Betty's No Good Clothes Shop And Pancake House
Saturday, May 15, 2004
  Mets 8, Astros 3

Three down, two to go. The Mets' surprising assault on some of the best arms in the league continued tonight as the return of Cliff Floyd to the lineup kept on paying dividends. After notching an RBI single on his first night back, the Mets' leftfielder got right back to business on night two of his return, cranking a grand slam in the third inning to put a serious damper on Roy Oswalt's evening. The Mets had already gotten a solo home run from Mike Piazza in the second, his seventh on the year, and Floyd's blast put them up for good as Steve Trachsel held the Astros well enough in check. Trachsel went six innings, allowing those three runs on five hits and two walks while striking out just one to earn his fourth win of the season. Ricky Bottalico struck out two through two and Orber Moreno K'd one in one for three innings of scoreless relief.

As for the rest of the offense, Eric Valent, playing first base, had another good game in the leadoff spot, going two for three with a walk. Kazuo Matsui did well batting behind Valent once again, with a pair of hits in five at bats. Matsui, Floyd, Joe McEwing and Danny Garcia all had doubles on the night as the Mets' offense continued to look good. It's probably asking a lot for Valent to keep up his .306/.400/.503 pace for too much longer, but with Matsui, Floyd and Piazza all hitting well in the heart of the lineup and getting a bit of support from the various role players, this offense could continue to look very respectable, even without that guy who's supposed to be batting second. All of a sudden the team has a dependable second baseman, a, well, potentially adequate third baseman and an abundance of reasonable options at first base and in rightfield. With the offense playing the way it is, and the starting pitchers doing their part, it may just be too early to write off this 17-19 third place team that still has more runs scored than allowed on the season.

Tomorrow, Andy Pettitte (3-1, 3.22) goes for the Astros while James Baldwin (0-1, 27.00) bafflingly gets another shot for the Mets. So after the Mets lose that game they'll be three and three on this road trip and looking to make it a winning journey against an old rival on Sunday. Al Leiter won't go on Sunday, but that will apparently be the only start he'll miss, which is of course very encouraging news.
 
Comments: Post a Comment

<< Home
Disseminating descriptions and accounts of New York Mets games without the expressed written consent of Major League Baseball or the New York Mets since 2003.

Name:
Location: Hatboro, Pennsylvania, United States
    follow me on Twitter
    ARCHIVES
    02.2003 / 03.2003 / 04.2003 / 05.2003 / 06.2003 / 07.2003 / 08.2003 / 09.2003 / 10.2003 / 11.2003 / 12.2003 / 01.2004 / 02.2004 / 03.2004 / 04.2004 / 05.2004 / 06.2004 / 07.2004 / 08.2004 / 09.2004 / 10.2004 / 11.2004 / 12.2004 / 01.2005 / 02.2005 / 03.2005 / 04.2005 / 05.2005 / 06.2005 / 07.2005 / 08.2005 / 09.2005 / 11.2005 / 12.2005 / 01.2006 / 04.2006 / 05.2006 / 06.2006 / 07.2006 / 08.2006 / 09.2006 / 10.2006 / 03.2007 / 04.2007 / 05.2007 / 06.2007 / 07.2007 / 08.2007 / 09.2007 / 10.2007 / 11.2007 / 01.2008 / 03.2008 / 04.2008 / 05.2008 / 06.2008 / 07.2008 / 09.2008 / 12.2008 / 01.2009 / 04.2009 / 05.2009 / 06.2009 / 07.2009 / 10.2010 /


    METS LINKS

    New York Mets Official Site
    24 Hours From Suicide...
    Adam Rubin
    Always Amazin'
    Amazin' Avenue
    Archie Bunker's Army
    Baseball and Booze
    Blastings! Thrilledge
    East Coast Agony
    The Eddie Kranepool Society
    Faith and Fear in Flushing Hot Foot
    The LoHud Mets Blog
    The Metropolitans
    MetsBlog
    Mets By The Numbers
    Mets Geek
    Mets Minor League Blog
    Misery Loves Company
    Mostly Mets
    Wright Now

    BASEBALL LINKS

    Death To Flying Things
    Aaron Gleeman
    A Citizen's Blog
    Athletics Nation
    Baseball America
    Baseball Analysts
    The Baseball Biography Project
    Baseball Musings
    Baseball Prospectus
    Baseball Reference
    Baseball Think Factory
    Baseball Toaster
    Batter's Box
    Bronx Banter
    Cot's Baseball Contracts
    Dodger Thoughts
    The Dugout
    Fire Joe Morgan
    Futility Infielder
    The Hardball Times
    Honest Wagner
    Keith Law
    Mike's Baseball Rants
    Minor League Ball (John Sickels)
    Minor League Baseball
    Off Wing Opinion
    Only Baseball Matters
    Paul DePodesta
    Peter Gammons
    Replacement Level Yankees Weblog
    Retrosheet
    Rob Neyer
    Tim Marchman
    U.S.S. Mariner



    Subscribe with Bloglines

    Powered by Blogger