Mets(courtesy of mlb.com)
Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey will toe the rubber for the Mets in just his third Major League start since 2008. Talk about a tough opponent to face.
But Dickey may be catching Philadelphia at the perfect time. In the Phillies’ past two games — both loses to the Red Sox — the team has recorded only nine hits for three runs, which includes Saturday’s offensive lapse in which they were one-hit by Boston’s Daisuke Matsuzaka. Another knuckleballer, Tim Wakefield, tossed eight shutout innings at Philadelphia on Sunday.
And while Dickey has been in contact with Wakefield because the two are in that rare fraternity of knuckleballers, he said he won’t expect immediate success against the Phillies simply because Wakefield did well. In fact, he won’t even break down video of the Phillies’ hitters.
“It doesn’t do me much good to go in there and watch the Phillies, watch Ryan Howard‘s weaknesses, because he’s getting a knuckleball,” Dickey said. “He knows it and I know it. And it’s just a matter of throwing a bunch of good ones.”
Mets skipper Jerry Manuel said that hard-throwing right-hander Jenrry Mejia will not be sent back to the Minors to be stretched out as a starter any time soon because he’s valuable to the big club as a reliever. “You have a young man who has a tremendous arm, tremendous upside,” Manuel said. “If you take what he gives you in small bits, it’s very serviceable, even at the big league level.” … The Mets activated right-handed reliever Ryota Igarashi from the disabled list prior to Sunday’s 6-4 win over the Yankees and put him right back into the eighth-inning setup role that he claimed prior to straining his left hamstring. Igarashi struggled immediately, however, giving up three runs on two hits in one-third of an inning. Igarashi, who had been on the DL since April 21, saw his ERA jump from 1.35 to 5.14.
Lineup
Jose Reyes, SS
Luis Castillo, 2B
Jason Bay, LF
Ike Davis, 1B
David Wright, 3B
Angel Pagan, CF
Rod Barajas, C
Jeff Francoeur, RF
R.A. Dickey, RHP
Phillies(courtesy of mlb.com)
The Phillies, meanwhile, need to get their offense back on track in a hurry, having hit .193 and averaged just 2.5 runs per game in their past six games.
“I really don’t worry about this team offensively much,” Phillies left fielder Raul Ibanez said on Sunday. “Because at any moment, everything will click and we’ll explode and it’ll be the same team that you guys have seen for the last few years. Obviously you’d like to be scoring runs and winning some games, but over the last few days we haven’t done that. But we’re really good about putting the bad days behind us and looking ahead.”
Left-hander Jamie Moyer, who will start on Tuesday against Dickey, may have been the biggest question mark entering this season for the Phillies, but he’s established himself into one of the exclamation marks of a Phillies team that holds a 3 1/2-game lead in the NL East. Moyer has been impressive all season for the Phillies, boasting a 5-3 record with a 4.30 ERA; he’s 2-1 with a 2.42 ERA in his past three starts. And, maybe most impressively, Moyer has gone six or more innings in every start this season. The southpaw said he learned a lot from his struggles last season, when he went 10-9 with a 5.47 ERA before being pulled from the rotation. “Last year is over,” Moyer said. “What it was, it was. You chalk it up to a learning experience. You don’t know what this year is going to bring. I feel like I’m in uncharted waters. I’ve never been here before at 47, so I’m going to enjoy it and make the best of it. I’m going to continue to work and work hard, and it’s going to get me through the season.”
Lineup
Shane Victorino, CF
Placido Polanco, 3B
Chase Utley, 2B
Ryan Howard, 1B
Jayson Werth, RF
Raul Ibanez, LF
Carlos Ruiz, C
Juan Castro, SS
Jamie Moyer, RHP
PLAY BALL
18 comments
fongy2
5/25/2010-8:56pm at 8:56 pm (UTC -4)
Interesting (But not surprising) stat
posted by Phillie broadcast RE: Jose,
Mets are 262-108 in the past 4 yrs when he scores a run.
Brings to mind MY continued (for years
now) statement about my favorite Met….”As Reyes goes, so go The Mets”
…To me, without question, the single
most important player we have AND have
had for years.
fongy2
5/25/2010-8:58pm at 8:58 pm (UTC -4)
Also…No matter what else happens, I take back everything I said about
R.A.Dickey!!!
metsfan4decades
5/25/2010-10:10pm at 10:10 pm (UTC -4)
LOL – Dickey is one tough guy.
First win since April 09.
GravediggerHebner
5/25/2010-9:09pm at 9:09 pm (UTC -4)
14-4 this season when Jose scores.
fongy2
5/25/2010-9:25pm at 9:25 pm (UTC -4)
‘Nuff said!
whataputz
5/25/2010-9:19pm at 9:19 pm (UTC -4)
If there’s one thing I have no patience for it’s walking the leadoff man when you have a big lead…especially on four pitches! Get it together Raul!
whataputz
5/25/2010-9:32pm at 9:32 pm (UTC -4)
Alright, he got it together.
whataputz
5/25/2010-9:20pm at 9:20 pm (UTC -4)
And he’s a knuckleballer, he can go past 100 pitches. He’s pitched 12 consecutive scoreless innings, and has k’d 7 tonight, let the man continue pitching! I know it got us a run, and I know I am typing this is Raul Valdes is trying his best to cough this one up, but c’mon!
fongy2
5/25/2010-9:25pm at 9:25 pm (UTC -4)
Agreed!!!
I’ve defended Jerry a little
BUT…C’mon!!!
GravediggerHebner
5/25/2010-9:30pm at 9:30 pm (UTC -4)
They may be considering pitching him on Saturday according to Ron which would be 3 days rest so file that away as a possible reason for lifting him here.
fongy2
5/25/2010-9:31pm at 9:31 pm (UTC -4)
O.K. then…..
fongy2
5/25/2010-9:31pm at 9:31 pm (UTC -4)
Obviously didn’t want the Phils
line-up to see him again…..
BUT with Victorino(Switch)&
Polanco up 1st&2nd,got to let him start the Inning there.
fongy2
5/25/2010-9:54pm at 9:54 pm (UTC -4)
You Rock Valdes!….Whoever you are..
Jerry is a friggin’ genius!!!
fongy2
5/25/2010-9:56pm at 9:56 pm (UTC -4)
Now THAT’s the Figgy we know and love!
Kingman 26
5/25/2010-10:06pm at 10:06 pm (UTC -4)
Best game of the year.
Watching us smack the pathetic Figgy around was the very best inning of the year.
LGM!!
whataputz
5/25/2010-10:23pm at 10:23 pm (UTC -4)
how bad must you feel if you’re Figgy? You get absolutely zero response from your hometown crowd, not even boos, I’m sure he would have even preferred boos, then he gets lip up. When it rains, it pours.
metsfan4decades
5/25/2010-10:11pm at 10:11 pm (UTC -4)
PUT IT IN THE BOOKS!
fongy2
5/25/2010-10:31pm at 10:31 pm (UTC -4)
RE: Jerry….Again, I’m no big fan BUT
given what he’s been provided by
the teflon Don(Omar),things could be ALOT worse.
SP:Johan,good so far BUT not great!
Pelf,very good…Niese O.K.,until of
couse he got hurt again.Very little
from Maine,hurt again AND who knows
if and when we see him again.
Ollie???…Well the sums that up…..
Just BAD!!…
BP:Lots of ?s AND pretty ordinary in terms of talent and history.
Overworked?..Yes,but pretty solid….
So far!
No Bel-Tron, very little on the bench,
Very little from Reyes,Castillo,Bay&
Frenchy….AND Wright striking out like Dave Kingman….During his off years!
With all this .500 and many of the above guys maybe starting to round into form/norm.
Unless you’ve got a Martin or Herzog or Leyland or Scicosa, you can pretty much interchange two-thirds of these
MLB Mgrs and come up with similar results.
Omar would do Jerry a favor by bouncing GMjuicer and bringing up Feliciano or even Pridie…..AND
either finding a solid inning eating,
back of the rotation guy…OR getting
Misch or Gee up here to see what they can do.