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.

Santastic: Mets Down Fish in Opener

The Mets topped the Florida Marlins 7-2 in Dolphin Stadium in Miami today.

Winning Pitcher

Johan Santana (1-0) was solid in his much-anticipated Mets debut, going seven full innings while giving up two earned runs on three hits. The only runs scored were off of Josh Willingham's two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth. He walked two and struck out eight.

Losing Pitcher

Mark Hendrickson (0-1) looked okay for the first three innings, but had the ceiling fall in on him in the fourth, where he gave up six runs. He pitched five full innings, giving up six runs on seven hits while walking three and striking out two. He was less than impressive. Let's hope for the Marlins sake that they aren't counting on him to be their number one guy this season.

Notes

-So much for my speculation about the Mets potential long relievers. Both candidates I listed yesterday, Matt Wise and Jorge Sosa, pitched in relief in the eighth inning of this game. Wise spread two hits around an out to start the inning, while Scott Schoeneweis and Sosa cleaned up the mess by each recording an out.

I wonder who the Mets will turn to in the event of a poor start. Maybe they won't have a specific long reliever's role as they have the past two years with Aaron Sele last year and Darren Oliver in 2006. Perhaps they are planning to share the load here. Stay tuned. Hey, maybe we won't need a long reliever all year long because our starters will go seven innings each start!

- Santana was pretty good today. His fastball maxed out at 93 mph, I think, which is good for the beginning of the season, and his change-up was around 80, which is normal. Apart from the home run in the fourth, Santana was superb. He wasn't overworked either, as he threw an even 100 pitches, 68 of them for strikes. If he can give the Mets starts like this all year long, it's going to make it very difficult for the Mets to go into prolonged slumps. At least I hope so.

-The Mets' bats were pretty good today, at least for one inning. They scored seven runs off of ten hits in the ballgame. Jose Reyes and David Wright were 2 for 4, while Carlos Beltran went 2 for 5. Angel Pagan, Ryan Church, and Jose Reyes all had run-scoring hits in the six-run fourth, while David Wright smacked a three-run double in the same inning. Marlon Anderson, who had a pinch-hit single in the ninth, went to second on a Reyes bunt, advanced to third on a Matt Lindsrom wild pitch, and scored on catcher Matt Treanor's throwing error when he tried to throw Anderson out at third following the wild pitch (I know that's a horrible sentence, but this is a blog. Come on.)

Carlos Delgado went 0 for 3 while Brian Schneider went 0 for 4. No surprises there. These two guys are going to be liabilities offensively for most of the year. That's okay for Schneider, who was brought in for his defense, but that's not okay for Delgado. The sad thing is that he is the highest-paid player on the team for this season. Ouch.

- The Mets hit four doubles today, two from both Carlos Beltran and David Wright, and Angel Pagan recorded an RBI on his fourth-inning double.

-Both Jose Reyes and David Wright were caught stealing.

-Aaron Heilman pitched a perfect ninth, striking out two in the process. The Mets need him to be good this year, and this is a very good start.

I love wins like these. It's just a comfortable, solid-in-all-aspects cruiser.

Tomorrow's game:

7:10 pm
Pedro Martinez vs. Rick VandenHurk. I bet Endy Chavez gets the start in left...

Oh, and don't expect me to post like this after every game. I do have a life, you know.

Series Preview: at Marlins, 3.31-4.2

Pitching Match-ups

Monday, 3.31 4:10 EST

Johan Santana (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Mark Hendrickson (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

Tuesday, 4.1 7:10 EST

Pedro Martinez (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Rick VandenHurk (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

Wednesday, 4.2 7:10 EST

Oliver Perez (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Andrew Miller (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

Notes

-This is the first series of the year for both teams.

-Johan Santana, Mark Hendrickson, and Andrew Miller will be making their first starts for their respective teams.

-The Mets begin the season with Moises Alou, Duaner Sanchez, Orlando Hernandez, Ramon Castro, and Jose Valentin among the notables on their 15-day disabled list.

- The Marlins pitching has been decimated by injuries the beginning of this year. Starter Anibal Sanchez, projected for the rotation this year, is on the 15-day DL, while starter Josh Johnson is on the 60-day DL, along with reliever Henry Owens. With Dontrelle Willis now a Detroit Tiger, Scott Olsen has become the most reliable starter in the rotation. That is a very bad sign for the Fish. He won’t be pitching in this series, however, due to spring training schedules. Nothing personal against the guy, but when Mark Hendrickson is starting Opening Day, you know your team is in trouble. This Marlins team could be really bad this year. Hanley Ramirez is all they’ve got.

-The Nationals beat the Braves tonight 3-2 with a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth by Ryan Zimmerman. The Braves are in last place.

And there was much rejoicing.

-Meanwhile, the Nats are in first place. Enjoy it, fellas. On another note, Milledge and Lo Duca went a combined 0-7, and L-Millz looked particularly bad waving at Tim Hudson’s sliders. We made the right decision, it would seem.

-It feels good to be back, doesn't it? Let's get it started! Aaand...

Let's Go Mets!