IGT 06/26, NYM's at MFY's

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

10 fucking walks.

[Guest Rotblatt]

All our relief pitchers sucked tonight. Looper, Bell, Heilman . . . Okay, so Ring was okay, but our pen--and Wright's error--really killed this game for us.

This game was so goddamn frustrating . . . It totally takes away any momentum we had coming out of the series having taken 2 of 3.

Fucking Jason Giambi? I mean, seriously, Loop, come on.

NOt only 10 fuckng walks, but by Gary & Howie's account, wide strike zone by the home plate ump tonight.

And jesus, but we had Torre over a barrell, there. His closer was in, his final bench player was in. Even letting the tying run home would have put us in a good position, despite being the away team.

garrrr.

Crappy fucking game.

[Guest gnatman]

I say give Royce Ring a shot at closer - I like what I've seen of his stuff and he seems to have a bit of bad ass rebel 'tude to him - like the way he pushes right up to the line with Willie's stupid no facial hair rule . . . and as a rookie no less. Maybe he's a "Mad Hungarian" in the making.

[metirish]

Guys not for nothing but Looper is a heart attack waiting to happen for Mets fans, I know he has 15 saves but I feared when he came in that he would bollox it, walking Tino fucking Marinez was a killer, we need a closer, and now, Looper is an 8th inning guy, man I'm pissed...

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

His results are very average and he's a lefty without overpowering stuff.

Attitude is only part of it. Wendell was a freak and just fine in the 7th inning. If Ring is lucky one day he approaches His Turkness.

Looper's not getting enough K's for a guy with his stuff: I agree, he's dangerous back there now but over the course of the year I'd say he still one of the the best 2 we have. Hernandez is the other but I haven't much faith in his getting stronger as the year goes on.

[Guest Spacemans Bong]

Looper has struck out 12 men in 27 innings this year. He's close to cooked. Graves struck out more than that in his salad days, and Graves was known for getting saves without a strikeout.

[metirish]

The problem who the hell is available, what about the guy for the Tigers?, is he still injured, I have no idea, this game was a killer, we beat the wankers 2 out of 3 but it feels like we lost the series, that doesn't make sence I know, we had the fuckers and we dropped it..

[Guest holychicken]

Ouch. . . that's all I can say. . . fucking ouch.

Oh well, at least we took two of three from the yanks in yankee stadium. This loss sucked, but the series, IMO, still went well.

Sorry I lied, looks I can and did say a little more.

That is all.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I know he has 15 saves but I feared when he came in that he would bollox it

Of course you did. But you would have it was Gagne.

Let's sleep on this one here. The peeps nominating Ring and Hernandez in this thread have to acknowledge that it took a team to fumble this one.

Graves and Koo are clean tonight, I guess.

[Frayed Knot]

Obviously Looper gets the biggest raspberry for the night, but:

* Beltran, Piazza & Floyd combined for an 0-12 and managed to get the ball out of the infield just twice (both fly outs)

* 9 walks, plus a balk and an error

* if the Yanx could field we'd have scored only 1 run

* even before Looper our relievers faced 11 batters and retired 6 (one on a questionable call)

* MFY relievers started w/Reyes's infield dribbler/fielding farce - and then retired 7 straight batters (on what seemed like 15 pitches)

[metirish]

Train I'll sleep on it but I fear I will think the same thing the next game Looper comes in to save,not looking at numbers but Looper is not Gagne.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

I had a bad feeling about the game last night. The Mets just couldn't put the game away. When Willie went to Hernandez, I just couldn't take the suspense any longer. I needed to get some sleep, so I turned off the game and went to bed, I just didn't want to spend the night tossing and turning because I had watched the bullpen blow the game

I know that I took the cowards way out, but I slept well and awoke with the faint hope that my fears had been unfounded. Unfortunately, I awoke to find that my nightmare ending had indeed come to fruition. I'm rested, but I'm still quite frustrated.

[seawolf17]

Doc, I did the same exact thing. I'm not really angry about this loss, though; I think they're starting to play well, winning a few series and moving forward.

[Guest Edgy DC]

not looking at numbers but Looper is not Gagne.

My point is that you would have felt what you felt under any circumstances. The best fireman in the world won't keep you from feeling terrible when your house is burning.

As Frayed Knot enumerated, the Mets, as a team, did enough to earn this loss. The entire bullpen allowed nine batters to reach base in two innings.

The most annoying pitching at-bat of the year has to be when the Mets had come back against the Mariners but fumbled the game away after Mike DeJean got ahead 0-2 on Richie Sexson but, rather than put him away, bounced four ptitches low and away. (Piazza, by the way, did a great job blocking one of those pitches with his hand.)

DeJean, apparently lacking the confidence to throw a strike to a strong hitter, was released. It was an excellent lesson for the younger pitchers in this bullpen that they don't seem to have learned. You can't go respecting Rodriguez and Martinez so much that you can't confront them. Sooner or later you run out of places to put these guys and Giambi is up.

By the way, for all the coddling of fading vets the Mets are accused of, they've released three apparently healthy veteran pitchers the first half of this season. I can't remember the last time they cut peeps loose that aggressively. Last year, the only one I remember released outright was James Baldwin, I think. (Or did he get re-assigned to Norfolk after clearing waivers?) Maybe Darensbourg also.

[Centerfield]

Benson aside, no one really played well enough to warrant winning that game anyway. Like FK said, we score only one run if the MFY's didn't leave their gloves at home. Two out of three, second straight series win, bbbyyy...

Still makes me mad.

[seawolf17]

Erickson?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Erickson was traded for cannon fodder.

On edit: Josh Hoffpauir. I think he's out of baseball now. He had come out of coaching at his alma mater to join the Texas system last year.

[Guest gnatman]

wtf was with that throw that Beltran airmailed to the plate, allowing the runner the runner to advance to second on his braunlock - we oughta at least get basic Little League fundamentals

[Centerfield]

Oh, and another thing, can ESPN possibly interview more people during a telecast? Omar Minaya, Brian Cashman, Willie Randolph, Joe Torre, the point guard from Wake Forest...I thought they were going to pull random guys from the stands and start interviewing them.

"This is Sam Ryan, and I'm here with Joe from Connecticut..."

[Guest cooby]

I am Soooo glad you brought that up.

Did Omar have something new to say that he didn't say during Friday night's broadcast?

They're getting to be as circus-like as Fox, and that's an insult.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I think that for two teams playing poorly, Joe Torre sort of out-managed Randolph. I can't remember the last time I saw an AL manager playing under AL rules empty his bench and not burn the DH rule. Willie meanwhile didn't get Diaz in against a fearsome lefthander because he was afeared to play him at second, afeared to play him at first, afeard to put him at DH and Piazza at first, and unwilling to sit Floyd in left.

So, if that game goes to extra innings, does Torre lose the DH by switching Matsui into the outfield or does he try to hide Martinez or Giambi out there? Probably the former.

[Guest silverdsl]

Centerfield wrote: Oh, and another thing, can ESPN possibly interview more people during a telecast? Omar Minaya, Brian Cashman, Willie Randolph, Joe Torre, the point guard from Wake Forest...I thought they were going to pull random guys from the stands and start interviewing them. "This is Sam Ryan, and I'm here with Joe from Connecticut..."

Drives me nuts too. Yeah, if they're some big annoucement that Cashman or Minaya needs to make then it's justified but otherwise I don't want to hear from these folks until after the game. I just want to watch the freaking game.

[Frayed Knot]

]So, if that game goes to extra innings, does Torre lose the DH by switching Matsui into the outfield or does he try to hide Martinez or Giambi out there?

Reportedly he was going to put Matsui in LF and go DH-less for the rest of the game. Tino was volunteering to play the OF but Torre apparently wasn't going to take him up on it. Personally I would have.

I'm not so sure Torre didn't over-manage a bit.
With runner on 2nd/no outs in the 7th down by 2, he PH-ed Sierra for Womack. Neither is hitting particularly well this year but Womack is at least a contact hitter. And it was that move that triggered the OF problems when Sierra K'd and Sheff got tossed on the next play.

[Guest Rotblatt]

I don't think Willie was out-managed; I think that Torre was desperate. His team was fucking up left and right and Torre was going all out to try and get something going.

Putting Mariano in was a good move, but putting Tino in was was all desperation.

It ended up working, but only because Looper lost Tino. Which is pretty fucking sad, really. I mean, you HAVE to throw strikes there, and despite Tino's dinger off him the other day, Tino had been ice cold.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

When the Wake Forest player was being interviewed, Mini Knight, in a properly sarcastic tone, said, "I thought this was supposed to be a BASEBALL game!"

That kid will be posting here before you know it.

[Frayed Knot]

The reason for the hoopster, of course, is because espn is broadcasting the b-ball draft thingie later this week -- and NO ONE self-promotes like the espn/ABC/Disney folks.
For the most part they treat many of the sporting events they do simply as a vehicle to promote OTHER programming.

[Guest Edgy DC]

]I'm not so sure Torre didn't over-manage a bit.

Yeah, I'm not so sure either. But firing your last bullet and having it work out has to feel pretty good, and having our lead chipped away at without a single non-pitcher leaving the bench feels a little empty.

Not that it matters, the failure was in the pen, but with the DH at my disposal, I'd've bent over backwards to get Diaz in there.

That said, what I'd probably have done is something not-so-bold by like put Diaz at DH (or maybe in left with Floyd at DH) and Piazza at catcher, and missed out on the productive game that Castro had.

The seemingly over-matched Marlon Anderson also had a double and reached on an error.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Made a couple of nice plays in the field too, tho couldn't stretch far enough to have caught Jeter's single.

I think the Met roleplayers all did their jobs well enough. It was the regulars not hitting that hurt.

Having 3-4-5 up in the 8th and going down so meekly (well at least until Cliff took em to the wall) was a major disappointment and primed me for the failure to follow. I'd be surprised if Beltran saw as many as 10 pitches all night.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Carlos Beltran, Game Review

First Inning, None on, Two out:

Pitch 1 - Ball
Pitch 2 - Grounds out, pitcher Randy Johnson to first baseman Jason Giambi.

Third Inning, Runner on Second, Two Out:

Pitch 1 - Ball
Pitch 2 - Foul
Pitch 3 - Ball
Pitch 4 - Ball
Pitch 5 - Grounds out, shortstop Derek Jeter to first baseman Jason Giambi.

Sixth Inning, Runner on Second, One Out:

Pitch 1 - Foul
Pitch 2 - Swinging Strike
Pitch 3 - Ball
Pitch 4 - Strikes out Swinging

Eighth Inning, Leading Off:

Pitch 1 - Grounds out, second baseman Robinson Cano to first baseman Jason Giambi.

It was a festival of feebleness for Beltran. Twelve pitches, three harmless groundouts and a whiff. Are the mediots after him yet? I hope not, but he's turning Mike Piazza and Cliff Floyd into leadoff batters.

[Guest cooby]

He made some important catches, though