Here’s some video of Carlos Beltran after the Mets second straight extra inning loss to the Phillies. He addresses the critical players that are on the disabled list right now and the news that John Maine is going to be the second starter on the DL, joining Oliver Perez.
New York Mets (31-27 Road: 13-16) at New York Yankees (34-26 Home: 18-11) 7:05 pm
Livan Hernandez (5-1 3.88) vs. Joba Chamberlain (3-1 3.79)
TV: SNY, YES Radio: WFAN
What to watch: The Yankees just got swept in Boston but they’ve won 5 of Chamberlain’s last 6 starts. He’s been pitching very well. Speaking of pitching well, Hernandez has been doing an incredibly good job for the Mets much to my surprise. He’s gone at least 7 innings in 3 of his last 4 starts. Both teams have been scuffling along this season but the Mets are so injury depleted that it’s hard to see them taking this series in the Bronx.
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This is something that we’ve been talking about since spring training as Mets fans. Jerry Manuel seems to be a different person than he was last seasonwhen he took over for Willie Randolph in June. Now I can see why the Mets only gave Manuel a 2-year contract instead of the three years that he wanted. And I can see how Manuel lost the locker room in Chicago in 2003.
Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports writes a pretty lengthy piece about how Manuel has thrown his players under the bus. He does fail to mention how Manuel threw third base coach Razor Shines under the bus this week for failing to point out the bad call at home plate that involved Fernando Tatis being called out when the replay showed he was safe.
From Fox Sports:
Manuel, in baseball parlance, “throws guys under the bus.” His candor appeals to fans who are tired of hearing excuses for overpaid, underperforming players. But such an approach rarely works long-term.
I haven’t been a major detractor of Manuel. I thought that he did a great job last season working without a bullpen. But he does seem to be different this year. It’s almost like he makes everything about himself.
His dealings with the players have become odd this season as well. He fell in love with Daniel Murphy way too quickly. And that hasn’t worked out at all. Manuel clearly dislikes Ryan Church and Ramon Castro. But I don’t think that he’s the only one in the Mets organization that feels that way about both players. So Manuel may not be as out of line on those players as he appears to be to us fans.
It’ll be very telling to see if the Mets allow Manuel to go into next season as a lame duck manager of this team. I doubt that will happen. If the Mets make the playoffs, I think they’ll give Manuel a one or two year extension. If they don’t make the playoffs this season, we’ll be talking about the new Mets manager in November.
I just checked the Yankees website and there are still tickets available for all three games of this weekend’s series in the Bronx. I’m sure there are a lot of factors at play here, the economy, etc. But this series not selling out is ridiculous.
I would guess that there haven’t been tickets available for every game of a Subway Series since they started it in 1997. And if you look at StubHub, you can get tickets for as low as $1 for Saturday’s game. Of course, the best available tickets from the box office for tonight’s game are $900 each. I think that’s got to be the biggest factor in the lack of sell outs.
Both the Mets and Yankees overpriced their tickets this season and are paying the price now. At least the Yankees reduced the prices of some of their upper end tickets. The Mets have been holding steady on their prices. Most likely, they don’t want to issue refunds to the buyers that already purchased tickets.
It’s been a shame all season long to see the high priced seats behind home plate sitting empty, in many cases, at both stadiums. Even if the announcers on SNY are talking about Citi Field being a “full house”. But it’ll be even worse to see such a popular series as this one to have empty seats behind the plate. It makes for bad TV and it’s very disappointing that both teams couldn’t figure out how to properly price their products.
Add another Met to the growing list of disabled list residents. John Maine joined Carlos Delgado, Oliver Perez, Jose Reyes, Billy Wagner, Ramon Martinez, Angel Pagan, and J.J. Putz. How crazy is that?
Maine is experiencing some dead arm that may be due to the surgery he had last year to remove a bone spur in his right shoulder. Maine suggested that he may have overworked the shoulder trying to recover.
Mets GM Omar Minaya told reporters that they don’t know who is going to take Maine’s start against the Yankees on Saturday. The Mets announced yesterday that they were changing Livan Hernandez’ and Maine’s spots in the rotation to give Maine more time to recover. Apparently, that didn’t work.
The possibilities to start tomorrow in the Bronx are Fernando Nieve, just called up from Triple-A and Nelson Figueroa. I would go with Figueroa. He’s done a very good job in the spot starts that he’s made for the Mets. This one will be in Yankee Stadium in front of a full house. I’d be concerned that Nieve could have some nerves in that environment.
For the second straight game the Mets lost in extra innings to the Phillies. The Mets have to lead the league in debilitating losses this season, and this is another one. Raul Ibanez hit a 3-run homer off Ken Takahashi in the 10th inning for the win.
The Mets had a 3-1 lead in the fifth inning and Tim Redding was pitching pretty well. Redding ended up going 7 innings and giving up 3 runs. That’s a solid performance that’ll give Jerry Manuel the confidence to run him out there again in five days.
The offense came from Luis Castillo with 3 hits and Carlos Beltran kept driving him in. David Wright also continued his hot hitting going 3 for 4.
Overall, it’s an incredibly disappointing series to lose two extra inning games at home to the Phillies.
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