July 2009
Did Niese Spark Miracle in Making?
Jon Niese got it all started on a rather pedestrian Saturday in Houston.
Now it’s up to the young southpaw to keep it rolling.
The Mets won their fifth straight on Thursday afternoon, something that looked like an improbable task only days ago, behind a five-run second inning and seven scoreless frames from ace Johan Santana.
With traditional doubleheaders facing extinction, the Mets will go at it again on Thursday night as they make up Wednesday night’s rainout.
For the first time this homestand, I will not attend Citi Field, but hopefully that interfere with the team’s plans to complete the four-game sweep of Colorado.
The Rockies are a prime example of why this season is far from over.
Colorado was 20-32 following a loss to Houston on June 3. Clint Hurdle, who had taken them to the World Series in 2007 (on the heels of a miracle stretch run), was shown the door.
The Rockies responded by reeling off 17 wins in 18 games from June 4-22. And as you’ve seen the past few days, they did it with a rather modest lineup and solid to mediocre pitching.
A run half that magnitude put the Mets right back into the middle of the wild card race.
It’s been 40 years since 1969. Another miracle in the making?
It would certainly help if Niese can make it six in a row tonight.
Nice to See Niese
Great moments have been few and far between for the Mets in September. Not much to remember during the year’s ninth month, unless you fancy dreadful baseball.
Although there were those two hours and 24 minutes last September 13, the second half of the final doubleheader in Shea Stadium history, that Jon Niese definitely sees worth remembering.
The young southpaw struck out seven Braves over 8.0 innings of shutout ball to earn a 5-0 victory. Click Here for MLB.com Game Recap (9/13/08)
Niese will get another major league start tonight, and thankfully so.
He has experienced his trials and tribulations, but what 22-year old hasn’t, especially in this humbling game.
After losing the fifth starter spot to Livan Hernandez, Niese went down to Buffalo logged an 0-4 record through his first seven starts spanning April and May. After an 8.44 ERA in the season’s first month followed by a 7.47 mark in May, Niese has that number down to 3.82 and his win-loss tally up to 5-6.
The bottom line is he is lefty. He has a 90-92 mph fastball and a solid hook. The Mets don’t have much in terms of young capable personnel thriving in the minors, but it is time to see exactly what they’ve got.
Play Niese. Play Evans. Play Wilmer Flores even. They aren’t exactly the reinforcements we have been waiting for, but the results they produce can’t be any worse than what’s been happening lately.
Click Here for Jon Niese MILB Profile
Mets Fall to New Low in Nation’s Capital
The Nationals were 40 games under the .500 mark until Tuesday night. Long Island born lefty John Lannan mowed down Met after Met to give the Nationals their 27th win in 93 games this season.
Being shut out for the fifth time in the last two weeks, this time by the lowly Nationals, a club that owns baseball’s worst win percentage (.290), the Mets dropped to a new low, both metaphorically and literally.
The Very Un-Amazin’s now trail the Phillies, who outlasted the Cubs in 13 innings Tuesday night, by a season-high 10 games in the NL East standings.
The Mets are officially a mess, and besides a few talented, hard-working individuals, they really don’t give their fans much reason to watch.
For some reason, I’m still subjecting myself to the torture. I haven’t stopped watching, game after game, fundamental mistake after fundamental mistake, embarrassing loss after embarrassing loss.
Even one of the loyalist of fans, I’ve been tempted to tune out on the season out of sheer disgust for the club’s mismanagement and its failure to produce a competitive product despite carrying the NL’s highest payroll.
This isn’t good news for the Wilpon’s, who have already been taken to the cleaners by one Bernard Madoff. Unfortunately, this embarrassment of an ownership group stands to lose more money when fans stop coming to the ballpark for their sub-par product.
Usual Suspect Sinks Mets, Season Slippng Away
The Mets will play October baseball simply because their regular season schedule doesn’t end until then.
But the team has given no reason for one to think it will, or even can, make a miraculous run into the postseason.
The very un-amazin’ Mets sit 7.5 games back of the surging Phillies after Bobby Cox and Chipper Jones had their way with Jerry Manuel’s Mess last night.
Another loss in which they failed to score more than three runs. Another game that they could have won, but didn’t.
It’s becoming more and more likely that the Wilpons won’t even get their “meaning September games” this year. You always have to wonder if we’ll ever win when ownership’s goal was to just be in the race when the season’s final month rolled around.
Way to shoot for the stars.
I guess aiming for a championship is a bit too ambitious for the club that carries the NL’s highest payroll.
Omar Minaya has had the luxury of spending more than any of his NL counterparts in each of the past three seasons yet he will likely have not one postseason appearance to show for it.
If the Wilpon’s were good owners, or simply good business people, (remember this is all hypothetical), then Minaya would be on the unemployment come October.
Francoeur Brings New Face to Fading Mets
The only thing a Met fan needs to know about Jeff Francoeur is the newly-acquired outfielder posted back-to-back 100+ RBI seasons before the age of 24.
You’ll get no complaints about Ryan Church here. He was a solid gap hitter and above average defender, but the 30-year old outfielder’s career high for runs batted in stands at 70 (2007).
Maybe Francoeur can return to his earlier run-producing form, but unfortunately I don’t think he’s bringing an AED along with him.
As the Mets’ season stands at near death, only time will tell if adding one new live body will make any difference.
Click Here for Francoeur MLB Profile … Click Here for Church MLB Profile
Hoping for History
I hope I’m worng, but I may have witnessed the death of a ball club Thursday night at Citi Field. The Mets were decked, 11-2, by the Dodgers to fall 5.5 games back of first-place Philadelphia.
They squandered yet another chance to win a series, something they’ve done once in their last nine tries.
And they just weren’t defeated, they were destroyed … rocked, something that has been happening all too often of late.
It seemed to start more than one month ago in Pittsburgh. After having lost two games to the bumbling Buccos, the Mets surrendered 11 runs, nine of which were charged to Mike Pelfrey, and were swept away by a franchise which has finished below .500 in every single season since 1992.
I’ll point back to a radio interview I heard back in April when Milwaukee avoided the sweep by stealing the finale from the Mets, 4-2.
The Brewers entered their three-game set with the Mets at 3-6 before dropping a pair of one-run decisions to the Amazin’s (probably two of the best wins the Mets have had all season – a 5-4 comeback sparked by Sheffield’s 500th and a 1-0 Santana-Gallardo duel).
Fortunately for the Brew Crew, reliever Todd Coffey stepped up on Sunday to snuff out a huge Mets rally and allow just two hits over 2.2 innings for the save.
In his post-game chat with WFAN’s Eddie C, Coffey said he wasn’t worried about the Brewers record because they were competitive in each of their losses and have what it takes to turn it around.
Once 3-8, the Brewers sit at 44-41 and that is despite a season-ending injury to starting second baseman Rickie Weeks who played in only 37 games.
That brings us to the Mets.
They haven’t even been close in an alarming number of their losses and their last three wins have all been dogfights decided by one run.
There is no reason to think that will change either. This team is lucky to win at all, never mind win easy.
Yes, they are only 5.5 games out. But they are also one nightmarish week away from being 10 out.
It’s very conceivable for the Mets to go 1-6 over the same seven-game span during which the Phillies go 6-1.
I’ve seen this game do too many funny things during my short life.
I’ve heard stories about the 1973 Mets emerging from the ashes and stealing the NL East title with an 82-79 record. That team went onto beat the Reds, 3-2, in the NLCS before falling in seven games to Oakland in the Classic.
I was in Shea Stadium when Yadier Molina’s ball fell into the visitor’s bullpen and tthe 83-win Cardinals went onto the World Series with none other than Jeff Suppan winning NLCS MVP.
Stunned and disappointed (still to this day), I witnessed first hand anything can happen in this game.
In fact, every single one of the Mets great moments is proof of that – the Miracle Mets of ’69, the Buckner Play, the Game 7 comeback, Todd Pratt hitting it over the fence, Bobby J. Jones one-hitting the Giants to clinch the 2000 NLDS.
Who would’ve ever predicted that?
Who now would ever predict given the state of the Mets today that this club will even sniff something called a pennant race this summer.
It’s gonna take a whole lotta magic, luck, and fundamental play, but maybe this team will make for a happy ending (in spite of the Wilpon’s and Omar’s mismanagement).
Loopy Lefty, Offensive Explosion Stop Slide
There couldn’t have been a more fitting beginning to this one.
The Mets had lost four straight and had not scored a single run in 22 prior innings. Not to mention their opponent, the Dodgers, own the best record in baseball.
No need to worry though because southpaw Oliver Perez is back.
He had been on the DL since early May 2, but the loopy lefty showed the Citi Field Faithful that he didn’t miss a beat.
It took him only one batter and four pitches to issue a leadoff walk to Dodger shortstop Rafael Furcal.
Just Ollie being Ollie.
For the sanity, or lack thereof, of the 40,027 in attendance at Citi Field, Perez walked a tight rope for five innings but avoided falling into the lion’s den.
The southpaw starter surrendered a maddening seven walks, but somehow managed to limit LA to two runs and lower his ERA to a Chien Ming Wang-like 8.78.
When the dust settled after the Mets offensive explosion (5 runs scored) and K-Rod’s near implosion, Perez found himself with his first victory since April 15.
It certainly wasn’t pretty, not much is around Flushing these days, but it counts.
Frankie’s No Fraud: Hopefully, Oliver Perez was listening closely as Francisco Rodriguez spoke to the media following his 22nd save of the season Wednesday night. Upon entering with a 5-3 lead, the Mets’ star closer surrendered a ninth inning leadoff home run to Manny Ramirez followed by a walk and a single sandwiched around a strikeout. That was when the madness finally came to a close and the Mets completed a 6-6-3 double play to lock up their first victory since last Thursday’s comeback in Pittsburgh.
A save is a save though, right?
No, not according to Frankie.
“I’m the kind of guy that likes to be perfect. Even though I got the save, I don’t feel like I did my job.”
Wow. Talk about music to the ears, especially during an era in which starters are content with five quality innings and closers make a ton of money by piling up three-run saves.
I’ll never forget Steve Trachsel’s postgame reaction to his less than stellar outing in Game 2 of the 2006 NLCS. After surrendering five walks, five hits, and five earned runs in 1+ innings of work, Trachsel had the audacity to say how he made some good pitches that guys like Scott Spezio just happened to rope down the line.
Thankfully, both Trachsel and Spezio are out of the majors (I don’t know which player I liked less).
Even better the Mets have a closer who is willing to hold some self accountability.
“I have to pitch better. That’s the bottom line. If you look at my last 10 outings, it’s not been where I need to be. I just need to bounce back and find a way to be as sharp as I was earlier in the season,” Rodriguez said as reported by a sidebar story in The Star Ledger.
Hopefully, Perez sees his 7-walk victory in a similar light.
Unful-philling First Two Games for Sloppy Mets
Entering the series batting at a .209 clip, leadoff hitter Jimmy Rollins is once again bidding to become Mets Public Enemy No. 1. Rollins has four RBI in the series first two games, which have seen the most beleaguered of Phillies come to life.
Spot starting for the injured Bastardo, veteran castaway Rodrigo Lopez silenced the Mets’ best imitation of a major league lineup. Then, it was the aging Jamie Moyer on Saturday, pitching a gem hidden in what has been an awful season for the soft-tossing southpaw.
To add insult to injury, Brad Lidge came on for a 1-2-3 ninth inning during the Mets 4-1 defeat before a national TV audience ox Fox.
In just two short days, the Phillies have seemed to cure all of the ills we examined in our series preview.
Meanwhile, if there is one team in baseball that cannot afford to give away runs, the Mets are it, but these bumbling ball players can’t seem to help themselves.
With the ballgame still very winnable, the Mets gift-wrapped Philadelphia’s fourth run during the defensive debacle that was the bottom sixth.
First it was David Wright looking like Bob Huggins at a DUI stop when he let a popup drop in foul territory. Then, Omir Santos failed to squeeze the third out on an ensuing foul popup.
They were mistakes that professionals should not make and miscues the Mets can simply not afford.
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