Monday, April 09, 2007
160-2 is still pretty good, I guess
After Friday night it seemed like the Mets were on course to cruise to October, but reality had to go and intrude on the proceedings over the weekend. Still, it wasn't the soft underbelly of the starting rotation that did the Mets in on Saturday and Sunday as much as their failure at the hitting and the fielding and the relief pitching. At least two of those areas figure to improve as the season goes on.
Friday sure was fun, though. The Mets hammered Mark Redman and three relievers, including old pal Tyler Yates, for eleven runs on fifteen hits, six walks and two errors. Jose Reyes remained red hot, leading the way with three hits including his first two triples of the season. Paul Lo Duca had three of his trademark one-baggers and David Wright doubled twice. All nine Met starters had at least one hit. More surprisingly, at least to people other than me, Oliver Perez got his season off to a great start with seven strong innings, allowing one run on five hits with six strikeouts and zero walks. He threw just eighty-two pitches and was going to pitch the eighth before the Mets broke things open against Yates and company in the top half. Of the Mets' three relative youngsters at the back of the rotation, I think Perez is the most capable of putting together a spectacular 2007. He is also probably the most capable of falling apart and being sent to New Orleans by mid-June, but I'm a starting rotation half-full kind of guy.
gave up a hit and a walk and also balked, forcing Saturday and Sunday saw Tom Glavine and Orlando Hernandez pitch well enough to win but neither got quite the necessary support from his teammates. On Saturday two errors led to three unearned runs including Shawn Green just dropping a fly ball with one out and the bases loaded in the sixth. That brought one run home and neither Pedro Feliciano nor Joe Smith was able to end the inning before two more had scored. On Sunday El Duque gave up just one run in six innings, but Aaron Heilman gave up two in the eighth to blow a slim lead. Heilman is the Mets' only established reliever for the pre-Wagner portion of the game and it seems like Willie Randolph is still figuring out how to use the rest of his bullpen. How else to explain letting Scott Schoeneweis pitch to two righties in the seventh inning of a one-run game? Schoeneweis gave up a hit and a walk and also balked, forcing Heilman to come in and clean up his mess.
Of course, none of this would have mattered if the Mets had kept up their offensive onslaught rather than scoring just five runs in two games. They had ten hits and six walks on Satuday with a Lo Duca home run and and a Green double included, but they left a ton of runners on base. Green homered on Sunday as did Ramon Castro and Reyes added his third triple, but those were half of the Mets' hits for the day. It was good to see Castro smack a long home run in his first at bat of the season. Even though Lo Duca is hitting very well right now, Castro having a good year as his backup could be key on an otherwise weak bench.
Not so encouraging is Lastings Milledge's seeming imprisonment on the bench. I know Shawn Green and Moises Alou are both hitting well and Alou's defense has looked surprisingly okay so far, but what's the point of having Milledge on the major league roster if he's not even ahead of David Newhan on the pinch hitting depth chart? Alou is forty years old and in need of the occasional day off if he's going to be healthy come October. Green is bad at playing defense. Newhan is bad at, well, seemingly everything. It would be nice to see Milledge poke his head out of the dugout in the next series.
Said series will begin Monday at 1:10 PM as the Mets (4-2), out of first place for the first time since April 6th of last year, host the cellar-dwelling Phillies (1-5) for their home opener at Shea. Game one should be a fun matchup of two young, talented pitchers as John Maine (1-0, 0.00) faces Cole Hamels (0-0, 0.00). Both pitchers have good, if brief, histories against the opposition as Hamels shut the Mets out for eight innings last year while Maine is 3-0 with a 1.96 ERA in three starts against the Phils.
Game two will take place Wednesday night and feature a slightly more lopsided pitching matchup. Oliver Perez (1-0, 1.29) tries to build on his excellent first start for the Mets. He will face the Phillies' big free agent acquisition of the offseason, Adam Eaton (0-1, 13.50), who has not proven to be especially good at pitching through his career or so far this year.
The starters for Thursday's game don't seem to be official yet, but I would assume that Tom Glavine (1-1, 2.38) will get the nod for the Mets. Jamie Moyer (1-0, 2.70) would seem to be next in line for Philly. Perhaps after the game the starters can get together with Alou and Julio Franco for a game of pinochle. ¶ joe | 12:08 AM |
After Friday night it seemed like the Mets were on course to cruise to October, but reality had to go and intrude on the proceedings over the weekend. Still, it wasn't the soft underbelly of the starting rotation that did the Mets in on Saturday and Sunday as much as their failure at the hitting and the fielding and the relief pitching. At least two of those areas figure to improve as the season goes on.
Friday sure was fun, though. The Mets hammered Mark Redman and three relievers, including old pal Tyler Yates, for eleven runs on fifteen hits, six walks and two errors. Jose Reyes remained red hot, leading the way with three hits including his first two triples of the season. Paul Lo Duca had three of his trademark one-baggers and David Wright doubled twice. All nine Met starters had at least one hit. More surprisingly, at least to people other than me, Oliver Perez got his season off to a great start with seven strong innings, allowing one run on five hits with six strikeouts and zero walks. He threw just eighty-two pitches and was going to pitch the eighth before the Mets broke things open against Yates and company in the top half. Of the Mets' three relative youngsters at the back of the rotation, I think Perez is the most capable of putting together a spectacular 2007. He is also probably the most capable of falling apart and being sent to New Orleans by mid-June, but I'm a starting rotation half-full kind of guy.
gave up a hit and a walk and also balked, forcing Saturday and Sunday saw Tom Glavine and Orlando Hernandez pitch well enough to win but neither got quite the necessary support from his teammates. On Saturday two errors led to three unearned runs including Shawn Green just dropping a fly ball with one out and the bases loaded in the sixth. That brought one run home and neither Pedro Feliciano nor Joe Smith was able to end the inning before two more had scored. On Sunday El Duque gave up just one run in six innings, but Aaron Heilman gave up two in the eighth to blow a slim lead. Heilman is the Mets' only established reliever for the pre-Wagner portion of the game and it seems like Willie Randolph is still figuring out how to use the rest of his bullpen. How else to explain letting Scott Schoeneweis pitch to two righties in the seventh inning of a one-run game? Schoeneweis gave up a hit and a walk and also balked, forcing Heilman to come in and clean up his mess.
Of course, none of this would have mattered if the Mets had kept up their offensive onslaught rather than scoring just five runs in two games. They had ten hits and six walks on Satuday with a Lo Duca home run and and a Green double included, but they left a ton of runners on base. Green homered on Sunday as did Ramon Castro and Reyes added his third triple, but those were half of the Mets' hits for the day. It was good to see Castro smack a long home run in his first at bat of the season. Even though Lo Duca is hitting very well right now, Castro having a good year as his backup could be key on an otherwise weak bench.
Not so encouraging is Lastings Milledge's seeming imprisonment on the bench. I know Shawn Green and Moises Alou are both hitting well and Alou's defense has looked surprisingly okay so far, but what's the point of having Milledge on the major league roster if he's not even ahead of David Newhan on the pinch hitting depth chart? Alou is forty years old and in need of the occasional day off if he's going to be healthy come October. Green is bad at playing defense. Newhan is bad at, well, seemingly everything. It would be nice to see Milledge poke his head out of the dugout in the next series.
Said series will begin Monday at 1:10 PM as the Mets (4-2), out of first place for the first time since April 6th of last year, host the cellar-dwelling Phillies (1-5) for their home opener at Shea. Game one should be a fun matchup of two young, talented pitchers as John Maine (1-0, 0.00) faces Cole Hamels (0-0, 0.00). Both pitchers have good, if brief, histories against the opposition as Hamels shut the Mets out for eight innings last year while Maine is 3-0 with a 1.96 ERA in three starts against the Phils.
Game two will take place Wednesday night and feature a slightly more lopsided pitching matchup. Oliver Perez (1-0, 1.29) tries to build on his excellent first start for the Mets. He will face the Phillies' big free agent acquisition of the offseason, Adam Eaton (0-1, 13.50), who has not proven to be especially good at pitching through his career or so far this year.
The starters for Thursday's game don't seem to be official yet, but I would assume that Tom Glavine (1-1, 2.38) will get the nod for the Mets. Jamie Moyer (1-0, 2.70) would seem to be next in line for Philly. Perhaps after the game the starters can get together with Alou and Julio Franco for a game of pinochle. ¶ joe | 12:08 AM |
