Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Mets 3, Padres 1 (11)
A wise man once said "a watched pot never boils." This is, of course, due to the fact that pots are customarily made of metal, which boils at such a high temperature as to make watching it closely unsafe. On the other hand, if you monitor the water within a sufficiently heated pot for a long enough period of time, it will in fact begin to boil. In much the same way, if you give the New York Mets' offense enough innings, they will eventually score a run or two.
This time it took the Mets until the eleventh inning to score the second run they needed to make some excellent pitching hold up. Kris Benson pitched seven good innings, allowing just one run on five hits and two walks while striking out four batters. A home run in the top of the fifth by Khalil Greene did all the damage but was enough to keep the game's outcome in doubt for eleven frames. Cliff Floyd matched Greene in the bottom of the fifth with his twenty-third long ball of the season and that's where things sat for six more innings.
The Mets had some good individual performances, as Floyd had a pair of hits as did Mike Piazza and David Wright, who actually batted ahead of Piazza in a rare moment of justifiable lineup construction. Wright hit a double with one out in the ninth innings which was followed by an intentional walk to Piazza, but beyond that the Mets were plum out of hitters.
Piazza's second single of the night came with one out in the eleventh, though, and this time the Mets were able to capitalize. Once the routine pinch runner was procured, the task fell to pinch hitter Chris Woodward. And Woodward, who's been a pretty useful piece off the bench thus far this year, took the second pitch he saw and drove it into the left field bleachers to bring fast old man Gerald Williams and himself home with the winning second and gratuitous third runs, respectively. Woodward, like everyone else the Mets have tried at first base this year, doesn't hit enough to play first base in the major leagues, but as a bench player, he's a good guy to have around. Braden Looper got the win after two perfect innings of relief.
The Mets now sit a full game ahead of the lowly Florida Marlins in fourth place in the National League East. They'll try to attain the lofty heights of two games above .500 tomorrow in the second game of this series. Making that somewhat less than a sure thing will be the Mets' starting pitcher, Tom Glavine (6-7, 4.71), who's going to have to get injured pretty soon if we're not going to be stuck with him again next year. Woody Williams (5-5, 4.15) opposes him for the Padres. ¶ joe | 11:58 PM |
A wise man once said "a watched pot never boils." This is, of course, due to the fact that pots are customarily made of metal, which boils at such a high temperature as to make watching it closely unsafe. On the other hand, if you monitor the water within a sufficiently heated pot for a long enough period of time, it will in fact begin to boil. In much the same way, if you give the New York Mets' offense enough innings, they will eventually score a run or two.
This time it took the Mets until the eleventh inning to score the second run they needed to make some excellent pitching hold up. Kris Benson pitched seven good innings, allowing just one run on five hits and two walks while striking out four batters. A home run in the top of the fifth by Khalil Greene did all the damage but was enough to keep the game's outcome in doubt for eleven frames. Cliff Floyd matched Greene in the bottom of the fifth with his twenty-third long ball of the season and that's where things sat for six more innings.
The Mets had some good individual performances, as Floyd had a pair of hits as did Mike Piazza and David Wright, who actually batted ahead of Piazza in a rare moment of justifiable lineup construction. Wright hit a double with one out in the ninth innings which was followed by an intentional walk to Piazza, but beyond that the Mets were plum out of hitters.
Piazza's second single of the night came with one out in the eleventh, though, and this time the Mets were able to capitalize. Once the routine pinch runner was procured, the task fell to pinch hitter Chris Woodward. And Woodward, who's been a pretty useful piece off the bench thus far this year, took the second pitch he saw and drove it into the left field bleachers to bring fast old man Gerald Williams and himself home with the winning second and gratuitous third runs, respectively. Woodward, like everyone else the Mets have tried at first base this year, doesn't hit enough to play first base in the major leagues, but as a bench player, he's a good guy to have around. Braden Looper got the win after two perfect innings of relief.
The Mets now sit a full game ahead of the lowly Florida Marlins in fourth place in the National League East. They'll try to attain the lofty heights of two games above .500 tomorrow in the second game of this series. Making that somewhat less than a sure thing will be the Mets' starting pitcher, Tom Glavine (6-7, 4.71), who's going to have to get injured pretty soon if we're not going to be stuck with him again next year. Woody Williams (5-5, 4.15) opposes him for the Padres. ¶ joe | 11:58 PM |
