Tag: Atlanta Braves

Mets Use Six Pitchers To Beat Atlanta Braves 4-3

John Maine went five innings and got the win today to go to 2-2 on the season. Five other pitchers from the bullpen combined to hold the Braves down over the last four innings. The only scare was Aaron Heilman giving up two hits and a run in the sixth. Heilman was heartily booed by the crowd of 51,000.

The Mets offense seemed to start waking up today too. Willie Randolph canceled batting practice this morning and told the players they could show up late at 11:30am. He’s pulling out all of the tricks in his book to try to get the Mets back on track. Yesterday he made the team take fielding practice before the game which is a rarity these days.

Reportedly Jeff Wilpon visited Willie in his office before the game. yesterday Maybe Willie is starting to get a little desperate and pushing every button he can think of. If it works, that’s great. If not, it comes across as grabbing at straws.

David Wright and Damion Easley both had two hits in the game. Ryan Church hit a triple off Tim Hudson, and Angel Pagan had a pinch hit triple off reliever Jeff Bennett.

Carlos Delgado took another “O-fer” and heard about it from the crowd in every at-bat. They’ve got to move him down to seventh or eighth in the lineup. He’s got nothing at the plate right now. He’s still hitting sixth on his reputation from a few years ago but it’s hurting the team. Willie needs to come to grips with that.

Box score

Video Highlights

Chipper Jones Out Today

Sports Illustrated is reporting that Chipper Jones injured his back in the locker room while getting dressed for the game today. He’ll be out of the Atlanta Braves lineup for today’s game.

Jones is a really hot hitter right now, so the Mets caught a break here. Not that I hope for anyone to get hurt. Hopefully, Jones isn’t seriously injured.

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

Braves Top Prospect Gets HGH Suspension

PED

The Atlanta Braves hot prospect Jordan Schafer was hit with a 50-game minor league suspension for HGH use. I had read some columns prior to the season starting that he would give Mark Kotsay a run for the center field job this season.

I’m not passing judgment on him. Of course, I’m in no position to judge as a Mets fan. The Mets franchise has as many, or more, links to performance enhancing drug use as any team in baseball.

It’s a shame that these guys keep trying to get an edge with PED’s. I’m especially surprised that such a highly touted prospect would go that route. Schafer has a really bright future ahead of him from everything I’ve read. I can only guess that he was doing it in an attempt to make the major league team out of spring training.