This afternoon the Mets lost 2011′s first Mets-Phils series in horrifying fashion, getting shut out by Halladay and the Phillies’ bullpen.
The Mets offense was stagnant for the most part, although fans were teased in the early innings with lead-off runners making base and even a bases-loaded 1 out scenario. Unfortunately, these opportunities bore no fruit, featuring David Wright’s strike-out in the latter scenario (followed by an overreaction on twitter, where many deemed Wright as “the worst situational hitter in baseball”). However, Halladay hung on through the 7th, as Baez and Herndon finished out the shut-out for the Phils.
Mets pitching wasn’t much prettier, as Niese lasted only four innings, while allowing six earned runs. The highly-praised Mets bullpen didn’t fare any better, as Beato, Byrdak, and Carrasco combined for another four innings and five runs allowed.
No one needs to be subjected to an extended horror story, but I’ll suffice to say that there were several occurrences of flawed fundamentals by the Mets both offensively and defensively throughout the game.
The Mets begin their first homestand of the season tomorrow afternoon against the lowly 1-4 Nationals, where hopefully this team will begin to gel.
And of course, let’s not forget this week’s tribute to Grave. May he be blessed enough to have missed today’s game.
29 comments
Prismo
4/7/2011-7:23pm at 7:23 pm (UTC -4)
One of the more disturbing parts of this series was how quickly our starters were out of the games. Even in Young’s “amazing” start (I disagree) he only went 5.1 innings, and Pelfrey and Niese weren’t even close to that. I hate having to see the bullpen overused to this extent so early in the season.
stickguy
4/7/2011-7:42pm at 7:42 pm (UTC -4)
they really need to tighten up and play serious ball against that nats if we are going to treat them as a serious team. If this incompetent, sloppy play continues (and G.F. they lose the series) just start making plans for after the figurative tsunami hits in a couple of months, and most players you recognize are long gone.
I know it is early, but in many ways (not the least of which is getting the home fans hook) this is a pivotal series coming up.
they looked terrible the last couple of days, but finishing 3-3 on a road trip to Miami and Philly is actually a big improvement over what this team has done in recent years!
hazmet
4/7/2011-7:43pm at 7:43 pm (UTC -4)
I look at it as the Mets are 3-1 and the Pelfs are 0-2. Ahhh, breaking out the early season dillusion to get over the Philly beatdown.
Anybody catch Yank’s Swisher’s slide injuring the Twin player today? I thought it was a dirty late slide where he then stuck his leg way out to catch the guy while sliding past the bag. I was really hoping they’d have an opportunity to pay them back but I guess they didn’t. Imagine if somebody did that to Jeter? Oh and of course Kay or Sterling or whoever it was glowed about what a clean hardnosed play it was.
fongy2
4/7/2011-8:41pm at 8:41 pm (UTC -4)
Wait!!!……”Highly praised Bullpen” ?????…….By Whom????
A quickly burning out former great flame throwing Closer, a still very
questionable 8th inning prospect and a bunch of retreads and failed
former quasi-prospects, and THIS was/ is “highly praised” ????….
Hey…. God bless all us Met fans for what we’re willing/trying/wanting
to believe about our team and it’s immediate future.
Man! ………. It’s gonna be a hellofa long season.
stickguy
4/7/2011-8:52pm at 8:52 pm (UTC -4)
well, that is pretty much what every teams BP is made up of. so nothing new.
the 2006 team lived off their BP to a large extent, and I think it fit that profile to a T.
fongy2
4/7/2011-9:01pm at 9:01 pm (UTC -4)
Yeah……I think you’re wrong about that. That groups track record
going in was alot more impressive that this ones. Also, THAT teams line-up could be counted on to score alot of runs, something this yrs version certainly won’t do.
THIS is NOT a very good team….AND it’ll be even worse once
Reyes is traded in a couple of months.
Very, very sad………
stickguy
4/7/2011-9:10pm at 9:10 pm (UTC -4)
I was just talking about the pen. Their history is not quite as grand as you remember, though the results were good.
sadly, I think you may be right about reyes. But if they do it, I want them to not half ass and do it right. Trade Bay if they can find someone stupid enough to take him. Pelf, sure.pagan, don’t need him anymore.
anyone that doesn’t have 5 years left (at least a few of them cheap) can go with Reyes, and try to get as much talent as possible back for the rebuilding.
njstuckintx
4/7/2011-10:10pm at 10:10 pm (UTC -4)
I’m still not sure if Reyes signs elsewhere. Right now I’m about 35-40% re-signs. No way he at least doesn’t hit FA. What better way to drive your price up than to bring in many other suitors. (on a side note, you’ll have StL, NYY, Boston, Balt, San Fran, Houston with a new owner to lead the list of potential landing sights for the dreaded one).
I can’t go the Metallica route and say kill them all, but you do need to shop Beltran hardcore, Bay as well, start seeing if the 1 year contracts will fetch prospects (AKA Young and Cap), and then you go down the line and just see what Pagan, Pelf and Krod may bring. I put Krod in this second group because unless someone is desperate, no one is going to offer much for him and his 17.5.
As for Reyes… If he’s hitting FA, and you trade him, I don’t see him coming back at all. If you don’t trade him, you may re-sign him, you may not, but you would figure you’ll get 2 picks for him in the least. Sandy better start calling the MENSA brethren and see what they have to say. Or at least consult the magic 8 ball, and not the ’86 version of said 8 ball.
stickguy
4/7/2011-10:21pm at 10:21 pm (UTC -4)
you forgot that quite likely the Phils move on from Rollins, and they don’t have any in house replacements on the horizon.
I agree that if they are out of the realistic running, they should troll them all through the water to see what kind of bites they get. Not that they would get suitable offers for any (or all) of them, or even if they did they probably should not trade them all. Just figure out which offers are worth doing, and take them.
anyone that isn’t a big part of any future for the next 2-3 years past this one need to be on the table.
fongy2
4/7/2011-10:30pm at 10:30 pm (UTC -4)
My friend let me tell ya, a couple weeks ago while looking at this team, our schedule AND having some idea of the financial trouble Mr. Wilpon got himself into, it hit me like
a bolt of lightning…..No matter how well we play through
the first couple months of the season, the three weeks before and after the Allstar break are gonna kill us.
And as much as I like The Reds in The Central, I could
easily see THEM as the team goes to. Perfect scenario for
them, they beat us up during the series THERE just after
the break, Jose stays behind in exchange for 3 whos? and
a what?….And we’ll all be able to give Jose one more salute during the last series of the year in Flushing when the games will be meaningless for both us(with 90+losses)
AND them(having already clinched The Central)………….
We can just call it “Midnight Massacre II”…………………..
stickguy
4/7/2011-10:38pm at 10:38 pm (UTC -4)
massacre 1 was bad enough, when all we had was daily papers and sports phone (King Wally!). FAN didn’t exist then I don’t think, and ESPN was still a few years in the future.
I can’t imagine it happening in the internet age. You won’t be able to find a cave remote enough to hide in to avoid the noise.
stickguy
4/7/2011-10:39pm at 10:39 pm (UTC -4)
also, like I said above, whatever they decide to do (for whatever reason), do right and go all the way. Don’t half ass it like the teams MO has been for decades. In or out, pick one, you can’t stand in the door all day deciding.
njstuckintx
4/7/2011-10:51pm at 10:51 pm (UTC -4)
There are a lot of doom and gloom scenario. I’m not ready to trudge thru them all, but certainly, the Reds, the Phils, as Stick said, the Dodgers, the Mariners… The list goes on and on for a player, still in his 20′s with the skillset Reyes brings to the table.
In my mind, injury history be damned, he should have been offered an extension already or the groundwork should have been laid. But this ain’t your normal situation, as you have the Wilponslaught going on. Until any sort of financial situation is sorted out, who knows how this plays out. I know TRS is all in the “never go below 100 Mil” boat, but I don’t think he’s considering the number of holes in the boat and the current lack of corks going around.
Maybe Reyes does get traded, if that is so, I’ll root like a champ for the Mets still, until the end of the year, and then again, until the end of 2012, all the while knowing that 2013 will hopefully start to see a culmination of something wonderful.
njstuckintx
4/7/2011-10:55pm at 10:55 pm (UTC -4)
AnthonyDiComoAnthonyDiComo: Now on Mets.com: Mets prospect Harvey has stellar debut…
See… 2013 is looking better already!
stickguy
4/7/2011-11:07pm at 11:07 pm (UTC -4)
peavey pitched as well, if not better. Think he might be at savannah?
fongy2
4/7/2011-11:09pm at 11:09 pm (UTC -4)
Injury history…………Man am I sick of hearing about that. The guy hasn’t exactly been Rich Harden….
This guy is a legit Star, in an off-season….In a good
season, an MVP candidate…..And one of these yrs
he’s really gonna put it all together AND be the main
man on a championship team. It’s unfortunate that that thanks to Madoff and Sonny Boy Wilpon it won’t
be here…………
njstuckintx
4/7/2011-11:27pm at 11:27 pm (UTC -4)
What’s with all the negative waves, man?
extra points for the movie that’s from.
stickguy
4/7/2011-11:34pm at 11:34 pm (UTC -4)
I do agree that the whole “injury prone” stuff is overblown.
wannybackstra
4/7/2011-9:51pm at 9:51 pm (UTC -4)
shalaked?
njstuckintx
4/7/2011-10:01pm at 10:01 pm (UTC -4)
asalamalakum?
Prismo
4/7/2011-10:03pm at 10:03 pm (UTC -4)
Sorry, I just spelled it wrong. It’s not a word I often have to type out. It’s been fixed.
njstuckintx
4/7/2011-10:53pm at 10:53 pm (UTC -4)
Start playing scrabble. It’ll help.
Prismo
4/8/2011-12:47am at 12:47 am (UTC -4)
Actually, I’m an excellent Scrabble player. But to play “shellacked” you’d probably have to play it off an already placed “shell” or “lack/ed” and the chances to have the right letters, placement, and those words down is very slim.
gategem
4/8/2011-12:33am at 12:33 am (UTC -4)
What’s with all the negativism? The team played .500 on the road trip and considering the overall talent level of the team they are where they should be. This is not the RedSox with outstanding talent yet off to their worst start since 1945. The Mets are at best a mediocre talented ballclub that we as fans hope will overachieve. The only fear I have is that the Wilpons’ in an effort to keep the team will strip the cupboard bare thus retarding the growth rate that we as Mets fans hope is not in the too distant future.
Prismo
4/8/2011-12:49am at 12:49 am (UTC -4)
I really didn’t think I was overly negative.
This is a post-game for an 11-0 loss to a division rival, what do you expect? There’s not much positive to be pulled out of an 11-0 postgame wrap.
Note my mention of the overreaction to Wright’s K in a bit spot, and the hope dealing with the upcoming homestand.
TRS86
4/8/2011-7:30am at 7:30 am (UTC -4)
Don’t think he was talking about you.
TRS86
4/8/2011-7:29am at 7:29 am (UTC -4)
Damn after reading all these comments I was hoping for a little bit of sunshine. Thanks gate.
metsfan4decades
4/8/2011-7:37am at 7:37 am (UTC -4)
I think the negativity is because so many believed – or wanted to believe – that this team was better than .500. And .500 is exactly what we are right now coming into this young season.
I don’t normally do W/L predictions coming into the season. However, my biggest concern was the SP. So far, it’s shaky. And anytime your SP fails to most times go deep in games, the BP is going to be overtaxed and look like crap as well.
TRS86
4/8/2011-7:50am at 7:50 am (UTC -4)
.500 in the division on the road? Who was expecting more than that?