The ESPN Baseball Tonight crew discusses whether better batting helmets are needed in the wake of the injury to David Wright.
Preview: Giants at Mets Aug. 16, 2009
San Francisco Giants (63-53 Road: 24-33) at New York Mets (54-62 Home: 31-26) 1:10pm
Jonathan Sanchez (5-10 4.61) vs. Mike Pelfrey (8-8 4.88)
TV: SNY
What to watch: The Mets and Giants play the third game of their series today. I don’t think that the beanball war will continue into today’s game. Sanchez’ season has really been up and down. He’s 2-2 since pitching a no-hitter on July 10. Pelfrey is 0-2 in his last two starts and the Mets have lost four of the last five games that he started.
Don’t forget to visit The Mets Report Live Game Chat during the game to chat with other Mets fans!
Audio: Post-Game Aug. 15, 2009 Santana, Manuel, Cain
Here’s the post-game audio from the Giants 5-4 win in 10 innings which David Wright was hit in the head by a pitch from Matt Cain.
Santana Protecting Mets In David Wright Beaning
After yesterday’s game, Johan Santana said that he was protecting his teammates when he threw behind Pablo Sandoval and then hit Bengie Molina. Santana went on to say that he plays the game the right way. I won’t disagree with that. But I think that Santana should have hit or threw near Matt Cain instead of waiting three innings to throw at Sandoval.
Santana probably would’ve been thrown out of the game for throwing at Cain. But at this point in the Mets season, does that really matter? The Mets season is over and the message would have been much more clear to Cain. If Cain can’t stay in control when he’s on the mound, things can get dangerous for everyone including him.
Larry Brooks of the NY Post has some good quotes from Santana about the incident:
“I feel like I have to protect my teammates; you can call it whatever you want. There’s no question we are going to stick together.”
“I’m going to protect them the way they protect me.”
I’m not going to complain too loudly about the way Santana dealt with this. Because he did deal with it. But I still think Cain should have been the one that was on the receiving end of a fastball.
Video: Molina On Mets-Giants Aug. 15, 2009
Bengie Molina hit the game-winning homer off Francisco Rodriguez and talked to Chris Rose of Fox after the game. He talks about looking for a fastball off K-Rod, and he addresses the David Wright beaning and subsequent retaliation.
http://images.video.msn.com/flash/customplayer/1_0/customplayer.swf
Giants 5 – Mets 4 Aug. 15, 2009
- Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Although the biggest impact of this game came from the failures of the Mets best pitchers, the biggest impact on the rest of the season may be felt by David Wright taking a bean ball to the head. Matt Cain hit him square in the side of the helmet with a 94 mph fastball that dropped Wright to the ground. He was helped off the field and later left in an ambulance to be examined.
Johan Santana really didn’t have his best stuff today. He ended up giving up 4 runs in 6.2 innings. The 9 hits and 1 walk just didn’t cut it and he left the game with the Mets losing 4-1 in the seventh. Santana did throw a ball behind Pablo Sandoval in retaliation for Wright’s beaning. Sandoval got the last laugh though when he drilled a deep home run to left in the at-bat.
The Mets came back with a 3-run rally. They strung some hits together and rallied only to have Francisco Rodriguez give it away in the tenth inning on a solo homer to Bengie Molina.
Preview: Giants at Mets Aug. 15, 2009
San Francisco Giants (62-53 Road: 23-33) at New York Mets (54-61 Home: 31-25) 4:10pm
Matt Cain (12-4 2.44) vs. Johan Santana (13-8 3.00)
TV: FOX
What to watch: Cain’s been having an unbelievable season but his last two starts have been sub-par. The Giants lost both games and he gave up 9 runs in 15 innings. Santana’s last start against the Padres was fantastic going 8 innings and only giving up 1 run. This is a terrific pitching matchup for those lucky enough to be going to the game. Expect Billy Wagner to start making his way to New York today with the intent of rejoining the team as early as tomorrow.
Don’t forget to visit The Mets Report Live Game Chat during the game to chat with other Mets fans!
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