IGT 8/17, Mets @ Nats

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

We got this thing, you guys. Go SHaMs!

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Shoppach's having a nice all-around game so far... let's hope it's not a Pagan Special (kicking ass in a losing effort).

[Zvon]

[Zvon]

Aw fuck. Scott, we needed you there.

[Frayed Knot]

And another lead-off runner ruined by [say it with me folks] failure to get the fucking ball out of the infield for the rest of the fucking inning.

Zimmerman's played a nice 3rd base over there tonight, but Met bats are making him look even better because nothing to him has been hit all that hard. He has plenty of time to react and make the play because the damn ball has hopped three times before it gets to him.
It's like we're batting with rolled-up newspapers.

[Zvon]

Nice catch Rubin.

[Fman99]

Let's take it to this asshole again.

[Zvon]

That's a start.

[Fman99]

You know who I want, at the dish, right now? Jordany Fucking Valdespin.

[Zvon]

That's a finish.

[Frayed Knot]

The outcome of that top 9th inning was almost irrelevant.
In games on the road, the Mets would have needed to score at least four to even have a shot at winning.

[Ceetar]

Frayed Knot wrote: The outcome of that top 9th inning was almost irrelevant. In games on the road, the Mets would have needed to score at least four to even have a shot at winning.

they still had Parnell and Rauch actually, might have been okay.

[bmfc1]

ARGH! Two questions: on the single that preceded the Harper bomb, it looked like Wright and Tejada expected the other to get it so neither made an effort. Is that how it looked on TV?

Why did Shorty let Shoppach bat in the 9th rather than Thole or Baxter? I know that Shoppach hit one out earlier but his splits show that he is Nickeas-like against righties. It was the 9th inning so there was some urgency involved. I thought it was time to use Baxter.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, it was disappointing to go down with two lefties on the bench while letting three righties bat.

But I had a sweet wave of Alfonzonostalgia watching from right field and seeing number 13 playing second.

Then I saw number 12 in right, thought of Francoeur and felt all sad again.

[Ceetar]

bmfc1 wrote: ARGH! Two questions: on the single that preceded the Harper bomb, it looked like Wright and Tejada expected the other to get it so neither made an effort. Is that how it looked on TV? Why did Shorty let Shoppach bat in the 9th rather than Thole or Baxter? I know that Shoppach hit one out earlier but his splits show that he is Nickeas-like against righties. It was the 9th inning so there was some urgency involved. I thought it was time to use Baxter.

Looked hard it and like they didn't really have time to react to me, but I don't think you could see both fielders in the tv shot.

Collins goes to the platoon advantage seemingly to a fault, (and bungles Turner's reverse-split seemingly every time) except when you expect him to. I guess it was a not to Kelly's power, but ultimately the game ended on what seemed like Tejada trying to hit one out (again)

[Frayed Knot]

they still had Parnell and Rauch actually, might have been okay.

Right, because neither one of them has melted down in key situations, or had a "what is HE still doing on the roster?" remark thrown at him. And our 1-6 extra-inning record sure inspires confidence.
The larger point being that when this team is down by 2 heading into the 9th in a road game they essentially need at least 4 runs before winning even reaches a 50/50 proposition.

ARGH! Two questions: on the single that preceded the Harper bomb, it looked like Wright and Tejada expected the other to get it so neither made an effort. Is that how it looked on TV?

It was a clean single, simply a perfectly placed grounder. It also turned out to be the only hit the Nats got that wasn't scorched somewhere.
For the rest of the game most of their outs were harder hit than our extra-base hits with the exception of Shoppach's HR.

Why did Shorty let Shoppach bat in the 9th rather than Thole or Baxter? I know that Shoppach hit one out earlier but his splits show that he is Nickeas-like against righties. It was the 9th inning so there was some urgency involved. I thought it was time to use Baxter.

He could have although you're trying for a 2R poke there so your odds are probably better with Shopvac there even with the R-on-R deal -- we are talking 65 careers HRs vs 8 combined for Thole + Baxter.

[Frayed Knot]

Looking back over the play by play recap I see One hard-hit out by the Mets last night, Torres's drive to RF that almost got over Werth's head although even that looked a bit better than it actually was only because Werth had been playing him so shallow.
And there were two others that probably qualify as semi-hard hit: Torres to CF in the 1st, plus the final out of the game from Tejada.

The remainder consist of Five strike-outs (including 2 as the tying run in the 9th), One infield pop-out, One outfield fly, and Sixteen infield grounders - one of which was a DP and ELEVEN that BB-Ref specifically refers to as "weak".

[bmfc1]

Thanks for the recap FK. I thought it was my dismay making me see nothing but grounders and popups.

[Edgy MD]

Torres had another hard out to right center.

There were also a few down to third --- both soft and hard ones --- that Zimmerman did a good job being in position for and were still tough plays.

[Frayed Knot]

I mentioned both of the ones by Torres: one deep to RF that moved Cedeno over to 3rd and his semi-well hit FO to CF for the 2nd AB of the game. Other than that he K'd and grounded out.

Most of the ones we hit to Zimmerman were more tricky plays than they were spectacular ones, and part of the reason they weren't harder than they could have been is that most weren't hit very hard. It's a lot easier to look good when being required to snare a bunch of 3 or 4-hoppers five feet to either side than if would be if the shots had a bit more sting to them. NYM bats, in effect, helped to make him look good on plays that were, to varying degrees, only somewhat tough.

Plus Zim himself also plays a role in making semi-routine plays look harder than they are by intentionally playing everything off to the side so as to set-up his 'side-arm-and-on-the-run' throw. Since his shoulder woes started a year or two back it seems like that's the only way he's comfortable throwing (not just last night, I've been seeing that from him for a while now). He threw straight overhand like twice last night and looked really awkward both times.
Not that he's not still a good defensive player, but his current "style" hams it up a bit too and I've seen him botch a few this season directly due to the way he now chooses to (is required to?) play balls.