Jon Niese gets tonight’s proverbial game ball, with a stellar outing leading to the Mets taking the first of a two-game series against their last-place rivals, the Nationals. Niese threw seven shutout innings, allowing only six hits and even more impressively walking only one batter.
Jose Reyes and Justin Turner led the team offensively, as Jose racked up three hits and two runs scored, while Turner knocked in a couple of ribbies on two hits. The middle of the Mets batting order was silent, going only 1-10, and the team as a whole only had one hit out of twelve chances with runners in scoring position. However, three runs was enough to beat the Nationals as Izzy and K-Rod finished out the team’s first shutout of the season.
Wet conditions threatened to end the game early, but the umpire crew mysteriously let the players play on despite muddy conditions on the field. The following quote from Niese sums up the wet conditions, “I’ve never played in anything like that. It’s the wettest I’ve ever been pitching. Every ball the umpire gave me was wet. I had to do my best to rub them dry in my hands.”
Undefeated Dillon Gee takes on the ageless Livan Hernandez tomorrow afternoon as the Mets attempt to sweep the Nationals and take over fourth place in the division.
[Featured image courtesy of AP Photo/Paul Bereswill]
46 comments
metsfan4decades
5/19/2011-7:21am at 7:21 am (UTC -4)
Wet conditions are an understatement. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a ballgame continue on with that much hard rain. Almost a miracle that no one got hurt.
Great performance by Niese. He started to falter there in the 7th but got out of the jam. Have no idea if that was from that hard rain that picked up in that half inning or he was tired but either way, he got the job done.
TRS86
5/19/2011-7:44am at 7:44 am (UTC -4)
Yeah, it’s like the umps know that they are already under so much scrutiny that they were terrified to call the game last night.
rustyjr
5/19/2011-7:46am at 7:46 am (UTC -4)
I think it’s ironic that the game that had sun was called due to rain yet last night was played – see my column lol
TRS86
5/19/2011-8:38am at 8:38 am (UTC -4)
“Terry Collins told reporters it is ‘coveivable’ he could bat Jason Bay second, in an effort to get his bat going.”
Is Matt on crack lately?
metsfan4decades
5/19/2011-9:16am at 9:16 am (UTC -4)
He’s just one stubborn individual, IMO.
Why wouldn’t you make an effort to improve your product?
kistics
5/19/2011-9:34am at 9:34 am (UTC -4)
Because Matt & Cerrone are not on the same page all the time.
TRS86
5/19/2011-9:36am at 9:36 am (UTC -4)
Not sure and I am tired of the it’s a blog not the newspaper excuse. That flies when you are a blog like us. Just a bunch of common guys doing this on the side with no real profit or sponsorship. When you become the official blog of the NY Mets and it’s your day job then you would think you would take more pride in your work.
TRS86
5/19/2011-10:06am at 10:06 am (UTC -4)
Today:
“There is no editor/proof reader. We blog on the fly. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, I’m far more interested in speed and getting stuff up on the blog for people to read, than I am with spelling or grammar. Once pointed out, I go back and edit. It’s quicker and more effective that way. “
kingman 26
5/19/2011-10:14am at 10:14 am (UTC -4)
BS.
He often leaves ridiculous mistakes posted all day.
Matt is lesser than we are, in many ways.
As I have said, there are two reasons Cerrone is where he is: timing and persistence.
Nothing whatsoever about his writing, baseball knowledge, insight, or intelligence qualifies him for doing what he does.
He is a classic example of the dumbing down of America and the general drive to accepting mediocrity in our nation today.
TRS86
5/19/2011-10:20am at 10:20 am (UTC -4)
I think you need to add a 3rd thing that is key and has allowed him to turn MB into a media giant…. marketing. He’s just good at it. Gotta give it to him.
kingman 26
5/19/2011-10:24am at 10:24 am (UTC -4)
Hmmm, I guess I don’t really know if that is true.
I guess I see Cerrone as kind of like a rooster taking credit for the sunrise. His timing was magnificent—registering the name “Metsblog” really is certainly more than 50% of his success. He did it first, and started the blog at the right time.
It’s kind of like Clinton taking credit for the 1990s economy—he happened to be in charge during the decade when the computer revolution swept the country, with all of the resulting economic gains; the economy would have been good regardless, just as Cerrone’s site is clearly a success due to timing, not because of him.
If YOU or Greg Prince had trademarked the name “Metsblog” and one of you started doing this a year before Cerrone, who would be the corporate-sponsored success today?
tkfj2
5/19/2011-10:26am at 10:26 am (UTC -4)
You are spot on King.
Spot frickin on.
kingman 26
5/19/2011-10:27am at 10:27 am (UTC -4)
Thank you sir!!
TRS86
5/19/2011-10:30am at 10:30 am (UTC -4)
I am still not sure. I don’t think even if I had the name registered I would have been able to market it into what it is today and not to mention take a huge risk to quit my day job while making a blog my main source of income. At the time he did that he was not even sponsored by SNY. Again, I have to give him credit where it is due. He is a good salesman.
metsfan4decades
5/19/2011-10:15am at 10:15 am (UTC -4)
It goes beyond just spelling and grammar though.
It’s labeling pics with the wrong names, lineups missing a player and/or two position players at the same position, etc. etc.
That’s just sloppy and gives a negative impression. How can he not be concerned or address that? Like you said, it’s his job, he’s getting paid to do it.
Since it wouldn’t take but 3 seconds longer to check and make sure the majority of those type mistakes don’t happen then I’m going with my original impression: He’s just stubborn. I guarantee if he had an employee evaluation and his employer pointed out those areas of improvement, he’d get right on it. Obviously, SNY is more concerned with volume and less with accuracy.
TRS86
5/19/2011-10:22am at 10:22 am (UTC -4)
That’s just it. I am surprised that SNY has not stepped in and had an influence.
I mentioned it today on the blog but the same reason that he had to shut down the comment section is the same reason that he has this many miscues in his post. If he does not want to proof read or moderate then hire people to do it. There are most likely 100′s of people chomping at the bits to do those things for Metsblog.
kingman 26
5/19/2011-10:27am at 10:27 am (UTC -4)
Love you buddy, but–especially while debating this–you REALLY NEED to stop with the apostrophes in plurals.
You had three of them in a short post recently.
It’s positively Cerrone-ian.
TRS86
5/19/2011-10:33am at 10:33 am (UTC -4)
Eh, comments on a blog I honestly couldn’t care less about my grammar. I will at least check the ones that spell-check finds and try to notice a few other things here and there but that’s about it.
Hey could you point out the ones that I am incorrect on? I know the 100′s one but what are the other ones?
njstuckintx
5/19/2011-10:54am at 10:54 am (UTC -4)
“you REALLY NEED to stop with the apostrophes in plurals.”
Really’? Is’ that’ an’ OCD’ thing’ that’ bother’s you’ to’ no’ end’?
kingman 26
5/19/2011-11:00am at 11:00 am (UTC -4)
Not at all. Sorry, I just don’t get what possesses people to reach over to the apostrophe key when they are adding the letter s to a word to make a plural. No one in history has been taught that at any level in school. I also kind of find it an interesting thing; when, how, and why did this start?
Why not start putting hyphen-s or question mark?s in for plural’s too?
TRS started this topic by mocking Cerrone’s spelling of a word. If we are going to mock Cerrone’s writing, shouldn’t ours not have constant errors?
njstuckintx
5/19/2011-11:08am at 11:08 am (UTC -4)
kingman 26
5/19/2011-11:13am at 11:13 am (UTC -4)
Sollozzo: Try the veal. It’s the best in the city.
McCluskey: I’ll have it.
TRS86
5/19/2011-11:22am at 11:22 am (UTC -4)
Kingman you still have not obliged me on which ones I have made an error on.
Also, do you not think there is a difference in the comment section and a post? Not only that there is a huge difference in making mistakes in a career and making mistakes in a hobby.
gategem
5/19/2011-6:18pm at 6:18 pm (UTC -4)
Many years ago after completing my post graduate work I was able to write without too many grammatically incorrect sentences. However, over the years the reading of too many engineering and mathematical works as well as authoring technical white papers my writing has become an abomination. There aren’t too many uses for the words hence and whence in normal everyday English. Also today there are very few American born graduate engineers and mathematicians. But most of the works published are in English and they are almost impossible to read. English is a dying language and soon to require pressing the SAP button on your TV. So I will not criticize Cerrone for what I cannot do myself.
TRS86
5/19/2011-10:23am at 10:23 am (UTC -4)
Again:
“He is 3-4 with a 4.39 ERA in nine starts this year, during which the Mets are 4-4.”
kistics
5/19/2011-10:42am at 10:42 am (UTC -4)
Didn’t they have a tie game somewhere?
metsfan4decades
5/19/2011-12:22pm at 12:22 pm (UTC -4)
To me, there’s a big difference between grammar, punctuation and spelling errors and the inaccurate information posted.
Yeah, so English is not exactly his best subject. Fine. That’s no excuse for not checking the facts before you post them. Inaccurate lineups? Misidentified players? Win/Loss records iwrong? Inaccurate game times? etc., etc.
It’s called work ethic and taking pride in one’s work.
Some have it, some do not.
stickguy
5/19/2011-12:44pm at 12:44 pm (UTC -4)
also shows that trying to run a web site from an iphone is a bad idea!
metsfan4decades
5/19/2011-6:25pm at 6:25 pm (UTC -4)
LOL, well I’ll give him credit for that b/c I’ve get to figure out how to get to the mobile sites on my Droid!
kistics
5/19/2011-11:18am at 11:18 am (UTC -4)
Question,
When the team announces the attendance numbers, that is the number of tickets sold. And that’s what really counts in their books, correct?
According to B-R, they drew over 24k people last night. Apparently a lot of them were wearing invisible suits.
TRS86
5/19/2011-11:28am at 11:28 am (UTC -4)
I think it’s based on a combination of secret formulas that we will never be given access to.
kistics
5/19/2011-11:32am at 11:32 am (UTC -4)
Based on the official attendance numbers, the Mets had 573k tickets sold so far. They are on pace to sell over 2.2M tickets this season which far exceeds 1.4-1.5M people were thinking of.
So I really wonder which number counts towards tickets sold and towards revenue.
TRS86
5/19/2011-11:37am at 11:37 am (UTC -4)
I am sure there are many tickets being sold on Stubhub and many fans getting great seats for cheap. However, I would also assume that those tickets are already accounted for. Perhaps it has something to do with entry into the stadium AND season tickets sold?
kistics
5/19/2011-11:39am at 11:39 am (UTC -4)
IMO it’s the tickets sold. Because if there’s any connection to the entry into the stadium, 24k for last night’s game doesn’t make sense at all.
Ceetar
5/19/2011-12:16pm at 12:16 pm (UTC -4)
it’s Tickets sold. the actual turnstile numbers are a closer kept secret than the NFL team finances.
stickguy
5/19/2011-12:43pm at 12:43 pm (UTC -4)
Ceetar is correct. Doesn’t matter if the place is totally empty, they announce how many tickets were sold (not sure whre/how they account for comps).
if you remember back some years, 1 league counted tickets sold, the other fannies in the seats. Always seemed quite silly to have them done differently, but then again, I still can’t believe one league has a DH and the other plays real baseball!
stub hub tickets are irrelevant to the Mets. They get the sales price up front, and the sale only counts once.
kistics
5/19/2011-1:37pm at 1:37 pm (UTC -4)
So they are really on pace for 2.2M tickets sold which is a lot higher than what people expected.
metsfan4decades
5/19/2011-12:15pm at 12:15 pm (UTC -4)
I’ll bet many of them spent the game watching it indoors at the various restaurants. It was literally pouring for half that game.
Also, I just came back from an errand and a guy called in who had seats right behind home plate. He said in the old days at Shea, the attendant in that prime area would check your ticket, escort you to your seat, and wipe it off with a towel if it was wet.
He said last night, after ’40 attendants checking my ticket like 18 times to make sure I wasn’t sneaking down there’, they just handed it back to me. Didn’t escort me, and when I got to the seat, it was wet with no way to dry it off’.
Needless to say, he was not happy.
Ceetar
5/19/2011-12:20pm at 12:20 pm (UTC -4)
Except they used to check your ticket, escort you there, and wipe it down even on bright sunny days..and wait around for you to tip them.
And he’s exaggerating. They check your ticket when you walk into the delta sky club (which you have to pass through to get there) then when you walk to your seat section. That’s twice. They may check again if you’re in the really exclusive first couple of rows there, where all the dignitaries and wahtever sit. I’m actually surprised they don’t dry that for you. I was told that if you’re sitting in those seats you can order in-seat service of any food item anywehre in the entire park, including Shake Shack.
kistics
5/19/2011-1:40pm at 1:40 pm (UTC -4)
I agree. I remember I had to tip some 90 year old dude who actually made my seat wet and dirty on a sunny day.
gategem
5/19/2011-6:24pm at 6:24 pm (UTC -4)
It’s akin to having your perfectly clean windshield cleaned by a homeless person using a dirty rag in lower Manhattan.
metsfan4decades
5/19/2011-6:27pm at 6:27 pm (UTC -4)
I’m sure unless I hit the lottery, that’ll be a pleasure I’ll never be experiencing.
TRS86
5/19/2011-2:38pm at 2:38 pm (UTC -4)
Yet another day goes bay. Screw Livan.
metsfan4decades
5/19/2011-6:29pm at 6:29 pm (UTC -4)
LOL, I know Livan was always one of your favorite pitchers, right up there with Figgy.
TRS86
5/19/2011-3:56pm at 3:56 pm (UTC -4)
Nice job Gee, Turner and everyday Krod.
metsfan4decades
5/19/2011-6:31pm at 6:31 pm (UTC -4)
TRS: I see you couldn’t help but comment on the latest lunacy from one of the most negative Met fans I’ve ever read over on MMO.
Can’t blame you. I dropped a comment on that post as well.
He’s certainly making a name for himself. He’s well known across the Met blogsphere. If I had to guess who one of the fans were that tweeted Thole a death threat, he’d be on my list.