Saturday, June 16, 2007

A Quantity Of One

It sure didn't seem as neat and tidy as a 2-0 win should have been. There were runners all over the place against Oliver Perez, who wasn't too sharp with his control despite not allowing a run through the first three and 1/3.

And then there was Miguel Cairo's fly ball to left field at Yankee Stadium, which has been a coffin corner for the Mets at times, between Lenny Harris' deflected ball off his glove for a home run, and Todd Zeile's home run except for the fact that it wasn't which resulted in Timo Perez becoming a household name by not running. So when Carlos Gomez went back to the wall, there was trouble written all over my television screen.

And when that fan in the front row lept out of his seat to try to become part of the game and interfere with the natural order of life, the worry on my screen grew ten-fold. You know what can happen when kids...or drunks...or well meaning folk with walkmen decide they want to be part of the fun.

But the ball landed harmlessly in a leaping Carlos Gomez's glove, who turned it into a double play, saving the Mets from not only their fifth loss in a row, but the embarrassment of getting through a lineup full of all-star caliber players only to give up the big hit to Miguel freakin' Cairo.

Subsequent to that catch, Perez calmed down and looked a lot better the rest of the way going 7 and 1/3's scoreless before giving way to the bullpen for some stellar work. And by the way, even though it was Gomez and not Chavez, and even though Gomez only prevented a double while Chavez prevented a two run HR, did you think back to Endy's catch when you saw Perez with his arm up in celebration? Did you get all warm and tingly inside for a moment before you remembered how that game ended? Thankfully, this game ended differently.

It still doesn't mask the deficiency of the middle of the order. The Mets lineup, you see, is a tasty treat. Unfortunately, the tasty treat in question is a doughnut. Gomez and Jose Reyes provided the speed and savvy, with Gomez bunting his way on base twice against the aging walrus that is Roger Clemens (gee, making the 45 year old move around...what a novel concept), and Reyes driving both runs in with a single and an upper deck dinger. But Carlos Delgado took the golden sombrero tonight against some less than nasty stuff from Clemens. Diesel struck out against batting practice fastballs, for crying out loud. And the four through eight hitters in the lineup had a grand total of zero hits.

So while the Mets are finally in the win column with a one game winning streak, there was little of quality to fall back on to make this blogger feel that this team is completely out of the woods. Saturday features Tyler Clippard for the Yankees, who baffled the Mets at Shea Stadium causing my back to go out (well, it wasn't exactly Tyler Clippard that did that, but it's a good story). The Mets lineup has an opportunity to get well against this rookie now that there's some tape on him. He fooled them once, shame on him. Fool them twice?

Well, you know who gets shame then.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am so sick & tired of seeing Willie pencil Delgado into the 4/5 slot in the batting order only to see him ground out meekly, pop out, or swing through a belt-high low 90s fastball EVERY FREAKING AB. Now with RISP & Delgado at the dish, I play a little game that I like to call "how many pitches will it take to strike him out this time"....

Does anyone ever remember a bonafide, solid hitter losing so much so fast? I mean this guy was a machine in October, and 5 months later he can't hit to save his life.

For the love of Christ, Willie, would it kill you to slide him down to 6 or 7?

Jaap said...

not too long to count, anonymous.
Delgado struck out swinging on 5 pitches in the 1st, 6 pitches in the 3rd and 5 pitches in the 8th.

For variety, he struck out looking at the 6th pitch in the 5th.

If anything is amazing it's that they still managed to win despite this kind of empty performance from our cleanup hitter.

Where to move him? How about back to the Marlins, haha.

I think he'll come around again though, perhaps right around the time Pedro makes his return...

Mike said...

I agree. At least today against Tyler Clipboard, slinging from the southpaw side, we need to see Delgadon't in the 6 or 7 hole. Shake him up, let him challenge himself, let him get over the joys of fatherhood.

Whatever it is, he (and one of the other two Carloses) is friggin' killing us.

And here's hoping some of that Yankee Stadium, savvy lefty magic rubs off on Tommy Strikezone. He's been shaky.

Anonymous said...

C'mon. It's obvious. Say it. A la his pseudo-49-HR pal, Shawn Green, Delgado is going through HGH withdrawal--like a lot of people in the major leagues. He'll adjust in a year and become a decent singles-and doubles hitter. Jeez! In the meantime, bat him 8th.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad the writer of this blog is a realist, not a Steve Sommers type delusionist. This team ain't going nowhere as it's assembled. Every move that had to be made in the offseason and wasn't is killing the team. 1 for 10 today with wooden ducks in scoring position.

Anonymous said...

1. Mota, sho and Sele are not exactly solid. Time to trade/release one and bring Humber up as a bullpen arm.

2. Rest Beltran.

3. Wasted effort for Gotay and Gomez. We'd be better off if Leddee or Chip Ambres had been playing.

Anonymous said...

Anon 5:22 beat me to it. Send Mota down - he stinks. Maybe he needs more time to get major league ready, but putting him in whne we're down 1 or 2 runs means we're gonna be 4 or 5 runs down soon.

I have no idea what the heck is going on with Beltran. I'd say rest him too, but we have no one to replace him, even for one day.

Couple of bright spots today - Reyes and Gomez.