IGT, Game Two, 4/7/2010

[bmfc1]

Who would have guessed that a 10 inning Boston-MFY game would end before the Mets-Marlins finished the 9th?

[Fman99]

I conflate Iragashi and Takahashi. Is that wrong?

[bmfc1]

A lefty reliever wearing 47. Looks familiar.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

I'll drink to that.

[Fman99]

I'll drink to that.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

No more yankee my wankie

[ashie62]

shitfuck

[Fman99]

I'll drink to that.

[ashie62]

I'll drink to that.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Donger want relief.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Ah... Nieve.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Going down with quiet little tap outs here.

C'mon, Grandpa, let's see some life here.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

[bmfc1]

Nice comeback. A lot of life despite the early deficit. Let's get 'em tomorrow.

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah, Tatis has got to be near 100% sure you can score on a passed ball there, but Geez that was a nice play by the catcher Baker! He probably makes that 90+% of the time.


And speaking of chances, I would have sent Bay on that short-ish fly to Coughlin in LF based purely on the lousy throw he made earlier. Turns out the second throw was even worse but by then Bay had stopped and to re-start would have been a worse call than Tatis's.


Tough to complain about a lack of big hits when you only get 6 hits to begin with.

[Gwreck]

We totally did not deserve to win, were given every opportunity to do so but couldn't come up with one hit when it really mattered. Damn.

Beautiful night at Shea. Many thanks to KC for the seats.

I'm not sure Meija threw anything other than fastballs. Just a tip Jenrry (or Rod, who I assume was calling the pitches): they know you are throwing fastballs. You might want to mix something else in there. Seems that Nolasco was the only one fooled (or really, who couldn't catch up).

I too noticed Rodriguez' goggles. I believe they are indeed new.

[soupcan]

The thing about Tatis getting thrown out is that had he not gone and then Wright made out or whatever, everybody would be screaming that 'Nando should've tried to score on that play.

And when Bay did not tag - don't you think he should've and then come half-way? Had he done that, he or the third-base coach would've been able to judge that the throw would've been horribly off-line, no?

I too noticed Rodriguez' goggles. I believe they are indeed new.[/quote:2ro5x76t]

Wearing them in lieu of contacts b/c of his pink-eye from sprimg training.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Wright gets the steal, now an IBB to Bay will put it in G-Mat's hands.[/quote:1qlflgq9]

What did we think of that? I wasn't too crazy about taking the bat out of Jason Bay's hands and turning it over to Gary Matthews. I think I would have rather had Bay take a crack at an extra-base hit.

[metirish]

I didn't like it , he scores on a gapper from first right? Bay absolved him after the game saying htat yoiu need someone on second to score.


I'll take the positives here, they battled back , what about using Mejia in that spot? , it looked like a lost game at that point but there was still plenty of time to come back and win it.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Fundamental error: he went when a basic understanding of the game situation says don't go unless it's a gimme.

Judgemental error: he went when his judgment told him he could make it, but he didn't. He took a chance and lost.

Now, I don't think it's an judgmental error there. Yes, the tying run is behind him, but (1) it's the seventh, not the ninth, so getting a single run still has good value there, and (2) the tying run advances to second if he scores.

So I dug up the old Win Expectancy Finder. Maybe there's a newer one, but it has no data after 2006. Using data from 2001-2006, I look at the Mets' situation.

The game situation --- bottom of the seventh, down by three, bases loaded, two outs. The Mets average win expectancy based on that situation is 10.3%. (Unfortunately, there's no way to factor in whether David Wright is up or Wilson Valdez, but you can arbitrarily factor that in if you like.)

Wild pitch happens, run scores, runners advance, that number shoots up to 20.6%. That's value right there. Enough value to risk it? I don't know. Frayed Knot may recall the formula for working that out.

Anyhow, I was (as usual) most frustrated with Jerry Manuel, for (1) not using Rodriguez for a second inning, and (2) using him in game one when it would have been a good opportunity for Mejia or Tak or Igg to get their feet wet by making a debut in low-leverage conditions.

[soupcan]

Anyhow, I was (as usual) most frustrated with Jerry Manuel, for (1) not using Rodriguez for a second inning, and (2) using him in game one when it would have been a good opportunity for Mejia or Tak or Igg to get their feet wet by making a debut in low-leverage conditions.[/quote:37vbui5u]

Excellent, excellent points.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Re: Wright stealing - I dunno. The odds of Matthews getting a hit of any kind have to be greater than Bay getting an XBH, and if Bay hits a single or walks you still need Matthews to get that hit.

[Gwreck]

Getting Rodriguez into the game for a second inning I think would have required either Francoeur in center (via double-switch and moving Tatis to RF) or having Francisco bat. (Note that I am accepting the prior player substitutions as fundamentally sound, which I think they were).

On a side note, I was a little surprised to see Tatis enter the game at second base in the top of the 8th. With Cora, Tatis and Wright available, it seemed strange to have Tatis at second base. My impression was that using those 3 players, the best defensive alignment would be to have Wright at SS, Cora at 2B and Tatis at 3B.

[Frayed Knot]

- I didn't have a problem with Wright stealing, mainly for the reasons Swannie mentions (odds of Mathews hit vs Bay XBH)
And, btw, WTF was Ramirez doing playing almost directly up the middle?!? Off his bat I swore GMJ had hisself a game-winning hit only to find it a routine grounder. Both earlier and later the Mets hit grounders into the hole and in those cases Hanley was playing there.

- would like to have seen Rodriguez for a second inning although it would have entailed a double-switch leading into his appearance as his spot was leading off the next inning. That bad call at 1B didn't help any as it made him pitch to 2 more batters than he should have. That he pitched in game 1 with a day off in between I don't think had anything to do with it.

[Centerfield]

Did no one else have an issue with Jerry allowing Takahashi to face Paulino? Especially if you've got Nieve ready and Ramirez on deck. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Did no one else have an issue with Jerry allowing Takahashi to face Paulino? Especially if you've got Nieve ready and Ramirez on deck. Seems like a no-brainer to me.[/quote:11pi9783]

I agree. GKR kept saying that Takahashi was more effective vs. righties than lefties, but that doesn't mean he's more effective vs. righties than Nieve would be.

If Manuel is trying to establish Takahashi as a guy who can get out righties and lefties, fine, but that wasn't the ideal spot for that little experiment.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I wasn't upset about that, just the result. Don't think you can afford to go crazy matching up in the 10th inning, especially vs. Ronny F Paulino; if that's really the case you may as well farm out the guy.

Credit to Wes Helms for a quality AB to get it started there.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Re: Wright stealing - I dunno. The odds of Matthews getting a hit of any kind have to be greater than Bay getting an XBH, and if Bay hits a single or walks you still need Matthews to get that hit.[/quote:1qhwl1nf]

This was my exact thinking, too, when Wright stole. Also, I would have been happy if Bay worked out a walk with Wright on first.

[Guest Edgy DC]

RE: Tak vs. Paulino:

Yeah, if you're going to avoid that, the better move, to my thinking, is to go to Nieve outright to start the inning.