213 Miles From Shea

The Mets won the third game of a three game set last night, guaranteeing that they will at least split the set against the Astros. It was a long one last night as well where the Mets and the Astros had one of those “Hey the first 9 innings went really fast because R.A. Dickey is awesome, so let's play 6 more!”.

R.A. was fantastic as always as he lasted 8.1 innings with 2 ER. He didn't allow a run until the 8th inning and he allowed the game to be tied in the 9th inning, but since he only allowed 2 runs in the game, this can be thrown back to the offense not scoring runs to help him out. Anyway the Mets bullpen was fanstastic last night as they kept the Astros off the scoreboard for the rest of the night and Acosta got a save for the first time this season.

The Mets offense wasn't all bad last night. They had a lot of hits (11) the problem was they just couldn't get any in scoring position. During the game Dickey and Pagan picked up the early RBI's and then Ike Davis hit the go ahead sacrifice fly to help the Mets put it in the books. The best player of the night in terms of his bat was easily Jose Reyes who was 4-5, with 2 SB, and the go ahead run. Several Mets also broke key slumps last night as Tejada, Davis and Pagan all got hits.

It was a good game and for another day, the Mets still have a shred of hope for this season.

The Mets and the Astros play the rubber game of the series tonight as the Mets still seek their first National League Road Series Win. The Mets took the first game by scoring 3 runs to 1 and lost a close one last night by 4-3 (so the amazing stat of course is the Mets have managed to score 3 runs in two straight games). Also last night David Wright hit a solo homer which was his first RBI in the month of August. Tonight the Mets will send out R.A. Dickey vs Brett Myers.

Dickey has been fantastic this season. In his last start he pitched a complete game one hitter (one of 35 in Mets history) in a complete game shutout. That game put him at 8-5 on the season with a 2.43 ERA. The Astros have these numbers against Robert Allen (or in other words, be careful with Lee night):

The Mets will get to face an old foe, in a new uniform, tonight as they take on Brett Myers. Brett is 8-7 on the season with a 3.13 for his new team. His last three games have been a pretty good example of his entire season where he has pitched 19 innings with an 3.32 ERA. Last season he faced the Mets for a grand total of 1.1 innings in which he got shelled allowing 3 ER. The Mets have these numbers on Myers:

Lets Go Mets!

Nothing is as depressing as killing the optimism for 2011 before it even starts:

Full Article can be found here.

K-rod had the surgery on his ligament yesterday and the Mets promptly placed him on the DQ list, not the DL list, as we all expected. The main difference, as you probably can guess, of being on the disqualified list is that you do not get paid while you are on it, and it looks like, at least for now, Krod will be on this list until he can play again. There are also loud whispers that the Mets will push beyond the DQ list and try to void his entire contract.

As you can imagine, the Players Union would object to both of these situations. Sherman has already suggested via Twitter that the Union has already objected to the Mets placing Krod on the DQ list for the rest of the season.

Here's the kicker for what will make this a complicated fight. Since Krod was used in Saturday's game and since Krod was fairly effective, the Union will hook to that as the main issue for why placing Krod on the DQ lis isn't fair. They will attempt to show that it is inconclusive, since he pitched that outing, that his ligament injury was due to his punch in the locker room.

There is of course, another issue the Mets are looking out for. In order to void his contract, the Mets will need to deal with Krod's agent. Now we have to hope to assume that people in the Mets front office, and sports agents are professsionals, but you wouldn't want a process like this to ruin a relationship with a particular agent.

That being said, I'm gonna make a stand here and say that I am all for trimming the payroll next season, but Krod is the wrong money to shed. If the Mets shed the money that Krod is owed, it will most certainly have to be spend on signing another closer. It wouldn't get help with our other problems. Unless if the bullpen is determined to be the target to be fixed, then I'm indifferent to cutting Krod.

The Mets look to win two in a row tonight as they take on the Astros in Houston. The Mets should get a change of pace in terms of story line tonight as it probably won't be about K-rod or batting woes but rather it will be about the opposing starting pitcher Nelson Figueroa, his comments against his former team, and his journey through several clubs since departing from the Mets.

The Mets are looking for another Santana start of Santana who is 10-6 with a 2.89 on the year. He is coming off of a tremendous complete game shutout at Citi Field and since the beginning of July he is 5-1 over 9 games with a 1.88 ERA where he really has made only one bad start in that stretch. Last season he wasn't so good in his one start against the Astros as he allowed 5 ER over 6.2 innings in a losing effort. The Astros have these numbers against Johan:

The Mets get to see an old friend who had some parting words for the Mets this year in Nelson Figueroa. He then signed with the Phillies before being DFA'd and then signing with the Astros. He is 1-0 over 8 games with a 3.18 ERA for Houston this year and tonight will be his first start of the season. He pitched two innings of relief against the Mets this year. In his first inning he allowed 3 ER over 4 hits and his second inning (second apparence) was a clean one. The Mets have these numbers on Nelson:

Lets Go Mets!

In a change of pace, I wanted to focus on a throwback game from a few days ago where the Orioles and the Rays played in old uniforms. Both teams featured unusual uniforms. First up lets look at the Orioles:

(via Uni Watch Blog)

Look unusual? Well the Orioles actually only wore these uniforms twice in the 70's before they realized how, well, bad they look. Actually, I think my negative opinion about them comes from people telling me I should have a negative opinion about them. I actually, like them. This is also explains why the Orioles were selling a pin that had the orange top jersey on it.

As interesting as the orange uniforms are, the Tampa Bay Rays looked awesome in their old Tapons uniforms:

(via Uni Watch Blog)

I feel like the Tarpon's uni has so many nice pieces from that time period.

….or technically Front Page:

(NY Post)

And cue jokes about K-rod who usually KO's batters being KO'ed from his own KO.

Got your winter coat out of the closet? Good. The Mets won a road opener tonight for the first time since the played the Yankees on the road back in June. There were two main stories coming into this game, and they both played role in tonight's game. The first was of course the struggling offense and the other was Krod.

The starting pitching was amazing again as for a third straight start Jon Niese pitched 7 innings allowing only one ER. Of course, because someone must hate Niese, he got his third straight no decision as Pedro Feliciano recieved the win for pitching a third of an inning. Takahashi came in and picked up the save, answering the question if the Mets were going to be able save games without Krod.

Of course the big story for the Mets has been the offense. It wasn't great tonight, as it scrapped together 3 runs, but three runs is twice what they averaged over the last 6 games. The big contributors for the Mets tonight were (finally) Beltran and Wright. Wright had 3 hit night, scoring a run and Beltran had a two hit night as he scored two runs, hit a homer and had a walk.

Tonight was a step forward for the Mets. They have a long road ahead of them if they want to make the playoffs. At least they were respectable, and fun to root for tonight (not saying they have to win, but they have to perform well to be fun to root for, which is not the same as winning)

The woes continue for the Mets as Krod is out due to injury. Fantastic. He tore a thumb ligament in his throwing hand. Fantastic.

Icing on the cake? Team officials are speculating that it was due to his altercation last Wednesday.

This puts the Mets in a huge bind. The Mets are on a road trip right that will basically decide whether there is a shred of hope left for this season, and probably the best piece of the bullpen is gone. This is a huge hole to fill and the will mean that the Mets might have to revert to one of the pitchers in the minors that failed at the majors this year.

Next up for the front office will probably be figuring out a way to get K-rod not paid while he is on the DL. If they can prove, and it will be tough because the Players Union is strong, that this injury was not a baseball injury, then the Mets will at least get a benefit via a slightly ligher pay roll. Of course another option would be to get his contract voided for this seaosn and next, but that is probably next to impossible.

Ugh, this mess is depressing.

The Mets continue their search for a road series victory in the National League, bringing their pursuit down to Houston. Despite scoring on average 1.5 runs per game over their six game homestand, the Mets managed to post a 3-3 record over that stretch, thanks almost entirely to their starting pitching. Today Jon Niese will go toe to toe with Wandy Rodriguez.

Niese hopes to continue his find season in which he is 7-5 with a 3.50 ERA. He has had horrible luck in his last two starts. In both starts he has gone 7 innings while allowing only 1 ER. The pen has come in to finish the game in both situations and self-destrcuted causing him to recieve no decisions for both starts. Jon has made one career start against the Astros where he pitched 7 great innings of one run ball. The Astros have these numbers on the young pitcher:

Wandy Rodriguez gets the nod for the Astros and he boasts a 9-11 record this season with a 4.18 ERA. Last season he picked up the loss against the Mets as he posted a quality start of 6 innings with 3 ER. In his last 4 starts though he has been a very different pitcher as he has pitched 28.1 innings with an ERA of 0.64. Scary good and not what the Mets bas want to see. The Mets have these numbers against Wandy:

Lets Go Mets!