Author: Dave Doyle

Frequently disappointed Mets fan

On Deck: Saturday April 26, 2008

Atlanta Braves (12-11) at New York Mets (11-11)  1:10pm

Tim Hudson (3-1) vs. John Maine (1-2)

TV: CW11    Radio: WFAN

What to watch: After dropping the first game of the series to the Braves, the Mets need to win both Saturday and Sunday to win this home series against division rivals. The Mets don’t seem to have anything going for them right now except for Johan Santana and he can’t pitch every day unfortunately. Maine will have to be the stopper in this one. Carlos Delgado is scheduled to be back in the lineup after only making a pinch hitting appearance and striking out Friday night.

Pelfrey, Mets Lose To Braves 6-3

It took me a while to work up to writing this post game recap. It’s starting to feel like a continuation of the way last season ended. The Mets are now 1-5 in their last six games. It’s only April so it’s not like the season is lost at all. The Mets are still at .500. But something is very wrong with this team.

What bothers me is how ugly their losses are. The Atlanta Braves shouldn’t be hammering this team. If you look at the Braves and Mets on paper, the Mets are just a better team. The Braves swept the Mets in a short series earlier this month and came to town with their best starters lined up for this weekend’s series.

The Mets offense (what offense?) only mustered two hits against Braves starter Jair Jurrgens. Jurrgens walked three runs in during the third innings and threw over 40 pitches. Then he went on to retire 10 consecutive batters.

Kelly Johnson homered off Mike Pelfrey in the sixth which brought back bad memories of his pinch hit grand slam in the last series. Pelfrey was pretty bad tonight giving up five runs over 5.1 innings. He didn’t have good control all night walking four and giving up nine hits.

There isn’t much good to report about this game. Nobody was hitting and Pelfrey didn’t give the Mets a chance.

Box score

Video Highlights

Video: Post Game April 24, 2008

The depressing post game video contains comments from Oliver Perez, Aaron Heilman, and Willie Randolph.

Oliver Perez wasn’t terrible. It wasn’t his best night but he should’ve been given the opportunity to get through the sixth inning. That’s Willie’s mistake. The poor performances of Jorge Sosa and Heilman, and the over-work of Joe Smith, and Pedro Feliciano should force Willie to re-think his strategy.

Willie needs to give the starters more leeway to work out of trouble. The best pitchers on the team are the starters (except for Billy Wagner). He needs to keep his best pitchers in the game longer considering the state of the bullpen.

On Deck: Friday April 25, 2008

Atlanta Braves (11-11) at New York Mets (11-10)      7:10pm

Jair Jurrgens (2-2) vs. Mike Pelfrey (2-0)

TV: SNY   Radio: WFAN

What to watch: Jurrgens was obtained from the Tigers this offseason for Edgar Renteria. The Braves have big expectations for this pitcher from the Netherlands. Mike Pelfrey is in a battle with Nelson Figueroa for which pitcher stays in the rotation when Pedro Martinez gets back. Pelfrey’s last start in Philadelphia wasn’t very good only going five innings and giving up four runs on ten hits and two walks.

Nats Smoke Mets 10-5

Oliver Perez didn’t pitch well but it certainly wasn’t as bad as his line shows. He went 5.2 innings and gave up three runs but left two on for Aaron Heilman in the sixth. Heilman promptly walked Lastings Milledge and then gave up another grand slam to Felipe Lopez, and the game was over.

The Mets bullpen has given up three grand slams now. The entire National League has only had four grand slams.

Jorge Sosa got knocked around again in the seventh inning giving up three runs but only one was earned. Jose Reyes made an error and then Carlos Delgado let one go right past his glove on the ground in what should’ve been scored an error too.

Delgado went 0 for 4 again and his average is down to .198 now. There have been so many columns and blog posts about what the Mets can do with him. This is now his second season of not hitting. I think he may be “done”.

Box score

Video Highlights