Angel from Heaven: Pagan wins it in the 12th

The Mets beat the Phillies in twelve by a score of 4-3. Angel Pagan scored Reyes with a single in the bottom of the 12th.

Winning Pitcher:

Jorge Sosa (1-0) threw just one pitch in the game, retiring Pedro Feliz on a groundout. Because he was the last guy to pitch, he gets the win. Scott Shoeneweis is the real hero though. More on that later.

Losing Pitcher:

Tom Gordon (0-2) was cruising, retiring five batters in just thirteen pitches in the eleventh and twelfth innings, but then gave up a two-out double to Reyes and the game winner to Pagan.

Notes:

-Maine was okay tonight, but I don't think he was quite as good as his line indicates. He went 6+ innings, giving up five hits and just one run, a homer by Pedro Feliz in the seventh. But he had just one strikout, and walked five hitters. I didn't think his slider was all that great, and he seemed very erratic, though his ball to strike ratio wasn't all that terrible(35 balls, 55 strikes). He didn't have his best stuff, but was in line for the win until Heilman let the Phillies tie it in the ninth. I think that really shows how far he's come as a pitcher: he can not have his best stuff, walk five and strike out just one, and not really have a great slider, yet still go over six innings, give up one run, and be in line for the win.

-Do you want the bad first or the good? Let's go with the bad. Aaron Heilman is really struggling. He gave up the lead in the top of the eighth inning, and just looked absolutely terrible doing it. He was booed off the field at the end of the inning, and though I don't usually condone booing anybody who wears a Mets uniform, I probably would have done the same thing if I were at Shea tonight. He's had a very slow start to the year, and if the Mets want him to be a set-up man for Billy Wagner, he REALLY needs to be a lot better than that.

We aren't even talking about being consistent yet; he just needs to be somewhat reliable. SNY took a vote at the during the game, asking which player would help the Mets most when he comes off the Disabled List: Pedro, Alou, El Duque, or Duaner Sanchez. The answer was Moises Alou, and that is probably the correct one, but I bet Sanchez got a lot of votes after that eighth inning.

-Aside from Heilman, the Mets bullpen was rather, dare I say it, phenomenal. In the seventh inning, after Maine gave up a home run to Pedro Feliz and a double to Chris Coste, Randolph removed Maine and replaced him with Pedro Feliciano. Feliciano had a rather mediocre outing last night, and it was pretty important for him to get in a groove pretty quickly with the top of the Phillies order due up. He walked Jason Werth on five pitches, and the tension screw around Shea Stadium tightened cruelly. But then he struck out Shane Victorino, Eric Bruntlett, and Chase Utley all in a row, the latter on a steady diet of deadly sliders. When Feliciano doesn't locate his slider, he becomes ineffective very quickly. But when he gets it over for strikes and gets hitters to chase after it, he is almost impossible to hit- especially for lefties.

-For the rest of the bullpen, Wagner pitched a scoreless ninth, Joe Smith was pretty good in the tenth, but put the Mets in a tough situation in the eleventh, when the Phils had runners on first and second and one out, with Chase Utley at the plate Ryan Howard on deck. Randolph did the only thing he could do in the situation, and went toleft-hander Scott Shoeneweis. Shoeneweis had recieved most of the blame for the loss on Tuesday, whether it was justified blame or not. But here, he got Utley to ground into an inning-ending double play, and retired Ryan Howard and So Taguchi to start the twelfth. They replaced him with Sosa only because Pedro Feliz is a right-handed hitter, and Sosa retired him on one pitch. Still, major kudos to Shoeneweis, whom every Mets fan and his brother has ripped for the last year. I admit that I have often fallen victim to this. But, to get some perspective, this is just one nice game. Let's see him sustain it.

-What has Angel Pagan not done for this ball club? Clutch walk-off single in the twelfth, but I just love how he goes the other way from the left side of the plate. He did it twice tonight, and both times got hits. He's been, as Gary Cohen put it on the SNY broadcast, a god-send for the Mets. Ron Darling noted that the only thing Pagan hadn't done for the Mets was hit a walk-off homer. Though he didn't do that, a walk-off hit is a walk-off hit, no matter how far it travels.

-By the way, it was nice to see Reyes smoke a double into the gap there to set up the game-winner by Pagan. That was a frozen rope to right-center. Hopefully he can keep it going into the next series, because as Ron Darling pointed out, the Mets won't be nearly as good as they can be unless #7 gets going.

Wow, I wrote a ton. That's what happens when you feed we malnourished Mets fans with a walk-off win over the Phillies. Ahh....

Getting tomahawked like that really smarts

The Mets were plastered 11-5 by the Atlanta Braves in Turner Field today. Game recap here.

Notes

-John Maine was not at his best today, going just four innings, giving up four runs all on 96 pitches. He often looked flustered and out of his niche. It wasn’t exactly the scintillating performance I was expecting in Maine’s first start, and we’ll see if he can get it together soon. With Pedro out, the Mets REALLY need Maine to be great.

-The Mets got the short end of very poor umpiring once again. On Wednesday night, it was the bad call that ruled Carlos Beltran’s home run a double, but that controversy was lost in the Mets 13-0 win. Today, however, in the top of the fifth with the bases loaded and one out, Jose Reyes hit a scalding line drive to centerfield, and the Braves’ fielder Mark Kotsay clearly trapped it beneath his body. The umpire, however, ruled that Kotsay had caught the baseball, and the Braves easily threw out Angel Pagan at second, who was running after seeing the ball hit the ground himself.

But Randolph argued the call passionately, and it was eventually overturned, but the Mets were given just one run, despite the fact that Pagan would have scored easily from second. Still, it was just an awful call.

-I swear, Gotay will really hurt us before the end of the season.

-The relief pitching was pretty bad, outside of Joe Smith. Jorge Sosa and Scott Schoeneweis were the worst, with Sosa giving up a grand slam to Kelly Johnson in the seventh inning, effectively putting the game out of reach. Uggh, shades of 2007. Get it together, guys.

-I’m ready to move on to tomorrow, and the exciting Santana-Smoltz matchup. I hate losing to the Braves, so let’s hope Santana can work his magic.

Long Time, No Password

So, I finally was able to reset my password. It's been a long time (like, a year) since I put stuff on this blog, which doesn't really matter, because no one reads it anyway. But if you happen to stumble over this rock in your cyberspace surfing, you might want to go to metsblog.com to see a real source of information. I will be pretty much relying on Matt Cerrone on Mets Blog for any and all inside info over the coming season, but I will give my un-unique perspective on those issues throughout lines of this website. The things I say aren't all that new or all that interesting, there will be very little as far as game recaps go, and all my opinions and remarks about the Mets are probably wrong. So, if you still really want to read this blog, I don't know what else to say to convince you otherwise.

2008 Recap

If you want a quick rundown of last season, here it is... it sucked. Every minute of the last two weeks, except for one bright ray of hope named John Maine on Game 161, was pure cruel and unusual punishment for us Mets fans. I've come close to getting over it, considering the fact that the most notable off-season occurance not only for the Mets but all of baseball was the acquisition of ace Johan Santana- henceforth known as Our Mutual Venezuelan Expression of Genius-ness (seriously, that probably won't last long), but even the man hailed as the true Messiah by Jewish Mets fans can't completely dissolve that horri-awful taste in my (proverbial) mouth. It was a season to forget, and hopefully, O.M.V.E.G. can help us do just that.

Off-season stuff

There are a couple other notable off-season moves worthy of note. Tom Glavine is back where he belongs, and where he really wanted to be all along- Atlanta. So gone is one lefty. But the Mets did get Johan Santana, arguably the best pitcher of the 21st Century. So, yeah, I'll take that deal.

Gone: Guillermo Mota, Shawn Green, Lastings Milledge, Paul Lo Duca, Ruben Gotay, Jeff Conine, Aaron Sele, and Tom Glavine.

"Please Don't Screw Up" New Guys: Angel Pagan, Brady Clark, Ryan Church, Brian Schneider, Matt Wise, O.M.V.E.G.

Hooray! for Resigning These Guys:

- Luis Castillo
Sure, he wasn't always reliable, but he was a big help for the Mets most of the time with the club last year. Now that he is healthy, he should be really valuable right behind Reyes in the #2 hole. He's not as good defensively as he used to be, but he's still very solid.

-Moises Alou
Not always healthy, but the dude flat-out raked when he was. It was an easy decision to give him another year, even if he doesn't play 100 games this season.

-Ramon Castro
Pretty good back-up catcher, though the Mets knew from the beginning that he could be relied on as the main guy. But he's got a lot of pop in his bat and he gets along well with the pitchers. If Schneider happens to go down for periods of time, Castro is a good choice to fill in for a little while. If he's healthy, that is (theme, anyone?).

-Damion Easley
As clutch as they come. It was really sad when he hurt his ankle in August last season, but he is a ridiculously valuable utility player who is a great pinch hitter.

-Marlon Anderson
Did I say that Easley was clutch? Marlon Anderson was even more so in limited time last year. It seemed like every big hit he got was erased by an inept bullpen at year's end, but he was so good last season. He can play infield or outfield, and he can play first base as well. With Carlos Delgado's career hanging on a string, that's nice to have.

Other Off-season Notes

-The Mets decided that they weren't old enough, so they dumped Ruben Gotay, who was incidentally picked up by the Braves and is guaranteed to kill the Mets with a walk-off grand slam at some point this season, and replaced him with the ancient utility player Fernando Tatis. I jest, but this is probably a good move for the Mets. Gotay was a below average defensive infielder at best, he had no ability to play in the outfield, and he really struggled hitting lefties. Tatis plays solid defense (on second thought, so does Jose Valentin), can play in the outfield, hits lefties reasonably well, and has more experience that Gotay. But Tatis is older, and is good for at least a stint on the D.L., if not banishment to New Orleans AAA ball club or waiver-land.

-Kevin Mulvey, Doelis Gurrera, Phil Humber, and Carlos Gomez are gone. This is sad, sure, but for O.M.V.E.G., I would have given any single player short of Wright, Reyes, or Beltran. Humber wasn't going anywhere, and Gomez was nice, but far too raw. Mulvey and Gurrera were good talents, but who knows how they'll turn out. The key is that the Mets kept Fernando Martinez, their top prospect who played pretty well this spring. Oh, and he's 18 years old. But you know about him, or you wouldn't be reading this blog.

That's it for now. Season preview coming tomorrow.