Thursday, June 24, 2004
Reds 6, Mets 4 (12)
Kazuo Matsui’s Great National League Adventure has taken a turn for the worse of late. Now, if we learned anything from Mr. Matsui Comes To New York, Part One last year, it was that a lot of the new guy’s struggles can be chalked up to the period of adjustment to Major League Baseball. So while it seems likely that Kazuo’s great defensive reputation was at least somewhat overblown, I’m still pretty confident that he’s a better hitter than he’s shown this year, and there have certainly been flashes of good play that have lent credence to that opinion. But the most frustrating moments of his tenure in a New York Mets uniform have been the mental lapses. With one out n the fifth inning of Wednesday’s game, the Mets had Matsui on second and Jose Reyes on first with Mike Piazza at the plate, a situation the team’s management no doubt spent the offseason envisioning. So when Mike Piazza drove the ball off the wall in centerfield, I was pretty happy about the fact that the Mets had just closed a two-run gap and tied the game. Except that didn’t happen, because Matsui was standing at second base waiting to tag up when the ball landed, so he wound up getting thrown out at the plate on Piazza’s four hundred foot single. Fortunately Cliff Floyd then came up and singled to drive in Reyes, but Matsui’s bizarre baserunning cost the Mets at least a run. Certain of his shortcomings thus far as a Met have been excusable due to his unfamiliarity with the American pitchers and baserunners and playing fields and whatnot, but there have been a few too many of this kind of play, a play that would have been dumb no matter where on the globe it occurred, and it’s hard to figure how he’s going to go about acquiring some common sense at this stage of his career. Matsui did hit a pair of singles on the night, breaking a lengthy hitless drought, but he also struck out with a runner on third base and one out in the ninth inning, when any sufficiently deep fly ball to the outfield could have ended the game.
The Mets did get some offense from some of their other important bats, as Piazza, Reyes and Richard Hidalgo each had a double. Piazza had three hits on the night and Hidalgo had a pair of his own.
The Mets also used just about every relief pitcher they have due to another less than stellar starting pitching performance from the back end of the rotation, and it wound up costing them in the end. Jae Weong Seo settled down after a very rough start, but he still lasted only five innings, allowing four runs, all of which scored on the Reds’ three home runs. Seo allowed a grand total of eight hits and a walk while striking out just one. He’s now allowed half as many home runs, nine, as he did last year in sixty-one and one-third innings, about one-third as many as he pitched in 2003.
The Mets are only carrying six relief pitchers at the moment, which is less than they have for most of the season, in part because they’ve got seven outfielder--not including Joe McEwing--on the bench. They wound up using five of those pitchers on Wednesday—everybody but Dan Wheeler--and the first four of them put together six scoreless innings. Jose Parra and Braden Looper each pitched two. But eventually it came down to John Franco who had thrown twenty-six pitches in two innings the night before. That’s not an outrageous workload or anything, and he might have been perfectly ready to go on Wednesday. But some fatigue might help explain the two-run homer he gave up to Sean Casey to put Cincinnati in the lead for good, the first hit by a lefty off of Franco in twenty-seven at bats.
The minor leagues didn’t provide a whole lot of good news for the Mets on Wednesday either, as both Orber Moreno and Scott Strickland had a rough time pitching an inning for St. Lucie. Moreno gave up three runs on four hits while striking out two and Strickland gave up two runs on three hits and a walk while striking out one. At least Lastings Milledge had another good game for Capital City, going two for five with a double.
Tomorrow brings a pretty comfortable pitching matchup for the Mets as Tom Glavine (7-3, 2.07) takes on Cory Lidle (4-5, 5.29) in a battle of contrasting opinions of Rick Peterson’s abilities as a pitching coach. ¶ joe | 1:55 AM |
Kazuo Matsui’s Great National League Adventure has taken a turn for the worse of late. Now, if we learned anything from Mr. Matsui Comes To New York, Part One last year, it was that a lot of the new guy’s struggles can be chalked up to the period of adjustment to Major League Baseball. So while it seems likely that Kazuo’s great defensive reputation was at least somewhat overblown, I’m still pretty confident that he’s a better hitter than he’s shown this year, and there have certainly been flashes of good play that have lent credence to that opinion. But the most frustrating moments of his tenure in a New York Mets uniform have been the mental lapses. With one out n the fifth inning of Wednesday’s game, the Mets had Matsui on second and Jose Reyes on first with Mike Piazza at the plate, a situation the team’s management no doubt spent the offseason envisioning. So when Mike Piazza drove the ball off the wall in centerfield, I was pretty happy about the fact that the Mets had just closed a two-run gap and tied the game. Except that didn’t happen, because Matsui was standing at second base waiting to tag up when the ball landed, so he wound up getting thrown out at the plate on Piazza’s four hundred foot single. Fortunately Cliff Floyd then came up and singled to drive in Reyes, but Matsui’s bizarre baserunning cost the Mets at least a run. Certain of his shortcomings thus far as a Met have been excusable due to his unfamiliarity with the American pitchers and baserunners and playing fields and whatnot, but there have been a few too many of this kind of play, a play that would have been dumb no matter where on the globe it occurred, and it’s hard to figure how he’s going to go about acquiring some common sense at this stage of his career. Matsui did hit a pair of singles on the night, breaking a lengthy hitless drought, but he also struck out with a runner on third base and one out in the ninth inning, when any sufficiently deep fly ball to the outfield could have ended the game.
The Mets did get some offense from some of their other important bats, as Piazza, Reyes and Richard Hidalgo each had a double. Piazza had three hits on the night and Hidalgo had a pair of his own.
The Mets also used just about every relief pitcher they have due to another less than stellar starting pitching performance from the back end of the rotation, and it wound up costing them in the end. Jae Weong Seo settled down after a very rough start, but he still lasted only five innings, allowing four runs, all of which scored on the Reds’ three home runs. Seo allowed a grand total of eight hits and a walk while striking out just one. He’s now allowed half as many home runs, nine, as he did last year in sixty-one and one-third innings, about one-third as many as he pitched in 2003.
The Mets are only carrying six relief pitchers at the moment, which is less than they have for most of the season, in part because they’ve got seven outfielder--not including Joe McEwing--on the bench. They wound up using five of those pitchers on Wednesday—everybody but Dan Wheeler--and the first four of them put together six scoreless innings. Jose Parra and Braden Looper each pitched two. But eventually it came down to John Franco who had thrown twenty-six pitches in two innings the night before. That’s not an outrageous workload or anything, and he might have been perfectly ready to go on Wednesday. But some fatigue might help explain the two-run homer he gave up to Sean Casey to put Cincinnati in the lead for good, the first hit by a lefty off of Franco in twenty-seven at bats.
The minor leagues didn’t provide a whole lot of good news for the Mets on Wednesday either, as both Orber Moreno and Scott Strickland had a rough time pitching an inning for St. Lucie. Moreno gave up three runs on four hits while striking out two and Strickland gave up two runs on three hits and a walk while striking out one. At least Lastings Milledge had another good game for Capital City, going two for five with a double.
Tomorrow brings a pretty comfortable pitching matchup for the Mets as Tom Glavine (7-3, 2.07) takes on Cory Lidle (4-5, 5.29) in a battle of contrasting opinions of Rick Peterson’s abilities as a pitching coach. ¶ joe | 1:55 AM |
