The New York Mets treated the ball like a hot potato in all phases of the game: the starting pitcher couldn’t throw it for a strike, most of the hitters couldn’t hit it and David Wright and Omir Santos wouldn’t and couldn’t catch it respectively. The Philadelphia Phillies celebrated their independence from worrying about the Mets with a 4-1 win.
Fernando Nieve (3-2) started for New York and the Phillies took an early lead. With one out in the 1st Shane Victorino singled, Chase Utley walked and Ryan Howard singled to load the bases. Victorino scored on a Jayson Werth sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead.
"The Mets have 8 more lives right?"
In the 4th inning Philadelphia scored 2 more. Pedro Feliz led off with a single which was followed by Nieve’s 4th walk at that point, to Paul Bako. Jimmy Rollins doubled to right driving them both in and the Phillies led 3-0.
The Mets got their only run of the game in the 5th, and used half of all the hits they had to get it. With 2 outs, Nick Evans and Santos singled, then the pitcher Nieve had the only Met hit with runners in scoring position in the game, a bloop single to left to drive in Evans.
"You're alright!"
Nieve allowed his 5th & 6th bases on balls in the bottom of the 6th inning. Again Nieve walked Bako (who is hitting .214). After a sacrifice bunt by Jamie Moyer, Nieve walked Rollins and was replaced by Pat Misch who gave up an RBI single to Victorino for the final run of the game. Victorino should have been out, but his foul pop earlier in the at bat bounced off the thumb of Santos’ glove for an error. Earlier in the inning another at bat was extended on a missed foul pop. Wright was settling under it but suddenly pulled up and the ball fell behind him. In the post game Met manager Jerry Manuel stated that Alex Cora had called out to Wright “you’re alright” in relation to his position to the stands, but Wright pulled up thinking Cora was calling him off the play.
Mets are 1-2 in the Wilpon's red holiday hats
Cora was the big hitter for the Mets, with 3 singles in 4 at bats. The Mets 5th inning, when they scored their only run, was the only inning of the game in which they had more than one baserunner. Moyer (7-6) baffled the Mets with his assortment of 82 mph stuff. The highlight of the afternoon for those Met fans watching the game on television was when FOX would cut away for each Manny Ramirez at bat, providing a moment’s respite from watching the Mets fumble, bumble and stumble to another loss. Unless during the Ramirez at bats it crossed your mind that despite missing 50 games due to a suspension for performance enhancing drug use Ramirez still has more home runs than David Wright.
Red hats don't prevent Manny from being Manny
Please visit cbssports.com for the box score.
10 comments
steveo
7/4/2009-8:15pm at 8:15 pm (UTC -4)
Wow what agood team omar has put together.And don’t tell me he’s not responsible for the injuries because the angels have lots of injuries to and they are kicken but why? Because there gm had the sense to have back ups in place and there problems were mostly pitchers,real replacments not double a kids learning the game.Omar has brought in nice players but with money other than maine and church he has done nothing.Better luck next year oh wait the braves marlins an phillies will be better too we are doomed with this idiot at the helm
GravediggerHebner
7/4/2009-8:39pm at 8:39 pm (UTC -4)
The Angels have had a pitcher die in a car accident, the Mets can’t compare to that.
But otherwise they currently have 4 players on the DL, all pitchers (Escobar, Loux, Moseley and Shields). The Mets have 9. Simple math tells us that’s more than twice as many.
Vladimir Guerrero did miss roughly 30 games earlier this season, but he is a DH, a position the Mets don’t even have so the Angels didn’t miss a position player when he was out like the Mets have missed their 1B, SS and now CF.
The pitcher replacements the Angels used that you speak so highly of where Matt Palmer, Sean O’Sullivan, Anthony Ortega, and Shane Loux and Dustin Moseley who are currently out.
Palmer is a 30 year old career minor leaguer. O’Sullivan is 21 and had never pitched above single A before this year. Ortega is a 23 year old from AAA who had a 9.64 ERA in AAA and a 9.24 ERA with the Angels.
I don’t know who these back ups are that you are suggesting their GM had in place. I guess it was a genius move on their part to sign Gary Matthews Jr. to a 5 year $50 million dollar contract so they had him on their bench to step in and bat .229 when Guerrero got hurt.
Should Omar have signed a real corner OF this offseason instead of counting on Murphy/Tatis to play LF? Most likely. Should Omar have signed a different starting pitcher instead of Oliver Perez? Probably. But neither Omar nor the GM of the Angels was expected to or did have viable backups in place to deal with all their problems, they both threw spaghetti at the wall to see what stuck. Omar just had to do it more than twice as much.
steveo
7/4/2009-10:37pm at 10:37 pm (UTC -4)
Stop defending omar he is a fool and you know it maybe the angels were a bad example.Relying on murphy exposed his foolishness an inexperienced player playing in the bigs on the padres is expected not on a 135 million dollar team.Maybe he thought he was still GMing the expos Don’t let me mention perez and calling up fmart are you kidding me not once but twice.Omar won’t get fired I agree but its time for him to be just the VP of operations and have the gm title stripped they can sugarcoat it
and say he was overworked its really time to move on from this guy.
GravediggerHebner
7/4/2009-11:41pm at 11:41 pm (UTC -4)
Steveo you are always welcome here to air your grievances and frustrations, but expect to be challenged on them when they are not very accurate.
Omar is a mediocre GM. I think that’s pretty fair to say. But even Theo Epstein or whoever you wish to use as an example of a very good GM could not have adequately or properly prepared for 3 All-Star caliber players on the DL at the same time, and 9 total players on the DL simultaneously.
Take the 3 best hitters out of any lineup in the Majors, 2 starting pitchers and the set up man off the pitching staff at the same time and see what any team has got to replace them. Certainly some teams could put a couple of good players out there, which the Mets really have not been able to do outside of Alex Cora, but no team is going to replace all 9 well.
There are many, many available things to pick on Omar for. You hit on one in his expecting a platoon of Murphy and Tatis to be productive. Expecting Oliver Perez to be a $36 million pitcher is another. But you expecting Omar to have 9 back ups ready to step up and produce at even major league average is just as unreasonable. That’s all I’m saying. I’ll defend him on the points that he deserves defending. There are plenty on which he doesn’t. Focus on those and I’ll agree with you ’til the cows come home.
But realize that he has a 3 year contract extension that starts next year. Get mad at the Wilpons about the fact that Omar is likely to be around at least through 2011, and possibly through the end of that contract in 2012.
Mr North Jersey
7/5/2009-12:02am at 12:02 am (UTC -4)
Grave I just want to say that was the best rebuttal of a comment that clearly was not well thought out to begin with. The way you dissected his comment was like watching DaVinci do a masterpiece it gave me so much pleasure that I can not put it into words. LoL
Steveo, if you feel Minaya is a “fool” that is your right but I suggest you take the time to know why he is so you may avoid being taken to school as you just was.
Don’t let your frustration as a Mets fan this season blind you to the point you just want someone to scream at and point the finger at because truth be told their is absolutely no one on this team that is beyond having a finger being pointed at. Everyone must accept responsibility for what is going on right now.
asod75
7/4/2009-8:24pm at 8:24 pm (UTC -4)
I’m finding it harder and harder to defend Omar Minaya. There is no organizational depth. Sure, there are a few nice prospects but most are still in the lower levels and there is nothing that can help the big league ballclub. This offseason was a disaster as Omar looked at the bullpen and nothing else. Adam Dunn could have been had at a reasonable price but Omar doesn’t like him. Signing Wolf or Garland at one-year, 5-7 million would have been a better move than inking the enigma that is Oliver Perez to a longterm deal. And don’t get me started on the foolish Castillo signing. More and more, I’m thinking it’s time for a change, but I doubt we’ll get it because the Wimpons seem to love Omar.
Mr North Jersey
7/5/2009-1:06am at 1:06 am (UTC -4)
Look has Minaya made mistakes? Duh of course he has but let’s look at our situation.
1. Wagner goes down bullpen was inept Minaya goes out and cleans house
gone are: Schoeneweis, Heilman, Sanchez, and Smith
in are: Krod, Green Putz, Parnell
Better/Worse?
2. Delgado’s option do Mets pick it up or not?
If you believe that Delgado could continue to give you what you got 2nd half of 08 than you have to pick him up who else do you go get Texiera? Mets were not gonna spend 180 million over 8 years for him as much as we would like for them to its just not happening. If they signed him then they probably don’t sign Krod. Do they trade for a 1b then? If so who?
Better/Worse?
3. Sign or don’t sign Oliver Perez? ask yourself this if you don’t sign Ollie who do you sign then? Did you say Lowe?
Ok now you say you want Lowe but you will not give him four years only three but he insists on four and gets from Atlanta four years 60 million dude, that’s 15 million a year you still signing Lowe?
Better/Worse?
4. Sign Orlando Hudson? Minaya was reported interested in signing ODog but only if he could move Castillo’s contract. Apparently he could not move Castillo’s contract. What you say? Who’s fault was it for giving Castillo contract to begin with? Yes Minaya messed up. Giving Castillo the money he did was a mistake that just never made sense the best I can come up with is and this is a stretch it’s that signing Castillo helped Mets get Santana to sign with them. I told you it was a stretch.
Better/Worse?
5. Daniel Murphy in LF? How do we begin? Murphy was a guy that hit everywhere he went but had no position he came up in 2008 and gave Mets a much needed boost in lineup. The problem was it was a short sampling that Minaya fell in love with and Minaya ignored the what if this kid was a flash in the pan?
Better/Worse?
6. Fernando Martinez being called up is simply that the Mets feel the kid can play defense and can look at this time he has in the bigs as just an opportunity to taste what it is like to be in the Bigs.
Better/Worse?
7. Not signing Manny Ramirez? Everyone knows Minaya loves Manny this has been a known fact among all the media in NY. The fact Minaya didn’t sign Manny says one of two things and possibly both. He had a budget and could not give him 25 million or The Wilpons did not want anything to do with Manny.
Better/Worse?
The above 7 items are some of the most highly debated things regarding The Mets and Minaya and of all that was mentioned I take issue with 2 things Minaya did and that’s giving Castillo all that money and falling in love with Murphy. You can look at everything and a reasonable person would say Minaya’s moves are reasonable all things considered.
I write this not to excuse Minaya because in the end the buck stops with him but if you are going to take him to task then have a better idea of why before you do.
stickguy
7/5/2009-8:15am at 8:15 am (UTC -4)
not even sure where to start. Just glad that I only saw pbits and pieces though, and not the whole game!
I saw yesterday that MF4D agreed with my post that a big part of the problem (at least for the sloppy play and bad fundis) is guys playing out of position. TOo much learning on the job going on, and when guys always seem to be in different spots, it is hard to feel comfortable with the guys around you. Jose and DW played side by side for a long time, so unlikely the cora miscue happens with him. Evans being out of position for a cutoff? Also can be traced back to lack of experience.
But, continuing to drop popups (Santos), with one hand down by your side? Inexcusable. So blame that at least on Jerry.
I only partially blame the out of position issues on Jerry though. He is walking a fine line between guys that cant hit but can field, and guys that can sorta hit and almost field.
THis F Mart thing has me concerned too. He is pretty much just another black hole, but a valuable prospect, so if he has a sore ligament, shut him down, go with the MRI, and get someone else up. Dont play short, and dont take a chance with the kid. He better go down or to the DL today. Before they Reyes him into a major problem.
I was really hoping for a good showing this weekend, but now I am thinking that the 1 game out was the last hurrah. I can easily see Fla and Philly going on a nice little run and pulling away to battle for the division.
Oh, and people keep talking about Dunn like he was working for minimum wage. He got 10mill for 2 years. So how many people woould have screamed about Omar being an idiot for giving him 3/36, or whatever it would have taken to beat the nats offer?
If anything, this year has proven that I want to see a top notch defensive team that can also hit, not a bunch of bats that cant field. And you would be surprised how much a good D will help the pitching.
Maybe Santana will get out of his funk today, or it will be sweep city. If he pitches like Ollie again, it will be a long, long day, even though the mets should smack around blanton (should, not will).
GravediggerHebner
7/5/2009-10:41am at 10:41 am (UTC -4)
Well said, just one minor quibble with paragraph 3. I’m going to blame Santos for using 1 hand and dropping that pop up, not the manager. The fault for a catcher using 1 hand to catch a pop up goes back to well before Santos ever met Jerry.
metsfan4decades
7/5/2009-11:44am at 11:44 am (UTC -4)
Grave’s comments earlier on this thread, Jerz’s and Stickguy says it all. That about sums up the season, the position we’re in right now and the mindset that all we can really do is hold on until reinforcements arrive.
Would I live to see better defense and smart base running? You betcha.
Would I have liked to see consistently better SP, especially from our ace the month of June? No doubt about it.
I’m not defending all of Jerry’s moves (I know some of my fellow Met fans are calling for his head about now) – as he’s playing the hand he’s been dealt. It’s not his fault we don’t have a real LF or real back up 1st baseman, or real back up 2nd baseman when Cora has to play short. The constant tickering with the lineup, coupled with too many playing out of position, has not helped at all.
We need Reyes and we need Beltran back right after the ASB. If we don’t get at least those 2 – and hopefully Maine right after – I’m afraid we’re not going to have the pieces to stay in this race.