The Mets are doing there best to get back to .500 and right now they’re off to a great start. This was a pitchers duel between Johan Santana and Josh Johnson. Obviously to say, but Santana was dealing tonight, he had a breaking ball working and touched 90 on the radar gun every inning. The Mets drew first blood in the Second Inning when they strung three hits together from Bay, Davis and Barajas and scored the first run of the ball game but it didn’t last as the Marlins tied the game in the bottom of the Third. A Gaby Sanchez single and a bad throw from a bunt allowed him to reach second base. He would be pushed in for Florida’s first run by a Chris Coghlan base hit.
And that would be all the scoring both teams would do until the bottom of the Ninth.
The game was well pitched by both starters, they both went into the 7th inning. The Mets flashed some leather with the gloves of Reyes and Wright. Santana went 7 innings, 98 pitches, one intentional walk, and 5 strike outs. SNY’s Gary Cohen pointed out that Santana had dropped his glove a bit from the Phillie game, possible to hid his pitches better.Â
Josh Johnson, an absolute animal, matched Santana. He also pitched into the 7th and didn’t allow a hit after the Mets had scored in the 2nd and had 7 strike outs to boot.Â
The Battle of the bullpens began in the 8th when Fernando(I’ll pitch everyday)Nieve went a 1-2-3 eighth inning.Â
The Marlins countered with their closer Leo Nunez who immediately had trouble with Castillo who got an infield hit and advanced on an error with the throw to first. He would never leave second base. Reyes again failed to lay down a bunt, which called for Jerry Manuel to say during the Post Game that he might have to reconsider moving Reyes out of the 3rd spot, and Bay and Wright made out respectively.
The Bottom of the ninth started when Nieve walked Cody Ross, then gave up a base hit to Ronny Paulino which advanced Ross to Third. With Uggla at the plate, Manuel made a visit to the mound apparently to tell Nieve to pitch to Uggla  at which he did…in the dirt which was a wild pitch and allowed Ross to score from third.Â
My favorite player Oliver(I’ll give you 2 quality innings) Perez and Anibal Sanchez go at it tomorrow for Game 2.
18 comments
metsfan4decades
5/13/2010-11:06pm at 11:06 pm (UTC -4)
‘Oliver(I’ll give you 2 quality innings) Perez’ – LOL
The million dollar question: can anyone on this team hit lately? Anyone get that timely hit? Anyone at all?
Manuel said tonight on post game if this continues, he’ll be making changes. When pressed if that meant just a lineup shakeup or will it include replacements in the lineup, he wouldn’t say.
IMO shaking the lineup can’t come fast enough. As in tomorrow.
Reyes/Pagan/Wright/Davis/Bay/Franceour/Barajas/Castillo
Or something similar….
Reyes is not getting it done in the 3rd spot. Whether he should be or not is not even debatable anymore. He just plain ‘ain’t’ getting it done. Bunting with your 3rd hitter 2 nights in a row? Really Jerry? And yeah, Jose didn’t get it done either time. He’s not comfortable at all there. As Ronnie put it tonight, ‘He’s uncomfortable and it’s crushing him.’. Just put him back at leadoff. He’s always been the spark plug that gets this team going and it can’t get much worse offensively than it is now.
So goes Reyes, so goes the team……
stickguy
5/13/2010-11:10pm at 11:10 pm (UTC -4)
I agree with your line up. right now, I would go with that.
and unless they are planning to call someone up, not much to do with the starting line up.
cora for castillo? that happens every 3rd day anyway.
And no one is insane enough to start GM expecting to shake anything up.
So, that pretty much leaves giving Carter some starts, probably for Frenchy.
metsfan4decades
5/13/2010-11:13pm at 11:13 pm (UTC -4)
LOL – agree. Since offense is the main problem right now, GMJ certainly isn’t the answer.
asod75
5/13/2010-11:55pm at 11:55 pm (UTC -4)
I’d actually go Castillo, Pagan, Wright, Davis, Bay, Barajas, Reyes, Francoeur, pitcher. Not that they’d ever do that. It’s just that Reyes looks absolutely lost at the plate. Not so sure a move back to leadoff would work just yet, as he’s not even putting good swings on the ball or hitting the ball hard anywhere. He seriously needs to show some sign of life before being moved back to leadoff. Although I’d definitely rather have him lead off than bat third right now. Reyes looks as bad as I’ve ever seen him, including his rookie season.
stickguy
5/14/2010-12:05am at 12:05 am (UTC -4)
problem is, you are also dealing with the mental(case) aspect of reyes. And if 3rd is somehow messing him up, God only knows what putting him 7th will do to his fragile psyche!
asod75
5/14/2010-12:21am at 12:21 am (UTC -4)
Yeah, you’re right about that. I guess we’ll have to deal with him not getting on base from the leadoff spot as well. He looks so lost right now. I’m hoping he pulls out of it soon. Why does it always seem that everyone slumps at the same time on this team?
stickguy
5/13/2010-11:07pm at 11:07 pm (UTC -4)
well, I checked out the “mood” over at FWICG. This one seemed to sum up the general consensus opinion. Oh, and it was followed by quite a few trade Wright, and he is barely a roll player type posts.
)))))))))))))))
SantanaCYYOung May 13, 2010 at 10:00 pm
the new york mets are a below .500 team, they are a 4th place team.
all u guys love francouer because of what he brings…what does he bring exactly? he brings an automatic out to the plate. let’s start by getting rid of HIM!!!!!!!!
this team sucks!
when the mets won 8 games in a row all they did was screw this team more, i.e. prolonged manuel, warthen, hojo, et al
metsfan4decades
5/13/2010-11:12pm at 11:12 pm (UTC -4)
Hard to take a pulse on anything Mets by half the posters over there. Pulse will be the same when they lose and ‘FIRE EVERYONE’ as it is when they win ‘WE’RE GOING ALL THE WAY’.
One emotion – passionate – be it winning or losing.
Mr North Jersey
5/13/2010-11:24pm at 11:24 pm (UTC -4)
Thx Gonzo for postgame post.
Yep Reyes failing to get bunt may have not cost mets game but it is what many will remember long after.
I want to give Jerry props for trying Reyes at 3rd when many said he shouldnt. He stood by his belief and went for it. But the smart man knows when its time to change and in my humple opinion I think that time has come.
Reyes looks uncomfortable in the 3 hole it is as plain as day. You have to wonder how much undue pressure is Reyes putting on himself trying possibly too hard to be something that only requires him to approach it as he would had he been a leadoff hitter?
In any event if the 1st thing Reyes needs is to be back in familiar territory then we all know that place is the leadoff spot.
If he cant fix himself there then we are in bigger trouble than we thought. Let me add I am all for firing Hojo I think if anything it sends a message to the manager and players that this is not satisfactory and they need to get it together or more changes are to follow. If I think it is HoJo’s fault doesn’t matter so long as the team hits in the end.
Which brings me to Bay. A player that has always hit and has been a streaky hitter and I highly doubt his not hitting has anything to do with HoJo and just him being streaky. Yet his streak is getting to a point that is becoming worrisome.
The pen has been our strength but Jerry’s use of Nieve is scary. Why is Acosta here if Jerry doesn’t trust him?
Send him down and bring me up someone else or else get me another bat because its clear acosta is just warming the bench.
Mejia what can I say how many situations where we are in need of a strikeout and Mejia is nowhere to be found? Isd it my imagination? If so please correct me but if not Mejia needs to be in more pressure situations.
Iggy is on his way back and if he is back to normal that will at least resolve the Acosta situation.
The starters, I cant complain for the most part. Santana had 1 bad start overall he pitched well. Pelfrey has been better than expected. His stiffness is a concern but hopefully it goes away with the warmer weather. Niese has held his own and I can’t ask for more than he has given us so far. Maine I don’t know how he is doing it but somehow his 90% fastball approach has worked and who am I to argue. Ollie well all I will say is he;d better not have another 3 2/3 inning performance anytime soon or he wil def be seeing a move coming most likely to the pen but possible AAA.
The bench. Blanco Carter Cora Tatis Cant really complain. GMJ is another story. You have to wonder how much longer. Beltran cant get here soon enough.
Minaya needs to see what is wrong and address it now that he is 1/4 way through season. How is for him to decide but if the Mets start the trek below 500 he better figure it out a.s.a.p.
gategem
5/13/2010-11:33pm at 11:33 pm (UTC -4)
A couple of days ago there was a post at amazin’avenue that questioned the negative tone of the comments when the projections by the pundits and the commenter’s alike pegged the team as a .500 ballclub. So he questioned why people are upset that the club is performing as predicted. Now I certainly hope the team contends. There is a long way to go in this season and they are still in the thick of it. After all they could be like the Orioles; out of it before it begins in earnest. But so far they have performed as I expected. So I see no reason to be concerned and I echo his sentiment. Let’s see where they are a month from now.
Mr North Jersey
5/13/2010-11:41pm at 11:41 pm (UTC -4)
It’s funny you say that. I guess the question that can be be asked is are the people that are commenting doing so because they are the ones that believed the team could do better? Another question is are the ones that are not commenting the ones you are not hearing from because this is what they expected?
stickguy
5/13/2010-11:44pm at 11:44 pm (UTC -4)
I think most fans (at least the ones that hang out posting on blogs) have the attention span of a fruit fly.
Mr North Jersey
5/14/2010-12:02am at 12:02 am (UTC -4)
lol
gategem
5/14/2010-2:01am at 2:01 am (UTC -4)
Your post is quite funny since you post quite heavily at this blog. I guess it’s the old pot and kettle story.
stickguy
5/13/2010-11:39pm at 11:39 pm (UTC -4)
jerry and his pen for sure is the big head scratcher. Neive isn’t even that good, to be getting this many appearances. Sometimes you have to use the fresh guy, like it or not.
and if you are careful about usage, you more often have your favorite availabel when you need him!
and Mejia is just silly at this point. he sits idle for a week, and yoyos between being a mop up guy, and pitching 3 days in a row in big spots. Then goes away again for a week.
I really think Jerry has some sort of ADD issue.
he needs to go.
asod75
5/13/2010-11:49pm at 11:49 pm (UTC -4)
Jerry is terrible, that much established. I agree wholeheartedly on Acosta. He’s never used, so he shouldn’t be here. Send him back down and bring up Dessens or Parnell until Iggy gets back. Nieve has got good stuff, but you’re right, he isn’t good enough to be used this much, plus it’s not good for him. And I hate “I want to get a good look at him as a reliever.” Jerry really is clueless. Today, he should have walked Uggla and gone after the crappy Brett Carroll. Sure Nieve may have still uncorked a wild one, but you set up the force at the plate (as well as keeping the DP in order) and go after a lesser hitter. It’s not that hard, really it isn’t. A coaching shakeup is needed. I’m just afraid that the team goes into a tailspin and then a change is made when it may be to late. Do it now while the team sits three games out of first (somehow). Oh yeah, CUT GMJ and bring up Pride. Send Mejia down to the minors to start, etc. etc. etc.
stickguy
5/14/2010-12:00am at 12:00 am (UTC -4)
dessens and Iggy up.
mejia and Acosta down.
We know Jerry has a crush on Iggy (or at least he used to!) so I assume he will get regular work. so, as long as he is willing to use Dessens on some basis, they will be better off most likely.
sad we have to keep trying to think of ways to work around jerry (remove temptation?). much easier to just remove Jerry!
trs86
5/14/2010-8:09am at 8:09 am (UTC -4)
As for the post about we are what we thought we are well maybe.
We are on pace for about 83-84 wins, certainly about what many of us predicted. However that’s also assuming that we hit like this the rest of the year, pitch like this the rest of the year, have no Beltran the rest of the year, make no trades the rest of the year….
Thus while we are for sure a .500ish team right now that may be 83-84 game winner there is still a lot of baseball to be played.