PITCHER
Jon Niese held the cubs to one run over 5.2 innings. Niese threw 112 pitches with 7 punch outs and had the cubs off balance all day with his cutter. While Niese is primarily known for his deuce, tonight it was all about the cutter which is coming along beautifully. I have a feeling when he masters this pitch, he sill be a serious force to be reckoned with.
HITTER
This was a tough one but I truly feel Angel Pagan deserves it. Angel played though that 20 inning marathon on Saturday, played on Sunday and played today. Angel has done everything asked of him by this team and continues to do so as he hit a 2 run home run that gave the Mets a lead that they never surrendered. Pagan is hitting .297 with 6 RBI’s…hopefully this is enough to hold down the starting CF job as we go foward.
HONORABLE MENTION
Talk about hitting the ground running. Davismania was in full effect in Citifield tonight…and Ike did not disappoint. Ike had his first hit and first RBI today, finishing 2-4 on the day. While this is only one game in many left to go, it seems the move to turn to the future now was the best thing the team could have done. If tonight is any indication of what is to come, we may finally have solid production from the 1st base position since 2008. Welcome to the bigs kid, im sure it wont be long till you get your first MUA.
Ay Bay Bay(hat tip to smooth)! Bay had the night off yesterday due to his major slump thus far in the season. In his return to the line up, Bay went 2-3 with a walk and an RBI. We can only hope that this is the start of Bay coming out of his slump because he is not intimidating anyone in the cleanup spot.
5 comments
GravediggerHebner
4/20/2010-12:10am at 12:10 am (UTC -4)
Totally agree that Angel deserves it. Not only was it the “game winning RBI” but it was the team’s first XBH since Friday, something they desperately needed as a group and he delivered it. Hopefully we will look back on that HR as opening the floodgates. Shortly after it Bay doubled. So after not having any XBH in 36 innings they had 2 in the last 2 innings of the game. That’s what I call an improvement.
CaseStreet
4/20/2010-1:14am at 1:14 am (UTC -4)
Great game by ROY candidate, Jon Niese.
Liked the 7/3 K/BB rate with no ER.
It would be great if he could go 7 innings next time.
njstuckintx
4/20/2010-9:01am at 9:01 am (UTC -4)
I wish he’d throw that Lollypop curve more often. It’s no Lord Charles, but it’s pretty nasty. I’m trying to determine who’s curve it most reminds me of.
metsfan4decades
4/20/2010-7:07am at 7:07 am (UTC -4)
Angel Pagan is an asset to this team, period.
Niese looked good. Hopefully, he’ll start limiting the pitch count to go later in the game.
‘Move to turn to the future’…..that’s exactly what this team need to be doing. Youth movement.
stickguy
4/20/2010-9:17am at 9:17 am (UTC -4)
I did notice that in his later innings, it seemed like he was behind every hitter (2-1 seemed real common).
When you consistantly miss with the first pitch, batters tend to get more patient, letting you dig a hole.