Thursday, July 22, 2004
Mets 5,Expos 4
Day one of the David Wright era was nearly another terrible loss for the Mets, but luckily the Expos’ incompetence was able to overcome Art Howe’s in the end. Wright himself went hitless in four at bats, but the Mets’ offense gave starter Jae Weong Seo enough of a cushion to be comfortable. At least for a little while.
Richard Hidalgo blasted a three-run home run for the second consecutive day to break a scoreless tie in the third, giving him fourteen on the year including ten in twenty-nine games with the Mets. Kazuo Matsui padded the Mets’ lead with an RBI single in the fourth, driving in Seo, who was cruising on the mound up until that point.
Seo got through six very good innings, allowing just one run in the fifth and heading into the seventh with a three-run lead. But he allowed a pair of hits to lead off the inning and Art Howe made the completely inexplicable but entirely predictable move that nearly cost the Mets the game. The world’s most useless human Mike Stanton entered the game and immediately surrendered a game-tying three-run home run to Endy Freaking Chavez. Stanton allowed another hit before finally finishing the inning, but the best part is that Howe actually sent him out to start the eighth, too! The way Howe uses Stanton, the league leader in appearances, is entirely indefensible and short of Howe’s firing, the only hope for this team may be that Stanton’s arm falls off from overwork. There’s no way to justify using this guy so often in clutch situations given how consistently incompetent he’s been, and the inability to recognize such an obvious truth should be enough to cost Howe his job. Certain managerial moves that garner criticism are open to debate, but Howe’s usage of Stanton is flatly idiotic and if the Mets won’t fire Howe, they ought to get rid of Stanton by any means necessary to prevent the two of them from further damaging the team’s chances of competing in this winnable division.
Jae Weong Seo, however, is still deserving of a spot on a major league roster, and another solid start tonight will hopefully slow the Mets’ pursuit of Kris Benson. Seo wound up charged with three runs in six innings, allowing eight hits and three walks while striking out one. Benson’s line on the night was much prettier as he went eight innings and allowed just two runs on five hits, striking out four Braves. That’s now four straight good starts for Benson, but I still don’t think the Mets should let one good month obscure years of mediocrity and give up someone who might actually be a useful part of this team in the upcoming years for the next three months of Kris Benson.
Seo’s line of course could have looked better had he gotten some support from the bullpen, but at least after Stanton allowed a leadoff hit to start the eighth, he got some help. Orber Moreno entered with one out and a runner on first and got a double play to get out of the inning and preserve the tie.
Meanwhile, Ty Wigginton seemingly stepped up his game with the new kid in town, as he drew his third walk of the night with two outs in the eighth. Then it was time for the Expos to balance the scales of ineptitude. Wigginton advanced to second on a wild pitch and then scored when first baseman Nick Johnson just dropped what should have been an inning-ending groundout by Todd Zeile. Braden Looepr finished things off for his twentieth save, though he did allow a pair of singles before getting the job done.
Down in the minors, there was another noteworthy promotion today as catcher Justin Huber got bumped up to Norfolk for the next couple of weeks before he heads off to represent Australia in the Olympics. After starting out the season injured, the twenty-two year old Huber bounced back to hit .271/.414/.487 in 236 at bats with Binghamton. I’m somewhat surprised by this promotion, especially given how briefly he’ll be around to play at the AAA level, but I suppose it’s not a bad idea to give him a taste of the higher level this year. And if this means that Huber has a shot of helping the Mets out at the major league level at some point next year, all the better.
Tomorrow, another two game series comes to an end with Tom Glavine (7-8, 2.67) taking on Tony Armas, Jr. (1-3, 4.24) in an early afternoon game.
¶ joe | 1:30 AM |
Day one of the David Wright era was nearly another terrible loss for the Mets, but luckily the Expos’ incompetence was able to overcome Art Howe’s in the end. Wright himself went hitless in four at bats, but the Mets’ offense gave starter Jae Weong Seo enough of a cushion to be comfortable. At least for a little while.
Richard Hidalgo blasted a three-run home run for the second consecutive day to break a scoreless tie in the third, giving him fourteen on the year including ten in twenty-nine games with the Mets. Kazuo Matsui padded the Mets’ lead with an RBI single in the fourth, driving in Seo, who was cruising on the mound up until that point.
Seo got through six very good innings, allowing just one run in the fifth and heading into the seventh with a three-run lead. But he allowed a pair of hits to lead off the inning and Art Howe made the completely inexplicable but entirely predictable move that nearly cost the Mets the game. The world’s most useless human Mike Stanton entered the game and immediately surrendered a game-tying three-run home run to Endy Freaking Chavez. Stanton allowed another hit before finally finishing the inning, but the best part is that Howe actually sent him out to start the eighth, too! The way Howe uses Stanton, the league leader in appearances, is entirely indefensible and short of Howe’s firing, the only hope for this team may be that Stanton’s arm falls off from overwork. There’s no way to justify using this guy so often in clutch situations given how consistently incompetent he’s been, and the inability to recognize such an obvious truth should be enough to cost Howe his job. Certain managerial moves that garner criticism are open to debate, but Howe’s usage of Stanton is flatly idiotic and if the Mets won’t fire Howe, they ought to get rid of Stanton by any means necessary to prevent the two of them from further damaging the team’s chances of competing in this winnable division.
Jae Weong Seo, however, is still deserving of a spot on a major league roster, and another solid start tonight will hopefully slow the Mets’ pursuit of Kris Benson. Seo wound up charged with three runs in six innings, allowing eight hits and three walks while striking out one. Benson’s line on the night was much prettier as he went eight innings and allowed just two runs on five hits, striking out four Braves. That’s now four straight good starts for Benson, but I still don’t think the Mets should let one good month obscure years of mediocrity and give up someone who might actually be a useful part of this team in the upcoming years for the next three months of Kris Benson.
Seo’s line of course could have looked better had he gotten some support from the bullpen, but at least after Stanton allowed a leadoff hit to start the eighth, he got some help. Orber Moreno entered with one out and a runner on first and got a double play to get out of the inning and preserve the tie.
Meanwhile, Ty Wigginton seemingly stepped up his game with the new kid in town, as he drew his third walk of the night with two outs in the eighth. Then it was time for the Expos to balance the scales of ineptitude. Wigginton advanced to second on a wild pitch and then scored when first baseman Nick Johnson just dropped what should have been an inning-ending groundout by Todd Zeile. Braden Looepr finished things off for his twentieth save, though he did allow a pair of singles before getting the job done.
Down in the minors, there was another noteworthy promotion today as catcher Justin Huber got bumped up to Norfolk for the next couple of weeks before he heads off to represent Australia in the Olympics. After starting out the season injured, the twenty-two year old Huber bounced back to hit .271/.414/.487 in 236 at bats with Binghamton. I’m somewhat surprised by this promotion, especially given how briefly he’ll be around to play at the AAA level, but I suppose it’s not a bad idea to give him a taste of the higher level this year. And if this means that Huber has a shot of helping the Mets out at the major league level at some point next year, all the better.
Tomorrow, another two game series comes to an end with Tom Glavine (7-8, 2.67) taking on Tony Armas, Jr. (1-3, 4.24) in an early afternoon game.
¶ joe | 1:30 AM |
