Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Expos 19, Mets 10
Remember when I said Scott Erickson wasn’t the new James Baldwin? Yeah, I may have spoken too soon. The Mets’ latest bad idea got smacked around by the worst offense in baseball on Tuesday and as a result Art Howe wound up using nearly his whole bullpen in one night. Erickson went just two-plus innings, allowing six runs on seven hits and three walks, striking out none. And after Erickson blew an early 3-1 lead, Dan Wheeler came in and pitched a terrible inning, putting the game pretty well out of reach on a night when the Mets’ offense was smacking Montreal pitching around. Wheeler gave up five runs, four earned, on four hits and four walks while striking out three before Ricky Bottalico came in and finally got things under control. Bottalico and Tyler Yates each pitched well before giving way to John Franco who did a repeat of his performance against Montreal last week, culminating in a Tony Batista two-run home run, followed by a hit batter that got Franco ejected. Mike Stanton got the final out of the inning and down by six runs, Howe gave up and turned to Todd Zeile to finish things off. Zeile gave up five runs on four hits and two walks in a performance that was surprisingly even worse than Franco’s.
Meanwhile, down in Norfolk, while Erickson was getting pounded and wasting the Mets’ bullpen for the rest of this road trip, Aaron Heilman was throwing another solid start and picking up another win. After starting out the season 0-7, Heilman is now 5-8, thanks to another good seven inning performances. Heilman did give up four hits and four walks and hit a batter while striking out just two, but he limited the damage to three runs to lower his ERA to 4.60. Heilman got off to a terrible start this year, and hasn’t really been consistently dominant in his comeback, but I still think it’s worth giving him a shot over Erickson as soon as possible. Erickson isn’t going to rebound to be a good starter for even the rest of this year, while Heilman still has a chance to be a solid option for the rest of this year and beyond. I expect Erickson to be out on the mound again on Saturday, and he’ll probably get pounded again. Hopefully the Mets will give Heilman a shot the next time the fifth spot comes around.
Of course, while it was rarely a close game, the Mets’ offense did have a huge night, putting up those ten runs on sixteen hits, including eight for extra bases. David Wright hit his first major league home run, a huge shot to left centerfield, and also walked. Richard Hidalgo smacked a pair of his own, giving him sixteen on the year, and Mike Cameron hit his seventeenth. Kazuo Matsui hit his thirtieth double of the year, Ty Wigginton had a pair of doubles and Cliff Floyd had one as well.
Tonight the Mets really need a long outing from their starting pitcher, but luckily they’ve got Tom Glavine (7-8, 2.60) going, so there’s a pretty good chance of getting seven innings or so. Zach Day (5-9, 3.90) goes for the Expos.
¶ joe | 2:04 PM |
Remember when I said Scott Erickson wasn’t the new James Baldwin? Yeah, I may have spoken too soon. The Mets’ latest bad idea got smacked around by the worst offense in baseball on Tuesday and as a result Art Howe wound up using nearly his whole bullpen in one night. Erickson went just two-plus innings, allowing six runs on seven hits and three walks, striking out none. And after Erickson blew an early 3-1 lead, Dan Wheeler came in and pitched a terrible inning, putting the game pretty well out of reach on a night when the Mets’ offense was smacking Montreal pitching around. Wheeler gave up five runs, four earned, on four hits and four walks while striking out three before Ricky Bottalico came in and finally got things under control. Bottalico and Tyler Yates each pitched well before giving way to John Franco who did a repeat of his performance against Montreal last week, culminating in a Tony Batista two-run home run, followed by a hit batter that got Franco ejected. Mike Stanton got the final out of the inning and down by six runs, Howe gave up and turned to Todd Zeile to finish things off. Zeile gave up five runs on four hits and two walks in a performance that was surprisingly even worse than Franco’s.
Meanwhile, down in Norfolk, while Erickson was getting pounded and wasting the Mets’ bullpen for the rest of this road trip, Aaron Heilman was throwing another solid start and picking up another win. After starting out the season 0-7, Heilman is now 5-8, thanks to another good seven inning performances. Heilman did give up four hits and four walks and hit a batter while striking out just two, but he limited the damage to three runs to lower his ERA to 4.60. Heilman got off to a terrible start this year, and hasn’t really been consistently dominant in his comeback, but I still think it’s worth giving him a shot over Erickson as soon as possible. Erickson isn’t going to rebound to be a good starter for even the rest of this year, while Heilman still has a chance to be a solid option for the rest of this year and beyond. I expect Erickson to be out on the mound again on Saturday, and he’ll probably get pounded again. Hopefully the Mets will give Heilman a shot the next time the fifth spot comes around.
Of course, while it was rarely a close game, the Mets’ offense did have a huge night, putting up those ten runs on sixteen hits, including eight for extra bases. David Wright hit his first major league home run, a huge shot to left centerfield, and also walked. Richard Hidalgo smacked a pair of his own, giving him sixteen on the year, and Mike Cameron hit his seventeenth. Kazuo Matsui hit his thirtieth double of the year, Ty Wigginton had a pair of doubles and Cliff Floyd had one as well.
Tonight the Mets really need a long outing from their starting pitcher, but luckily they’ve got Tom Glavine (7-8, 2.60) going, so there’s a pretty good chance of getting seven innings or so. Zach Day (5-9, 3.90) goes for the Expos.
¶ joe | 2:04 PM |
