Saturday, April 17, 2004
Pirates 2, Mets 1
Well, apparently the story on last night is that Tom Glavine experienced some stiffness in his shoulder, wanted to pitch the eighth anyway, but was taken out at the behest of pitching coach Rick Peterson. I'll leave it up to you to determine whether or not that's a cover story for a very Art Howe kind of decision. I'll at least give Howe credit for bringing in the right guy to start the eighth, even if it didn't work out so well. Using Orber Moreno to set up Braden Looper in close games seems like the best way to use this bullpen to me, and Howe apparently agrees. Bringing in Former Yankee Mike Stanton with runners on base, on the other hand...
In more disappointing news from Friday, Scott Kazmir took to the mound for the St. Lucie Mets and had perhaps the worst start of his professional career. Through four innings he gave up five runs on eight hits and one walk while striking out just two. For comparison's sake, in 33 innings with St. Lucie at the end of last year, he gave up just 29 hits and 15 runs, striking out 40. There's certainly no reason to panic, as he was making his first start after having to be removed from a game due to injury, and his health is more important than how he pitched in one game. Still, he's not quite off to the blazing start that he had in both 2002 and 2003 and that I'm sure most fans expected this year.
In better news, Victor Diaz had a big game for Norfolk on Friday, going three for four with his second home run of the year, as well as a walk and a stolen base. He's now hitting .286/.310/.500 through 28 at bats. Craig Brazell (.233/.233/.667, 4 hr) and Mike Jacobs (.500/.538/.833, 1) also homered in the Tides' 10-9 win.
As for the major league Mets, they got another strong starting pitching performance on Satuday, this time from Steve Trachsel, but once agian it wasn't enough to get the team a win. Trachsel went eight innings, giving up two runs on eight hits, one of them a home run, and one walk while striking out five. He once again lowered his ERA, this time to 5.82, but also lowered his record to 1-2 when the Mets were unable to put up more than a run against five Pittsburgh pitchers. On a day when Jason Phillips watched from the bench with Mike Piazza at first for the third time this week and Vance Wilson behind the plate for the first time all season, no one higher in the lineup than sixth hitter Ty Wigginton managed a hit. Mikes Piazza and Cameron did each draw walks ahead of Wigginton to kick off the run-scoring rally, such as it was.
Tomorrow, a presumably more standard Mets lineup will try to put some runs on the board against Kris Benson (1-0, 2.45) while Jae Weong Seo (0-1, 1.93) makes his first start of the season for the Mets. ¶ joe | 7:56 PM |
Well, apparently the story on last night is that Tom Glavine experienced some stiffness in his shoulder, wanted to pitch the eighth anyway, but was taken out at the behest of pitching coach Rick Peterson. I'll leave it up to you to determine whether or not that's a cover story for a very Art Howe kind of decision. I'll at least give Howe credit for bringing in the right guy to start the eighth, even if it didn't work out so well. Using Orber Moreno to set up Braden Looper in close games seems like the best way to use this bullpen to me, and Howe apparently agrees. Bringing in Former Yankee Mike Stanton with runners on base, on the other hand...
In more disappointing news from Friday, Scott Kazmir took to the mound for the St. Lucie Mets and had perhaps the worst start of his professional career. Through four innings he gave up five runs on eight hits and one walk while striking out just two. For comparison's sake, in 33 innings with St. Lucie at the end of last year, he gave up just 29 hits and 15 runs, striking out 40. There's certainly no reason to panic, as he was making his first start after having to be removed from a game due to injury, and his health is more important than how he pitched in one game. Still, he's not quite off to the blazing start that he had in both 2002 and 2003 and that I'm sure most fans expected this year.
In better news, Victor Diaz had a big game for Norfolk on Friday, going three for four with his second home run of the year, as well as a walk and a stolen base. He's now hitting .286/.310/.500 through 28 at bats. Craig Brazell (.233/.233/.667, 4 hr) and Mike Jacobs (.500/.538/.833, 1) also homered in the Tides' 10-9 win.
As for the major league Mets, they got another strong starting pitching performance on Satuday, this time from Steve Trachsel, but once agian it wasn't enough to get the team a win. Trachsel went eight innings, giving up two runs on eight hits, one of them a home run, and one walk while striking out five. He once again lowered his ERA, this time to 5.82, but also lowered his record to 1-2 when the Mets were unable to put up more than a run against five Pittsburgh pitchers. On a day when Jason Phillips watched from the bench with Mike Piazza at first for the third time this week and Vance Wilson behind the plate for the first time all season, no one higher in the lineup than sixth hitter Ty Wigginton managed a hit. Mikes Piazza and Cameron did each draw walks ahead of Wigginton to kick off the run-scoring rally, such as it was.
Tomorrow, a presumably more standard Mets lineup will try to put some runs on the board against Kris Benson (1-0, 2.45) while Jae Weong Seo (0-1, 1.93) makes his first start of the season for the Mets. ¶ joe | 7:56 PM |
