Monday, April 11, 2005
Mets 8, Astros 4
Maybe the rest of the Mets just don't like Tom Glavine. As often happened during the first half of last year, Glavine pitched extremely well and failed to get credit for the win due to some poor relief pitching and tardy hitting. Of course, the team managed to win this one in the end, so it's hard to get too upset about it all. But Glavine bounced back from the trouncing of his first start with a very good six-inning performance, allowing just one run on four hits and three walks while striking out six. He left after ninety-seven pitches with a 3-1 lead.
Then Manny Aybar came in to do what he did for the first week of the season and allow some runs. This was Aybar's fourth appearance of the season and the third in which he's allowed the opposition to score. This time he allowed three runs on four hits with a little help from Dae-Sung Koo, who failed to prevent an inherited runner from scoring after Aybar was allowed to start a second inning of work for some unknown reason. Koo threw one pitch and former Met Jose Vizcaino hit it for a double. So it wasn't his sharpest outing either. But Roberto Hernandez came in to save the day and continued his early-season excellence, tossing another scoreless inning with one strikeout. He's now struck out six while walking just one through three and one-third innings and has been the most effective reliever so far in the small sample size portion of this season.
After Hernandez had quelled the Astro uprising, the Met bats came to life and a steady barrage of singles and poor outfield play added up to a five-run eighth inning that put the game out of reach for Houston. Of the team's thirteen hits on the day, only David Wright's early double went for more than one base and while Houston right fielder Jason Lane was only charged with one error on the day, his inventive routes to fly balls aided the Met offense more times than that. Victor Diaz did reach base four times on the day with two singles and an unexpected pair of walks. The eighth-inning outburst was enough to put a save out of Braden Looper's reach, but he did pitch a perfect ninth for his first scoreless inning of the season, dropping his ERA to a slightly less embarrassing 18.00. Actually retiring batters when he enters a game is doing wonders for his stats.
The modestly streaking Mets get a day off to think about what they've done before engaging in a pitching duel significantly less interesting than those of the past two days. Broken bat-wielding maniac Roger Clemens (1-0, 1.29) gets the ball for Houston. Kazuhisa Ishii (0-1, 6.75) goes for the Mets. ¶ joe | 11:51 PM |
Maybe the rest of the Mets just don't like Tom Glavine. As often happened during the first half of last year, Glavine pitched extremely well and failed to get credit for the win due to some poor relief pitching and tardy hitting. Of course, the team managed to win this one in the end, so it's hard to get too upset about it all. But Glavine bounced back from the trouncing of his first start with a very good six-inning performance, allowing just one run on four hits and three walks while striking out six. He left after ninety-seven pitches with a 3-1 lead.
Then Manny Aybar came in to do what he did for the first week of the season and allow some runs. This was Aybar's fourth appearance of the season and the third in which he's allowed the opposition to score. This time he allowed three runs on four hits with a little help from Dae-Sung Koo, who failed to prevent an inherited runner from scoring after Aybar was allowed to start a second inning of work for some unknown reason. Koo threw one pitch and former Met Jose Vizcaino hit it for a double. So it wasn't his sharpest outing either. But Roberto Hernandez came in to save the day and continued his early-season excellence, tossing another scoreless inning with one strikeout. He's now struck out six while walking just one through three and one-third innings and has been the most effective reliever so far in the small sample size portion of this season.
After Hernandez had quelled the Astro uprising, the Met bats came to life and a steady barrage of singles and poor outfield play added up to a five-run eighth inning that put the game out of reach for Houston. Of the team's thirteen hits on the day, only David Wright's early double went for more than one base and while Houston right fielder Jason Lane was only charged with one error on the day, his inventive routes to fly balls aided the Met offense more times than that. Victor Diaz did reach base four times on the day with two singles and an unexpected pair of walks. The eighth-inning outburst was enough to put a save out of Braden Looper's reach, but he did pitch a perfect ninth for his first scoreless inning of the season, dropping his ERA to a slightly less embarrassing 18.00. Actually retiring batters when he enters a game is doing wonders for his stats.
The modestly streaking Mets get a day off to think about what they've done before engaging in a pitching duel significantly less interesting than those of the past two days. Broken bat-wielding maniac Roger Clemens (1-0, 1.29) gets the ball for Houston. Kazuhisa Ishii (0-1, 6.75) goes for the Mets. ¶ joe | 11:51 PM |
