The Mets won their second game in a row, defeating the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine by a score of 3 to 2. With the win, they pick up a game on both the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals, and now reside 3.5 games out of first place in the N.L. East.
Bobby Parnell made the most of his first chance to close in 2012, replacing the injured Frank Francisco. Parnell came out overthrowing. When Bobby overthrows, he hangs onto the ball a split-second too long, resulting in a supersonic pitch in the dirt. But he settled down after the first batter, and earned a 1-2-3 save. SNY did a tremendous job showing pitching coach Dan Warthen calling the pitches for Mike Nickeas and Bobby Parnell. Warthen called for mostly the hard stuff, but mixed in the Isringhausenesque knuckle curve a couple of times to change things up. The game ended when PH Bobby Abreu skied out to Scott Hairston in left.
David Wright was the Mets’ offensive hero. He hit an RBI double in the first, then golfed a towering solo home run to left center field in the 4th to give the Mets a 2-0 lead.
Chris Young (2-1) tossed 6 1/3 solid innings before being lifted in the seventh for Tim Byrdak. Young allowed 2 runs on 6 hits, walked none and struck out 6. Byrdak came on and struck out the speedy Dee Gordon to get the Mets out of the inning.
Terry Collins gets a lot of heat when he mishandles the bullpen. He desreves a lot of credit for pushing the right buttons tonight. He brought Byrdak in to face 2 lefties in the seventh, Jon Rauch in to neutralize the righties in the eighth, and Parnell in to nail down the game.
Former Met Chris Capuano (9-3) had another solid outing for the Dodgers, giving up 3 runs in 7 innings. Capuano gave up 5 hits and struck out 5, while walking none. Capuano did a great job getting through the Mets’ batting order 3 times, something he struggled with last year.
Jon Rauch was, at last, the beneficiary of good defense. After allowing a leadoff bunt single to the Dodgers’ third bseman Elian Herrera in the eighth, he induced a slow grounder up the middle. Daniel Murphy fielded it it to his right, and smoothly tossed it to Ruben Tejada, who stepped on the second base bag, and threw a strike to Ike Davis to complete the double play. Rauch went on to get the final out of the inning.
Andres Torres has been playing a shallow center field the last few games. Like kiddie-pool shallow. He’s basically been playing the classic softball short center field position. It paid off in the first inning, as he caught a line drive off the bat of Herrera. But it burned the Mets in the fourth when Herrera lined a Young offering over the head of Torres for an RBI triple. That hit brought the Dodgers back from a 2-0 deficit to a tie game.
Torres immediately atoned in the fifth inning with an RBI double down the right field line that scored Mike Nickeas.
That was all the offense the Mets needed as Byrdak, Rauch, and Parnell combined to shut the Dodgers down, and secure the team’s 41st win of the season.
As a subtext, this game featured a battle of Hairstons. Brother Scott went 0-3, and Brother Jerry walked as a pinch hitter. They are the sons of former major leaguer Jerry Hairston, Jr., and grandson of the pioneering Sam Hairston.
The Mets continue on in the L to the A with game 2 of this 4 game set, tomorrow at 10:10 PM EDT. R.A. Dickey is set to face Aaron Harang.
7 comments
Mr North Jersey
6/29/2012-1:19am at 1:19 am (UTC -4)
1:19am and all is well as the Mets win.
Nice game by Wright a double to put the Mets on the board a nice bare handed play in the bottom of the 1st for the out. A HR to make it 2-0. Now to await and see if he will be the NL All-Star starting 3rd baseman.
Didn’t get to see all of Young’s outing but he went 6 1/3 and ended up only giving up 2 runs. Good job.
Props to Byrdak, Rauch and Parnell on doing their jobs and shutting down a struggling Dodger offense.
Oh and nice job by Torres getting that double and driving in the deciding run. Though not having seen it I understand that he was apparently positioned shallow and it allowed a ball to be hit over his head for a rbi triple.
In the end it’s a Met win. Now just need to string as many of these W’s together as possible.
LGM!
srt
6/29/2012-8:41am at 8:41 am (UTC -4)
At least the Mets made it worth my while to stay up and watch that game.
Not much offense but then again, not much was needed tonight. Stellar pitching. Young looked good, BP didn’t give up anything (surprise, surprise) and for the most part the defense was good. Duda is always an adventure and as you mentioned, not sure why Torres plays so shallow.
Parnell looked real fine out there in the 9th. Do that more often than not and we might have found our closer going forward.
Stickguy
6/29/2012-8:50am at 8:50 am (UTC -4)
good for Bobby. I think the negative crowd goes a bit overboard with the psychological “profiling”. Deciding he is mentally too weak to handle the 9th inning, because he had a few rough patches. As if no player ever struggled before when they tried a new role.
I think a good comparison is Ryan Madson. Same thing, kicked around the pen for a few years, big arm, but in a few short stints closing was not successful. And he got branded like that. Until the year they just made him closer, and he was dominant at it.
sometimes you have to look at the individual games, sometimes the big picture, but don’t give up on a live arm!
srt
6/29/2012-9:05am at 9:05 am (UTC -4)
I think he’s got more confidence this year – and some of that might have to do with that new pitch he’s got that Izzy taught him, which he featured in the 9th last night.
Parnell said after the game he was a little ‘amped up’. Showed b/c he had several fastballs that came in at 100mph. Good to see at least he’s not losing velocity in his late 20s.
SaltyGary
6/29/2012-8:44am at 8:44 am (UTC -4)
He golfed that HR, it was awesome. Great to see the bullpen go through motions and just get the job done.
I made it trough the 5th before conking out on the couch I think. Great to listen to Scully. When Nickeas was up he completely went through how he was drafted and then acquired by the Mets, he also had some personal history about him. It’s amazing how much research they do for each player and he just talks about it like he was telling the same story for years. He is truly one of the greatest baseball broadcasters.
Stickguy
6/29/2012-8:47am at 8:47 am (UTC -4)
picked the right time to go to the bed (middle of the 8th). pretty much a no-lose situation. Either the mets just finished it out like this, and I missed nothing. Or, the pen cold have coughed it up, and I would have been really pissed off!
in any case, big game to start the series. Hopefully it sets the tone for the weekend. I really want to see at least 3-4 now.
srt
6/29/2012-9:25am at 9:25 am (UTC -4)
OT:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303649504577495151165598984.html?mod=WSJ_NY_Sports_LEFTTopStories
The Pitcher Who Almost Got Away :
“There was a possibility he was going to get released,” said Omar Minaya, the Mets’ general manager at the time. “That was talked about.”
‘It turned out to be the best move Minaya never made.’
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Oh boy…..how close we came to never seeing RA Dickey in a NY Mets ML uniform.