The Mets wrapped up their weekend series against the Nats with a 6-3 win, again showing some live bats.
I only caught the first four innings of this one but that was enough Pelfrey to see. He was laboring the whole day, evidenced by the whopping 106 pitches it took him to get through just 4.2 innings. He limited the damage of 5 hits and 5 walks by allowing only 3 runs, but the game is not coming easy to this guy at all right now. That’s something I’ve noticed about all the Mets’ starting pitching these last few years. High pitch counts. Pay attention when you watch our pitchers. They never seem to have those quick, 12-pitch, 1-2-3 innings. Ever. It’s always a ton of pitches, a lot of baserunners, and long games. If there is a culprit that I’ve identified, it’s the lack of first-pitch strikes. It could be in large part because our arms are young, but the lack of aggressiveness on first pitches seems to put us behind in counts way too often, especially with the starters. Pelfrey is probably the biggest culprit here but Gee too, his starts can normally be predicted by how he starts out hitters early in counts.
Luckily, however, the bullpen bailed out another poor Pelfrey outing as Igarashi, Stinson, Isringhausen, and Parnell allowed just 2 hits over the last 4.1 innings.
And who tied the game for us in the 6th? Duda, of course. He seems to get a big hit every game and today was no exception. Duda blasted his 9th homer of the year to tie the game, shortly after which, Willie Harris and Nickeas put us ahead for good, driving in 3 runs between them for the 6-3 win.
Wright added two hits in this one and Tejada continued to impress with the bat, driving a 2-run single to right in the 3rd. It will be interesting to see who gets to play second next year if Reyes re-signs, Turner or Tejada. Both have been impressive as everyday players, though admittedly each limited in certain areas. Collins and Alderson will have quite the decision on their hands. Of course, again that’s only if Reyes re-signs, so I guess it’s one of those good problems to have.
The loss in this one was taken by Livan Hernandez who was making his last start before Strasburg takes his spot in the rotation. At age 36, Livan was exactly one game under .500 for his career at 174-175. I obviously didn’t want him to get the win against the Mets, but you can’t really root against Livan. It would have been nice to see him even up his record before he’s supplanted by the Strasburger…if he’d been pitching against any other team.
One final note: Mets September call-up Joshua Satin got a hit in his first major league at-bat, lacing a single into left on an inside breaking ball. Congratulations…even if he was totally upstaged by Milone last night.
Another series win puts the Mets at 68-70 on the year as the march towards .500 continues. They’ve really been playing well lately, winning of 8 of 10, albeit 7 of those against the Marlins and Nats. Tomorrow night, the Mets take the field looking to continue their roll against, who else, the Marlins. Let’s go Cap-o.
10 comments
MetsFan4Decades
9/5/2011-12:03am at 12:03 am (UTC -4)
This was a strange game.
Pelf doing what Pelf usually does was probably the only predictable thing.
Couldn’t believe TC brought in Igarashi with the bases loaded to get the last out of that inning only down by a run. To me, anytime Igarashi takes the mound it should be b/c the game is long over. To his credit he not only got the out, he got the W as well.
Sending Harris up there with the bases loaded in a tie ballgame was another head scratcher. And again to his credit, Harris came through with a single down the RF line scoring 2. Icing on the cake that inning was the first suicide squeeze this season executed perfectly by the Nickeas bunt and Bay racing home.
Stinson has looked good in his first 2 outings.
Parnell continuing with his see-saw season of one bad outing, one good, next bad, etc. etc.
The more I see of Duda’s bat, the more I hope it’s for real.
If he can just bring his defensive skills up to mediocre out there in RF, that position should be covered for next season.
Anonymous
9/5/2011-12:11am at 12:11 am (UTC -4)
hopefully they can find a way to get rid of Bay for someone like Burnett and put Duda in LF where he belongs.
Its really looking like he can be a middle of the order guy for years to come…
Anonymous
9/5/2011-5:21am at 5:21 am (UTC -4)
An interesting article about Bay by Newsday’s David Lennon:
“After spending months trying to make adjustments, Bay sat down earlier this week with hitting coach Dave Hudgens and re-examined video from his 2009 season with the Red Sox. That 36-homer, 119-RBI campaign earned him a $66-million contract from the Mets, and it’s been downhill for Bay since.Both he and Hudgens believe that decline may be due to his efforts to become a more consistent hitter, for the sake of a few batting-average points. Now the two have been working to undo those fixes.
“I kind of got away from it, then I got really far away from it,” Bay said, “and then I didn’t know how to get it back. It’s like starting all over again from that point. What I’ve already done, I’ve proven that I can succeed with that. Although it’s not perfect, everything else I’ve tried ain’t working, either. That’s my focus for the next [26] games — to get back to something I feel comfortable with, something that I know produces results once again.”
To give Bay an idea what was going on, Hudgens matched up video of his 2009 season alongside recent footage from this year. Bay was surprised to learn just how different he looked, believing all along that he was an adjustment or two away from regaining that form, mostly involving his hands and the timing of his front foot. As Bay described it, his problems have more to do with the sequence of events during his swing than the stance, even though he has tried to open up his front foot more in recent weeks. Before Friday’s game, Bay did his usual soft-toss routine at the indoor cage, with Hudgens studying him from a folding chair. During those 50 or so tosses, Bay gets the feeling back as line drives jump off his bat with every swing. But that’s only step one before moving up the chain to batting practice and ultimately the game, when that muscle memory is essential. Bay still is working toward that.
“I think everything that he had tried to do was taking away from his rhythm, his natural whip of the bat,” Hudgens said. “Getting back to what he does naturally is going to be the key for him. We just have to ingrain that back into him.”
http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/mets-play-long-ball-bay-plays-long-haul-1.3141919
Anonymous
9/5/2011-11:34am at 11:34 am (UTC -4)
did he mover back closer to the plate too?
Odd though that it would take this long in the season to realize this analysis needed to be done!
Anonymous
9/5/2011-2:54pm at 2:54 pm (UTC -4)
Seriously, how long does it take for one to go “uh, this used to work. what am I doing different…”?
Anonymous
9/5/2011-1:39pm at 1:39 pm (UTC -4)
regardless, he would be much better off on a team like the Yankees where he could be a 20-30 HR guy again
Darknova306
9/5/2011-1:32am at 1:32 am (UTC -4)
Kinda funny how it’s worked out: in left field there’s a guy that’s all glove and no bat, while in right field there’s a guy that’s all bat and no glove. Hopefully Duda and Murphy can learn some defense before next season so we don’t have to see two “all bat, no glove” guys everyday.
Anonymous
9/5/2011-1:39am at 1:39 am (UTC -4)
Dude’s been impressing and it’s nice to see him starting to rack up his AB’s against lefties. He may have struck out today in his lone AB against a LOOGY but I’ve liked his approach against samesiders and his avg v lefties residing at .304 in 50 AB’s is encouraging. Hopefully he continues this trend through the balance of September and removes the last hurdle in being an everyday fixture in the lineup.
Anonymous
9/5/2011-1:43am at 1:43 am (UTC -4)
i’m firmly in the non-tender pelf camp. he just wont be worth the money and fits much better as an innings eater at the back of a good team’s rotation. the mets can fill that role cheaply when the time cones.
Anonymous
9/5/2011-1:47am at 1:47 am (UTC -4)
and the mental aspect of the game is what keeps him from being something more. he just can’t put the breaks on it when things begin to go sour. he’s got twice the stuff of a guy like Dillon Gee but half the poise.
gee has a chance to put up the same numbers for a fraction of the price.