Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Mets 5, Phillies 3
Also, Weather 2, Joe 0. For the second time this season, I went out to see the Mets play in person, this time at nearby and brand new Citizen's Bank Park. And for the second time this year, I left well before the game ended. It was more than an hour after the scheduled start time of this game when the game actually began, as they apparently decided at that point that the rain was falling lightly enough to get some baseball in. Kazuo Matsui led off the game with a double and scored on another two-base hit by Cliff Floyd. And Matt Ginter pitched three hitless, scoreless innings, walking one and striking out one, running his scoreless streak against the Phillies to nine innings. And then the rain got heavier. We left pretty early on in the two and a half hour rain delay, but at least I got home in time to see the rest of the game on television.
Jason Phillips homered in the top of the fourth to pad the Mets lead and they added another in the fifth when Todd Zeile's double drove home Matsui, who had singled and stolen second. Orber Moreno relieved Ginter and pitched a scoreless fourth before the defense had a chance to let him down in the fifth. Mike Piazza let a ground ball go through his legs to start the inning and Moreno wound up allowing two hits, two walks and two unearned runs in the inning. Moreno did strike out a pair through his two innings of work.
Ricky Bottalico pitched an inning and two-thirds, allowing one hit and one walk, striking out one. And that's when Art Howe went to work on trying to hand this game back to the Phillies. With two outs and a runner on first base in the seventh inning, leading by one run, he brought in Mike Stanton, for the sixth consecutive game and fourth consecutive day, double switching out Cliff Floyd in the process, to pitch to Bobby Abreu. That he would bring in Stanton, who had gotten through an outing without allowing a base runner just once in the previous five games, was baffling enough. But that he would remove Floyd from a one-run game in order to allow Stanton to pitch the eighth inning is just unbelieveable. On this day Art Howe had eight relievers in his bullpen, and yet he felt the need to get Mike Stanton, he of the 4.28 ERA, who last had a day off on Thursday, as much work as possible. Even being familiar with Howe's track record, it's hard to believe he could manage his bullpen as ineptly as he did today. And you know what the funniest part is? After Stanton predictably allowed Abreu to reach base via the walk before getting Jim Thome to ground out, he didn't even pitch the eighth inning! Just as the inning was about to begin, Howe came out and removed Stanton in favor of Dan Wheeler. So, because Howe felt that he had no one else in his bullpen capable of retiring either Abreu or Thome, because neither of the other two lefties in his bullpen, nor even *gasp* a righty, would suffice, he removed Floyd in a move that wound up entirely unnecessary. That Howe can envision neither Stanton failing to retire Bobby Abreu nor any of his other relievers managing to retire Abreu or Jim Thome makes you wonder why he'll still have this job even tomorrow.
Luckily for Howe and the rest of the Mets, the offense managed to put a couple of runs on the board in the top of the eighth. After Howe let Mike Piazza join Floyd on the bench in favor of a pinch runner in what was still a one-run game, Mike Cameron doubled in two runs with two outs. That was lucky, as Pat Burrell, the first batter faced by Dan Wheeler, Howe's spur-of-the-moment replacement for Stanton who made the earlier double switch entirely pointless, homered to make the score 5-3. Wheeler got through the rest of the eighth unscathed before giving way to Braden Looper, who earned the save in the ninth, striking out one. In all, the Mets used five relievers, three of whom had pitched the day before. The offense managed to cover for the damage they and the defense wrought, but you have to wonder what it's going to take for Art Howe to go a whole day without putting Mike Stanton in a game, or, better yet, realize that Stanton isn't some kind of sure thing in clutch situations.
Whenever that might happen, it probably won't be tomorrow, as Al Leiter (1-2, 2.52) returns to face Kevin Millwood (4-3, 4.90). Pedro Feliciano will presumably head back to Norfolk having not thrown a single pitch in a game since being called up. Hopefully he at least spent some quality time with Rick Peterson. If he's really lucky, maybe Howe even remembered his name. ¶ joe | 1:23 AM |
Also, Weather 2, Joe 0. For the second time this season, I went out to see the Mets play in person, this time at nearby and brand new Citizen's Bank Park. And for the second time this year, I left well before the game ended. It was more than an hour after the scheduled start time of this game when the game actually began, as they apparently decided at that point that the rain was falling lightly enough to get some baseball in. Kazuo Matsui led off the game with a double and scored on another two-base hit by Cliff Floyd. And Matt Ginter pitched three hitless, scoreless innings, walking one and striking out one, running his scoreless streak against the Phillies to nine innings. And then the rain got heavier. We left pretty early on in the two and a half hour rain delay, but at least I got home in time to see the rest of the game on television.
Jason Phillips homered in the top of the fourth to pad the Mets lead and they added another in the fifth when Todd Zeile's double drove home Matsui, who had singled and stolen second. Orber Moreno relieved Ginter and pitched a scoreless fourth before the defense had a chance to let him down in the fifth. Mike Piazza let a ground ball go through his legs to start the inning and Moreno wound up allowing two hits, two walks and two unearned runs in the inning. Moreno did strike out a pair through his two innings of work.
Ricky Bottalico pitched an inning and two-thirds, allowing one hit and one walk, striking out one. And that's when Art Howe went to work on trying to hand this game back to the Phillies. With two outs and a runner on first base in the seventh inning, leading by one run, he brought in Mike Stanton, for the sixth consecutive game and fourth consecutive day, double switching out Cliff Floyd in the process, to pitch to Bobby Abreu. That he would bring in Stanton, who had gotten through an outing without allowing a base runner just once in the previous five games, was baffling enough. But that he would remove Floyd from a one-run game in order to allow Stanton to pitch the eighth inning is just unbelieveable. On this day Art Howe had eight relievers in his bullpen, and yet he felt the need to get Mike Stanton, he of the 4.28 ERA, who last had a day off on Thursday, as much work as possible. Even being familiar with Howe's track record, it's hard to believe he could manage his bullpen as ineptly as he did today. And you know what the funniest part is? After Stanton predictably allowed Abreu to reach base via the walk before getting Jim Thome to ground out, he didn't even pitch the eighth inning! Just as the inning was about to begin, Howe came out and removed Stanton in favor of Dan Wheeler. So, because Howe felt that he had no one else in his bullpen capable of retiring either Abreu or Thome, because neither of the other two lefties in his bullpen, nor even *gasp* a righty, would suffice, he removed Floyd in a move that wound up entirely unnecessary. That Howe can envision neither Stanton failing to retire Bobby Abreu nor any of his other relievers managing to retire Abreu or Jim Thome makes you wonder why he'll still have this job even tomorrow.
Luckily for Howe and the rest of the Mets, the offense managed to put a couple of runs on the board in the top of the eighth. After Howe let Mike Piazza join Floyd on the bench in favor of a pinch runner in what was still a one-run game, Mike Cameron doubled in two runs with two outs. That was lucky, as Pat Burrell, the first batter faced by Dan Wheeler, Howe's spur-of-the-moment replacement for Stanton who made the earlier double switch entirely pointless, homered to make the score 5-3. Wheeler got through the rest of the eighth unscathed before giving way to Braden Looper, who earned the save in the ninth, striking out one. In all, the Mets used five relievers, three of whom had pitched the day before. The offense managed to cover for the damage they and the defense wrought, but you have to wonder what it's going to take for Art Howe to go a whole day without putting Mike Stanton in a game, or, better yet, realize that Stanton isn't some kind of sure thing in clutch situations.
Whenever that might happen, it probably won't be tomorrow, as Al Leiter (1-2, 2.52) returns to face Kevin Millwood (4-3, 4.90). Pedro Feliciano will presumably head back to Norfolk having not thrown a single pitch in a game since being called up. Hopefully he at least spent some quality time with Rick Peterson. If he's really lucky, maybe Howe even remembered his name. ¶ joe | 1:23 AM |
