Sunday, May 23, 2004
Mets 4, Rockies 0
Don Cardwell. Warren Spahn. Dock Ellis. John Candelaria. Tom Seaver. Nolan Ryan. Mike Scott. Al Leiter. Hideo Nomo. Dean Chance. Bret Saberhagen. Kenny Rogers. Dwight Gooden. David Cone.
All wore a Mets jersey at one point in their major league career. All pitched a no-hitter a one point in their major league career. None did both of these things at the same time. Tom Glavine came within four outs of becoming the first in forty-three years of New York Mets history to pull off that feat, but a Kit Pellow double off of the right field wall brought his no-hit bid to an end. Glavine's shot at becoming the second ancient lefty in a week to toss a perfect game had come to an end in the seventh when he walked leadoff batter Denny Hocking. Glavine did finish the game for the first time as a Met, allowing just that one hit and that one walk while striking out eight to earn his sixth win of the year. Before the season began, I thought there was a pretty good chance that Glavine would be better this year than he was the last, but I never thought he'd bounce back all the way to the ace, All-Star kind of form he's shown thus far. A no-hitter would've been some tasty icing for this cake, but at 6-2 with a 2.13 ERA, you can't ask for anything more out of Glavine.
Of course, the Mets did have to score some runs for Glavine's one-hit shutout to count for anything, and they once again got that out of the way in a hurry. Kazuo Matsui, for the fifth time this season and the second in as many days, led off the first inning with a home run. He went two for three on the day, adding a double and a walk as is now hitting .260/.337/.435. Not spectacular numbers, but for a shortstop, not bad at all, and in addition to being the best-hitting shortstop in town (at .190/.251/.277, the other guy's not putting up much of a fight), Kazuo's also adjusting to the major leagues more quickly than Hideki Matsui, who was hitting just .270/.318/.383 with three home runs on this date last year. The elder Matsui is up to .282/.390/.456 with six home runs so far this year, so if this is what Kazuo does during his adjustment period, how well is he going to hit over the life of his contract? There's a long way to go in this season and on that contract, but given that he's already gone through a terrible slump and bounced back, the signing of Kazuo Matsui is looking like a pretty good one for the Mets.
Cliff Floyd added another home run in the first, his fourth of the season, and went two for four on the day. Ty Wigginton and Mike Piazza each had doubles on the day.
One thing that shouldn't be forgotten about Glavine's gem of a game is that it put the Mets at .500, 22 and 22, heading into a stretch of games against the top two teams in the division, the Phillies and Marlins. With the team playing well and Jose Reyes apparently on his way back, for real this time, sitting at .500 isn't a bad position to be in at all.
¶ joe | 7:56 PM |
Don Cardwell. Warren Spahn. Dock Ellis. John Candelaria. Tom Seaver. Nolan Ryan. Mike Scott. Al Leiter. Hideo Nomo. Dean Chance. Bret Saberhagen. Kenny Rogers. Dwight Gooden. David Cone.
All wore a Mets jersey at one point in their major league career. All pitched a no-hitter a one point in their major league career. None did both of these things at the same time. Tom Glavine came within four outs of becoming the first in forty-three years of New York Mets history to pull off that feat, but a Kit Pellow double off of the right field wall brought his no-hit bid to an end. Glavine's shot at becoming the second ancient lefty in a week to toss a perfect game had come to an end in the seventh when he walked leadoff batter Denny Hocking. Glavine did finish the game for the first time as a Met, allowing just that one hit and that one walk while striking out eight to earn his sixth win of the year. Before the season began, I thought there was a pretty good chance that Glavine would be better this year than he was the last, but I never thought he'd bounce back all the way to the ace, All-Star kind of form he's shown thus far. A no-hitter would've been some tasty icing for this cake, but at 6-2 with a 2.13 ERA, you can't ask for anything more out of Glavine.
Of course, the Mets did have to score some runs for Glavine's one-hit shutout to count for anything, and they once again got that out of the way in a hurry. Kazuo Matsui, for the fifth time this season and the second in as many days, led off the first inning with a home run. He went two for three on the day, adding a double and a walk as is now hitting .260/.337/.435. Not spectacular numbers, but for a shortstop, not bad at all, and in addition to being the best-hitting shortstop in town (at .190/.251/.277, the other guy's not putting up much of a fight), Kazuo's also adjusting to the major leagues more quickly than Hideki Matsui, who was hitting just .270/.318/.383 with three home runs on this date last year. The elder Matsui is up to .282/.390/.456 with six home runs so far this year, so if this is what Kazuo does during his adjustment period, how well is he going to hit over the life of his contract? There's a long way to go in this season and on that contract, but given that he's already gone through a terrible slump and bounced back, the signing of Kazuo Matsui is looking like a pretty good one for the Mets.
Cliff Floyd added another home run in the first, his fourth of the season, and went two for four on the day. Ty Wigginton and Mike Piazza each had doubles on the day.
One thing that shouldn't be forgotten about Glavine's gem of a game is that it put the Mets at .500, 22 and 22, heading into a stretch of games against the top two teams in the division, the Phillies and Marlins. With the team playing well and Jose Reyes apparently on his way back, for real this time, sitting at .500 isn't a bad position to be in at all.
¶ joe | 7:56 PM |
