Sunday, August 07, 2005
Mets 6, Cubs 1
It sure was nice of the Cubs to come to town so the Mets could look like a real playoff contender for three days. For the second straight day, the Cubs lineup, featuring such offensive stalwarts as Neifi Perez and Jose Macias, was unable to do much of anything against the Mets' starting pitching. And this time the Mets scored some runs to make sure this one wasn't so close.
The Battle of the Zambranos was no contest, as Victor shut the Cubs down over eight excellent innings. He only struck out one batter along the way, but he walked just two and it took him a mere 107 pitches to record those twenty-four outs. He gave up five hits and only back-to-back doubles in the eighth inning spoiled his shutout bid as he reduced his season ERA to an even 4.00. Aaron Heilman pitched a scoreless ninth, allowing one hit and striking out one.
Cliff Floyd led the Mets' offense with a perfect three-for-three night, also drawing a walk. Among the three hits was his twenty-sixth home run of the season, a solo shot in the seventh. Miguel Cairo had a pair of singles. Carlos Beltran had a single and a walk and scored three runs, including one in the first inning on which he scored from first base on Floyd's ground ball single up the middle thanks to the always fabulous Chicago defense, which also committed two errors on the night. David Wright had just one hit, but drove in three runs. And Jose Reyes extended his hitting streak to twenty games, which is apparently the official point at which I'm willing to talk about it.
The Mets (57-54) are still in last place in the National League by a margin of half a game, but they're also just one game out of second place. They remain three games out of the Wild Card, which means they are still the closest New York baseball team to a playoff spot. When they return to action on Tuesday, it will be in San Diego against the NL West-leading Padres (56-55). Pedro Martinez (12-3, 2.81) will take on Chan Ho Park (8-5, 5.84), which is just funny. The difference in the annual salaries of the two starting pitchers is just $300,000, which is even funnier. ¶ joe | 11:21 PM |
It sure was nice of the Cubs to come to town so the Mets could look like a real playoff contender for three days. For the second straight day, the Cubs lineup, featuring such offensive stalwarts as Neifi Perez and Jose Macias, was unable to do much of anything against the Mets' starting pitching. And this time the Mets scored some runs to make sure this one wasn't so close.
The Battle of the Zambranos was no contest, as Victor shut the Cubs down over eight excellent innings. He only struck out one batter along the way, but he walked just two and it took him a mere 107 pitches to record those twenty-four outs. He gave up five hits and only back-to-back doubles in the eighth inning spoiled his shutout bid as he reduced his season ERA to an even 4.00. Aaron Heilman pitched a scoreless ninth, allowing one hit and striking out one.
Cliff Floyd led the Mets' offense with a perfect three-for-three night, also drawing a walk. Among the three hits was his twenty-sixth home run of the season, a solo shot in the seventh. Miguel Cairo had a pair of singles. Carlos Beltran had a single and a walk and scored three runs, including one in the first inning on which he scored from first base on Floyd's ground ball single up the middle thanks to the always fabulous Chicago defense, which also committed two errors on the night. David Wright had just one hit, but drove in three runs. And Jose Reyes extended his hitting streak to twenty games, which is apparently the official point at which I'm willing to talk about it.
The Mets (57-54) are still in last place in the National League by a margin of half a game, but they're also just one game out of second place. They remain three games out of the Wild Card, which means they are still the closest New York baseball team to a playoff spot. When they return to action on Tuesday, it will be in San Diego against the NL West-leading Padres (56-55). Pedro Martinez (12-3, 2.81) will take on Chan Ho Park (8-5, 5.84), which is just funny. The difference in the annual salaries of the two starting pitchers is just $300,000, which is even funnier. ¶ joe | 11:21 PM |
