The ESPN Baseball Tonight crew talks about the Mets-Dodgers game tonight and the surrounding story lines: the Mets recent resurgence, the Dodgers difficult road trip, Joe Torre back in New York, and Johan Santana on the hill.
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Los Angeles Dodgers (27-2) at New York Mets (2-27) 8:00pm
Hiroki Kuroda (2-4 3.29) vs. Johan Santana (6-3 3.41)
TV: ESPN Radio: WFAN
What to watch: The Mets could take three out of four in this series with win tonight. That would be huge for Willie Randolph’s attempt at a return to respectability for this team. Johan Santana goes tonight on national TV. I’d love to see him go all nine innings tonight; we still haven’t seen his best stuff yet this season.
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Paul Hagen of the Philadelphia Daily News reports that Omar Minaya has been talking trades for first basemen, left fielders, and right handed relievers. The names on his short list are: Kevin Millar, Jason Bay, and Xavier Nady.
All three would be helpful pieces for this team. Moises Alou is a great hitter, but doesn’t play enough to trust him to be on the active roster all season. He just breaks down too frequently.
Carlos Delgado is pretty much done in my opinion. So any help that we can get at first base would be a significant improvement.
Since the Mets don’t have too much left in the minors after the Johan Santana trade, the questions becomes: what do we have to give up? I don’t think that the Mets would consider moving Fernando Martinez. I would think that Aaron Heilman would have some good value, especially since he’s been getting himself together over this past week. He’d probably be the prime chip that the Mets would look to deal at the Major League level.
Thanks to MLB Trade Rumors for the tip.
Johan Santana (6-3) got the win tonight going seven innings giving up three runs on eight hits and two walks, while recording seven strikeouts. The Mets sorely needed a win after losing seven of their last eight games. Santana comes through…
The lineup was juggled a bit tonight with Carlos Delgado riding the pine and Damion Easley getting a start at first base. Easley contributed with a 1 for 3 night, scored a run, and had an RBI. It was nice to see a Mets first baseman putting the ball in play and making an offensive contribution.
Fernando Tatis, getting a start in right field, went 2 for 3 with 2 RBI’s. Ramon Castro also went 2 for 3 with 2 RBI’s. The bench players came up big tonight.
The Mets close the gap a little with the first place Marlins by cutting their lead down to 5.5 games.
Florida Marlins (30-20) at New York Mets (23-26) 7:10pm
Andrew Miller (4-3 5.33) vs. Johan Santana (5-3 3.36)
What to watch: The Marlins are starting to put some distance between themselves and the Mets. I’d like to see Nick Evans get a start at first base tonight against Miller, a big lefty. Santana’s last three starts haven’t been great but he’s kept the team in the game. He needs to do that again tonight. He isn’t getting much help from his teammates lately. He may just have to start winning games by himself.
ESPN’s Buster Olney and NY Post writer Kevin Kernan talk about Major League Baseball news. The Mets topics include Willie Randolph’s job is in extreme jeopardy barring a huge success in Colorado this weekend. They also talk about Johan Santana and his diminished fastball.
http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/player.swf?mediaId=3409565
The Mets fell below .500 after being swept in a four game series by the Atlanta Braves. The Braves are now 6-0 against the Mets in Atlanta.
Johan Santana takes the loss after going seven innings and giving up four runs (three earned) on 12 hits. That’s more hits than Santana has ever given up in a start during his career.
Things were looking good for the Mets when Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado hit back to back homers in the second inning. But that was all of the offense that the Mets could muster. Tim Hudson was able to shut down the Mets after that going eight strong innings.
Damion Easley wasn’t with the team tonight. He was in Arizona attending his son’s high school graduation. The Mets travel to Colorado tonight to begin a three game series against the Rockies this weekend.
The Mets Report 