The Mets lost this game well before the Chase Utley home run.They lost this game because sixteen hits could only bring home four runs.
They lost Wednesday's game when Dan Iassogna called Carlos Beltran out on the double play that should have scored the fifth run as Beltran was clearly safe. Funny how there was a recent conversation about how bad the umpiring has been this year, and it was awful again tonight on many counts ... most which benefited the Mets, but that call was key (forgive me if I start scoffing every time an umpire starts complaining about instant replay ... seriously, I'm starting to not care if baseball games go ten hours each just so we can have replay review every single damn play ... either that or we need to invent "Umpbots"). And even if that call was right, you knew that it would be a key point in the game since the Mets had one chance to blow Cole Hamels out and he didn't do it.
They really lost this game in the seventh, when Snoop decided to call a sac bunt with a guy at the plate who hadn't had a sac bunt in seven years. Fernando Tatis has some pop, no? Well, not when he's called to bunt, giving away your sixth hitter. And with a successful sacrifice (another, most likely terrible call), you give away your seventh hitter as Ryan Church was intentionally walked to set up Omir Santos ... meaning that hitters six and seven were wasted, leaving the bulk of the work to be done by hitters eight and nine. I know Snoop loves Omir but man, that wasn't quite gangsta.
But they really, really, really lost the game because of their inability to score a damn run off Chan Ho Park. Ryan Church had him 3-0 and let two meatballs zip right on by him like they were old men in vans wearing trench coats asking him if he wanted candy. Then on 3-2 he swings at slop in the dirt. I've grown a small affinity for Church, as he's become the red-headed step child of the organization. But if that at-bat was any more putrid I'd have to close my windows and throw towels under the doors.
So let's review the rubber game of the series: Tim Redding on the mound, which has recently resulted in poundings by the Red Sox and Marlins, a spent bullpen with Frankie having been burned for two innings on Wednesday. I guess that
- SS Valdez
- 2B Cora
- 1B Murphy
- 3B Hebner
- LF Martinez
- CF Reed
- RF Emil Brown
- C Alberto Castillo
- P Redding
And I'm mildly disappointed that Pelfrey didn't drill Hamels after the "choke" comments (but kudos to Alex Cora for going up the middle hard on him). He made up for it though by telling Utley and Shane Victorino to shove it. I'll take any moral victory I can get.
Did I mention ... Chan Ho Park???!?!?!?!??? For crying out loud.
6 comments:
I'll give Ryan Church the 3-0 pitch, but that 3-1 pitch should've been tagged like he was Adam Dunn in a slow pitch softball league. I could've told Ryan that Park was going to throw the same pitch 3-1 that he threw 3-0 (because Park is predictable, i.e. he sucks.)
A frustrating game all around. That ball that Beltran dropped was a tough break. I'm not going to kill him for that by any means, as that's a play he makes 99.99% of the time, he's that good out there. Just a badly timed hiccup.
Bottom line of course is 15 hits. Fifteen freaking hits.
And you know Manuel wanted this game (and, by extention, was giving up tomorrow's game) when Rodriguez went out there for inning #2.
And as far as Tatis bunting goes, I'll go you one further. I hate the sac bunt in general. Hate it. Hate hate hate hate hate hate it*. Maybe some better hitting teams can afford it, but this team is way too shorthanded to be giving away outs for any reason.
Tim "I could win a Kevin Youkilis lookalike contest" Redding vs. Jamie "I beat Steve Carlton in my first start" Moyer tonight, huh? Nothing even remotely "gangsta" (god, I hate that term, especially how Manuel uses it) about that.
*Except when the pitcher does it, of course.
what did pelf say to victorino?
Not only will this lineup kill us tonight, but our cleanup hitter can dig our own grave.
Yep, another hideous job by the umps, but we can't use that as crutch for last night's loss, can we.
I thought Jerry got outmanaged. As you say, Tatis can't bunt (and got lucky on another bad call when he ran into Ruiz). If you want to bunt there, they should pinch hit Martinez or Murphy or even Valdez, who probably is an expert bunter. Plus, by bringing in a left handed hitter for Tatis, you force Charlie to either waste a lefty by bringing in Eyre who would then, after Tatis's spot, have to face Santos or force Charlie to bring in a righty, in which case you pinch hit Schneider. We got bad match ups in that inning.
Plus, that 4th inning was a base-to-base conga line. How Wright got duped is beyond me.
BTW, I think Hebner's busy tonight digging graves in Pittsburgh.
G-Fafif - you beat me to it!
I lived through 1969 and 1986, and I'll tell ya---there's some Evil Mojo hanging over the Mets in a perverse payback for winning it all in improbable fashion.
What hurt most was being outplayed and outintellectualized by the Philthies in our own ballpark. They turned Wilpon's Folly into their own Fenway and forced the Mets to play base-to-base.
But what can I say---or expect---from a team that allows 17 of its players to march off to the WBC and an organization that holds spring training in a ballfield that has the same dimensions as the ballpark that was just torn down??? A team that says NO to Ibanez and Hudson and Lowe? Not much.
An awful $800M ballpark, the highest payroll in the NL, and it's run as bad as my Islanders, which is a tough chore, but the Wilpons have managed to do it.
Five years going with this regime and all we have is one short playoff victory over the Dodgers, the team that the Wilpons think are playing in their pathetic stadium.
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