Sunday, May 21, 2006
Mets 7, Yankees 6
Yankees 5, Mets 4 (11)
This series was going so well for seventeen innings. Friday saw the Mets come from behind and win in dramatic fashion. And on Saturday it appeared they would cruise to an easy victory behind some great starting pitching. And then it all went wrong.
The starting pitching was not so great on Friday as Jeremi Gonzalez pitched three awful innings, allowing six runs on nine hits and three walks, striking out three. But the bullpen was excellent. Darren Oliver entered in the fourth and allowed one inherited runner to score, but that was all. He wound up pitching two innings allowing no runs on two hits while striking out two.
Meanwhile, the Mets were having no trouble coming back against Randy Johnson. Carlos Beltran hit a three-run home run in the first to cut the deficit to one and Xavier Nady hit a two-run shot in the third to momentarily tie things up. The sixth Yankee run scored in the top of the fourth, but the Mets got even with two hits in the fifth.
With the two teams tied at six and both starting pitchers out of the game, the Mets turned to Aaron Heilman to keep the Yankees at bay. He was excellent. Through three perfect innings Heilman struck out three batters, needing just thirty-three pitches to retire the entire Yankee lineup. Billy Wagner entered the tie game in the ninth and blew the Yankees away, striking out the side on twelve pitches.
The Yankees countered with Mariano Rivera and he did not enjoy the same success. With one out, Paul Lo Duca doubled to left for his second hit of the game. After Carlos Beltran struck out and Carlos Delgado was intentionally walked, it all came down to David Wright. Already with two hits in the game, Wright came up and drove the ball over the head of Johnny Damon in center to score Lo Duca and win the game. Wright has struggled in some ways lately, as he's striking out a lot more often than he was early in the season and he hasn't hit a home run in almost a month. Even so, he's remained productive, raising his OBP from .377 to .397 since the start of the month as his SLG has dipped from .584 to .509. His recent power outage is a bit troubling, but as long as he's doing so much else well, I think it's too early to be very concerned.
There wasn't much reason for concern early Saturday, either. First of all, the day began with the welcome news that Jose Lima had been designated for assignment. The Mets have since recalled Alay Soler to take his place in the rotation.
The game started out pretty well, as Pedro Martinez shut down the Yankees for seven innings. He shut them out on just four hits and one walk while striking out eight in perhaps his best start of the season. And it appeared the rest of the Mets would give him plenty of support.
The Mets scored twice in the first thanks to some bad Yankee defense and a couple of doubles from Beltran and Wright. They later padded this lead with solo home runs from Delgado and Cliff Floyd. With a four-run lead and a good bullpen, victory seemed nearly assured.
Duaner Sanchez did nothing to diminish that feeling, pitched a scoreless eighth, allowing just one hit. But after throwing just ten pitches, Sanchez, who hadn't pitched since Tuesday, was removed. Willie Randolph for some reason felt the need to use Wagner to hold a four-run lead in the ninth inning. I wonder if he would have made the same decision against a team other than the Yankees.
Regardless of Randolph's reasoning, Wagner was terrible. He allowed two singles and a walk before he got anyone out. Then with one out, he walked the next batter to load the bases. The next batter also walked, bringing home the second run of the inning. This might have been a good time for Randolph to realize Wagner wasn't any good on this day and remove him. One batter earlier might have as well. But Wagner stayed in and hit the next batter, scoring a third run. At this point he was finally removed for Pedro Feliciano.
Feliciano very nearly got a game-ending double play, but Damon beat the throw to first, meaning the tying run scored. Chad Bradford entered and got Derek Jeter to ground out to end the inning in extremely clutch fashion. So at least the inning wasn't a total loss.
Even though the game was only tied at this point, it felt like the Mets had already lost. I've felt like that in other games this season only to see the Mets come back and win in extra innings. But this time the Mets had no more comebacks left in them, nor did they have much in the way of pitchers. So Jorge Julio pitched a scoreless tenth before giving up a run in the eleventh to lose the game.
This was a tough game to lose after being so close to winning this series. But the Mets have a pretty good shot at wrapping it up anyway, given tonight's pitching matchup. Tom Glavine (6-2, 2.43) will start for the Mets against Aaron Small (0-1, 8.71) and the Yankees. It will be Small's first start of the season. ¶ joe | 4:05 PM |
Yankees 5, Mets 4 (11)
This series was going so well for seventeen innings. Friday saw the Mets come from behind and win in dramatic fashion. And on Saturday it appeared they would cruise to an easy victory behind some great starting pitching. And then it all went wrong.
The starting pitching was not so great on Friday as Jeremi Gonzalez pitched three awful innings, allowing six runs on nine hits and three walks, striking out three. But the bullpen was excellent. Darren Oliver entered in the fourth and allowed one inherited runner to score, but that was all. He wound up pitching two innings allowing no runs on two hits while striking out two.
Meanwhile, the Mets were having no trouble coming back against Randy Johnson. Carlos Beltran hit a three-run home run in the first to cut the deficit to one and Xavier Nady hit a two-run shot in the third to momentarily tie things up. The sixth Yankee run scored in the top of the fourth, but the Mets got even with two hits in the fifth.
With the two teams tied at six and both starting pitchers out of the game, the Mets turned to Aaron Heilman to keep the Yankees at bay. He was excellent. Through three perfect innings Heilman struck out three batters, needing just thirty-three pitches to retire the entire Yankee lineup. Billy Wagner entered the tie game in the ninth and blew the Yankees away, striking out the side on twelve pitches.
The Yankees countered with Mariano Rivera and he did not enjoy the same success. With one out, Paul Lo Duca doubled to left for his second hit of the game. After Carlos Beltran struck out and Carlos Delgado was intentionally walked, it all came down to David Wright. Already with two hits in the game, Wright came up and drove the ball over the head of Johnny Damon in center to score Lo Duca and win the game. Wright has struggled in some ways lately, as he's striking out a lot more often than he was early in the season and he hasn't hit a home run in almost a month. Even so, he's remained productive, raising his OBP from .377 to .397 since the start of the month as his SLG has dipped from .584 to .509. His recent power outage is a bit troubling, but as long as he's doing so much else well, I think it's too early to be very concerned.
There wasn't much reason for concern early Saturday, either. First of all, the day began with the welcome news that Jose Lima had been designated for assignment. The Mets have since recalled Alay Soler to take his place in the rotation.
The game started out pretty well, as Pedro Martinez shut down the Yankees for seven innings. He shut them out on just four hits and one walk while striking out eight in perhaps his best start of the season. And it appeared the rest of the Mets would give him plenty of support.
The Mets scored twice in the first thanks to some bad Yankee defense and a couple of doubles from Beltran and Wright. They later padded this lead with solo home runs from Delgado and Cliff Floyd. With a four-run lead and a good bullpen, victory seemed nearly assured.
Duaner Sanchez did nothing to diminish that feeling, pitched a scoreless eighth, allowing just one hit. But after throwing just ten pitches, Sanchez, who hadn't pitched since Tuesday, was removed. Willie Randolph for some reason felt the need to use Wagner to hold a four-run lead in the ninth inning. I wonder if he would have made the same decision against a team other than the Yankees.
Regardless of Randolph's reasoning, Wagner was terrible. He allowed two singles and a walk before he got anyone out. Then with one out, he walked the next batter to load the bases. The next batter also walked, bringing home the second run of the inning. This might have been a good time for Randolph to realize Wagner wasn't any good on this day and remove him. One batter earlier might have as well. But Wagner stayed in and hit the next batter, scoring a third run. At this point he was finally removed for Pedro Feliciano.
Feliciano very nearly got a game-ending double play, but Damon beat the throw to first, meaning the tying run scored. Chad Bradford entered and got Derek Jeter to ground out to end the inning in extremely clutch fashion. So at least the inning wasn't a total loss.
Even though the game was only tied at this point, it felt like the Mets had already lost. I've felt like that in other games this season only to see the Mets come back and win in extra innings. But this time the Mets had no more comebacks left in them, nor did they have much in the way of pitchers. So Jorge Julio pitched a scoreless tenth before giving up a run in the eleventh to lose the game.
This was a tough game to lose after being so close to winning this series. But the Mets have a pretty good shot at wrapping it up anyway, given tonight's pitching matchup. Tom Glavine (6-2, 2.43) will start for the Mets against Aaron Small (0-1, 8.71) and the Yankees. It will be Small's first start of the season. ¶ joe | 4:05 PM |
