Emergency Iggy-T, Motown, 9/3

[ashie62]

The Mets take 2 of 3 on the road against a very good Tigers team

A day off at hand and then a weekend in Cincinnati

[Frayed Knot]

The loss totally ****ed my idea of posting the Good Rats* to celebrate a sweep.

* 'Takin' it to Detroit', of course

[Edgy MD]

They had a lot of opportunities — 13 baserunners — but Starling Marte kept coming up empty. Either that, or Nimmo would smash something that somehow found a glove.

Marte still has something to give this team, but he has to be deployed more judiciously.

[Frayed Knot]

All six Tiger runs came on three two-out hits (1 RBI, 2 RBI, 3 RBI) so it seemed that NYM pitchers had trouble getting the first AND the last outs of innings.

On the plus side, the Orioles just teed off on three straight HRs [3R, Solo, Solo] in the top of the 3rd in SD for a 6-0 lead, knocking Nestor Cortes out of the game in the process.

Now 7-0 and still batting.

[Centerfield]

Maybe I missed some nuance here, but with a completely rested bullpen today (except Stanek) and an off-day tomorrow, why did Mendy go to Helsley in a one run game?

[Gwreck]

Maybe I missed some nuance here, but with a completely rested bullpen today (except Stanek) and an off-day tomorrow, why did Mendy go to Helsley in a one run game?

 

It was the top of the Tigers order coming up, with Keith (lefty), Torres (righty), Carpenter (lefty) and Greene (lefty) due up. Seems like a situation for Raley.

[Fman99]

Maybe I missed some nuance here, but with a completely rested bullpen today (except Stanek) and an off-day tomorrow, why did Mendy go to Helsley in a one run game?

 

There's no way he should have been pitching in any game where the difference in runs is less than 5-6 in either direction. The only thing he has to justify being used in a close game is what they gave up to acquire him. He's been dreadful as a Met - specifically of late, earned runs allowed in 7 of his last 10 appearances. Two of the three games in which he didn't give up an earned runs were ones the team won by ten runs.

[Edgy MD]

Carlos Mendoza seems heavily fixated on the concept of "chasing the win." The notion, which has been in baseball forever, but without a name, basically equates to deploying your best pitching resources in a game in which you are trailing. The phrase was used by Buck Showalter a lot, but Mendoza seems pretty obsessed with it.

Jerry Manuel was a guy who chased the win. He lamented his lack of an "eighth-inning guy," but would use his next-best reliever in any game from being down two in the late innings to being up four, in fighting to win every day. He didn't really lack an eight-inning guy, so much as he continually burned out the one he had.

So as things often go, in realizing that destruction of that behavior, many baseball minds have over-corrected. Mendoza kind of obsesses on the subject. Gary mentioned two weeks ago that they discuss it regularly, and he asked Gary, "Down one in the seventh? Do I chase the win there?"

Apparently, he is leaning toward no. He saw his team being down one in the bottom of the seventh as a time not to chase, but try to get his valued-but-going-bad reliever right. What he failed to appreciate was that, with the bullpen rested in a blowout the day before, and not needed for a travel day the day after, that yes, of course you chase the win.

You can't use your best players every night, but still, you have to manage with the realization that somewhere for some fan of the team whose name you wear on your chest, this is the first game they will ever see. And for another fan, this is the last game they will ever see. And also, the team consciously and unconsciously takes messages from that sort of managing, and starts performing accordingly.

Also, there is all sorts of middle ground between firing all of your guns at once and surrendering. When you have an eight-man bullpen, there is all sorts of middle ground between going to your most effective pitcher and going to your most faltering.

You've gotta have Wa.

[Benjamin Grimm]

http://potg.ultimatemets.com/images/schaefer47.jpg

Cast your vote!

[Fman99]

It's all good ... unless they lose.

 

 

At least we know whose fault it is that the Mets lost. If you start an IGT and they win, do your job !

Also it's really Ryan Helsley's fault, for sucking big rocks.