It's about time

The Mets topped the Philadelphia Phillies this evening by a score of 8-2. Box score can be found here.

Winning Pitcher:

Mike Pelfrey (1-0) stepped up big tonight for the Mets, going five strong innings of two-run ball, and most importantly, not giving into the pressure when the defense behind him made mistakes. He pounded the zone with his fastball and did a very nice job with his slider, impressing even Keith Hernandez, who commented on it during the game tonight.

Losing Pitcher:

It's not that Kyle Kendrick (1-1) was getting pounded- he gave up four hits in two and a third innings. Okay, that's not great, but not the kind of start you would think would not last past the third inning. The problem was he walked six batters and the defense committed four errors behind him. That usually leads to poor results. He gave up seven runs, just one of them earned, in his measly 2.1 innings of work.

Notes:

-For scoring eight runs, the Mets offense really wasn't all that good. They only managed five hits for the game, getting just one hit after their six-run third inning. Reyes continues to struggle, and Wright took a tough 0-4 night, dropping his batting average pretty low. Oh-fors in April will do that to you. Delgado recorded one hit to continue his nice little streak here over the last few games. Maybe the guy will have a good year. Overall, the offense did well enough. Still, it would be nice to get some more consistency in the offense.

-I really like Pagan hitting second. It's really a nice thing to do when Castillo can't play.

-We were all calling for Feliciano yesterday, and he pitches today and gets hit around quite a bit. I'd love to see all the Willie haters deal with that one. At some point I'll post a long rant about how much I can't stand people who continually second-guess Willie Randolph, but school and other more important things beckon.

-Ultimately, this was a win over the Phillies, the Mets first since June 30th, 2007 (yes, that stat is correct). Was it ugly? Yes. Will the Mets take it? You betcha.

Another Loss

Sigh. I was driving all afternoon, so I heard nothing of the Mets 3-1 loss to the Braves. Smoltz got the win, Heilman got the loss, and very little bad that happened was Santana's fault. Oh, and the Mets offense is anemic. That's about all I know. Series Preview for the Brewers coming tomorrow.

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.

Rainout

Last night's game with the Atlanta Braves was rained out, and will be made up at some point in May. Maine and Hudson will pitch this afternoon, and Santana and Smoltz will pitch tomorrow. Yay! no Pelfrey! More after this afternoon's game.

It feels oh so good to be mean

The Mets incinerated the Marlins on Wednesday night by a score of 13-0. They had seventeen hits in the game.

Winning Pitcher

Oliver Perez (1-0) was fabulous, going six full innings and allowing no runs on just five hits with one walk and eight strikeouts. Not that it really mattered; come on, the Mets scored so many runs that Jose Lima would have earned a win tonight.

Losing Pitcher

Andrew Miller (0-1), who was hammered by the Mets last season as a member of the Tigers organization, was once again shelled by the Amazin's. The youngster's line was 4.1 innings, eight hits, five runs, two walks, and six strikeouts.

Notes

-Oliver Perez looked really good tonight, and if he, Santana, and Maine can be relied on this season, that will go a long way in making up for Pedro's injury and any poor performance by a random fifth starter. I've begun to realize that when Perez is under control, doesn't try to overthrow, and throws his slider for strikes, he's pretty much unhittable.

-David Wright is the player of the game, even though I don't actually give those in my postgame recaps. I guess that tells you just how good he was tonight. He was 3-5 with two runs scored, a double, and three RBI's on a sixth-inning three-run homer. In fact, Wright's double would have been a home run in any other ballpark. So we should pretend that, along with last night, Wright actually has three home runs this season. Oh, and he also had two gold-glove worthy plays in the latter innings.

-Carlos Beltran had a home run unjustly changed to a double in the fifth inning. However, the guy also had two other doubles tonight, which gives him five for the year already. Keep raking, Carlos.

-Every starting position player had multiple hits tonight except Brian Schneider, who had two RBI's and a sacrifice fly. Seventeen hits. Two home runs and six doubles. Yeah, that's a lot of offense. We could have used some of these runs last September....oh no, don't do it...don't...think...about...it....

Tomorrow:

Day off on Thursday. John Maine open the Mets series in Atlanta on Friday night. More then.

Mets Fall to Marlins in Ten

The Mets fell to the Marlins 5-4 in ten innings in Miami on Tuesday night.

Winning Pitcher

Reliever Justin Miller (1-0) gets the win after pitching a scoreless top of the tenth. Not all that much more to say about him.

Losing Pitcher

Matt Wise (0-1), after retiring the first two batters on impressive strikeouts, surrendered a walk-off home run to Robert Andino in the bottom of the tenth inning. He just hung a change-up and Andino took him deep. Don’t get too angry with Wise for this one; it’s just one of those things.

Notes

-Pedro wasn’t terrible. He just really struggled locating his fastball early, as both homers came off of fat fastballs. Pedro told SNY’s Kevin Burghart that he felt his hamstring “pop” in the fourth, and that he will be going to New York tomorrow to have an MRI. Hamstring problem= not good because it will never go away. This will be a persistent issue. We all expected this, just not this early in the year. Get well soon, Pedro. We really need you.

-Major props to the bullpen. Jorge Sosa came into the game after Pedro was hurt and pitched 2.2 scoreless innings. Then Schoeneweis and Smith combined for a perfect seventh, and Aaron Heilman was phenomenal in throwing a scoreless eighth and ninth. Even losing pitcher Matt Wise looked great on the first two batters, striking out the first two hitters on change-ups, but he just hung the last change and Robert Andino hit it out. It’s just unfortunate that the Mets offense couldn’t contribute quite enough, and they couldn’t claim the win. But that doesn’t change how well those three guys (Smith, Show, and Heilman) pitched.

-When will the no-names quit plaguing the Mets? I mean, come on, Robert Andino? He sounds like a career minor leaguer.

-No Met really stood out offensively other than Brian Schneider, who was 3 for 4 with a RBI and a walk. Everyone got a hit except for Beltran, but only Schneider recorded multiple hits.

-Oh, where are you Gary Cohen, Ron Darling, and Keith Hernandez? These Marlin announcers are so annoying. We’re in the middle of an extra inning game and they are ripping the Shea Stadium broadcast booth. You know, the Mets ARE building a new ballpark for that very reason…

-Carlos Beltran recorded his first assist of the season, throwing out Dan Uggla at second after Uggla tried to stretch a bloop single into a double.

-David Wright hit a bomb to deep centerfield in the top of the ninth which would have been out of every ballpark in the National League except this one, San Diego, and maybe San Francisco. Arghh….

-This loss isn’t all that aggravating. The offense was okay, the pitching was great except for the first two innings from Pedro and one poor pitch from Wise. This loss would be very tolerable if Pedro wasn’t hurt in the game. Now this puts the Mets in a really tough spot in the rotation way earlier than we were hoping to deal with it.

Tomorrow’s game:
7:10 pm

Oliver Perez (0-0) vs. Andrew Miller(0-0). The Mets need to start the season off with a series victory. And they need to rest their bullpen, which pitched six and a third innings tonight. They could use a big start from Perez.

Pedro Hurt

After giving up four runs in the first two innings, Pedro Martinez left the game in the fourth with what looked like a hamstring or groin injury. This is bad. I was afraid when he gave up a few runs that something was wrong with him physically. We'll see what happens.

The Mets are tied with the Marlins 4-4 in the bottom of the eighth, but Aaron Heilman just gave up a leadoff walk. Uh-oh, it's last year all over again.