Weak hand
The New York Mets tired pitching staff came up strong tonight against the St. Louis Cardinals. The entire staff was keenly aware that the team’s offense, already weak, became even more anemic with the placement of Carlos Beltran on the DL before the game. Tim Redding (1-2), knowing that his spot in the rotation may be in jeopardy with the recent rehabilitation progress that John Maine and Oliver Perez have made, gave the Mets 7 plus innings of 4 run ball, sparing most of the revamped bullpen.
The Mets took the early lead and never relinquished it. In the 1st inning Ryan Church drove in Daniel Murphy with a sacrifice fly, then Omir Santos singled to plate David Wright and the Mets led 2-0. Skip Schumaker singled in Khalil Greene in the 3rd to make it 2-1.
The Mets got single runs in the 4th and 5th innings. In the 4th Luis Castillo hit a long double to deep left driving in Santos, then in the 5th Murphy hit his 5th home run to give the Mets a 4-1 lead. Ryan Ludwick hit a 2-run homer in the 6th driving in Albert Pujols, making the score 4-3, but the Mets answered back in the bottom of the inning when an Alex Cora single scored Castillo making it 5-3.
TIM-MAY!
Redding entered the 8th but the first batter, SS Brendan Ryan, hit a home run, cutting the lead to 1 and ending Redding’s night. He received a well-deserved hand heading into the dugout.
Divine intervention
Seldom seen and even less used reliever Jon Switzer then came on for a rare crucial 8th inning appearance to afford some rest for Perpetual Pedro Feliciano who had worked the previous 6 games. He struck out Schumaker, then gave up a single to pinch hitter Tyler Greene and was replaced by Brian Stokes who was being used instead of the resting Sean Green and Bobby Parnell. Stokes responded by inducing Pujols of all people to ground into a 1-6-3 double play, ending the Cards’ threat.
In the bottom of the 8th Cora again singled in Castillo for an insurance run and what turned out to be the final score of 6-4. Francisco Rodriguez pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his 19th save.
For a box score and recap, please visit cbssports.com
32 comments
smooth
6/22/2009-10:50pm at 10:50 pm (UTC -4)
I swear this team is cursed, Bart Hubbuch reports on his twitter that Reyes and Ray Ramirez were in a car accident early today when a fire truck hit them in the rear, apparently no one was injured. Does anyone else get the sense like this is Final Destination and you cant avoid injury?
gipperpdx
6/22/2009-10:51pm at 10:51 pm (UTC -4)
Meh – Ray Ramirez should join his charges on the DL.
metsfan4decades
6/22/2009-11:05pm at 11:05 pm (UTC -4)
You’ve got to be kidding me. Sigh….
dirtysanchez
6/22/2009-11:24pm at 11:24 pm (UTC -4)
your kidding….
smooth
6/22/2009-11:32pm at 11:32 pm (UTC -4)
http://blogs.nypost.com/sports/mets/archives/2009/06/reyes_unhurt_in.html
thats the link to the car accident report
gipperpdx
6/22/2009-10:53pm at 10:53 pm (UTC -4)
Nice win. This team needs a little 6 out of 7 stretch in the worst way.
stickguy
6/22/2009-10:59pm at 10:59 pm (UTC -4)
this would certainly be a nice, if unexpected, week for it!
although the Cards aren’t really that good (other than Pujols of course), and the Yanks have lost series to the Nats, marlins and Phils recently, and they will be playing in a big park, so who knows!
Dang. Just when you think your out, they pull you back in!
metsfan4decades
6/22/2009-11:09pm at 11:09 pm (UTC -4)
There is absolutely no way you can predict anymore what our NY Mets are gonna do on any given night. Throw out the stats, bury the book ’cause all bets are off. Going with your ‘gut’ is as good a game plan as any right now. And that’s b/c nothing – and I mean NOTHING – can be predicted.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about anything with this win tonight at all. Many stepped up to the plate to get it done. But if you had to bet on Murph going deep or Redding going into the 8th, or Stokes getting Pujols to hit into a DP, would you take those bets?
Glad to see them all work together to get it done. And I’ve got my fingers crossed they can keep this up until the ASB.
stickguy
6/22/2009-11:30pm at 11:30 pm (UTC -4)
so you mean that Jerry has been right all along going with his gut instead of stats and logic?
Who woulda thunk it!
gategem
6/22/2009-11:34pm at 11:34 pm (UTC -4)
I’ll go with Davey Johnson’s use of stats and logic over Jerry’s gut any day. Remember that feeling in your gut could be what you had for lunch.
trs86
6/22/2009-11:58pm at 11:58 pm (UTC -4)
Ok here’s another one for you. What in the hell is going on with all the releasing of players? Willy Mo, Javier Valentin, Bobby Keilty, Conner Robertston, Wilson Valdez, damn. Who the heck are they moving into all these open spots? Seriously, was Wily Mo and Keilty blocking anyone?
dirtysanchez
6/23/2009-12:09am at 12:09 am (UTC -4)
well valdez was dfa’ed, not released no?
trs86
6/23/2009-12:16am at 12:16 am (UTC -4)
True, but I am guessing he has no options so he would get to chose to accept the minor league assignment assuming he clears waivers.
GravediggerHebner
6/23/2009-12:16am at 12:16 am (UTC -4)
is essentially the same. This gets him off the 40 man roster. He is free to go to any team, but if he and the Mets both want it they can re-sign him for Buffalo.
trs86
6/23/2009-12:18am at 12:18 am (UTC -4)
So I am also assuming that may be why they cut ONE of the AAA guys is so he would have a spot?
dirtysanchez
6/23/2009-12:09am at 12:09 am (UTC -4)
could it be to make room for younger talent?
trs86
6/23/2009-12:14am at 12:14 am (UTC -4)
Who? Those guys we drafted I guess but don’t they have basically a league of their own to play in? I have been out so maybe I have not noticed a lot of other moves on the minor league scale as well. I really don’t understand the releasing of Wily Mo and Robertson. Hell from my perspective Wily Mo would be a better candidate to be up with the team righ now than Fmart. I would rather have Reed taking Beltran’s spot and Wily Mo as a PH.
GravediggerHebner
6/23/2009-12:15am at 12:15 am (UTC -4)
Can only guess some AA guys are moving up, and perhaps some major leaguers (Nick Evans?) are going down.
trs86
6/23/2009-12:17am at 12:17 am (UTC -4)
Evans is not going down though right? He was called up for Fmart and Fmart now took Beltran’s spot. I am just curious though why we would cut two AAA OF and 1 AAA reliever when it did not appear we needed to.
GravediggerHebner
6/23/2009-12:21am at 12:21 am (UTC -4)
Not immediately. He was rumored to be going down during the flurry of activity this afternoon but ultimately didn’t, once Beltran went on the DL. He was going to go to make room for a relief pitcher.
Somewhat related, this article from Buffalo last week might give insight into the recent roster moves throughout the organization.
http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/columns/story/702845.html
smooth
6/23/2009-12:30am at 12:30 am (UTC -4)
Cutting Connor Robertson free’d up a spot on the 40 man. I wonder if Omar has a deal in place and he needed to move the 40man roster around to make it happen before it is announced. Its a possibility at least, no?
trs86
6/23/2009-12:32am at 12:32 am (UTC -4)
Possible, but was Elmer on the 40 man? I am guessing NO? So that makes even more sense. I guess this lack of sleep and basketball camp is starting to get to me.
GravediggerHebner
6/23/2009-12:35am at 12:35 am (UTC -4)
Certainly a possibility. The ML roster is in such flux I can’t really concern myself with the minor league rosters that much. Given the many needs of the parent club, any speculation on my part as to what sort of deal Omar could be making would be just a crazy wild guess. I can only hope that I wake tomorrow to good news, whatever that might be.
trs86
6/23/2009-12:39am at 12:39 am (UTC -4)
True, that is why all of us can only do a bad job of pretending to be GM. There is so much more to it than just “We need Nick Johnson, lets get him.”
I am sure that many of these moves had to do with the 40 man roster and even more so each minor leage team has roster rules as well. Too confusing. I will just wait for updates to show up on here. LOL
gategem
6/23/2009-1:16am at 1:16 am (UTC -4)
An old college buddy, now a manager with Texas Instruments, said he heard some unconfirmed rumors of Ed Wade and Omar talking. But GMâ€S are always in contact so who knows.
stickguy
6/23/2009-12:27am at 12:27 am (UTC -4)
not sure what the master plan is with all these moves. The only one that was really odd was Wily Mo, but there was some speculation he might have an overseas offer, but who knows.
The rest? almost like having a garage sale to clean out your collected junk.
The spots seem to be needed for some 40 man moves (just don’t ask me for which guys), and promotions.
They had a bunch of guys moving up the chain (a domino effect) Ike Davis went to AA to replace Evans, Duda to AAA, etc.
So I think it also had to do with getting rid of old MiL filler to give the younger, actual prospects a place to play?
Robertson had been Meh all year. Keilty is shot. So they I guess were just in the way.
Valdez going down? Not exactly a wonderful MI rotation.
Could also be a few moves pending, but really, only Wily Mo really makes me scratch my head, but he is 33 (IIRC), and has never been much good in the majors, so expecting much out of him might have been a stretch.
At least all 15 Bison fans get to see a younger team now!
trs86
6/23/2009-12:30am at 12:30 am (UTC -4)
Hey I feel special, I got to watch them play and they were dominant. Also, funny thing I think I found all 15 of those fans and they travel. There were about 15 Buffalo fans in the crowd siting together in Charlotte NC>
GravediggerHebner
6/23/2009-12:38am at 12:38 am (UTC -4)
re: the 40 man, as far as I can tell mets.com has updated it, and right now it shows 41 guys but 2 on the 60 day DL so room for one more.
http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/team/roster_40man.jsp?c_id=nym
trs86
6/23/2009-12:39am at 12:39 am (UTC -4)
Cool, most likely wont move anyone into that spot in hopes of picking someone up.
smooth
6/23/2009-12:54am at 12:54 am (UTC -4)
i read on rubins blog that Argenis Reyes is getting called up in the next day or so.
GravediggerHebner
6/23/2009-1:00am at 1:00 am (UTC -4)
Nice info Smooth. That fills the last spot on the 40 man (cuz he’s not on it) and takes care of the fact that right now Tatis is the back up MI.
prismo
6/23/2009-3:26am at 3:26 am (UTC -4)
Alex Cora: “It takes more than 5 superstars to win a World Series … We’re not as bad as people think we are.”
-lennon on twitter