Friday, May 13, 2005
Mets 2, Cardinals 0
There's a reason they play 162 games, you know. Any crazy-ass thing can happen in one baseball game. Jose Jimenez might throw a no-hitter. Mike Cameron might hit four home runs. Or Tom Glavine might forget what year it is and pitch seven scoreless innings. That's just what happened tonight.
Glavine, without the aid of any time machine as far as I could tell, shut the Cardinals down over seven, allowing just four hits and not walking anybody. He only struck out three, but still, he pitched like a completely different guy than the one who started his first seven games of the season. You know, the one who's responsible for the fact that after pitching seven shutout innings in May, Glavine's ERA is still 5.77. Now, we can't draw any conclusions from this start until Glavine takes the mound again. One terrific start can't erase all the terrible pitching that came before it. But it's a step in the right direction.
The Mets needed everything Glavine gave them, as Cardinals' starter Jason Marquis was nearly as effective, allowing just three hits and one walk over seven. But one Met hitter did show up to play, as Cliff Floyd smacked a pair of long home runs to right field. Floyd had cooled off a bit over the last week after a brilliant start to the season. But tonight's pair of bombs gave him ten home runs on the season, putting him in a four-way tie for the league lead, at least for the moment. Some Met hitters have gotten off to disappointing starts, but Floyd is doing all he can to make up for them.
Speaking of disappointing starts, Kazuo Matsui very nearly ruined Tom Glavine's night with some awful defense in the eighth inning. Glavine allowed a single to start the inning, but then got So Taguchi to ground the ball right at Matsui, who proceeded to butcher this potential double play ball to the point where he didn't even get one out. This was his second error of the game. Glavine left the game with two on and none out. Luckily for him, and for Matsui, Roberto Hernandez was able to squelch the threat with a strikeout and two groundouts. Braden Looper pitched a scoreless ninth, allowing one hit, to earn his ninth save of the season.
Matsui has been nothing short of a disaster so far this year. There wasn't much reason to expect a lot from him defensively, but his offensive disappearing act is more of a mystery. Tonight he went hitless in two at bats and drew a walk and he's now hitting a horrendous .227/.273/.286. To put that into perspective, pitcher's best friend Joe McEwing hit .254/.297/.312 last year. Matsui is sub-McEwing. I'm still willing to be a little patient with him given his history of success in Japan and the flashes he showed last year, but even I can't wait too much longer.
Tomorrow looks like one hell of a game on paper. Pedro Martinez (4-1, 3.06) takes the hill for the Mets against Mark Mulder (5-1, 2.70) and the Cardinals. These two former American Leaguers have been blowing away the senior circuit in the early going and their locking horns could rival the pitchers' duel we saw tonight. ¶ joe | 11:31 PM |
There's a reason they play 162 games, you know. Any crazy-ass thing can happen in one baseball game. Jose Jimenez might throw a no-hitter. Mike Cameron might hit four home runs. Or Tom Glavine might forget what year it is and pitch seven scoreless innings. That's just what happened tonight.
Glavine, without the aid of any time machine as far as I could tell, shut the Cardinals down over seven, allowing just four hits and not walking anybody. He only struck out three, but still, he pitched like a completely different guy than the one who started his first seven games of the season. You know, the one who's responsible for the fact that after pitching seven shutout innings in May, Glavine's ERA is still 5.77. Now, we can't draw any conclusions from this start until Glavine takes the mound again. One terrific start can't erase all the terrible pitching that came before it. But it's a step in the right direction.
The Mets needed everything Glavine gave them, as Cardinals' starter Jason Marquis was nearly as effective, allowing just three hits and one walk over seven. But one Met hitter did show up to play, as Cliff Floyd smacked a pair of long home runs to right field. Floyd had cooled off a bit over the last week after a brilliant start to the season. But tonight's pair of bombs gave him ten home runs on the season, putting him in a four-way tie for the league lead, at least for the moment. Some Met hitters have gotten off to disappointing starts, but Floyd is doing all he can to make up for them.
Speaking of disappointing starts, Kazuo Matsui very nearly ruined Tom Glavine's night with some awful defense in the eighth inning. Glavine allowed a single to start the inning, but then got So Taguchi to ground the ball right at Matsui, who proceeded to butcher this potential double play ball to the point where he didn't even get one out. This was his second error of the game. Glavine left the game with two on and none out. Luckily for him, and for Matsui, Roberto Hernandez was able to squelch the threat with a strikeout and two groundouts. Braden Looper pitched a scoreless ninth, allowing one hit, to earn his ninth save of the season.
Matsui has been nothing short of a disaster so far this year. There wasn't much reason to expect a lot from him defensively, but his offensive disappearing act is more of a mystery. Tonight he went hitless in two at bats and drew a walk and he's now hitting a horrendous .227/.273/.286. To put that into perspective, pitcher's best friend Joe McEwing hit .254/.297/.312 last year. Matsui is sub-McEwing. I'm still willing to be a little patient with him given his history of success in Japan and the flashes he showed last year, but even I can't wait too much longer.
Tomorrow looks like one hell of a game on paper. Pedro Martinez (4-1, 3.06) takes the hill for the Mets against Mark Mulder (5-1, 2.70) and the Cardinals. These two former American Leaguers have been blowing away the senior circuit in the early going and their locking horns could rival the pitchers' duel we saw tonight. ¶ joe | 11:31 PM |
