Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Mets 1, Marlins 0
Mets 6, Marlins 1
Marlins 6, Mets 3
The Mets got three good starting pitching performances in a row over the weekend, and while that wasn't quite enough to complete the sweep of the Marlins, taking three out of four in this series is a fine accomplishment. The Mets' offense wasn't at its best in these three games, yet they were in each of them until the end. With some better work from and/or usage of the bullpen, they might have pulled off the sweep.
On Friday it was just another brilliant performance from the Mets' ace. The seven-inning, hundred-pitch Pedro Martinez lasted eight and threw one hundred and eleven and dominated the Marlins' hitters the whole way. He struck out ten. He walked zero. And he gave up five hits, with only Carlos Delgado's two doubles going for more than one base. This was enough to put his ERA back under three at 2.79 and earn him his fifth win, though the offense made it a close call. He's now got a strikeout to walk ratio of 83:12 in 71 innings. While seven starters in the National League have lower ERAs, none has struck out more batters and only Javier Vazquez has a superior K:BB ratio. Pedro's absurd 0.72 WHIP also leads the league. There are a lot of pitchers with impressive numbers in the NL right now--four guys have ERAs under two--but the Mets pretty clearly have a Cy Young candidate on their hands.
One of those guys with sub-2.00 ERAs is, amazingly enough, Brian Moehler, who Pedro just barely managed to beat on Friday. Mike Cameron hit one of his two doubles on the night in the fourth inning and Cliff Floyd followed with one of his own to drive in the only run of the game. Like the Marlins, the Mets had only five hits on the night, but four of them were doubles as Eric Valent added one of his own before being sent down in favor of Victor Diaz.
On Saturday the good Kazuhisa Ishii showed up and the Mets got a slightly more comfortable win. In a lot of ways it was a typical Ishii start, as he walked as many as he struck out--three. But he managed to pitch his way out of some jams over the course of six and two-thirds innings and allowed just one run on five hits. Ishii's basically been alternating good and bad starts this season, and I'd still rather see Jae Seo or Aaron Heilman in his spot, but he's not totally useless.
Nor was the Mets' offense on this day, as they smacked fourteen hits on their way to six runs. They went another day without a home run, but hit four more doubles as Mike Piazza had a pair while David Wright and Chris Woodward had one each. Piazza had an increasingly rare excellent game with three hits and a walk. Miguel Cairo also had three hits and Mike Cameron added two on a day when every Met starter had at least one.
Willie Randolph made another curious bullpen move, having Heath Bell pitch an inning and one-third. He entered in the seventh with two out, no one on and a four-run lead and then stayed in to pitch the eighth after the Mets extended the lead to five. It's nice that Bell's getting as much work as he is, but you would really think that Mike DeJean could handle a situation like that.
On Sunday it was Tom Glavine shutting down the Marlins for a while only to have the bullpen give it up. Glavine only lasted six innings, and he gave up eight hits and two walks. But he struck out four and limited the Marlins to just one run. He left the game with a narrow lead of two to one, the kind of lead that never seems to hold up for him.
The Mets scored their first run on a home run by Doug Mientkiewicz, his seventh of the year. The unexpected power isn't enough to make up for Mientkiewicz's general incompetence with the bat this year, but at least it's something. The second run scored when Floyd drove in Jose Reyes, who had reached by drawing one of his shocking two walks on the day. Reyes now has eight walks this year, which isn't at all good enough given that he's had 215 at bats and he's only batting .260, but at least he's showing signs of improvement in that department.
But Bell entered to start the seventh and gave up a pair of ground ball singles. Now, there's some bad luck in that, and I can't say that he was tired, but maybe if he hadn't pitched those meaningless innings the day before, he could have struck someone out on Sunday. Of course, the real problem was the 3-0 pitch Dae-Sung Koo threw to Delgado, starting out right in the middle of the plate and ending up on the far side of the outfield fence as it did. After Bell failed to get anyone out, they brought in Koo to face the lefty, and he did quite a bad job of it. Once the Mets were down 4-2, Randolph found a use for DeJean, who came in and gave up two more runs in an inning of work. Heilman pitched a scoreless eighth with two strikeouts after the Mets had cut the deficit to three runs. I'm not sure it's worth trying to make sense of that one.
All told, it was a pretty successful weekend for the Mets (26-25), even if they only gained two games in the standings in the end. Taking three out of four on the road from one of the better teams in a tough division is a job well done. On Tuesday they'll welcome the surprising Arizona Diamondbacks (29-22) to town. Kris Benson (3-1, 3.86) goes for the Mets in the midst of a pretty solid streak of starts. Brad Halsey (3-2, 3.34) takes the ball for Arizona. ¶ joe | 12:27 AM |
Mets 6, Marlins 1
Marlins 6, Mets 3
The Mets got three good starting pitching performances in a row over the weekend, and while that wasn't quite enough to complete the sweep of the Marlins, taking three out of four in this series is a fine accomplishment. The Mets' offense wasn't at its best in these three games, yet they were in each of them until the end. With some better work from and/or usage of the bullpen, they might have pulled off the sweep.
On Friday it was just another brilliant performance from the Mets' ace. The seven-inning, hundred-pitch Pedro Martinez lasted eight and threw one hundred and eleven and dominated the Marlins' hitters the whole way. He struck out ten. He walked zero. And he gave up five hits, with only Carlos Delgado's two doubles going for more than one base. This was enough to put his ERA back under three at 2.79 and earn him his fifth win, though the offense made it a close call. He's now got a strikeout to walk ratio of 83:12 in 71 innings. While seven starters in the National League have lower ERAs, none has struck out more batters and only Javier Vazquez has a superior K:BB ratio. Pedro's absurd 0.72 WHIP also leads the league. There are a lot of pitchers with impressive numbers in the NL right now--four guys have ERAs under two--but the Mets pretty clearly have a Cy Young candidate on their hands.
One of those guys with sub-2.00 ERAs is, amazingly enough, Brian Moehler, who Pedro just barely managed to beat on Friday. Mike Cameron hit one of his two doubles on the night in the fourth inning and Cliff Floyd followed with one of his own to drive in the only run of the game. Like the Marlins, the Mets had only five hits on the night, but four of them were doubles as Eric Valent added one of his own before being sent down in favor of Victor Diaz.
On Saturday the good Kazuhisa Ishii showed up and the Mets got a slightly more comfortable win. In a lot of ways it was a typical Ishii start, as he walked as many as he struck out--three. But he managed to pitch his way out of some jams over the course of six and two-thirds innings and allowed just one run on five hits. Ishii's basically been alternating good and bad starts this season, and I'd still rather see Jae Seo or Aaron Heilman in his spot, but he's not totally useless.
Nor was the Mets' offense on this day, as they smacked fourteen hits on their way to six runs. They went another day without a home run, but hit four more doubles as Mike Piazza had a pair while David Wright and Chris Woodward had one each. Piazza had an increasingly rare excellent game with three hits and a walk. Miguel Cairo also had three hits and Mike Cameron added two on a day when every Met starter had at least one.
Willie Randolph made another curious bullpen move, having Heath Bell pitch an inning and one-third. He entered in the seventh with two out, no one on and a four-run lead and then stayed in to pitch the eighth after the Mets extended the lead to five. It's nice that Bell's getting as much work as he is, but you would really think that Mike DeJean could handle a situation like that.
On Sunday it was Tom Glavine shutting down the Marlins for a while only to have the bullpen give it up. Glavine only lasted six innings, and he gave up eight hits and two walks. But he struck out four and limited the Marlins to just one run. He left the game with a narrow lead of two to one, the kind of lead that never seems to hold up for him.
The Mets scored their first run on a home run by Doug Mientkiewicz, his seventh of the year. The unexpected power isn't enough to make up for Mientkiewicz's general incompetence with the bat this year, but at least it's something. The second run scored when Floyd drove in Jose Reyes, who had reached by drawing one of his shocking two walks on the day. Reyes now has eight walks this year, which isn't at all good enough given that he's had 215 at bats and he's only batting .260, but at least he's showing signs of improvement in that department.
But Bell entered to start the seventh and gave up a pair of ground ball singles. Now, there's some bad luck in that, and I can't say that he was tired, but maybe if he hadn't pitched those meaningless innings the day before, he could have struck someone out on Sunday. Of course, the real problem was the 3-0 pitch Dae-Sung Koo threw to Delgado, starting out right in the middle of the plate and ending up on the far side of the outfield fence as it did. After Bell failed to get anyone out, they brought in Koo to face the lefty, and he did quite a bad job of it. Once the Mets were down 4-2, Randolph found a use for DeJean, who came in and gave up two more runs in an inning of work. Heilman pitched a scoreless eighth with two strikeouts after the Mets had cut the deficit to three runs. I'm not sure it's worth trying to make sense of that one.
All told, it was a pretty successful weekend for the Mets (26-25), even if they only gained two games in the standings in the end. Taking three out of four on the road from one of the better teams in a tough division is a job well done. On Tuesday they'll welcome the surprising Arizona Diamondbacks (29-22) to town. Kris Benson (3-1, 3.86) goes for the Mets in the midst of a pretty solid streak of starts. Brad Halsey (3-2, 3.34) takes the ball for Arizona. ¶ joe | 12:27 AM |
