The Mets were victimized by a 2-hit shutout thrown by Joel Piniero. His sinker was working against the Mets anemic offense. Although Livan Hernandez pitched very well again, it wasn’t enough to match Piniero. Hernandez went 7 innings giving up 3 runs, 2 earned, after another Daniel Murphy error at first base. Elmer Dessens worked the final two innings without giving up a hit which is a good sign with the Mets overworked bullpen needing some help.
The story of this game was some really bad pitching by the Mets that allowed the Rays to win the series at Citi Field. Mike Pelfrey got bombed for 4 runs on 5 straight hits in the fifth inning. Bobby Parnell got rocked again in the seventh inning, giving up 4 runs without getting an out. B.J. Upton absolutely clubbed a ball into the second deck in left field off Parnell. What a shot that was! Then Sean Green reverted to his bad form by giving up 2 runs on 3 hits in the eighth without getting an out. It was a really ugly pitching performance.
The Mets offense put up 6 runs, which should be enough to win the game. They had 10 hits including a 3-run homer by Brian Schneider in the sixth, his second 3-run homer of the series. David Wright was 3 for 5 and made it through a game without striking out.
The Rays take two of the three games as the Mets welcome the St. Louis Cardinals to Citi Field for four games starting tomorrow night.
After struggling (relatively) for the last month, Johan Santana came back with another excellent start. He went 7.1 innings giving up 2 runs on 98 pitches. But the game was stopped because of rain in the eighth and that was it for Santana with the Mets losing 2-1. Now that Santana is pitching well, the Mets aren’t scoring behind him again. The guy can’t win…
The Mets went very quietly today only getting 4 hits in the game. There was no offense whatsoever. The only run came on an RBI double to right by Omir Santos in the second inning. That’s it.
The Rays even up the series and they play the rubber game tomorrow afternoon.
Well, I guess Fernando Nieve is proving us wrong. I thought after his debut first start against the Yankees that he was due for a beating by the Rays. But he was excellent again. Nieve went 6 innings giving up only one run. He’s going to give Tim Redding a run for a spot in the rotation when John Maine and Oliver Perez come back.
Bobby Parnell was roughed up again tonight. He’s still got good velocity but he isn’t fooling anyone. He’s given up 4 runs in 5 innings during the month of June. Compare that to 3 earned runs given up in 11 innings during May. Pitching coach Dan Warthen needs to put in some overtime with Parnell.
Another suprise on offense was Brian Schneider hitting a real bomb for a 3-run homer to right-center field. I never would have expected him to hit one to the deepest part of the park. David Wright had a nice RBI double but he struck out three more times tonight too. That’s 68 K’s for the season now. And Daniel Murphy had another 3 for 4 night to raise his average to .256. So he’s climbing out of the offensive cave that he’s been in. I still don’t think he has enough offense to be a major league first baseman though.
Francisco Rodriguez bounced back nicely from his first (legitimate) blown save last night, when he didn’t appear to have anything. He got a 1-2-3 ninth for the win. It’s good to see a quick recovery from him.
The Mets looked like they had this one wrapped up with a 4-3 lead going into the ninth and Francisco Rodriguez coming into the game. But K-Rod blew his second save and this one was completely on him. He looked really bad loading the bases and walking in a run before giving up another game winning hit to Aubrey Huff.
Livan Hernandez had another very solid start going 7 innings and giving up 2 runs. As usual, he gave up 8 hits and 1 walk but did a good job of limiting the damage.
The Mets offense was paced by Carlos Beltran, Alex Cora, and Luis Castillo with 2 hits apiece. Again, the Mets had no home runs and only one double by Daniel Murphy. Not much power in this lineup.
The Orioles take two of three games from the Mets as they come home to face the Rays.
The Mets got a solid start from Mike Pelfrey. He cruised through the first four innings easily. And I thought he was on his way going deep into the game. He ran into a little trouble in the fifth inning and some more in the sixth, giving up 2 runs. It seemed like he ran out of gas which is surprising for this time of the season. But his start was good enough to keep the Mets in the game.
Sean Green went 1.2 innings of scoreless ball. He’s been fantastic lately and hasn’t given up a run since May 15. He had about a month, starting at the end of April, where he was very inconsistent but he’s really found himself.
The Mets offense benefitted from 3 Orioles errors. But give them credit that they were able to make the Orioles pay for the errors. The Mets had 3 unearned runs in the game. Alex Cora was 3 for 5 hitting leadoff again. It was good to see him get something going. He was 1 for his last 15 at-bats coming into the game.
The score pretty much says it all for this game. The Mets got rocked! These games will happen during the season. But Johan Santana got demolished for 9 runs in 3 innings. He pitched in the fourth inning but didn’t get an out. The Yankees scored 9 runs in that inning.
Santana has been slipping since May 16 when he gave up 4 runs in San Francisco. He hasn’t been nearly as good as he was for the first month and a half of the season. I’m hoping that he isn’t injured. But you have to wonder what the reason for the drop off in performance is.
I won’t really get into the Mets offense because there really wasn’t any. The only good thing is that Gary Sheffield is back hitting again. He went 2 for 3 today and had 2 home runs in the series against the Yankees. He’s back up to hitting .270 for the season, which is about where I’d expect him to be.
The Mets Report 