Nothing Doing

The non-waiver trading deadline has come and gone, and while there has been a flurry of moves changing the look of New York baseball, the Mets remain unchanged. The Yankees have a new catcher, outfielder, and relief pitcher, but the Mets just have their irregulars and bullpen unreliables (and the hope of Ryan Church's return).

But listen to this: DON'T WORRY! At the current time, the Mets are just a game out of first place. Against a good (but not great) Phillies team, the Mets should probably emerge as NL East Champions.

Additionally, the Mets seem to have a relatively light schedule from here on in. Only seven inter-division games are against good teams (Brewers, Cubs). Also, until August 26th, the Mets play just three games against a third place team, and no games against a team in first or second place. New York also has more home games (29) remaining than away games (25).

All in all, it is clear that the Mets have a decent chance. It's up to the players. If Fernando, Carlos, Carlos, Endy, David, Jose, Damion and Brian (and the pitching staff, especially the bullpen) can get the job done, the Mets will end up on top.

We'll see.

New Poll Question

There is a new poll question up on the right side of the page. Please vote.

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Great victory yesterday, by the way. Oliver pitched really well. Again. Carlos Delgado is making the Mets think about whether they should re-sign him. David Wright had an RBI. What else is new?

4-1 is pretty good. So is first place.

Fried by the Fish

On a relatively quiet night for the Mets' offense, the New York's bullpen gave the Florida fans a lot to cheer about. Called to duty in the middle of the 5th inning (due to an injury by John Maine), the bullpen gave up 6 runs in 3.2 innings. The major culprits were Smith and Schoenweiss, who gave up the lead and, ultimately, 5 runs in the penultimate 8th inning.

Maine had pitched very well prior to leaving the game, having given up just one run in 4.1 innings.

Most of what the offense did muster came from the bottom of the batting order. Fernando Tatis and Damion Easley each had 2 hits and had all 3 RBIs between them. Tatis had the only extra-base hit for the Mets, a triple off of Marlins starter Ricky Nolasco.

Hopes are that Maine will be alright.

Currently, the Mets are 57-49, half a game ahead of the Phillies and 1 game ahead of the Marlins.

Poll Update: Consensus of our (nonscientific) poll seems to be that Mike Piazza should go into the Hall of Fame as a New York Met. That's what I, personally, believe, as well.

Baseball Tidbit: In 1912, Ty Cobb (regularly a left-handed outfielder) played a game at second base. In 4 total chances, he made 1 out and 3 errors. And some people wonder why there are no left-handed infielders.

Red-Hot

Backed by a great performance from Johan Santana, the Mets beat the Cardinals for the second time in three nights to retain their slim 1-game lead over Philadelphia.

David Wright, Fernando Tatis and Ramon Castro each went deep, and Johan himself hit a ball off the right field wall. (It went for a single; he didn't run at first because he thought that it was foul.) His 2 hits raised his batting average to .178.

Santana was also helped out by a great defensive play, a home-run robbing catch made by Carlos Beltran.

Perhaps unsettled by the turn of events after he left his last start (after 8 innings), Johan went the distance tonight, giving up 1 run on 6 hits in 9 frames.

Final Score: 9-1

Up Next: The FIRST PLACE Mets venture off to Florida to take on the Marlins for three games.

Up and Down

The Mets had a good victory on Friday night, in which Mike Pelfrey pitched impressively. Again.

Earlier today, the Mets lost in extra innings to the Cardinals. It's hard to complain about that loss. Even with the regular starter (Pedro Martinez) on bereavement leave, it took the Mets 14 innings to lose. Good show.

(Sorry for the late posting of this entry.)

Back In First

The Mets, coming off a debacle in yesterday's nighttime matchup, have beaten the Phillies and moved into a tie for 1st place in the National League East.

John Maine gave up 3 runs (all earned) in 7 innings, the defense defended, and the offense scored 6 runs. The bullpen (Schoenweiss and Smith in the 8th, Wagner in the 9th) pitched hitless ball, and the Mets are in position to get full control of first tomorrow afternoon.

The game was far from perfect - Maine gave up the lead on two separate occasions, the offense left a troubling 13 runners on base, but when all was said and done there were smiles on the faces in the home clubhouse.

Jose Reyes had the big blow, a 3-run homer off of reliever Ryan Madson in the 6th, to give the Mets the lead that would prove to be enough. Carlos Delgado, hitting cleanup, and David Wright were on base 4 and 3 times, respectively. Damion Easley had 3 hits and an RBI and also scored on the Reyes homerun.

Next Game: Jamie Moyer faces off against the steaming hot Oliver Perez. This duel of the southpaws may shape up as a low-scoring game because both gentlemen have been pitching lights-out of late.

Ridiculous

Ridiculous game today. Nothing more to say. Check mets.com for the facts.

Word of the day: Objectionableness.

Johan Should've Been Sant

We polled the readers of this blog as to who should be the Mets' representative on the National League All-Star Team. The unanimous winner was Johan Santana, who has pitched extremely well of late (not taking last night's debacle into account).

The Mets will continue playing the Reds thru Sunday.

Poll Update: Just a few more days to vote for the remaining poll on the right side of this page.

What Else is New?

(Sorry for my time off.)

The National League loses the All-Star Game. Billy Wagner blows the save. At least you don't need to check whether or not the sky is still up there.

Decent showing for David Wright at the game, with 1 for 3 and a walk. He did not field, as he was the DH.

The Mets are currently leading the Reds 6-5 in the 7th inning in Cincinnati.

El Duque left his rehab game in the first inning due to injury.

If the Mets win this game, they will tie the Phillies for 1st place in the National League East.

WOW!!

The Mets are truly as hot as can be, what with winning the last 9 in quite impressive fashion. In 5 out of the last 6 games, Mets pitching limited the opponents to 3 hits or less. That's the first time since 1990 that that has happened. Even in the 6th game (last night's the pitching staff shut out the defending NL Champion Rockies on 7 hits to complete a series sweep.

The Mets 9-game winning-streak is the longest since they won 9 straight in their 2000 NL pennant-winning season. Hey, there's something to shoot for. Since June 1st, the Mets have won more games than any National League team. Their 24 June and July victories put them

Mike Pelfrey has been dominant recently, allowing just 1 run in his last 22 innings. He raised his record to 8-6 and lowered his ERA to a very respectable 3.64.

With Joe Smith's shutout inning last night, the Mets' bullpen hasn't allowed a run in 19.1 innings.

The hitting was great, too, with both Carloses blasting homeruns.

Congratulations

David Wright has been named to the National League All-Star Team as a replacement for Cubs outfielder Alfonso Soriano.

Just by the way, the fact that Soriano was selected to start the All-Star Game is an embarrassment. It's clearly an example of ballot-stuffing. His .283-15-40 is far from worthy of starting the All-Star-Game. All of the outfield reserves on the team (especially no-longer-reserve Matt Holliday) have numbers that are clearly better than his.

Even numerous players who did not make the team at all (think Jason Bay and Xavier Nady) had better numbers than him. That makes him worse than the entire Pittsburgh Pirates outfield. Others like Rick Ankiel and Carlos Beltran have similar offensive numbers but are much better defensively, and should also have been given the honor in his stead.

In terms of the rightful position-holder of reserve shortstop, see the final paragraph of this.

Upcoming Series: Tonight, the Mets will take on the Colorado Rockies (defending NL Champions) in the first of three games. Tonight, Oliver Perez will (possibly) show whether he is a good pitcher or a true enigma.

Another Victory

John Maine didn't have his greatest performance of the year today, but after 9 innings of play, the Mets came out on top. After Maine gave up 3 runs in 4.2 innings, Muniz, Schoenweiss (who got credit for the win), Sanchez, and Wagner shut out the on just a single hit.

It is, amazingly, the second straight game in which Mets pitching gave up just 3 hits.

Fernando Tatis was the hero today, with his 2 run homer part of his 3 hit, 4 RBI game.

The final score was 7-3.

Team Effort

In a very impressive performance overall, Johan Santana and the bullpen combo of Heilman, Sanchez and Smith held the Giants scoreless on just a paltry three hits. In a game held up by a 42 minute rain delay, the Mets, perhaps, decided to show that they could win rain or shine.

Ramon Castro had a big three-run-homer in the 4th off of losing pitcher Johnathan Sanchez. Carlos Delgado went 3 for 4 with a couple of doubles. Argenis Reyes got his first (and second) major league hit tonight, and scored a run, as well.

In summation, the quintessential sweet victory. (Okay. Maybe that's a stretch. All the runs were batted in by the 8,9 and 1 batters.)

Florida won and the Phillies are winning. It is likely that the Mets will remain 1.5 games out of first.

All-Star Game Coverage: As you may have noticed, I've put up an additional poll on the righ-hand side of the blog. This one is about which Mets pitcher is most worthy to be the Mets' All-Star representative.

With his solid start today, Johan Santana put the icing onto what should be his All-Star cake.

Great Game

Great game all around today as the Mets took on the Giants in impressive fashion, ultimately emerging victorious by a score of 7-0. Pelfrey impressed, and the bullpen did its job (for a nice change) and the Mets got the win.

All-Star Coverage: Two Mets got slighted in not being picked for the All-Star Team: Jose Reyes and Johan Santana. Johan has pitched much better than his 7-7 record, and has a stellar 2.96 ERA, good for (a tie of) 5th in the league. He's also (tied for) 5th in the league in Innings Pitched, a combination which should certainly have propelled him past Billy Wagner and onto the All-Star Team.

Jose Reyes has the numbers to be in the Bronx next Tuesday. He leads the league in triples and stolen bases and is tied for 12th in batting average. He has a decent amount of walks and 9 homers and 38 RBIs from the lead-off spot. How Miguel Tejada is going to the All-Star Game instead of him is an enigma. (With superman Lance Berkman on his team, Tejada is not the sole Astro, which would solve the mystery.)

Have You Had Your Phil?

Though they exit the city of Brotherly Love just 2.5 games out of first and having just taken 3 out of 4 from their rivals, I think that the Mets have certainly had their fill.

The circumstances that led to the Mets series victory was almost comical. The bullpen was ridiculous, with Billy Wagner leading the way, and the Mets came relatively close to losing each of the last two games in embarrassing fashion.

Nevertheless, they outlasted the Phillies, and for once, or twice, showed a little backbone on both Sunday and Monday.

Pedro pitched relatively well (2 runs, 5.1 innings), and that is remarkably encouraging. If he's got something left in the tank, the rotation is set.

Impossible as it may seem, if Scott Schoenweiss becomes the Mets closer today, I think I will have more confidence in him than in Mr. Wagner. Scott Schoenweiss. No question about Heilman or Joe Smith, who are possibly the two best relievers right now (Heilman's play on Monday notwithstanding).

At 2.5 back, the Mets have a bad (bot not ridiculous) chance of capturing first place by the All-Star break.

Blog Note: I've extended the poll on the right-hand side of the main text of the blog. Come on! Vote!

A Win In at the Cards

After yesterday's disappointing loss, the Mets sure enjoyed today's victory. The hitting was clearly there, with the Mets scoring 3 runs in the first and an astonishing 6 runs in the 3rd inning. Add in Carlos Delgado's 15th home run and Jose Reyes' 10th triple, and you've got yourself a "W."

Carlos Beltran had the night off, but it didn't seem to hurt the Mets at all. Super-sub Endy Chavez went 2 for 5 and scored a run and knocked in another. The Met with the worst day offensively (arguable, obviously) was Ramon Castro, and even he had a walk and a run scored.

Even Mike Pelfrey (a terrible hitter, historically) got in on the fun, getting a hit, a run, and get this, his first Major League RBI in yesterday's game. Oh, he also pitched pretty darn well, giving up a single run in 7 innings.

Going into a weekend four-game series against the division-leading Phillies, the Mets are 42-43 and 4.5 games out of first.

The Mets can theoretically leave Philadelphia on Monday just half a game out of first.

51/49

As we stand at the halfway mark (or rather, just past the halfway mark) of the season, things are remarkably up in the air.

Here are the facts: Reyes is a bit of an interesting fellow, a great player, and a huge enigma. Wright is great at hitting (although his average is a little lower than usual). The Carloses are not quite what they were. (Don't take that the wrong way. I think that they are both quite good, though neither hits for much of an average.

Johan and Maine are good. Pelfrey is pretty good too. Perez's last start was encouraging (which of course means absolutely nothing).

Pedro did pitch pretty well today with the exception of the first inning.

Heilman has been good recently.

41-42 and just 4 games out! I'll take it.