Tag: Jose Reyes

Reyes HR Lifts Mets Over Phillies 6-3

Mets starting pitcher John Maine made a big leap forward, going seven innings for the win for the first time since May in Los Angeles. Maine only had 104 pitches in the start which had been the problem for him over the past couple of months. Too many pitches over too few innings caused him to be on the bench early.

Damion Easley was 3 for 5 with 1 R and 1 RBI, and Brian Schneider was 2 for 4 with 1 R. But the biggest hit by far was Jose Reyes going deep off Ryan Madson in the sixth inning for a three run homer that un-tied the game. And it turned out to be the winner.

Billy Wagner was back from his one game injury. He shut the door on the ninth inning where the rest of the Mets bullpen had failed the night before.

The Mets move back into a tie with the Phillies for first place in the NL East, with the Florida Marlins one game back.

Box score

Lunch Links- Mex, Billy Martin, MLB Network, and More

While I’m here getting pumped up for the Phillies series, I decided to put some links out today. Some of them I’ve had for a while now but I think you’ll like. Anyway, onto the links…

  • This one is from July 7th but I thought you’d want to see it anyway. David Pinto wrote a piece for Yahoo Sports about the parallels between the Yankees 1978 firing of Billy Martin and the Mets firing of Willie Randolph.
  • David Peters, a PhD professor of engineering from the Washington University of St. Louis wrote a tremendous piece about how lefties have an advantage in baseball. It’s really compelling information and got picked up by Sporting News.
  • Cyril Morong, writer of the excellent blog Cybermetrics, writes that fast players such as Jose Reyes aren’t “blocked” from hitting doubles and triples with slower runners on base in front of them.
  • ESPN’s Jayson Stark picks the Phillies to win the NL East in his “That’s Debatable” column.
  • John Donovan tries to make sense of the NL East in his column for Sports Illustrated.
  • Awful Announcing has some good information on the upcoming MLB Network. Included is the rumor that they’re considering adding analyst Harold Reynolds from SNY to the network.
  • SI’s Jon Heyman gets into the latest trade rumors including the Mets interest in Seattle Raul Ibanez and Cleveland’s Casey Blake. He says that Omar Minaya especially likes Blake.
  • SNY analyst Keith Hernandez talks to WFAN’s Boomer & Carton about the Mets and his reported dispute with Jose Reyes. Listen here.

Mets Split Series With Reds With Extras Win

Mike Pelfrey came back to Earth a bit today, but he was still pretty good. He went seven innings and gave up five runs. Although he only threw 89 pitches in the game, which is a good sign. He did give up three big home runs today though which is odd for Pelfrey.

The Mets got huge offensive games from Jose Reyes (4 for 6, 3 R, 3B, SB), Ramon Castro (2 for 5, 1 R, 2 RBI, HR), and Carlos Delgado (3 for 4, 1 R, 2 RBI, HR). Delgado has raised his average to a respectable .261 for the season. That’s not far below his .279 career average.

Robinson Cancel had a clutch double in the tenth inning that started a rally in which the Mets scored two runs to take the lead for good. Billy Wagner locked down the tenth inning for the save to secure a 2-2 series split with the Reds. Wagner struck out the side for those of us getting concerned about his shaky outings recently.

The Mets come home for an off day tomorrow and start a big three game series with the Phillies at Shea on Tuesday. With the win today and a Phillies loss, the Mets are tied with the Phils for the lead in the NL East and .5 games up on the Florida Marlins.

Box score

Great Eight- Mets Over Rockies Again 3-0

Video Highlights

The Mets are on fire! They won their eighth in a row today behind astounding three hit pitching by five pitchers. Pedro Martinez started the game but left after four innings giving up only one hit due to injury. There’s some confusion about exactly what the nature of the injury is. Some reports state the he left because of a stiff shoulder, which appeared to be the case by his attempts to loosen the shoulder on the mound. Manager Jerry Manuel said that Pedro suffered a groin/hip strain running the bases in a prior start. I’m sure we’ll hear more in coming days, but the injury doesn’t appear to be serious.

The offense came from Fernando Tatis (again) with an RBI single in the fourth inning scoring Carlos Beltran. Beltran doubled, stole third, then scored on Tatis’ single. Tatis is constantly in the thick of the Mets scoring innings.

Jose Reyes hit a solo homer in the fifth off the scoreboard in right-center. Brian Schneider hit an RBI double in the sixth to score Carlos Delgado.

The Mets move to .5 game behind the Phillies after the D-Backs beat the Phils 10-4. The Mets could take over first place by the end of the day tomorrow.

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Mets Tatis Homer in 12th Downs Phillies 4-2

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Video Highlights

Not only was this a 12 inning game but there was a three hour rain delay in the eighth inning with the Mets leading 2-0 and the Phillies with a man on base.

Oliver Perez had his second consecutive excellent start. I have to think that the work that pitching coach Dan Warthen is doing with him is working. Perez has commented publicly that he felt like he was being forced to be a different pitcher under Rick Peterson. Warthen has said that there isn’t any one philosophy that’s right for every pitcher. Each one has to find what works for them. Apparently, Perez has found it. Perez went seven innings giving up no runs. He did give up four hits and two walks but was able to work out of situations with men on base.

Carlos Beltran was one of the offensive stars hitting a solo homer in the third inning to right field. In the ninth inning his RBI single scored Jose Reyes to make it 2-0 after the lengthy rain delay.

Billy Wagner came in for the save in the ninth. Shane Victorino singled and Jayson Werth homered with two strikes and two outs for Wagner’s sixth blown save of the season. After playing nine innings and waiting out the rain for hours, the Mets and Phillies went to extra innings.

The extra inning hero was Fernando Tatis hitting a two run homer with Carlos Delgado on to take a 4-2 lead. Joe Smith shut down the Phillies in the bottom of the 12th for the win. The Mets take the third game of the four game series to go up 2-1 in this critical division rival series.

In the field, Jose Reyes also had two great plays in the field ranging to his left. Marlon Anderson missed an easy fly ball to left that he should have caught. Carlos Delgado couldn’t get the ball out of his glove on a pickoff throw from Perez that caught Werth stealing.

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Mets In The News: Beltran, Reyes, El Duque, And More

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As the Mets prepare to face the Phillies today at 1:35pm, there are several stories circulating the newswire:

  • Mets manager Jerry Manuel told the press that he’s thinking of moving Carlos Beltran to second in the batting order so he sees more fastballs. I’m in complete agreement. Even moving him to third would be better.
  • El Duque is going to start his rehab work in Port St. Lucie this week.
  • Moises Alou is working out in NYC now. He’s expected to play a few rehab games with Brooklyn or Binghamton before returning to the Mets from his calf strain injury.
  • John Maine feels fine after experiencing cramping in his left forearm last night. He’ll be doing his regular workouts between starts.
  • A fan has filed notice to the City of New York that he intends to sue for $5.5 million after being hit in the face last August by a piece of Luis Castillo’s bat that shattered.
  • David Wright will not participate in the All-Star game home run derby.
  • Mike Lupica writes at the Daily News that Jose Reyes is the best shortstop in New York this season and gets picked on too much for the things he does on the field.
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Link: Rollins Analyzes Reyes

Mets vs. Marlins March 31, 2008Ben Shipgel of the New York Times has a terrific column today interviewing Philadelpha Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins about what he sees in Jose Reyes. There are many similarities in their games. As a matter of fact, I compared the two back in April which you can read here.

Shipgel writes:

“Sometimes it takes a year or two, but with me, it took three,” Rollins said in a recent interview. “I was the same way until I figured out who the heck I was. I could run, I could play, I was fast, but it was all raw ability. But now, I’m showing off my raw ability, with learning, with knowledge. I’ve learned the game. I understand the game. You come out of that, you’re a completely different player.”

That’s a great quote that he got from Rollins. Reyes still hasn’t gotten to that point yet, but he will. Hopefully he’ll still be a Met when he does because he’ll be unstoppable.

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