Things only got better once the game began. At first, it was shaping up to be a tension-filled matchup between 2 talented young pitchers. Then came the bottom of the 4th, where the Mets displayed just a few of the many ways in which they can beat an opponent:
- With the slump he had been in lately, it was great to see a trademark David Wright at-bat where he fell behind 0-2, fouled off a bunch of pitches after going through his borderline obsessive-compulsive (and entertaining to watch) rituals between each pitch, and finally ripped an RBI double down the line.
- For the second game in a row, the Mets were able to capitalize when the opposing pitcher gave away an out by botching a routine throw to 1st. This is what a good team needs to do, making the opposition pay for its mistakes.
- Having a productive at-bat after the opponent pitched around someone else to get to him, the way Milledge did after Endy was walked on 4 pitches with 1st base open and 1 out, is crucial, not just for that particular situation but so that the guy ahead of him will get pitches to hit in the future. Well done, Lastings.
- Of course, the biggest hit of all that inning was Reyes's grand slam, the 8th by a Met this year (and the 6th in the past 19 games) and yet another instance of Jose kicking ass with 2 outs and runners in scoring position.
From there on in, it was a cakewalk. John Maine increased his scoreless innings streak to 23 despite his struggle to throw strikes in the 5th and 6th, Darren Oliver fooled Abraham Nunez so badly in the 9th inning that he fell over (I expect to see that on blooper segments for quite a while), and the Mets won 8-1 to take the series.
Observations/Odds & Ends:
- What was that thing on Aaron Rowand's left hand? It looked like he had a chalkboard eraser strapped to his batting glove.
- As usual, Joe Morgan and Jon Miller gave ample reason to snicker at their incompetence. In the 1st inning alone, Morgan referred to the Mets' top pitching prospect as "Peltrey" and explained that the key pitch for Maine was strike 1 in a manner that implied that it wasn't a key pitch for other pitchers, while Miller informed us that Utley began a new hitting streak with a double in the first inning (the double in question was hit by David Dellucci before Utley, who got a hit yesterday as a pinch-hitter, singled).
- However, even Joe Morgan is capable of making sense every so often. He made a good point in that while people keep talking about how the Mets needed to get another big starting pitcher, they're far from alone in that regard. Later on, he made an even better point about how strikeouts are not equal to other outs because anything can happen when a hitter puts the ball in play. Of course, he'd probably be horrified if he knew that this belief is shared by many statheads :-P
- John Kruk, on the other hand, is just irredeemably stupid. His hissy fit on Baseball Tonight about a Manny Ramirez single that should have been a double crossed from the borderline sensible (on a ball hit as deep as that one, any non-catcher should make it to 2nd) was to downright laughable when he said one of the veterans on the team needs to sit Manny (who has only been in the major leagues for over a decade) down and tell him to hustle.
- Speaking of irredeemably stupid, I watched a bit of the Braves/Reds game this afternoon on TBS. Just when you think you've heard it all, you get 2 windbags who cover a team that couldn't even sell out its stadium when it was making the postseason blathering on about how the Reds need to win more to draw fans. On top of that, one of the windbags confesses that he didn't like Great American Ballpark at first because he doesn't understand why there's a gap in the upper deck. While there are legit reasons for not liking that ballpark, I don't see how an architectural feature that places some of the upper-deck seats closer to the field and provides a nice view into and out of the park is one of them.
2 comments:
No LaDuca news? NY'er now living in Houston, just clicked on NY post webiste and got a pretty nasty cover story. Hopefully this won't affect his on the field play...Ladukie has been nothing but clutch for us all year, and is pretty underated in his pitch calling skills.
Ah, leave it to the Post to be as sensationalistic and tabloid-ish as possible. LoDuca has been absolutely on fire at the plate since the divorce papers were filed, so at least it doesn't seem as though the distractions in his personal life are negatively impacting him on the field.
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