Ok, you can probably squawk "the bullpen sucks, the bullpen sucks" and be pretty safe most nights but every thing else is pretty much a crap shoot.
Last night, even the bullpen would have proved you wrong.
Brian Stokes pitched his fifth consecutive scoreless inning and has given up only 2 runs in 11 1/3 relief innings he's pitched for the Mets this season while earning the win.
And with the lead and the game at stake the dreadful duo of Pedro Feliciano and Joe Smith somehow managed to combine to pitch an eventless and quiet 8th.
In the 9th, Luis Ayala, a broken bat hit away from a flawless Met career and the defacto closer perhaps the rest of the way through, closed out the game 1-2-3 to earn his second save as a Met this season.
Meanwhile, and perhaps even more ironic, the vaunted Phillies pen disintegrated in the 8th to blow this game.
Brian Schneider, the guy whose head many of us would have like seen on a pike outside of Shea for that misplayed throw to the plate the night before that pretty much cost the Mets the game, what did he do? Mr Defensive Catcher "only" hit a two-out two-run single off of the impenetrable Brad Lidge to seal the three run lead.
Rookie Murph was even more miraculous, doubling home the lead run in the 8th on Lidge's second pitch.
And Carlos Delgado, the guy written off by pretty much everyone on earth earlier this season continued to yank the Mets forward with his inexplicable resurgence, golfing a pair of pitches out of the park to go along with his RBI single in the first to pretty much carry the Mets to victory. 19 homers and 57 RBIs since June and the Mets have found themselves their cleanup hitter. Hitting .301 since the All Star game.
Yes, as hideous as Tuesday Night's 13th inning debaucherie was, tonight's 8th inning two-out rally was just as beautiful.
Shouldn't last night's salary be donated to charity?
Johan Santana, on the other hand, way for the ace to come up big in an important game. I know, he gutted out those final three outs of his outing when the game could have completely gotten out of hand but really - when you're making like, a trillion dollars a pitch, when you're the go-to guy in the rotation, is that performance last night something to be proud of?
I mean, even David Wright, hitless in 5 at-bats, made that unbelievable play in the 8th to help the pen.
Santana? How about some complete game shutouts to close out the season?
And to make this an almost perfect day, the Yankmees have pretty much been knocked out of the post season. Boo-hoo.
Posts
9 comments:
one game doesn't redeem that shitty bullpen, don't be fooled. Just like the superior Phillies bullpen lost uncharacteristically, so did the Mets bullpen save one uncharacteristically. You can expect those fucking losers to go back to choking right on schedule in Florida on Friday night. All this does is prolongs everyone's agony and artifically raises their expectations. Don't forget, the bullpen, much like Steinbrenners Yankees, simply suck.
wright should be ashamed of himself for those at bats. then that would make two of us in the whole wide world.
the pen sucks meatballs. wouldn't a Mets/Cubs sweep in the coming days be tasty though?
Well, it's hard to hate the Phillies (though I do manage it), when they are so much like us.
They have a big offensive lineup that can look totally impotent at times. And their bullpen has ranged from great to GHASTLY.
I have no trouble hating the Phillies, but you are right. I kind of hate a lot of the Mets too. They are alike. Pen sucks. How could you want Sanchez back? He is a lazy shit who will never find his velocity. He should be shelved immediately. And Feliciano will fail when you need him most. Guaranteed. I would rather have an unknown quantity than a failed known quantity.....don't forget--the hitters know our BP too. Nervous rookies would have more onions than these ass clowns. On the positive side, Delgado and Murphy stepped up. Beltran squibbled. And Wright embarassed himself again at the plate, although his play on Victorino is the infield play of the year, when you consider who was running.
I just finished watching Wednesday night's game. That was so great!
And I discovered another thing we have in common with the Phillies: They also have a passive-aggressive closer who finds a way to show them how he feels about being asked to pitch in the 8th inning.
Lidge actually looked to me like he had a stiff shoulder. He did not appear to be throwing naturally or freely. Something to watch.
aw c'mon sanchez, it's still a victory. who needs a yawn-inducing 10 run victory when we can have late inning dramatics over and over again?
IMFM - how many times has Delgado had to dig out yet another crazy throw from Wright in the last month? Yes, his at-bats are poor but he'll probably pull it out in the end when we need it most. Those fielding yips are like a permanent handicap though.
katherine and jdon - it is quite easy to hate the Phillies because they do things like artificially try to inspire themselves by whingeing about how demonstrative certain Mets are about hitting homers, wide-eyed enthusiasm. The Phillies are a punching above their weight and have been for two seasons. Watch them el foldo against the Cubs over and over. They are spineless bunch and their closer? Need we recall that massive homer Pujols hit off him in the 2005 NLCS? He's bound to start choking now that the games are meaningful. Let's see. Let's hope so.
Post a Comment