Apr 18
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Today’s Question: How would you judge last nights win over St. Louis? Was it a true test of the  character and fortitude of the Mets or was it simple one abysmal showing of how weak our offense could be.Â
 Of course, be free to add your own opinion of what you think last nights game showed us Mets fans.
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22 comments
rustyjr
4/18/2010-9:07am at 9:07 am (UTC -4)
I say it’s a mixture of both ! There were great defensive plays made by the cards but as usual our baserunning was abyssmal the pen wad in lockdown mode I think we caught larussa on a off day because he got to cutesy with his moves and he got burned but this game will forever be a classic
ceetar
4/18/2010-9:34am at 9:34 am (UTC -4)
It was just one game. I draw nothing from it. I find there is very little to ever draw from one game. Well maybe not nothing.
The biggest thing is Mike Pelfrey, without a doubt.
I forgive the offense against the position players, slightly. For one, he wasn’t throwing bp, or real pitches. gameday didn’t even pick up pitchspeeds or pitch types. He was throwing wildly. It was almost like hitting a knuckler. They weren’t getting pitches down the middle, and they were reaching for things knowing that they should get a hit, etc. They were all tired too.
But back to Mike Pelfrey, the workhorse. Never mind that he pitched a gem in the low-oxygen colorado. He also threw 70 pitches earlier in the day! and still basically demanded the ball. With the exception of his next start where you may want to go easy on him, Manuel should be slapped if he ever pulls Pelfrey with 95 pitches again. Let him pitch!
rustyjr
4/18/2010-10:04am at 10:04 am (UTC -4)
U r absolutely correct except that tge mets should have battered lopez & mathers
metsfan4decades
4/18/2010-10:12am at 10:12 am (UTC -4)
Jose said after the game, it wasn’t easy. You had to throw the rule book out and just look for any pitch near the plate you could adjust to the speed and hit.
metsfan4decades
4/18/2010-10:10am at 10:10 am (UTC -4)
Still counts as a win when all was said and done.
Given the fact that either both sides pitching was suburb and/or both sides offense was non existent, this essentially came down to Jerry having real pitchers left in those last innings and LaRusso did not. Because the way it was going, no one was getting any hits/runs off real pitching.
Don’t know why LaRusso sent a pitcher up to bat – twice – in the late innings with bases loaded when he still had his reserve catcher on the bench. I know he was a rookie just called up but at least he’s suppose to be a real bat. But hey, it helped our cause so I’m not complaining.
You have to give Jerry credit for having a game plan to keep Pujols off the bases until what? The 19th inning? That translates to ‘preparation’, no? I’m not counting the walks he got.
It was one of the most entertaining Met games I’ve ever watched. In the interviews after, the guys were understandably tired but still had a sense of humor. I’m hoping they came away feeling good about the win and will do everything they can tonight to help John Maine get one.
metsfan4decades
4/18/2010-10:14am at 10:14 am (UTC -4)
What I haven’t seen mentioned here yet was the curious decision to put Cora in at first for one inning. Not sure at all what that was all about. Maybe my brain was just too tired at that point to figure it out. I don’t believe he even got a chance to bat. If I’m not mistaken, he was pinch hit for?
But hey….nice catch Alex!
metsfan4decades
4/18/2010-10:19am at 10:19 am (UTC -4)
Hmmmm….someone’s thinking about tonight’s game. I see where bringing up Toby Stoner so we’ve got a fresh arm in that BP. Wonder who goes down for one day?
stickguy
4/18/2010-10:35am at 10:35 am (UTC -4)
I just had a shiver go down my spine. Knowing Omar, he will probably waive someone without options and lose him, then send stoner back down anyway.
Ideally, it would be Mejia. I honestly don’t think they have any other candidates, and I highly doubt they wold let him pitch today.
And if he goes down, let im stay there.
Stoner is an odd choice, but reading into it (my own woarped interpretation), it has to mean they are worried about Maine getting pulled very early, and essentially needing a 2nd SP? And quite possibly, if maine does bomb, stoner will be taking over for him.
stickguy
4/18/2010-10:38am at 10:38 am (UTC -4)
my take? Well, I saw 1-8, and 18-20.
But, I don’t really think that game made a big statement. I never felt the players didn’t have heart, girit, or caring.
Nice to see the pitching come up big. Still scary to see the offense so incompetant. Wright worries me with that big swing, fishing in the dirt. But I do expect Bay to get his act together at some point, just worried about the Boo Birds on him come Monday.
But mostly, it was a win for a team badly needing one. And Jerry cut down slightly on his quota of bone head mves I think.
OH, and if there was ever a time for Maine to come up big, it is today. Hell, at this point, if stoner really is coming up, if the 2 of them can combine for 8, take it and run.
ceetar
4/18/2010-10:49am at 10:49 am (UTC -4)
Jerry did cut down, I figure he averages at least one a game, and last night was two games worth! I think bunting Castillo may have been the boneheaded move, or not walking Yadier to face Allen Craig.
stickguy
4/18/2010-10:53am at 10:53 am (UTC -4)
castillo bunting was 00% a bonehead move.
You have a guy that can’t throw a strike, and the 1 batter on your team that hates to swing anyway. Seemed like a match made in heaven, and an almost guaranteed walk.
pitching to F’in was s dumb idea, but looks like he left that up to Warthen and K rod. And since itchers never want to walk a guy in that situation, put that one on Warthen (and Jerry too, for not taking charge).
stickguy
4/18/2010-10:53am at 10:53 am (UTC -4)
Duh on me. Obviously, that should say 100%
ceetar
4/18/2010-10:58am at 10:58 am (UTC -4)
I understand K-Rod is awesome, but he’s not a starter. IMO you only give starters, and then maybe only Santana and Pelfrey, the option of what to do. Asking them is like admitting you don’t know what’s best. Relatedly, I hated Perez walking the 8th guy to face the pitcher yesterday. One of my things I’ve always despised about Jerry and his love of doing that, even with Santana.
whataputz
4/18/2010-10:55am at 10:55 am (UTC -4)
The staff was fantastic. Jerry should be shot for bunting against a position player, and Jason Bay needs a day off or 5. It wasn’t pretty, and might have been some of the most frustrating baseball i’ve ever watched, but at least they won, and maybe they can build some momentum after this one. Still, 2 runs in 3 innings off position players, just sad.
Hazmet
4/18/2010-10:58am at 10:58 am (UTC -4)
+ = Johan, Bullpen, Pelfrey, Defense standing up under pressure, FrenShea doing what was needed to get the sac fly.
- = offense, approach against position players pitching, K-Rod throwing 100 pitches in the bullpen, pitching to Molina??????
On the “-”:
David looks like he’s grinding the bat into sawdust. It looked like he wasn’t even breathing at some points. Deep breaths Dave it still was only game 11 of the season. Last week I complained he looked like he was not taking things seriously on the bench while clowning around in last Sunday’s loss. This week he looks like he’s chewing nails. This game’s so strange in trying to get a balance I’ll never understand. Go get’m Dave, just relax a little and find your zone.
The approach at the plate with postion players throwing primarily balls, couldn’t you take till 2 strikes. They probably could have walked in 3 runs if they were a little patient. Having K-rod up and down 10 times by his count is nuts. He had a glacial size ice pack on after the game. I’m concerned if he has to go in tonight, could be bad. And pitching to Molina? I hate to say it but this entire section all points to Jerry. Yes, we won, yes he mixed and matched to get to inning 20, but these things disturbed me most of all out of yesterday.
ceetar
4/18/2010-11:00am at 11:00 am (UTC -4)
he always has glacial sized wraps on.
but Manuel showed a lot of indecision, such as asking K-Rod if he wanted to pitch to Yadier, to not bring K-Rod in. If you’re going to get him up 16 times, just bring him in regardless the fifth time. reeks of getting the least out of your players, which is why I always preach firing him.
Hazmet
4/18/2010-11:05am at 11:05 am (UTC -4)
Exactly, agree 100%
njstuckintx
4/18/2010-12:01pm at 12:01 pm (UTC -4)
I think this is more a luck thing. Finally the fortunes happen to look the Mets way. These are the little ones that add up at the end of the year. Should they miss the playoffs by a game, it’s tough to look back and say it was one game that stopped them, but had this been a loss we’d be looking back and saying why the Mets didn’t destroy the position players pitches.
And agreed on the above posts regarding putting Molina on base. Jerry can be quite the flex-er of power in situations where it is not needed and then when we need him to law down the law and make the best decision for the team, he leaves it in the hands of egomaniacs. I say egomaniacs as there isn’t one pitcher that would say, “nah, I can’t handle this guy. Let’s walk him.”
ceetar
4/18/2010-12:03pm at 12:03 pm (UTC -4)
Exactly, and if a pitcher said that, you’d worry about him.
Just like you love Pelfrey demanding the ball. (Of course, that was an easy one. Frenchy was probably the only other choice)
GravediggerHebner
4/18/2010-12:44pm at 12:44 pm (UTC -4)
I loved the game. For some perspective on why, I’ve been a Met fan since 1974. What I love most about the game of baseball is successful pitching. The DH, and games that end with 11-9 scores, are some of the worst things about the sport to me. I was raised on Seaver, Koosman and Matlack. Pitching will always be my favorite thing. Yesterday’s game provided me with quite a lot of it.
That’s why I worried about this staff all winter. That’s why I am so impressed and amazed by what the entire staff did yesterday, what Pelfrey has been doing so far this season, and what the bullpen has been doing for the most part this season. They’ve far outdone my low expectations and I could hardly be more pleased.
As far as bunting with position players on the mound: this team has demonstrated an incredible futility with scoring runs. I have NO problem with that bunt. Get a guy into scoring position at worst for a team seemingly unable to do even that let alone score. Make a position player perhaps have to get involved in defensing a bunt play. Will he even be able to pick it up? Will his throw to 1B, something he’s perhaps done in his life from that area of the field, make it successfully? Will he simply get in the way of someone else trying to make the play? The odds are strongly against successful defense there. That bunt was the right move to me for those reasons.
If I’m going to criticize Manuel for something it would be for allowing KRod to decide who to pitch to in the 19th, not for calling a bunt against a position player.
ceetar
4/18/2010-1:11pm at 1:11 pm (UTC -4)
What if this team’s futility with scoring runs is just a slump, and make worse by only giving them two outs to work with and the lack of confidence suggestive with the idea of bunting? It takes the focus from good at-bats to focusing on situational stuff which is part of the problem to begin with. Follow up good at bats with good at bats instead of trying to write a story that says last guy bunted, I gotta do this now. or guy on first, focus on driving it to the right side. That kinda stuff works for castillo and his plus bat control, but less so for guys like Bay and Francoeur.
Not to say I absolutely kill Manuel for this decision, I just think it’s detrimental over all. Even last year, when our offense was hurt. Was the team so single oriented in part because of management philosophy of situational hitting, bunting, singles to the opposite field off breaking pitches? In essence, the lack of home runs caused Manuel to have his players approach at bats to maximize smaller hits, which caused them to hit less home runs.
gipperpdx
4/18/2010-2:27pm at 2:27 pm (UTC -4)
It was both, obviously!