213 Miles From Shea

The Mets open up a series with the Marlins tonight after failing to sweep a team for the third time this season. The Mets will also look tonight to win consecutive series for the first time this season. Anyway, the Marlins have cooled off from the last time we saw them. They were 3-0 and after we played them 5-1 where they stayed for a while until recently where they have been on a 6 game losing streak. They are ready to push back and the Mets need to be ready to keep pushing them down. The Mets will be sending John Maine to the mound, looking to rebound tonight and he will face Anibal Sanchez.

John Maine has already faced the fish this season and did a pretty good job at it, especially when comparing that outing to his next two. He with 5.0 innings, allowed 2 runs, walked one and struck out 5. On the season he is 0-2 with 15.2 IO, 13 ER, 9 BB, 11 K. In 08 against the fish he had a 4.1 IP outing where he walked one, struck out 6 and only allowed one run. In 2007 he was a 3-0 in 4 games against the fish with a 2.45 ERA, 25.2 IP, 12 BB, and 38 K. Here are the numbers the Marlins have against Maine:
     Uggla 4-17, 2B, HR, 7K
     Ramierez 4-18, 2 HR
     Hermida 5-13, 2B
     Paulino 1-6
     Ross 0-4, 2K
     Maybin 0-2, 2K
The trick for Maine is to remember that he can pitch effectively and can do it against the Nationals. As soon as he gets on a roll he should be fine its all about he he establishes himself from the start. If he starts on the wrong foot, well he'll probably be like that all night. This goes for the hitters as well but the Mets need to start make in game, and in inning adjustments to not only their opponents but to the adjustments that their opponents are making.

The Mets will try to back up Maine tonight by lighting up Sanchez who is 1-1 on the season in three games and has a nice 2.50 ERA with 8 BB and 13 K. Last time out against the Mets this season he held the Mets scoreless over 5 innings allowing only 4H, 3BB, 5K. Last year against the Mets he lasted only 3.1 innings against the Mets where he allowed 3 runs and walked 4 with 7 Hits. Here are the numbers the Mets have against Sanchez:
      Reyes 2-10, 2B
      Church 7-13, 3 2B, HR
      Wright 2-10, 5K
      Delgado 3-8    
      Beltran 3-7, HR
The Mets need to channel their play from Saturday where the capitalized on mistakes, and were able to keep rallies going with hits. If they can rally tonight, and if Maine pitches, well, then the Mets can win, but if they fall to their weaknesses again, of bad starting pitching and no clutch hitting, then they will have a long night. Lets Go Mets! Fry the Fish!

This past Friday I was supposed to go to Camden Yards. Last season was the first season in probably about 5 or 6 years that I didn't make it down to Camden Yards in Baltimore at least once. I lived my life practically outside of Baltimore and DC so I have no excuse for not making the trip. I really wanted to go also to give a review of the stadium, and article that is a year overdue, because last season they made a lot of updates in the AV development of the park. They had new color scoreboards around the decks, two new color monitors on the center field scoreboard and a huge new color monitor on the right field wall for the out of town scoreboard, which used to be a bunch of lightbulbs and was very hard to read. The changes have made the amazing stadium even better.

Well this trip was going to have to wait. I went to a gas station because gas is a pretty useful thing when you need to drive somewhere (it was going to be my first time driving to the game as well since I moved outside of DC, when I lived outside of Baltimore I took the subway, or they call it the Metro here, down to the park). I drive a Windstar minivan and when I opened the metal covering that leads to the top of the gas cap, I was staring at a Yellow Jacket making a hive in that space. That's right, I was transporting a live hive. So I quickly shut the flap, called my friends and said I could not go to the game and then went off to Target to get some spray and kill the nest in my van. I have to say, out of all the problems that can happen to a car, this is probably my favorite.

Yellow Jackets 1
Elliot Watching Live Baseball 0

Well my cynical side beat my optimistic side as the stastics prevailed and Oliver Perez was not able to handle the Nationals today and the Mets were not able to handle Jordan Zimmerman. Before we get to Perez the hitting today was frustrating, a theme with the Mets this year, because the Mets put themselves in situations today the score runs and they just could not sustain a ralley. After being able to do that yesterday, it seemed that maybe they could carry it over to today but they couldn't. This killed the Mets early because Zimmerman was struggling early and if the Mets jumped on him early, they might of had a shot of breaking his confidence and driving the Mets home to a win.

On that same topic, Perez had the same problem. He was givin a 1-0 lead after the first inning and then he gave it right back to the Nationals. The next inning he was down 2-1 and had 2 outs then gave up more runs off of a ralley of hits by the Nationals. He needs to work though his problems quickly because patience is going to run thin with him.

The end result of all of this is of course that the Mets lost but they still won the series. Now they are back to two games below five hundred, and they need to just keep winning series so they can make up some ground on their balance sheets. Lets Go Mets, please start swinging or hitting soon.

The Mets guranteed that they would win the series against the Nationals last night with a second straight win and this time between a good, effective, (but not great) performance by Mike Pelfrey. Pelfrey wasn't great but he was able to keep the ball down when he had to and was able to keep the Mets in the game the entire time and got the win which he deserved, and saved himself from this do or die time for the rotation.

The real story for this game in my mind though would be the way the Mets took advantage of National's mistakes during play. Every time they made some sort of blunder the Mets got a run or got on based and then didn't let the situation just go away, the worked at it and got more runs. For this team to have a successful season, they are going to need to keep working at that. So in other words, the Mets handled their two big demons in this game with effective starting pitching and hitting in the clutch.

The only thing that drove me a little nuts was the lack of real extrabase hitting. I am a big fan of small ball, but even a small ball team needs some sort of power because it is the balance of the two that brings championships. Hopefully the Mets will find their swing soon.

For the third time this season, the Mets will attempt to sweep a team and build a winning streak. They have not done this yet, but they are hoping to make it happen tomorrow and, this may surprise you (or not, depends on how cynical you are), statistically speaking it could be a tough day for the Mets tomorrow. The Nationals will be sending rookie “sensation” Jordan Zimmerman to the mound as the Mets will be sending out the enigma named Oliver Perez.

Oliver started off the season with a horrible start. Then he was brilliant. Then he was brilliant but then faltered. On the season he is 1-1 over his first three games with a 7.80 ERA, 15.0 IP, 13 ER, 12 BB, and 15 K. He will try to follow Pelfrey and drop his ERA and be effective but its against a team that he has struggled in the past against. Last season he faced the Nationals three times and in 15.2 innings, allowed 15 earned runs over 9 BB and 14 K. Here are the numbers the Nationals have put up against Perez:
    Dunn 6-25, 2 2B, 3 HR
    Kearns 8-27, 2B, 3 HR
    Willmingham 7-22, 2B, 3 HR, 8 BB
    Belliard 4-17
    Dukes 0-2
Just about every National has a good hitting record against Perez. He is going to have to climb over the numbers and more importantly, climb over his own head to shut down this team and be the pitcher the Mets are not only paying him to be, but to be the pitcher the Mets need him to be. Especially with an unknown foe, the Mets will really benefit from a good outing.

The Nationals will be sending out Jordan Zimmerman to the mound. In Spring, he went 1-1 over 5 games and 14 innings where he allowed only 2 walks and struck out 20. His ERA during that time was a very nice 3.14. His last start was his first MLB start of the season as he got the win over 6 innings of work, allowed 2 earned runs, walked one and struck out 3. He had one MiLB start this season in AAA where he was very human and allowed 3 ER over 5 IP, walked one and struck out 4. The Mets for some reason get very confused with new pitchers. Hopefully they will be able to hit him and back up Perez and get the sweep. Lets Go Mets. Sweep the Nationals!

The Mets will try to make it two in a row today as they take on the Nationals for the early afternoon Saturday game. The Mets ended a four game slide last night and a win today is key for a few reasons. First, the Mets will then win the series if they win today. Second, the Mets then can start to put that four game slide behind them with a win today. Most importantly, it shows they can win without Johan, and for that one that means Pelfrey has to play like a champion today, which we know he can, he just has to focus, and we just have to hope he is healthy. He will be going against Cabrera today.

Pelfrey really needs to buckle down today. So far this season, he some how has managed a 1-0 record despite his 10.0 innings pitched with 9 ER, 6 BB and 5 K. Last season he want 1-2 against the Nationals in 4 games with 26.2 innings pitched. During that time, he allowed 7 ER (2.36 ERA), walked 11 and struck out 12. The key for Pelfrey is to keep the ball in yard, to keep the base paths empty and he can rock it. Here are the stats the Nationals have against Pelfrey:
    Zimmerman 5-24, 2B
    Kearns 5-16, HR
    Belliard 3-15, 2B
    Willingham 3-10, 3B, HR
    Dukes 2-3, 2B, HR
Willingham went 0-1 in a PH last night, lowering his season BA to .167. If I was Acta, I would let him play against the Mets because he usually works miracles against us. That being said, I am very glad that Acta didn't play him last night. Kearns is the other player on the Nats that always worries me. If Pelfrey can hold down his demons, and the Mets support him with runs, then the Mets should win this game.

Daniel Cabrera is a pitcher I am very familiar with him. I used to live outside of Baltimore (now I live outside of DC) and back then I used to see Cabrera pitch all the time. When Cabrera is on, he is lights out and he can strike out players no problem. He is can strike fear for two reasons. First, he is big. I think hes about 6'10, but he also has a full frame, in other words he looks like a football player. The other reason he is scary comes from his lack of control. On days he isn't on, he is worse than Oliver Perez as he will throw balls everywhere. This season he is 0-1 over 16.0 IP with 8 ER (4.50 ERA), 8 BB and 6K. He has never faced the Mets but do not fret because many Mets have faced him:
     Cora 13-30
     Sheff 6-23, HR, 7 BB
     Reed 2-8, 2B, 3B
     Castillo 3-7
     Delgado 2-3, 2 HR
     Church 1-2
The key to Cabrera is that the players have to gauge him early. Take pitches the first time through the lineup and see where his fastball is. If he isn't on, then wait during the game because Caberea will walk himself into trouble. If he is hitting his spots, then the next way to get to him is to be aggressive. Of course with that the Mets could get into a lot of strike out trouble. The game should be interesting as both of these pitchers are looking to make their mark. Lets Go Mets! Beat the Nats!

The Mets finally turned it around today as Johan Santana turned out another great performance. This time he went 6 innings, allowed only one run (putting his ERA at a pretty .70) and still manage to strike out 10. In fact, the first batters he faced in the game he struck out. That is really incredible. He also, sort of, got some run support tonight as well. The Mets won by the score of 4-3, and while Santana was out there they got 3 runs. While that doesn't really sound like a lot of run support, it was more than his last two starts combined. Tonight the bullpen looked a little human, well, more like Krod looked a little human as he allowed two runs in the ninth inning. The difference betwen Krod and the Mets last year is that Krod didn't allow three runs he allowed only two runs and kept the Mets in the game and didn't blow the game.

Overall I am happy. The Mets could have played a lot better. Several times in the game they had the bases loaded and didn't do anything with it. They got in the win columm though, they won the first game of the series, and now they have to focus on winning tomorrow. Since its still April, it is still time to take each game one at a time and just focus on winning. Not on the Marlins or anyone else (not that anyone is right now, or not that anyone is focusing on other teams in the division). We are at the point in the season that focusing on winning will bring a first place position and will bring the playoffs. We just have to keep winning. Tomorrow is a big day as Mike Pelfrey looks to show all of us that he can pitch and that there is more than one pitcher in the starting rotation.

Thursday was just baffling. The Mets lost their forth straight and got swept by the Cards. They also put up 8 runs but still lost by 4. The problems first started with Livan. He was just not effective from the start of the game as he allowed 7 runs in 4.1 innings putting the Mets in a hole. The Mets then started to make a comeback but Green could not get his job done as he allowed an addition 5 runs. At that point the score was 12-5. The Mets continued to rally during the game as they scored 2 runs in an inning and then 3 runs in another game. At that point the Mets have had 8 runs.

I was hoping I was going to have more time in the season to make this post, my annual rant, but here it goes. There is no reason when a team scores 8 runs that they should be in the losing column. The pitching, between Hernandez and Green both really put the Mets in a bad spot. If there was anything good to take away from this game was that the by the end of the game the Mets remembered how to score runs and how score runs in bunches. How they scored though I think is showing another problem with the team. They scored by homers, which is something the Mets as a team have been lacking at. If they can hit more homers, then obviously they will score more runs in bunches. That should be a goal for this team moving foward in the season (not to swing for the fences, but to score runs in bunches).

After a frustrating loss on Tuesday the Mets decided that the best solution to the problem would be to lose another game and put themselves in a position to be swept. Once again this was a frustrating game for the same reasons as the day before. This game solidified in the public mind that the Mets have two big problems that need to be resolved. The first problem is the starting pitching which was just John Maine. I don't know whats wrong with him but he needs to get back into shape and very fast. Giving up 5 runs in 5.2 innings is just unacceptable. He was really hurt by walks. He would walk one then allow a hit and then at that point he was already in a hole where he could not get out of.

Making the problem worse was the offense that every time they got something going, they would hit in a double play or something that would just kill the ralley. Wright tried to get something started in the ninth to get on the board but he was the only one really thinking about that and the Mets ended up finishing with 2 runs. In fact, at one point 13 Mets were retired in a row, they just went quiet. In fact the only positive thing in the game was Fossum and Stokes who both allowed no runs, although it was too late for the Mets to have a chance, it was nice to see someone throuw the ball quasi effectively.

I am a little behind on my game reviews and recaps so I'm going to knock out the past week one at a time tonight.

On Tuesday the Mets lost their second straight game and it was an excruciating, frustrating loss. Perez started off fairly effective tossing 4 scoreless innings and during that time the Mets were able to score 4 runs. Perez then got really wild, allowed some runs, then walked in a run, then Fossum came out and walked in another run and the game was tied. Then the game was history. The Mets allowed two more runs during the game and lost 6-4.

Both of the Mets major problems were exposed in this game. Their starting pitching was terrible again (behind Santana) and wasn't able to protect the lead that the offense gave them. However, the offense isn't off the hook either. They couldn't score after the fourth inning and the first four innings, they could have done a lot more each inning, but they couldn't get the key hits. So both of their weakness shown through and became themes for the rest of the season. The Cards showed why they are a good team and the Mets needed to start winning to make their case that they are a contender.

In terms of the pen, Feliciano was good, and he needs to be good for the Mets to compete, but Putz had a hard night as he allowed the two runs that then gave the Cards the win.