Relief pitcher Duaner Sanchez was designated for assignment by the San Diego Padres today. If you recall, he was released by the Mets during spring training in March. With San Diego Sanchez was 1-1 with a 9.00 ERA and 2.36 WHIP. Even the lowly Padres couldn’t handle that.
I was a little worried when I saw that Jose Reyes wasn’t going to play in this game because of some pain in his right calf. Alex Cora started at short for him and didn’t look great at shortstop, including a throwing error. But the Mets looked fired up in this game which was a surprise coming off an extra inning game and a cross country flight.
John Maine worked his way out of trouble a few times to go 6.2 innings and only giving up 2 runs. But Bobby Parnell was pretty bad in the eighth inning giving up 2 runs and the lead, allowing the Giants to tie the game.
The Mets offense was really NYGoodHealth clicking with 12 hits and 6 walks in the game. But the big story on offense was the Mets stealing seven bases in the game including four by David Wright. You normally don’t see many steals against any of the Molina’s.
The Mets scored 3 runs in the ninth to win it. The inning was tremendous including a critical steal of third by Carlos Beltran. Wright had a great slide at home to avoid the tag by Molina. And even Gary Sheffield got into the action stealing third in the inning. The old man can still run.
It was a fantastic comeback win and a great way to start the long road trip.
The Mets lost to the Braves in 12 innings to lose the home series 2 games to 1. Jonathan Niese was terrible today unable to get out of the fifth inning after giving up five runs. Seven Met relievers combined to pitch the rest of the game. J.J. Putz gave up another run in the eighth inning to raise his ERA to 4.05. Ken Takahashi gave up the game winning home run to Martin Prado of all people in the twelfth.
I would guess this is Niese’s last game with the Mets. The word is that Tim Redding is about ready to come back from the disabled list.
The Mets offense was pretty solid with the highlights being Fernando Tatis hitting a grand slam in the fourth inning to take a 6-4 lead. Gary Sheffield hit a solo homer in the eighth to tie the game. Jose Reyes was 3 for 5 with 3 doubles including one off the top of the left field wall in the twelfth inning.
The Mets are off to San Francisco to begin a 10 game road trip.
What a game! The Mets come back to score 2 in the eighth and 1 in the ninth to tie it, then win it in the tenth inning. Great game. This Mets team hasn’t done much late scoring this season so that was great to see. Carlos Beltran walked with the bases loaded and two outs, on a full count, to force in a run and win the game.
Mike Pelfrey was good tonight going 7 innings and giving up 2 runs. Curiously, Jerry Manuel pulled him from the game after throwing only 96 pitches. I thought that he could’ve pitched the eighth. J.J. Putz was shaky again, giving up a run in the eighth inning to raise his season ERA to 3.79 which is way too high for him. Francisco Rodriguez pitched 2 innings giving up a couple of hits and a walk but managed to get himself out of trouble.
A good sign is that the Mets only left 7 runners on base. They’ve been in double digits seemingly every game.
The rubber game of the series is tomorrow afternoon before a west coast trip starts.
This is the third excellent game by Johan Santana that the Mets have wasted this season. He went 6.1 innings allowing 2 runs, both unearned. It was two errors that lost this game for the Mets.
David Wright short hopped a throw to Fernando Tatis at first base that he couldn’t scoop in the first inning that led to a run. The Braves exploded for four runs in the seventh inning after Jose Reyes booted a ball behind second base with two outs. That led to four runs scoring in the inning.
Carlos Delgado didn’t play because his hip had stiffened up on him. They’re going to give it a few days to see if it gets better. If not, he may end up on the disabled list for 15 days.
The Mets got their seventh consecutive win and their third consecutive series sweep today. The team is really clicking now. Livan Hernandez had some good numbers on the day going 6 innings giving up only 2 runs. But he was teetering on the edge of trouble for much of the early going. The Pirates inept offense is the only thing that kept him from having serious trouble.
The Mets offense kept plugging away again today with Jose Reyes, Luis Castillo, and Omir Santos having 2 hits apiece. But they did leave 17 runners on base, a common theme this season that could bite them against better competition than the Pirates.
Of note in the game was manager Jerry Manuel back at the reins after serving a one game suspension. Also, Reyes had his 10th stolen base of the season which was also the 300th of his young career.
The Mets now stand alone in first place in the National League East, one game ahead of the Florida Marlins.
The Mets got another good start, this time from John Maine. This is Maine’s third good start in a row after a shaky start to the season. He went 6 innings giving up 1 run on 3 hits and 2 walks with 3 strikeouts. The one run he gave up was a solo homer to opposing pitcher Paul Maholm.
There was a ton of offense for the Mets today. They had 17 hits and 1 walk. Jose Reyes was 3 for 5 with 3 RBI’s and his ninth stolen base of the season. Carlos Beltran was 2 for 5 with a solo homer in the fifth inning that was a bomb! It went into the second deck in left field. That’s a shot.
The game was over early when the Mets put up 5 runs in the fourth inning to make the score 6-1. So the rest of the game was kind of a snoozer. But the Mets did manage to win their sixth straight game and got a win over a team that they should beat.
The Mets Report 