5 singles, a walk and 7 strikeouts were the best the D'Backs could manage against April's Pitcher of the Month, John Maine, who saw his ERA steady at an amazing 1.37 and his win count mount to 5 without a loss. Think Barry Zito is doing that for his six katrillion dollars a start?
2-3 with a 3.52 ERA is what he's doing with his new team for his six katrillion dollars a start salary.
And what, lads, is John Maine earning per season? $391,000.
Priceless?
The victory comes with the added flavour of it coming against Randy Johnson, who at 43 and with an 0-2 record with a 6.50 ERA, has probably seen his better days behind him, whether he wants to believe it or not. A pale contrast to his soon-to-be 44 year old counterpart, Roger Clemens.
The Mets offence against The Unit was powered by homers from the fast-approaching 49 year old Julio Franco (perhaps more amazing, he also stole his first base of the season...when most 48 year olds would be lucky if they could run the distance between the two bases without collapsing in a wheezing fit) and Paul Lo Duca. Jose Reyes managed 3 hits and his 18th stolen base of the season.
Friday Night: Zephyr Sparks Mets to 4th Straight, 13th In Row In The Desert
How often he's been called for already this season and in the wake of having been witness to the disasterous starts by Mike Pelfrey and Chan Ho No, the Mets finally recalled the right Zephyr pitcher to bring backbone to their rotation.
Jorge Sosa's debut was worth waiting for...
Perhaps there's not such a big difference between Triple-A and the Majors after all.
Chan Ho No pitched as poorly for the Mets as he has for the Zephyrs and on Friday night, Jorge Sosa, who had been 4-0 with a 1.13 for New Orleans, outdueled the reigning NL Cy Young winner, Brandon Webb by throwing
6 1/3 sparkling 4-hit, 2-run innings on the way to his first Met victory.
In a season where John Maine has already shocked, perhaps the Mets have found another unexpected source of pitching prowess in the absence of Pedro and now El Duque with Sosa scheduled to pitch yet again next week in Duque's spot, this time against the Brewers.
Shawn Green, who had such a miserable Spring, continued his early season assault by having a hand in enough runs to support Sosa, driving in 3 and scoring two with two hits which included his 4th homer of the season.
The bullpen held another scoreless session with Joe Smith, Pedro Feliciano and Aaron Heilman combining to throw 2 2/3 nearly perfect innings of relief. Only Smith gave up a hit although his scoreless streak stretched to 17 games - it was Smith, unfortunately, who allowed the two runners inherited from Sosa to score and prevented Sosa's start from being scoreless.
After a less-than-stellar performance, Ambiorix Burgos was shipped out to New Orleans. Hope you're back soon, kid. Although Lino is a fascinating name it ain't no Ambiorix.
Saturday Sweep Spoilt By El Duque's Kid Brother
Frequent nemesis Livan Hernandez allowed only one run and six hits over 7 innings which, against the likes of Met upstart Mike Pelfrey, whose last losing outing had been billed as one of optimism, light at the end of the tunnel sort of experience.
Five starts and an 0-4 record to show for it, on it's face anyway, does not seem very promising.
He allowed only three hits in his 5 1/3 innings, two of them doubles, but more importantly, his Chan Ho No impression was spot on; walking four batters and hitting two more with only 92 pitches.
I dunno, was the deck stacked against him anyway with the B-Mets in the form of Endy Chavez batting second (albeit with a .343 average), Ramon Castro (hitting .235) batting 6th, David Newhan (hitting .111) batting 7th and Ruben Gotay (hitting .100) and batting 8th, rounding out the lineup - inclusive Carlos Delgado who, despite a brilliant past has started sloooow and is hitting only .212 this season?
The entire lineup produced only 6 hits and a run so you do the maths. If I were Pelfrey, I'd be feeling a little cheated. At least when Chan Ho No is pitching with a Triple-A team batting for him, he's only facing Triple-A hitting himself. Not that it makes much different in Chan-Ho's case but nonetheless it seems a bit unfair to pit Pelfrey against the Diamondbacks with such a lineup to back up his frequent miscues. Sink or swim, Doctor Willo seems to be saying.
As if the batting order and the unproven rookie wasn't enough, Lino Urdaneta also made his first Major League appearance in three seasons, giving up a hit over 13 pitches and getting two men out in the losing effort.
The one thing I noted worthwhile out of this series in which the Mets won two of three but saw their 13 game winning streak against the D'backs snapped was the neat new unis of the D'backs. They have ditched the hideous purple, teal and copper look for a Sedona red, Sonoran sand and black motif. Maybe that's what it took to earn them their first victory at home against the Mets in what seems like a lifetime.
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