Tag: Washington Nationals

Mets Finally Win For Santana; Top Nationals 4-3

Mets fans hung onto our hats for Joe Smith and Pedro Feliciano to get through the last two innings after another Johan Santana quality start. The typical script for these games has been the bullpen blowing the lead for Santana. Surprisingly, that didn’t happen tonight. Santana went seven strong innings giving up three runs for his tenth win of the season.

Carlos Beltran was 3 for 4 in the game. But the big RBI was Damion Easley’s on a hit by pitch in the eighth inning with the bases loaded. That put the Mets in front by a run and left the Mets crossing their fingers for the bullpen to come through. And they did…Finally!

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On Deck- August 12- Mets at Nationals [Game 1]

New York Mets (62-55 Home: 36-22) at Washington Nationals (44-75 Home: 23-33) 7:10pm

Johan Santana (9-7 2.85) vs. Odalis Perez (5-8 4.10)

TV: SNY   Radio: WFAN

What to watch: Honestly, I don’t know how the Mets can recover from their devastating loss yesterday. I guess playing the worst team in baseball for three games could help. I’ve written this before over the last few weeks but I’ll say it again, the Mets need Santana to go nine innings himself if they expect to win this one. You can’t trust anyone in the bullpen right now.

Visit The Mets Report Live Game Chat during the game to chat with other Mets fans.

Nats Take Out The Trash- Release LoDuca and Lopez

Multiple media sources are reporting that last night the Washington Nationals released Paul LoDuca and Felipe Lopez. The Nats needed to make room on their active roster for Elijah Dukes and Emilio Bonifacio.

LoDuca is making $5M this season and Lopez is making $4.9M. Both are having horrible offensive seasons. And LoDuca has been hurt this season as well. The Nats recently released another free agent catcher Johnny Estrada.

Neither player is a fit for the Mets needs.

One Hour Left- No Mets Trades To Report

Jon Heyman reports at SI.com that the Mets are talking to the Washington Nationals about a deal for relief pitcher Luis Ayala.

He’s pitched in 54 games this season, a right-hander, has a 1-6 record and 5.54 ERA. He’s been with the organization since 2003 so Omar Minaya knows him well. The numbers for his prior seasons are pretty good. He’s never had an ERA higher than 3.19 before this year and he’s pitched in as many as 81 games/season.

Mets Drop Third Game To Nats 1-0

Mike Pelfrey took a no hitter into the seventh inning and was terrific for his second start in a row. However, the Nationals Jason Bergmann was better. Pelfrey only gave up one run but Bergmann gave up none.

The Nationals made several great plays in the field including a diving catch in left field by Willie Harris, and Christian Guzman tagging Jose Reyes out trying to take an extra base going to third.

The Mets end their home stand against two last place teams at 3-4. Losing three out of four to the Nationals at home may just cost Willie Randolph his job when all is said and done. The Mets are playing well below their talent level and that’s the manager’s problem. Don’t be surprised to see Willie go in the near future.

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Video Highlights

On Deck: Thursday May 15, 2008 Mets-Nats

Washington Nationals (17-24) at New York Mets (20-18) 1:10pm

Jason Bergmann (0-1) vs. Mike Pelfrey (2-3)

TV: SNY Radio: WFAN

What to watch: This is another must-win game for the Mets. It’s not an option to lose three out of four games at home to the Nationals. Something like that might cost Willie Randolph his job considering the mediocre start to this season. Mike Pelfrey had a nice start last time out so let’s hope that he can keep that up.

Mets Lose Another Game To Nats 5-3

Pitching was the story of this game. Claudio Vargas had a terrific first start for the Mets going 6.1 innings and gave up only only two runs. That was much more than the Mets expected from the journeyman pitcher just up from Triple-A New Orleans.

On the other end of the spectrum, Aaron Heilman was horrible again. I was dumbfounded when Willie Randolph brought in Heilman in the seventh with one out, one runner on base, and a tie game. Randolph said after the game that Scott Schoenweiss and Matt Wise were unavailable. Wise because he just pitched two days in a row, and Schoenweiss was sick.

Heilman threw gallons of gas on the fire by pitching .1 innings and gave up three runs plus let the inherited runner from Vargas score. He was booed mercilessly by the crowd throughout the inning. Randolph heard a lot of booing from the crowd too.

Earlier in the game Moises Alou was ejected for slamming his bat after being called out on strikes.

I feel like we’re watching this job slip away from Randolph before our eyes. The best that the Mets can do now is a split of a four game home series with the last place Nationals. There doesn’t seem to be any spark with this team. It’s becoming a problem.

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Video Highlights