Brian Stokes, Pedro Feliciano, Joe Smith, and Luis Ayala tonight.

And give credit to an offense that finally scored runs in the later innings of a ballgame. The Mets put up 4 runs in the top of the eighth, taking a lead from the Phillies that they would never give back. This eighth inning rally included Carlos Delgado’s second homer of the night (and his 30th of the season), another clutch RBI double by Daniel Murphy, and a 2 RBI single by the red-hot Brian Schnieder that gave the Mets some insurance. Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and Delgado each got three hits. It was particlarly nice to see a night like that from Beltran, who as has been noted by many others, has had a pretty quiet season thus far.

Over the course of this season, the Mets have had a terrible run differential (giving up far more than they score) in the later innings of ballgames. Tonight, they were +4 in the 7th – 9th innings. The offense and bullpen both deserve credit for that.

And give credit to a team that has been as resiiant this year as they were lackadasical last year. Jerry Manuel really seems to have built a mentally strong team here. This team came back last night and got a big victory following a tough loss, something they have already done several times during Manuel’s short tenure as Mets manager. Yesterday, I said that the Phillies were resilient. Tonight, I can say the same about the Mets. Never count us out! We too have a plethora of good hitters: guys who hit for power, average, and speed. It’s going to be a good NL East race this year. Enjoy!

Hero: Carlos Delgado (3 – 4, 2HR, 3RBI) – he knocked in the first three Met runs of the evening, including his shot in the 8th which tied the game.