Strange and Wonderful Days at Citi Field

Yesterday was both a strange and wonderful day at Citi Field.

The Mets split a doubleheader with the Padres--in game 1 the Ace, Johan santana struggled.  In game 2, Jonathan Niese was one swing away from a perfect game.

There was also a triple play, a finger by some cretin named Lady Gaga, 4 strikeouts by David Wright, 4 hits on his birthday from Jose Reyes, a Henry Blanco homerun, and a whipped cream pie to the face of Niese from Angel Pagan.

Artwork courtesy of the wonderul Joe Petruccio

Niese (3-2) struck out six and walked none. He was sheer brilliance and only needed 108 pitches for the complete game, 1-hit, shutout.

"Ever since I came off the DL, I haven't felt anything," said Niese. "Before that, I felt some lingering soreness. When I went on the DL, I got some rest and it's paid off."

Ollie who?

Mets Have a Chance for a Special June

I was looking at the schedule this morning and it's clear that the Mets have a golden opportunity for a special month of June.

After starting the month 1-0 thanks to a Mike Pelfrey special, Johan Santana takes the hill against the Pads, and then the Mets return home.

For the remainder of the month they face:

• 6 against the Marlins, 3 home, 3 away.  Marlins are tied with the Mets at 27-26
• 3 more against the Padres at home
• 3 at Baltimore--Orioles are 15-37
• 3 at Cleveland--Indians are 19-31
• 3 at the Yankees--Yankees are 32-20
• 3 at home against Detroit--Tigers are 26-25, but only 11-15 on the road
• 3 at home against Minnesota--Twins are 31-21, but only 13-12 on the road

It is such a strange month...15 games against American League teams against only 11 National League games.

Thankfully the Mets play the absolute two worst teams in the AL, and maybe in all of MLB.

The fact that the Mets have 4 off days in the month, one a week, also bodes well for the team, as does the favorable travel schedule.  If you include the Yankees games, the Mets will sleep in their own beds for 2/3rds of the month--unheard of in today's game.

The scheduling gods were certainly kind to the Mets in June, now let's see if the team can take advantage of their largess.

Mets v. Phillies Game 1 Preview

Tonight begins yet another test for a Mets team that has won 3 of their last 4 games.

The first-place Phillies come into town for a 3 game series that gives the Mets a chance to take off a good chunk of the Phils 5 game lead.

Tonight's game will feature a pitching battle between two of the more unique, and slower, pitchers in the game--Jamie Moyer and RA Dickey.

The Mets have faced Moyer once this year, and despite hitting around Moyer for 5 runs in 6 innings, the team lost as Johan Santana gave up 9 runs in the 4th inning of the worst start of his career.

RA Dickey goes for the second time in 2010.  He pitched well last week against the Nationals in a Mets loss.  Tonight's test will be far tougher.

The Mets offense is at a turning point--Jason Bay is hot--very hot.  Jose Reyes is showing signs of life, and David Wright has been driving in runs of late despite showing no signs of slowing down in the K department.

The Mets bullpen continues to be overworked by the desperate Jerry Manuel, and there are reports that Frankie Rodriguez and bullpen coach Randy Niemann had an altercation during Sunday night's win over the Yankees.

I personally like a bit of turmoil on a team, though it's much more preferable to battle the opposition than the coaches.

So in the words of the great Mills Lane, "Let's get it on!"  This week promises to be nothing if not interesting.

Jamie Moyer vs Current Mets Roster

	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	SH	SF	IBB	HBP	GDP	missG	missYr
David Wright	53	50	21	4	0	4	14	1	3	.420	.434	.740	1.174	0	1	0	1	3
Jose Reyes	49	46	12	2	2	1	3	2	5	.261	.292	.457	.748	1	0	1	0	0
Luis Castillo	34	29	9	5	0	0	0	5	0	.310	.412	.483	.895	0	0	0	0	1
Jeff Francoeur	33	32	9	1	0	0	1	0	1	.281	.303	.313	.616	0	0	0	1	1
Fernando Tatis	28	25	9	2	0	1	4	3	2	.360	.429	.560	.989	0	0	1	0	1
Gary Matthews	27	26	7	3	0	2	3	1	3	.269	.296	.615	.912	0	0	0	0	0
Rod Barajas	11	10	4	0	0	2	4	0	1	.400	.400	1.000	1.400	1	0	0	0	0
Jason Bay	11	11	4	1	0	1	2	0	1	.364	.364	.727	1.091	0	0	0	0	0
Henry Blanco	11	11	5	0	0	0	1	0	0	.455	.455	.455	.909	0	0	0	0	0
Alex Cora	10	7	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	.429	.500	.714	1.214	2	0	0	1	1
Oliver Perez	10	9	2	0	0	0	0	1	3	.222	.300	.222	.522	0	0	0	0	0
Angel Pagan	6	6	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	.167	.167	.167	.333	0	0	0	0	0
Mike Pelfrey	3	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	0	0	0	0	0
Fernando Nieve	2	2	1	0	0	0	1	0	1	.500	.500	.500	1.000	0	0	0	0	0
Johan Santana	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	1	0	0	0	0
Total	290	268	87	18	3	11	33	13	22	.325	.361	.537	.899	5	1	2	3	7

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/25/2010.

Good Morning Mets Fans!

Like Meatloaf once said, "2 out of 3 aint bad".

The capper to the Mets v Yanks series was a laugher early, and a tense heart in your throat affair late, but in the end, it was the Mets that earned the early bragging rights that color the Empire State building blue and orange.

It was 2 outs in the 9th, go ahead run at the plate in the form of Alex Rodriguez, and a not too sharp Frankie Rodriguez on the hill.

On this night, Frankie got the better of his crosstown opponent and future Hall of Famer, striking him out on a 3-2 pitch that sent the Citi Field faithful into a full throat roar.

The big strikeout preserved a 6-4 victory for Johan Santana and the New York Mets against the New York Yankees on Sunday night.

"I really enjoy that situation," Francisco Rodriguez said. "That's what I get paid for. Not to make the fans suffer like that, but to get the job done."

Early on it was the Mets bats that brought the fans to their feet.  Jason Bay hit two big homeruns off a very hittable CC Sabathia, part of 10 hits the Mets got off the rotund wonder of the Bronx.

"Kind of like a big exhale," Bay said. "Hopefully, it's not a novelty anymore."

Bay finished 2 for 2 with a walk and a HBP (accidental) that the ump incorrectly thought had a purpose.  He warned both benches, which pissed off Joe Girardi and made Jerry Manuel laugh.

Alex Cora had a key at-bat in this game, hitting a two-run single to key a four-run second.  Ike Davis had two hits, and David Wright drove in a run while adding two more K's to his 2010 stats line.

Johan Santana improved his record to 4-2 on the year with a really great performance.  He was locating his pitches beautifully and had the really good changeup that left Yankee after Yankee shaking their head--in their eyes the pitch looked so hittable, but they were not up to the challenge, at least not on this night. 

Santana allowed only six hits and one run in 7 2/3 innings while striking out five. 

The game became extremely tense in both the 8th and 9th innings as the Yankees gamely tried to come back.  Pedro Feliciano came on in the 8th with the bases loaded and two outs and retired Robinson Cano to keep the Mets ahead.

It seemed as if that rally killing out should have taken the wind out of the Yanks sails, but the Yankees, to their credit, had one more rally left.

Ryota Igarashi, fresh off his rehab work and back with the Mets, had an awful 9th inning.  He allowed three hits and a walk before giving way to Frankie Rodriguez. 

Frankie was not sharp either, and the always tough Derek Jeter greeted K-Rod with a clutch at-bat that resulted in a run-scoring double.  David Wright then made a tremendous play on a slow grounder to third by the speedy Brett Gardner.  It was bang-bang, but the ESPN replays showed the umps got it right, though an argumentative Joe Girardi disagreed.

2 outs, 9th inning...hearts in throats with Mark Teixeira up with a chance to tie the game.

Tex hit a high chopper for an infield single, and the tension was ratcheted up even more.

2 outs, 9th inning, ARod at the plate as the go ahead run.

And that's how it ended after a long tight, full count at-bat--Frankie got K, the Mets won, and they crept a bit closer to the Phillies, who lost to the Red Sox.

The Mets are now 5 games back, with an off-day, and the Phillies in town for three beginning Tuesday.

Enjoy your coffee!

Scoreboard
Final	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
N.Y. Yankees (26-18)	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	3	4	10	1
N.Y. Mets (22-23) «	0	4	0	0	2	0	0	0	x	6	11	0

Player of the Game

New York
J. Bay	AB	2
	R	2
	H	2
	HR	2
	RBI	3

Related articles by Zemanta

• Bay homers twice, Mets take series from Yanks (sportsillustrated.cnn.com)
• K-Rod strikes out A-Rod as Mets hold off Yanks (nbcsports.msnbc.com)

Why You Don't Bunt With a Man on Second and No Outs

A man on second and no outs has a greater chance of scoring than a man on third with 1 out.

Thanks to our friends at Inside the Book, we can see the math behind the decision, and in Jerry Manuel's case, he failed when he had GMJ bunt Luis Castillo over in the 9th.

The situation was man on second, no outs, and GMJ had worked himself into a hitter's count.  In that situation the run expectancy, per the chart, is 1.228.  That's right, the Mets should have expected to not only score that run, but they had a near 23% chance of tacking on another one.  The correct call was to remove the bunt sign (which never should have been given in the first place).

When Jerry bunted Castillo over, he lowered the run expectancy to 0.980.

I'll also add that with the players that were due up, there are actually more reasons not to bunt.  This was not your 7-8-9 hitters, but 3-4-5, the heart of the order.

David Wright did fail, that is a given, but the manager failed as well.

Jerry wants his team to win with 26 outs.

Here are the runs expected based on men-on-base and the number of outs in the inning:

Situation	No Outs	One Out	Two Out
Empty	0.551	0.295	0.111
1st	0.972	0.576	0.252
2nd	1.228	0.746	0.337
3rd	1.424	0.980	0.394
1st/2nd	1.649	1.027	0.478
1st/3rd	1.845	1.261	0.535
2nd/3rd	2.101	1.431	0.620
Loaded	2.522	1.717	0.761

The Mets Have a Bad Manager

I'm tired of the excuses already.

You don't bat Chris Carter third.

You don't sit Jason Bay in the middle of an 11 game hitting streak when he's finally looking good at the plate.

You don't pull your #3 hitter so Gary Mathews, Jr can bunt.

Why pull Johan Santana at 104 pitches while he's cruising in a tie game?  Roy Halladay just threw 130 pitches in a close loss.

Baseball is a math game, and Jerry is not good at math.

With Luis Castillo on second and no outs, you have three chances to get hom home.

A bunt removes one of those chances.

Why do you put in a 20-year old rookie in a high leverage situation?

It's just not good...it's bad tactically, it's bad stuff, and it's been the modus operandi of Jerry since he took over.

Bunt, bunt, bunt...I want a mandate that the Mets will not bunt anymore this season...ever, not even once, I don't care what the situation.

They'd have better results than they do now.

Three pins in the Manuel Voo Doo Doll today...I've had it with him.

Mejia to Minors--Mets Fans Rejoice

Adam Rubin is reporting that 20-year old Jennry Mejia is headed back to the minors to stretch his arm out in hopes of giving the Mets another starting pitching option.

Though Mejia has pitched well, there is something clasically wrong about taking a top starting prospect and using him in meaningless relief games in April and May.

Mejia is currently 12th in all of MLB in appearances.

From Rubin:

The Mets should have a new starting pitching option within a month.

Top prospect Jenrry Mejia, whose dazzling Grapefruit League performance prompted the Mets to place him on the Opening Day roster as a reliever, is expected to head to the minors to resume being used as a starting pitcher. That could be timed with R.A. Dickey’s activation before Wednesday’s start, a team source told ESPNNewYork.com.

The decision is believed to have been affirmed during Monday’s meeting at Turner Field that included chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon, GM Omar Minaya, assistant GM John Ricco and manager Jerry Manuel.

The Mets could be facing major rotation issues behind Johan Santana and Mike Pelfrey, so stretching out Mejia for starting work makes sense. Oliver Perez has been dispatched to the bullpen, John Maine -- while largely producing of late -- doesn’t have the zip he had in 2007 and Jon Niese has a mild right hamstring strain. The Mets will have Dickey face the Washington Nationals on Wednesday and use Hisanori Takahashi in place of Niese on Friday.

It will take Mejia some time to be ready to return to the majors in a starting capacity. It should, in fact, be comparable to a spring-training build-up, when a pitcher throws two innings, then three innings and so on until he’s up to a 90-100 pitch count.

Mejia is 0-2 with a 2.60 ERA, with 14 strikeouts and eight walks, in 17 1/3 innings spanning 18 major league appearances.

Good Morning Mets Fans!

Rod Barajas and Henry Blanco were afterthoughts this past off-season as they played second banana to the Benjie Molina.  If they were a musical duo, they'd have been called Garfunkel and Oates.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the forum, and the fans that fill the forum known as Citi Field are certainly grateful

Henry Blanco took a cue from Rod Barajas and blasted the Mets to victory in the 11th inning--this just one day after Barajas hit his walkoff bomb.

Blanco's blast enabled the Mets to win their 9th consecutive home game and sent the fan faithful home with a lot to cheer about.

"That was exciting to see Henry come up and hit that home run," manager Jerry Manuel said. "We swung the bats well the last couple of innings but I was wondering where we were going to get some runs."

"It was a fastball pretty much right down the middle but I never thought it was going to go out," Blanco said, "so I just keep running hard and see if I can make a triple. But I guess it went out."

Johan Santana pitched a strong game, going into the 8th inning on a very reasonable pitch count.  When two men singled their way on board in the 8th, Jerry Manuel made the switch to the bullpen with nearly disastrous results.  The bullpen couldn't hold on to Santana's 4-3 lead, and the Giants tied it on RBI single off Pedro Feliciano by Aubrey Huff.

I tend to beat up on Jerry's handling of the pitching staff, and yesterday was no different.  You have your ace on the mound, in the 8th, at 101 pitches, and an overworked bullpen.  In that situation the best move was to leave Santana in; instead Jerry goes to Nieve and Feliciano, both of whom are on pace to pitch in well over 100 games.  They gave up back to back singles and the lead was lost.

Enough is enough Jerry...the well is not endless, and when the Mets start playing back to back games of 10 or more, as the upcoming schedule shows, you're not going to have the guys you need because of all this ridiculous early season overuse.

That said, there was a lot of good news from the bullpen.  After Mejia recorded the final out of the 8th, Frankie Rodriguez came on and pitched two very strong innings.  Then Takahashi, the crafty Japanese import came on in the top of the 11th and once again pitched brilliantly.  He got the win thanks to Blanco, and afterward, he called Barajas and Blanco "My big brothers." 

It was another win in what is looking more and more like a very competitive and hard fought NL East.  The Mets are showing a lot of heart and grit--they are an easy team to root for.

Just imagine this club with Carlos Beltran.

Scoreboard
Final 11th	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	R	H	E
San Francisco (17-12)	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	4	10	0
N.Y. Mets (17-13) «	1	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	5	7	0

Player of the Game

New York
H. Blanco	AB	5
	R	1
	H	3
	HR	1
	RBI	1

Enjoy your coffee!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Quote: Blanco for Barajas, Tipping Pitches, Heels (metsblog.com)
• Blanco HRs in 11th; Mets' home win streak at 9 (sportsillustrated.cnn.com)
• Mets 6, Giants 5, 11 Innings: Different Game, Different Catcher, Same Result for Mets (nytimes.com)
• Mets 5 - Giants 4 May 8, 2010 (metsreport.com)
• Blanco sends Mets home happy with homer in 11th (cbssports.com)
• Note: about Rod Barajas, His Hand, and The Clutch (metsblog.com)