Month: April 2011

Mets 8 – Nationals 4 April 9, 2011

The Mets got their first home win in front of a lot of empty seats at Citi Field tonight. Carlos Beltran put on a show hitting two homers, both right-handed in the game to lead the offense. Beltran has been getting good wood on the ball so it wasn’t a surprise to see him start hitting. But two homers at Citi Field is a feat.

Chris Capuano got his first win as a Met despite the fact that he gave up 4 runs in 6 IP. He gave up 7 hits and a walk but he also had 7 strikeouts. He won’t win too many games with a 6.75 ERA (or keep  his job in the rotation) but it was good enough for a win tonight against the perennial basement dwelling Nationals.

The Mets took the lead for good in the sixth on a two-run triple by Ike Davis to right center. Then Daniel Murphy had a pinch-hit RBI single that scored Davis.

The Mets and Nationals will play the rubber game of the series tomorrow afternoon.

Box score

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Preview: Nationals at Mets April 9, 2011

washington-nationals-logoWashington Nationals (3-4) at New York Mets (3-4)  7:10pm

Tom Gorzelanny (0-0 NA) vs.Chris Capuano (0-0 13.50)

TV: SNY   Radio: WFAN

What to watch: It’s a battle of bottom-of-the-rotation starters today at Citi Field unfortunately for everyone that bought tickets for today’s game. Gorzelanny hasn’t had a start yet this season and neither has Capuano. As a matter of fact, Gorzelanny hasn’t even appeared in a game yet. Capuano has only had one disastrous relief appearance.

The Mets hope to end their three game losing streak today. The Nationals are looking to win their third straight game today.

Video: Mets Fans Thoughts on Opening Day

Citi Field at Night
Image via Wikipedia

Here’s a good video from opening day 2011 by Dexter Henry of BackpackBroadcasting.com. He does a great job of capturing the mood and the thoughts of Mets fans about this season.

The fans are excited about opening day but have reservations about the team’s prospects for this season, as do I. Pretty much every fan I’ve talked to from my friends to people I work with are cautiously optimistic. I think everyone expects the Mets to be around .500 this season. Although I’ve talked to a few people that are expecting much more like frequent commenter here TD. He’s expecting around 88 wins this year.

Check out the video below and the link to Backpack Broadcasting above for some good videos on the local NY sports teams.

 

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Mets Pitching Among League’s Worst

PORT ST. LUCIE, FL - FEBRUARY 24: Jon Niese #... 

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

 

The first week of the 2011 season hasn’t started well for the Mets’ pitching staff. The offense has been decent. The Mets are in the middle of the National League pack offensively. That’s pretty much where I would expect them to be at the end of the season too. But the pitching is another story completely.

The pitching has been downright dreadful. Only the abysmal Astros have a worse team ERA and only the lowly Pirates have given up more walks than the Mets. It’s a sad state of affairs for a team that’s had a history of some of the greatest pitchers in the game from Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Jerry Koosman, Dwight Gooden, to Johan Santana. It just goes to show that without Santana on the active roster, there isn’t anybody that’s even close to being able to pick up the slack.

Sortable Team Stats - mets.com- Stats 2011-04-09 08-54-06

If you look at the pitcher individually, the bottom five pitcher by ERA on the team are all over 6.00. Of course, we’re only one week into the season so there’s plenty of time for improvement. But the first week has been hideous for Mike Pelfrey, Jon Niese, and Blaine Boyer in particular.

New York Mets Stats- Sortable Statistics - mets.com- Stats 2011-04-09 08-59-32
If you’re unfortunate enough to have tickets for today’s game, you’ll be seeing both fifth starts for the Mets and Nationals. Both teams are expected to have among the worst pitching staffs in the NL this season and you’ll be seeing the pitchers that they least want to have on the mound. Games like today are exactly why I don’t like buying tickets too far in advance. You can get stuck with an awful pitching match-up. It may turn out to be a great game but I would prefer not to spend money on it.

Nationals 6 – Mets 2 April 8, 2011

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 08: R.A. Dickey #43 of t...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

The lowly Nationals ruined the Mets home opener by a score of 6-2. R.A. Dickey had one of his worst starts as a Met, fighting through a broken nail on his pitching hand. The game was announced as a sell out despite the empty seats and availability of tickets online as late as last night when I last checked.

The Mets offense couldn’t come through in the clutch leaving 7 runners on base including 3 by Angel Pagan. The team, as a whole, only scrounged up 7 hits and 2 walks in the game.

The home opener was a major disappointment. Nearly as disappointing as Tim Byrdak and his 10.80 ERA who allowed the Nationals to get a rally going in the eighth. Bobby Parnell came in and threw gas on the fire. The bullpen could be a sore spot for this team.

R.A. Dickey post-game

Josh Thole post-game

Box score

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Preview: Nationals at Mets April 8, 2011

Washington Nationals (2-4) at New York Mets (3-3)  4:10pm

Jordan Zimmermann (0-1, 3.00) vs.R.A. Dickey (1-0. 0.00)

TV: SNY   Radio: WFAN

What to watch: The Mets home opener isn’t sold out but it will be fun for a big crowd today. The Nationals come to town after losing three of their last four games. Zimmermann had a good start in a loss to Atlanta. He went 6 IP and gave up 2 earned runs on 4 hits and 3 walks.

Dickey had a very good start against the Marlins despite not being as sharp as he was at the end of last season. He threw 6 shutout innings in Florida in his season debut. Hopefully, he gives the fans something to cheer about today for the opener at Citi Field.

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Video: Mets Terry Collins on First Road Trip of 2011

PORT ST. LUCIE, FL - FEBRUARY 26: RY 26: Dav...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Mets manager Terry Collins reflects on the first road trip of the 2011 season. He’s talking to reporters after the Mets took an 11-0 beating from Roy Halladay and the Phillies. The Mets finished the road trip at 3-3 and showed some signs of life at times during the trip.

But the Mets also had two complete stinkers from Mike Pelfrey on the trip. Pelf also indicated that he didn’t like the pitch selection from Josh Thole in his second start in which Pelf couldn’t make it to the third inning. I also find it interesting when pitchers get rocked and blame it on the catcher. It doesn’t make any sense. If there’s any communication, that shouldn’t happen. Not to mention the fact that Pelf could have shaken him off at any time.

http://espn.go.com/videohub/player/embed.swf

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