Thursday, April 15, 2004
Braves 6, Mets 1
Well, Tyler Yates was bound to give up a run eventually. Might as well get it out of the way in a game where the offense wasn't going to led much of a helping hand anyway. I still think he can be a useful part of the starting rotation this year, and no single outing of less than three innings should diminish the optimism fostered by his terrific first start. He's only been a starter for about a year, and he spent that year posting ERAs around four at three different minor league levels, so for him to be much more than a league average starter this year would be quite a step forward for the twenty-six year old. Still, over the last three years as a starter and reliever he's posted strikeout rates higher than those of anyone else currently being employed by the Mets as a starting pitcher, and improved defense or no, the infusion of someone who can strike some people out into this rotation is a definite plus. He's bound to be at least somewhat inconsistent and he'll need to keep his walks more under control than he did in the minors to have any sort of sustained success, but as someoen who's young and talented and gives opposing teams a different look from anyone else in the Mets' rotation, he's worth putting up with starts like tonight's to see if he can put it all together.
After Yates allowed his six runs in two and one-third inning, the Mets got very solid work out of the bullpen, starting with two and two-thirds scoreless from Jae Weong Seo, who entered the game with two runners on base and recorded two outs without allowing either to score. Dan Wheeler had a couple of good innings as well, striking out two. John Franco also pitched a scoreless inning, as did Grant Roberts, who walked two before retiring the side in the ninth. Removing Seo, who was pitching well, after just 2 2/3 may prove to have unnecessarily tired out the bullpen a day before Al Leiter's scheduled to throw about twenty pitches an inning, but I guess Art Howe didn't want Seo to throw too much given that he's currently scheduled to start on Sunday. If he winds up missing the Sunday start anyway, the move will wind up pretty indefensible, even if it failed to cost the team any runs on this night.
Not that it would have mattered if it had cost the team any runs, as the offense struggled all night, and failed to draw a single walk on the night as John Thomson cruised through eight innings on just 94 pitches. The lone run scored on a sacrifice fly by Kazuo Matsui, who also singled in three at bats. Doubles by Ty Wigginton, who also singled, and Jason Phillips were the only other offensive highlights, as Art Howe continued to find baffling ways to keep his best hitters out of the top of the lineup. Second hitter Eric Valent went hitless in four at bats, dropping his batting average to .091, while relatively hot-hitting Shane Spencer went just one for four. Mike Piazza provided both a single and his first error at first base, making one of the Braves' runs unearned.
Tomorrow Al Leiter (0-0, 0.00) takes on Horacio Ramirez (0-0, 0.00) as the 4-4 Mets try to get back over .500 with a win of their first series at home. ¶ joe | 12:34 AM |
Well, Tyler Yates was bound to give up a run eventually. Might as well get it out of the way in a game where the offense wasn't going to led much of a helping hand anyway. I still think he can be a useful part of the starting rotation this year, and no single outing of less than three innings should diminish the optimism fostered by his terrific first start. He's only been a starter for about a year, and he spent that year posting ERAs around four at three different minor league levels, so for him to be much more than a league average starter this year would be quite a step forward for the twenty-six year old. Still, over the last three years as a starter and reliever he's posted strikeout rates higher than those of anyone else currently being employed by the Mets as a starting pitcher, and improved defense or no, the infusion of someone who can strike some people out into this rotation is a definite plus. He's bound to be at least somewhat inconsistent and he'll need to keep his walks more under control than he did in the minors to have any sort of sustained success, but as someoen who's young and talented and gives opposing teams a different look from anyone else in the Mets' rotation, he's worth putting up with starts like tonight's to see if he can put it all together.
After Yates allowed his six runs in two and one-third inning, the Mets got very solid work out of the bullpen, starting with two and two-thirds scoreless from Jae Weong Seo, who entered the game with two runners on base and recorded two outs without allowing either to score. Dan Wheeler had a couple of good innings as well, striking out two. John Franco also pitched a scoreless inning, as did Grant Roberts, who walked two before retiring the side in the ninth. Removing Seo, who was pitching well, after just 2 2/3 may prove to have unnecessarily tired out the bullpen a day before Al Leiter's scheduled to throw about twenty pitches an inning, but I guess Art Howe didn't want Seo to throw too much given that he's currently scheduled to start on Sunday. If he winds up missing the Sunday start anyway, the move will wind up pretty indefensible, even if it failed to cost the team any runs on this night.
Not that it would have mattered if it had cost the team any runs, as the offense struggled all night, and failed to draw a single walk on the night as John Thomson cruised through eight innings on just 94 pitches. The lone run scored on a sacrifice fly by Kazuo Matsui, who also singled in three at bats. Doubles by Ty Wigginton, who also singled, and Jason Phillips were the only other offensive highlights, as Art Howe continued to find baffling ways to keep his best hitters out of the top of the lineup. Second hitter Eric Valent went hitless in four at bats, dropping his batting average to .091, while relatively hot-hitting Shane Spencer went just one for four. Mike Piazza provided both a single and his first error at first base, making one of the Braves' runs unearned.
Tomorrow Al Leiter (0-0, 0.00) takes on Horacio Ramirez (0-0, 0.00) as the 4-4 Mets try to get back over .500 with a win of their first series at home. ¶ joe | 12:34 AM |
