VS.
Again from our friends at Yahoo. I hate to keep using them but this guy does a really good job with his pre-game and I don’t want to take any ideas from Dirty with the much more important game thread……
Injuries were a major factor as the New York Mets matched their longest losing streak of the season last week. While the club’s health problems haven’t gone away, Gary Sheffield(notes) has helped ease their impact lately.
Sheffield looks to continue his hot hitting and Livan Hernandez(notes) tries for his sixth straight win over his former club as the Mets go for their fourth win in five games Tuesday night against the Washington Nationals.
New York (24-20) totaled six runs while losing four straight from May 17-20, a skid that was largely due to the absences of Carlos Delgado(notes) (hip surgery), Jose Reyes (calf) and Brian Schneider(notes) (back).
The Mets’ injury woes have only gotten worse with Ryan Church(notes) (hamstring) and Carlos Beltran(notes) (knee) also ailing. But Sheffield has stepped into the starting lineup to help lessen the blows. He’s batting .395 (15 for 38) with three home runs, nine RBIs and 14 runs scored in 11 games since replacing Delgado as the club’s regular cleanup hitter, raising his batting average from .178 to .277.
Sheffield has hit safely in four straight games and the Mets have won three of them. The 40-year-old’s 503rd career home run broke a 1-all tie in New York’s 5-2 win over Washington (13-31) on Monday night. A fan reached out and touched the ball as it approached the left-field wall, but it was ruled a home run and that decision was upheld after umpires consulted video replay.
The Mets could need continued success from Sheffield with Reyes and Beltran potentially headed to the disabled list. Reyes has missed eight of 11 games with the nagging calf strain, and Beltran will have an MRI on his sore right knee Tuesday.
“I just want to make sure that everything is going to be fine and it’s not going to get worse,†Beltran said. “Mentally I know something is wrong.â€
New York’s injury-plagued lineup could be relieved of some of the pressure if the Mets can get another strong outing from Hernandez (3-1, 4.93 ERA), who still has the most wins for the Nationals (24) since the franchise relocated to Washington from Montreal before the 2005 season.
Hernandez lost his first game against the Nationals in 2006 after spending three-plus seasons with the club, but since then he’s posted a 3.34 ERA while winning five straight starts against them.
Hernandez held the Los Angeles Dodgers to one run in seven innings Wednesday, but the Mets still fell 2-1.
The Nationals will hand the ball to Craig Stammen(notes) (0-0, 5.68), who left his major league debut Thursday to a standing ovation. The right-hander retired the first 12 batters he faced before struggling his third time through the Pittsburgh lineup. He was pulled after giving up four runs in 6 1-3 innings, failing to get a decision in Washington’s 5-4 victory over Pittsburgh.
“I thought I controlled my emotions and my thought process pretty well,†said Stammen, called up from Triple-A Syracuse earlier that day.
Nationals manager Manny Acta was encouraged by the 25-year-old’s first career start.
“(Stammen) didn’t look intimidated the whole night,†Acta said. “He attacked the strike zone, worked fast, had very good sink on his fastball and just made it look easy. As he found out later, it’s not that easy, but he did a very nice job for us.â€
Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman(notes) has reached base safely by a hit or a walk in 43 consecutive games, topping the single-season franchise record set by Tim Raines in 1986 and pulling within three of Rusty Staub’s overall franchise record. Zimmerman is 5 for 16 (.313) with two homers and two doubles lifetime against Hernandez.
Series at a Glance
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NY Mets 5
Mon, May 25 – Final
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Washington at
Tue, May 26 – 7:10 pm ET
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Washington at
Wed, May 27 – 7:10 pm ET
Team Comparison
| Team | Record | Standings | Away/Home | Streak | L10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington | 13-31 | 5th East | Away 6-15 | Lost 1 | 2-8 |
| New York | 24-20 | 2nd East | Home 13-8 | Won 1 | 5-5 |
14 comments
saltygary
5/26/2009-3:34pm at 3:34 pm (UTC -4)
Some critical series are coming up. The next 3 teams they face after this are Florida, Pitt, and Washington. This is a great time for this team to ignore the injuries, let the pitchers take control and hopefully the offense will not put too much pressure and hit in those key spots.
After that the Phils and Yanks will come up and hopefully we will have some starters back.
There's Always '10
5/26/2009-3:39pm at 3:39 pm (UTC -4)
Would be nice to win lots of games in this streetch. 10-3 maybe.
casestreet1
5/26/2009-3:45pm at 3:45 pm (UTC -4)
Love the Tags trs.
BTW, I had quite some trouble figuring out how to resister. Don’t know if I was doing something wrong or it wasn’t working. Either way, you might want to try it out.
Also, I’m working on another post. Can I be added?
mrose
5/26/2009-3:48pm at 3:48 pm (UTC -4)
case, i knew you’d have some issues, because i imported all the stuff from the other blog, it automatically created a name for you..as you can see, you have a 1 after your name..i’ll fix it now
mrose
5/26/2009-3:51pm at 3:51 pm (UTC -4)
case…try posting again, and you have author rights again and I changed your email to the one from the old blog, figuring you’d want that
CaseStreet
5/26/2009-4:00pm at 4:00 pm (UTC -4)
tnx
GravediggerHebner
5/26/2009-3:48pm at 3:48 pm (UTC -4)
As far as I can tell, these tags only work within this blog. Is that their appropriate use? I was kind of hoping they would help people find us if they entered those terms in search engines.
mrose
5/26/2009-3:51pm at 3:51 pm (UTC -4)
tags will get populated to google bots and the like..so it helps with search engines
CaseStreet
5/26/2009-3:52pm at 3:52 pm (UTC -4)
Generally, tags, categories and words in titles help people find the blog.
You guys should check out Grant Griffith’s BlogForProfit.com. He’s known as the blogfather and has tons of useful and easy to use information that will help grow the site.
GravediggerHebner
5/26/2009-3:54pm at 3:54 pm (UTC -4)
OK cool. I’ve have recently tagged ‘mononucleosis’ and ‘Carmen Sandiego’ so watch out world, The Real Dirty Mets Blog is coming!
CaseStreet
5/26/2009-4:13pm at 4:13 pm (UTC -4)
too bad I don’t have an Iphone. I could’ve live blogged from today’s game.
mrose
5/26/2009-4:15pm at 4:15 pm (UTC -4)
lol
i can’t tell if that is
a) a digg at cerrone
b) true cause you are going
but i’m going too…so i could say the same
heh
CaseStreet
5/26/2009-4:25pm at 4:25 pm (UTC -4)
c) all of the above
There's Always '10
5/26/2009-4:44pm at 4:44 pm (UTC -4)
I have an iPhone if you’d like to borrow it and Live Blog. I’m sure your comments will be better than:
“I’m standing over the Mets dugout right now. It’s amazing how big the logos on the sleeves are on their jerseys. I wonder if that interferes with the pitchers at all.”
“I am about to head to the restroom. Just thought I’d mention that. I haven’t had any beers yet, but it’s cold and I gotta pee.”