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Billy Wagner talks about his three consecutive blown saves to Michael Kay of ESPN Radio. The interview took place after today’s loss to the D’Backs and his third poor performance in a row. He really doesn’t seem to have any concrete answers as to why he’s struggling. Kay suggests that Wagner may be tipping his pitches.
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ESPN’s Jayson Stark is reporting today that a source that regularly speaks to Mets front office personnel told him that Mets manager Willie Randolph is not going to be fired. From the column:
Minaya "has made his decision," said the same baseball man. "And the decision is, this is Willie’s team. And he’s not going away."
Reading this column made me wonder: What does Randolph have to do to get fired? As I’ve said before, I know that all of the teams problems aren’t his fault. But he has to be held accountable for the overall on-field performance of the team.
It’s obvious that the Mets need to change something. If they’re not going to fire Randolph then they need to move some players. Something needs to change either way. This team is quickly becoming more difficult to watch.
Arizona D’Backs right fielder Justin Upton and shortstop Augie Ojeda talk about how much fun they had taking a series from the Mets in New York, and having success against Billy Wagner.
Another great game by Johan Santana was wasted today. He went seven shutout innings giving up three hits and three walks with ten strikeouts. Joe Smith was terrible in the eighth inning giving up two walks and two hits in .2 innings. Two runs scored on him.
Billy Wagner blew the save in the ninth inning allowing two runs to score on two hits and two walks. Then Aaron Heilman threw gas on the fire in the tenth inning. Justin Upton doubled off him, moved to third on a sacrifice, then scored on a sacrifice fly.
The Mets offense came on a solo homer by Ramon Castro in the second inning off Dan Haren. David Wright doubled in Endy Chavez in the third inning but was thrown out going for third base. Fernando Tatis hit a two run single in the seventh inning.
The Mets lose the home series to the struggling D-Backs and have the Texas Rangers coming to town for a weekend series.
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Fox Sports Ken Rosenthal reports that the Mets front office was unhappy with Willie Randolph’s decision making on two points last night:
Personally, I thought that the game should have been Pelfrey’s to win or lose. I understand that the five game losing streak may have influenced the decision. But Pelfrey was the best pitcher in the stadium last night and should have kept pitching. I would have allowed him to give up more than one hit before pulling him.
Rosenthal goes on to write that the Mets players understand that it’s a foregone conclusion that Randolph will be fired at some point this season. They just want to get it over with and move on to eliminate the distraction hanging over the team.
For some reason SNY started breaking up their post game video segments into separate videos on YouTube. Anyway, here are the clips from last night’s dramatic win over the Arizona D-Backs.
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Arizona Diamond Backs (35-31) at New York Mets (31-33) 1:10pm
Dan Haren (6-4 3.44) vs. Johan Santana (7-4 3.08)
What to watch: This game is a great pitching match-up. The Mets have a shot to take the series with a win today. Hopefully, last night’s 13th inning walk off win will spark some life into this Mets team.
The Mets Report 