Monday, June 12, 2006
Mets 5, Diamondbacks 0
Mets 15 ,Diamondbacks 2
This is getting a bit silly, I think. The Mets went into the home of the leaders of the National League's Western Division and beat them four consecutive times. And they did it without too much difficulty. As a result of this series, the Diamondbacks are no longer the leader of any division, while the Mets are the leader of the East by a margin of six and a half games. Even in the second week of June, that's a lot of games.
On Saturday, Alay Soler did what neither Tom Glavine nor Pedro Martinez has been able to do this season and pitched a complete game shutout. He blanked the Diamondbacks on just two hits and three walks while striking out two. It was Soler's second straight excellent start and dropped his ERA a point and two-thirds all the way down to 3.33. He's still got a rather unimpressive strikeout-to-walk ratio of 15:11 in 27 innings pitched. And it's hard to blame that on his wild first two starts with a straight face when he had more walks that strikeouts in his best start. But he's still done a lot of things right in his last two outings. The Mets just may have found themselves a third good starter.
Given that they were facing Brandon Webb, the Mets' offense can be forgiven for putting just five runs on the board. Jose Reyes, David Wright and Endy Chavez each had two hits and Chavez, Carlos Beltran and Jose Valentin each hit a double. Beltran, Reyes, Chavez and Lastings Milledge each stole a base.
Mets pitching wasn't quite so dominant on Sunday, but the bats got to face Russ Ortiz, so it didn't really matter. They scored fifteen runs without a home run. Every starter had a hit aside from Jose Reyes who had to settle for three unintentional bases on balls. Reyes, now one walk shy of tying his total from all of last season, also stole two bases en route to scoring two runs.
The new Carlos Delgado, bearing a striking resemblance to the old Carlos Delgado, led the team with three hits, two of which were doubles. Chavez, Beltran and Chris Woodward each had two hits and one double. Wright and Eli Marrero also doubled.
Pedro was the beneficiary of all of this offense, finally recording his sixth win of the season. He pitched just five innings and allowed one run on five hits and one walk. He struck out three and, as has often been the case this year, the run came on a home run. He's now given up twelve of those, but he's still closer to the league ERA lead than the lead in home runs allowed. That no one in either league has more than his 97 strikeouts probably has something to do with that.
The Mets (39-23) will conclude their road trip with a three-game series against the second place Phillies (33-30) beginning Tuesday. Last time in Philly, the Mets lost two out of three, just as the Phillies did in New York. This series gives the Phillies a chance to gain some ground on the Mets, but given the way the Mets are playing lately, I wouldn't call it much of a chance. Glavine (9-2, 3.06) will start game one against Ryan Madson (6-3, 5.71). ¶ joe | 8:07 PM |
Mets 15 ,Diamondbacks 2
This is getting a bit silly, I think. The Mets went into the home of the leaders of the National League's Western Division and beat them four consecutive times. And they did it without too much difficulty. As a result of this series, the Diamondbacks are no longer the leader of any division, while the Mets are the leader of the East by a margin of six and a half games. Even in the second week of June, that's a lot of games.
On Saturday, Alay Soler did what neither Tom Glavine nor Pedro Martinez has been able to do this season and pitched a complete game shutout. He blanked the Diamondbacks on just two hits and three walks while striking out two. It was Soler's second straight excellent start and dropped his ERA a point and two-thirds all the way down to 3.33. He's still got a rather unimpressive strikeout-to-walk ratio of 15:11 in 27 innings pitched. And it's hard to blame that on his wild first two starts with a straight face when he had more walks that strikeouts in his best start. But he's still done a lot of things right in his last two outings. The Mets just may have found themselves a third good starter.
Given that they were facing Brandon Webb, the Mets' offense can be forgiven for putting just five runs on the board. Jose Reyes, David Wright and Endy Chavez each had two hits and Chavez, Carlos Beltran and Jose Valentin each hit a double. Beltran, Reyes, Chavez and Lastings Milledge each stole a base.
Mets pitching wasn't quite so dominant on Sunday, but the bats got to face Russ Ortiz, so it didn't really matter. They scored fifteen runs without a home run. Every starter had a hit aside from Jose Reyes who had to settle for three unintentional bases on balls. Reyes, now one walk shy of tying his total from all of last season, also stole two bases en route to scoring two runs.
The new Carlos Delgado, bearing a striking resemblance to the old Carlos Delgado, led the team with three hits, two of which were doubles. Chavez, Beltran and Chris Woodward each had two hits and one double. Wright and Eli Marrero also doubled.
Pedro was the beneficiary of all of this offense, finally recording his sixth win of the season. He pitched just five innings and allowed one run on five hits and one walk. He struck out three and, as has often been the case this year, the run came on a home run. He's now given up twelve of those, but he's still closer to the league ERA lead than the lead in home runs allowed. That no one in either league has more than his 97 strikeouts probably has something to do with that.
The Mets (39-23) will conclude their road trip with a three-game series against the second place Phillies (33-30) beginning Tuesday. Last time in Philly, the Mets lost two out of three, just as the Phillies did in New York. This series gives the Phillies a chance to gain some ground on the Mets, but given the way the Mets are playing lately, I wouldn't call it much of a chance. Glavine (9-2, 3.06) will start game one against Ryan Madson (6-3, 5.71). ¶ joe | 8:07 PM |
