IGT 5/6/06 - Atlanta @ Mets (Zambrano/Hudson)

[Guest GYC]

Julio gets out of it!

[Theoldmole]

Once again, Willie shows his ineptness as a manager by sticking with Julio. If only we'd thrown him off the team...

[Guest OlerudOwned]

[nymr83]

whew. thank god that one is over. i hope we never have a game with wagner and sanchez both "unavailable" again.

[Frayed Knot]

Never in doubt.

BIGTIMEFREAKINGWIN!!!!

[TransMonk]

I'm glad Willie stuck with Julio, even though I lost my lunch, he needed it.

9 games up on the Braves...let's make it 10 tomorrow!

[Guest Edgy DC]

Kaz Matsui playes Howard Johnson, if only sorta.

Bartolome Fortunato walks off with a win in a huge game in what threatens to be his only game of the year.

Or, he may stick if Zambrano gets disabled.

[Guest Hillbilly]

Gotta love it! Winning the hard ones these past few days. Very nice!!

[Frayed Knot]

And I'm signing off by mentioning how freakin' stupid it is that every other NL game today (and most if not all of the AL games too) is being played at night ... In early May ... Even the ones in the northeast.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Great game!

Good day to listen to the entire thing lying on a blanket on the great lawn playing scrabble. DETRAIN is your winning bingo.

Went home on the 7 at Grand Cenrtral where lots of happy Met fans were DETRAINING.

[metirish]

Wille sounded mighty pissed with Zam in the post game press conference, kept saying things like "well I looked him in the eye three times and he said he was fine".....Wille ain't no Clint Eastwood though.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

The blue caps also netted me three blue cap mug shots: Julio, Oliver, and, at long last, Matsui.

If anyone can spot a good blue-cap headshot from this game for any of the following players, I'd appreciate it: Feliciano, Bradford, Fortunato, Nady, Castro, Chavez, Woodward.

Thanks!

[Guest Rotblatt]

Wow. What a great game to see in person! It was a beautiful day at the park and after last night's 14-inning game, all 45K+ fans were pretty spunky. Some dude in a Pujols jersey caught Franceour's HR, which prompted a stadium-wide chant of "Throw it back." The Evil Redbirds fan refused, and was treated to some good-natured heckling from my secion throughout the rest of the game. A tennager in a Crawford jersey was interviewed by the female SNY reporter in our section, and he got a little ribbing too, as peeps in our section started a "Take it off!" chant (refering to the kid's jersey, not the reporter, you lecherous pervs).

Zambrano looked filthy in the first. His fastball had some serious giddyup, topping out at around 92 according to the park gun. He sprinted off the mound into the dugout right after K'ing Larry looking at the end of the first. When he did the same thing after getting Andruw looking, the dude next to me was convinced it was food poisoning.

Elbow trouble sounds bad to me. If he's out for any length of time, I think we need to put Heilman in there. I suppose Maine & Bannister could round out the rotation, but I'd rather see Heilman take it on.

Hudson was definitely off today. His fastball sat between 88 & 90, topping out at 92 and he hardly threw his slider at all. Oliver's fastball had some nice late downward movement on it today and he looked sharp. He really came out of nowhere, didn't he?

I'm pretty sure Andruw was taken out of the game because he dogged it to first on his DP ball in the 6th. He wasn't even halfway down the line by the time Delgado caught the relay throw. Right call by Cox, but he kind of screwed the pooch there. There were a couple balls that maybe Andruw would have got to that Franceour, who played deeper, couldn't reach.

The crowd was roaring for Matsui after his 2 ribbie double and I could tell he was beaming on second even from my seat in the loge section by the left field foul pole. A huge hit for him.

Julio, on the other hand, quickly became the goat of the crowd, prompting several chants of "We Want Wagner" which was just stupid. Wags threw around 40 pitches yesterday; if anything, they should have been yelling "We Want Heilman." I thought going to Julio was a ballsy move by Willie after he pitched in the last couple of games. Heilman was the obvious call, IMO. Still, Julio got it done--eventually. I really wanted Heilman in there after Langerhans walked, and even more after McCann's pinch hit. Still, Willie showed a little faith and was rewarded, although there's no excuse for not having Heilman warming up after Langerhans' walk--I don't think Heilman started throwing until after Diaz brought the Braves to within one.

At any rate, the crowd rebounded with some nice applause after Julio got Renteria to ground out.

A fine game--and one that brought my 2006 season W% to .500. If I can maintain that throughout the season, I'll be a happy camper.

[Theoldmole]

With Julio rounding into form, they can spare Heilman in the bullpen.

[Frayed Knot]

I dunno what to think about Zambrano. Sprinting off the mound like that complaining of elbow pain just screams; 'Call Dr. Andrews and we'll see you in 18 months' -- but that's a get bit a head of ourselves at this point.

]I'm pretty sure Andruw was taken out of the game because he dogged it to first on his DP ball in the 6th. He wasn't even halfway down the line by the time Delgado caught the relay throw.

My first thought too but he actually tripped - twice even - trying to break out of the box.
He was def a loafer earlier in his career (I was watching a TBS game one night when Cox pulled him in the middle of an inning a la Gil/Cleon) but has been much better behaved for the last few years. Not sure if the trip caused an injury or not. Good thing for us either way; he probably gets to Nady's bloop which started the big inning (plays shallower, gets a better break) so there's no telling how the rest of that inning plays out.

[Guest GYC]

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060506&content_id=1440601&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

]NEW YORK -- Andruw Jones left Saturday afternoon's game against the Mets because of a sore back and his status for Sunday afternoon's series finale remains in doubt. Jones exited in the seventh inning after feeling discomfort during each of his first three plate appearances. He stumbled out of the box after ending the sixth inning with a double play grounder. But he first began feeling the discomfort while sliding into the plate in Friday's 14-inning loss at Shea Stadium. "I play the game to win and my team needed me out there," Jones said. "So I just went out there to help. I should have just taken the day off and given the back a chance to rest because we had only like eight hours of sleep."

[DocTee]

]we had only like eight hours of sleep."

Sigh......and people wonder why multimillionaire athletes get booed.

[nymr83]

]A fine game--and one that brought my 2006 season W% to .500. If I can maintain that throughout the season, I'll be a happy camper.

I'm 4-1 this year and still bitter about the one loss.

[Elster88]

]At any rate, the crowd rebounded with some nice applause after Julio got Renteria to ground out.

I noticed this too at the game today. I've got more comments that I'll paste tomorrow.

But regarding the crowd and Julio, they did boo the hell out of him after the run scored, but as he was getting strikes on the last batter the "get the last strikes standing-O" was going full blast with nary a boo.

A great freaking crowd. Announced attendance was 48,000+.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: The blue caps also netted me three blue cap mug shots: Julio, Oliver, and, at long last, Matsui. If anyone can spot a good blue-cap headshot from this game for any of the following players, I'd appreciate it: Feliciano, Bradford, Fortunato, Nady, Castro, Chavez, Woodward. Thanks!

Valentin: http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/57535787.jpg?v=1&c=MS_GINS&k=2&d=E97B7DFB884F0A1D9BCD21C6284122C6

Franco (blue helmet): http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/57535813.jpg?v=1&c=MS_GINS&k=2&d=E97B7DFB884F0A1D72DCAFAEFA6DAFEA

Chavez (blue helmet): http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/57535778.jpg?v=1&c=MS_GINS&k=2&d=E97B7DFB884F0A1DB69D8B084F1AED0B

Castro (blue helmet, but face is shadowed): http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/57370126.jpg?v=1&c=MS_GINS&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF1939847EC77F5F8D1CEAD837B10E173E4BD

Alt. Castro: http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/57368693.jpg?v=1&c=MS_GINS&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF1939847EC77F5F8D1CE093C369FB27CFE84

Anderson Hernandez (blue helmet, side view): http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/57535619.jpg?v=1&c=MS_GINS&k=2&d=E97B7DFB884F0A1DE6326B7C198329FB

Alternate Andy (blue cap):
http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/57535496.jpg?v=1&c=MS_GINS&k=2&d=E97B7DFB884F0A1D4EEF4E4F1C58C2C6

LoDuca (blue cap, funky sunglasses): http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/57535510.jpg?v=1&c=MS_GINS&k=2&d=E97B7DFB884F0A1D30D07C5FB7456B89

Nady (blue): http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/57535567.jpg?v=1&c=MS_GINS&k=2&d=E97B7DFB884F0A1DE211ABCEB2B9B115

Oliver (blue):
http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/57535483.jpg?v=1&c=MS_GINS&k=2&d=E97B7DFB884F0A1DF558E05EE14C7BC7

Woodward (Wanna-be blue, fade helmet):
http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/57367853.jpg?v=1&c=MS_GINS&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF1939847EC77F5F8D1CE64B7C066D2A5CF34

Here's the Mets Getty page if you want to browse through/check for updates/etc.
http://editorial.gettyimages.com/source/search/FrameSet.aspx?s=ImagesSearchState%7c0%7c0%7c-1%7c28%7c0%7c0%7c0%7c1%7c%7c%7c0%7c0%7c0%7c0%7c0%7c0%7c0%7c0%7c2%7c%7cmets%7c1125084063323127%7c0%7c0%7c0%7c0&p=2&tag=1

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Cool! Thanks Olerud!