Houston Astros (64-63 Road: 30-35) at New York Mets (71-57 Home: 39-23) 7:10pm
Roy Oswalt (11-8 4.28) vs. Johan Santana (11-7 2.75)
What to watch: Santana is coming off a complete game victory in Pittsburgh in his last start as the Mets welcome the Astros to town for a four game series. Oswalt has been pitching extremely well. He’s won five straight decisions. This should be a great pitching match up.
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The Mets get swept in Houston by a sub-.500 team and finish their road trip at 1-5. It feels like Willie Randolph never left. The Mets will have to do a lot better than this if Jerry Manuel wants to keep this job next season.
Oliver Perez went six inning giving up all four runs on a solo homer to Ty Wiggington in the 2nd inning and a three run two-out rally in the fourth. He gave up eight hits but didn’t walk any, and he didn’t give up after the fourth inning rally. He came back strong in the fifth and sixth innings. Not that there are any moral victories when you get swept though.
The Mets had a lot of opportunities on offense, leaving 11 runners on base. Carlos Delgado continued his hot hitting going 3 for 4.
Eddie Kunz made his big league debut in the seventh inning. He gave up only one hit and did make a throwing error over Delgado’s head. Overall, he looked like he’s got the right stuff.
Nick Evans had two outfield assists from left field in the game. Although he did misplay a ball when he stumbled on a ball he should have caught. That led to an Astros run in the fourth inning.
The Marlins lost today and the Phillies play tonight on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball.
New York Mets (58-52 Road: 26-32) at Houston Astros (52-57 Home: 28-26) 2:05pm
Oliver Perez (7-6 4.02) vs. Randy Wolf (6-10 4.79)
TV: CW11 Radio: WFAN
What to watch: The Mets try to avoid the sweep today in Houston before coming home and having an off-day tomorrow. Perez has been outstanding under pitching coach Dan Warthen and looks to be the stopper today. The Astros inexplicably traded for Randy Wolf, who makes his second start for Houston today. He wasn’t very good in his first start going 4.1 innings against the Brewers and giving up 4 runs (3 earned).
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The bottom line of this game is that Johan Santana just needs to pitch a complete game every time out for the Mets to win. This was an incredibly frustrating loss for a multitude of reasons. But Santana was terrific. He went 6.1 innings giving up 3 hits and 1 run. What does he have to do to get a win?
The bullpen was complete disaster tonight. And Billy Wagner threw some gas on the fire tonight too with his 7th blown save of the season. Scott Schoenweiss gave up a long solo homer to Kaz Matsui, Wagner gave up three sharp hits and two runs allowing the Astros to tie the game, Aaron Heilman gave up a leadoff walk in the 10th inning and a hit, and then Pedro Feliciano gave up a sacrifice fly to Darren Estad for the Astros to win it.
Daniel “Don’t call me Dan” Murphy got a hit in his first Major League at-bat, and made a tremendous jumping catch against the wall in left and threw to second base for a double play. Nice start for the rookie.
So the Mets fall to third place in the NL East on this loss as the Phillies and Marlins won tonight. The Mets have lost three straight and have lost the series in Houston. They’ll try to avoid the sweep tomorrow afternoon.
New York Mets (58-51 Road: 26-31) at Houston Astros (51-57 Home: 27-26) 7:05pm
Johan Santana (9-7 2.93) vs. Roy Oswalt (8-8 4.67)
What to watch: Santana went nine innings giving up one run in his last start against St. Louis and looked terrific. Oswalt got a win in his last start against the Reds but gave up four runs over five innings. The Mets really need to take both games left in this series to beat a team that they should be better than. It’s key over the next two months to take series’ from losing teams. A loss today would extend the Mets losing streak to three games.
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There are several story lines in this game but the biggest is the grand slam by Mark Loretta in the eighth inning off Aaron Heilman. That broke the 3-3 tie and sunk the Mets. Heilman was victimized badly by home runs early in the season but seemed to have worked out his problems until tonight. I think they’re leaning too hard on Heilman to go multiple innings now. Manuel needs to do a better job of working more relievers into the game. There’s no true long man in the bullpen so Manuel needs to make an adjustment.
Another story line is that the Mets had ten hits in this game. They had several opportunities to score though, leaving seven runners on base. Carlos Delgado and Jose Reyes both went 2 for 4 but the Mets couldn’t capitalize on several opportunities.
A side note is that Damion Easley made several stellar plays at second base. He made a great turn for a double play, and a great sliding stop and throw to first from his knees. The Mets haven’t missed Luis Castillo at all. Easley and Argenis Reyes have both played really well since Castillo’s been out.
Pedro Martinez was fair tonight, kind of like he has been for most of his starts. He went five innings giving up three runs. That’s a typical game for him now. Jerry Manuel was going to limit him to 80 pitches and he ended up going for 87 (49 strikes). The runs he gave up were on three solo homers, including one to the Astros pitcher Brandon Backe. Granted, Backe is a good hitter but that still shouldn’t happen. Kaz Matsui led off the game with a homer too.
The Phillies lost tonight too so the Mets won’t lose any ground in the NL East.
New York Mets (58-50 Road: 26-30) at Houston Astros (50-57 Home: 26-26) 8:05pm
Pedro Martinez (3-2 6.25) vs. Brandon Backe (6-10 4.73)
What to watch: Pedro makes his return to the mound from the bereavement list tonight in Houston. The Mets front office will be watching closely to help determine if they need to acquire another starting pitcher before the end of August.
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