Photo of the Day: Delgado

Carlos Delgado celebrates after his first home run of the day. He went on to hit two solo home runs, going 2-2 with two walks, two RBI, and three runs scored.

I wouldn't say he's back yet, but today is a good sign. Hopefully he can parlay this off into a hot streak to get back into the groove of things.
(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Game Recap: Mets 6 -- Braves 3

The Mets were fans of the long ball today, knocking three in total, and two from a very surprising source. The Mets won the series over the Braves, taking the rubber game by a score of 6-3.

Nelson Figueroa made fourth start of the year, getting off to a very strong start before faltering in the sixth. Figueroa only allowed three hits through the first five innings, benefiting from a double play ball in the second to get out of a mini jam. The sixth was a bit of a struggle for Figueroa, allowing three singles a double to drive in two runs before being removed for Joe Smith.

This wasn't his strongest start, but heading into the sixth he held the Braves scoreless, which is a great sign. He seems to feed off the crowd at Shea, which is great. He seemed to have a bit of an issue with the mound, and it showed in the sixth. He kept checking the mound after a pitch, so something just didn't feel right for him. Again, I love this guy's story. Keep it up, Nelson.

Smith relieved Figueroa with two on in the sixth, and got what looked like a double play ball to escape the inning, but Brent Lillibridge beat it out at first, and a run scored. Scott Schoeneweis pitched the seventh, allowing some balls to get hit deep, but escaped unscathed. Kelly Johnson crushed one to the wall, but Carlos Beltran was there to track it down and after a Jeff Francoeur double, got a sparkling running grab from Ryan Church. Church tracked the ball down at the wall, just missing a sliding Beltran and making probably the best catches of the year.

Good stuff from these two relievers. I though Smith was going to get out of that inning on his first batter, but Lillibridge showed some nice speed beating it out. Schoeneweis needs to take Beltran and Church out for dinner after saving that inning for him.

Pedro Feliciano pitched the eighth, getting the Braves in order. Billy Wagner came on to close our the game, after Lillibridge hit one to Endy Chavez on the warning track, Matt Diaz stuck out his bat and poked one to right field. This was the first hit he has given up all year as Wagner pitched 9 1-3 innings without allowing a hit to start the season. He finished out the game, getting Gregor Blanco to strike out looking.

Feliciano was nasty in the eighth. He needs to be able to maintain this from appearance to appearance. Great stuff from Wagnet, too bad he gave up that hit. He earned his sixth save of the season.

The Mets pounded out 6 runs and 12 hits, chased John Smoltz after only four innings.

Jose Reyes led off the first inning with a double to right field. After a Luis Castillo ground out moved Reyes to third, Reyes scored the first run of the game on a wild pitch.

When he gets on base, he makes runs happen.

Carlos Delgado drew a one out walk in the second inning, and Raul Casanova drove him in with a home run to deep right field. The Mets then had a big chance later in that inning, as Figueroa singled to third, Reyes walked, and Castillo singled to load the bases, David Wright struck out, his second of the game.

Casanova had a breakout day for the Mets, going 3-4, driving in two runs and scoring once. Huge. Wright got out to a rough start to the game, but got back on the horse later on.

In the third, Delgado began his crusade to get back into the good graces of Mets fans, going the other way and knocking a solo home run into the bleachers in left field.

I love when Delgado waits on a pitch and drives it the other way. He looked very good at the plate, going 2-2 with two walks, driving in two runs, and scoring three times. Now, the question is: Who hit their second homer later in the game?

In the sixth, Wright singled to center field, driving home Castillo who doubled earlier in the inning.

Wright went 1-4 and though he's still in his slump, he's starting to see the ball better and will come around soon enough. I'm not worried about the slump, it just looks worse when the rest of the team is struggling around him.

In the seventh, Delgado crushed a solo home run part way up the scoreboard in right field off of Will Ohman, his second of the day.

Wow. The fans were screaming for a curtain call, but Delgado didn't come out for one. Obviously, he's not back yet, but this is definitely a great sign.

Numbers: 0: Church and Chavez's hits, the only two starters to go hitless...Castillo: 3-5, run...Casanova: 3-2, 2 RBI, run...Delgado: 1.000 BA on the day, going 2-2, 2 BB, 2 RBI, 3 runs...Extra base hits: 6 (3 2B, 3 HR)...Team LOB: 8...

Game Ball: Delgado

Alou may have broken bone in ankle

From Jeremy Cothran:

In something most of us beat writers found inevitable, the Mets have announced that a CAT scan may have revealed a small fracture in Moises Alou's ankle. He had the exam on Friday, and will head to New York tomorrow to undergo further testing from the Mets doctors.

"The CAT scan showed something," said Mets GM Omar Minaya. "But they want to make sure what that something is."

Figures. I guess Angel Pagan will be sticking around for a bit longer.

Game Preview: Braves @ Mets -- 4/27

The Mets look to take the series over the Atlanta Braves today after splitting the first two games, a 1:10 p.m. start.

Lineup:
SS Jose Reyes
2B Luis Castillo
3B David Wright
CF Carlos Beltran
RF Ryan Church
1B Carlos Delgado
C Raul Casanova
LF Endy Chavez
SP Nelson Figueroa

Figeuroa vs. John Smoltz

Seems like Angel Pagan is quickly falling out of favor as his batting average comes back down to earth. Church needs one hit to reach 300 for his career.

Weather at Shea

It's raining at Shea right now, but it looks like it will stop raining soon. It's a cloudy, chilly day, so if you're heading out, bundle up and bring the umbrella (just in case!).

Again, for the third straight game, I will not be able to watch. This is probably going to become commonplace, as I will have pretty hectic job schedule this summer. I'm not sure how it's going to affect the blog just yet, but of course, I will keep you updated.

Alou sits, still blocked by the Schneider situation

According to Anthony Rieber of Newsday, Moises Alou was scratched from a minor league game last night due to a sore ankle. Alou is coming back from hernia surgery, which he received before the season.

Alou is rumored to be coming back sometime next week, but nothing can be done until Brian Schneider is able to rejoin the team, or in a worst case scenario, hits the disabled list. When Schneider went down, Gustavo Molina was purchased from AAA to give the Mets an extra catcher.

The Mets are carrying three catchers right now, since Schneider is still on the roster though not at the games. Until Schneider is ready to return to the team, Molina will be up, taking up a roster spot and blocking Alou.

Schneider received more IV, and is still in the hospital through Sunday. Hopefully he'll be out soon and back with the team.

Apologies are in order

Hello everyone, Andrew Vazzano here. I'm the creator, writer and editor of this website and I think something needs to be addressed.

If you're making your way here from another websites comments section, I'm talking directly to you. A kid has been going around literally spamming my blog in the comments of tons of different websites and blogs across the 'net. I want to say that I am deeply sorry.

I know it sucks to get that pointless, worthless comment that adds nothing to the conversation and you can tell is absolutely just a way to drive traffic to your site. I hate those comments.

So again, I am sorry for those spammed comments. If you are here, feel free to stick around and throw in your two cents on whatever you want. Feel free to e-mail me with further questions or comments.

Thanks, and again, I am sorry,
Andrew Vazzano

Game Recap: Mets 4 -- Braves 3

Woo!
A win!

Keith Hernandez, Legend

I'll be out and about all day, so I'll leave you with a guest blog from Ryan Punzalan. Feel free to e-mail me your own articles, and if they're good, I'll run them!

Anyway, here is Ryan's article:

You're probably thinking, why legend? Let's face it, Keith Hernandez is the king of comedy with it comes to color commentary. There's something about his informations or antics that make the game even better. No offense to Ron Darling, but every pre-game show I just can't wait to see who's sitting next to Gary. Just to display how great this man is, I prepared a short list on what he says in the booth that makes me crack a smile:

• He calls Gary Cohen, "Gaer" as in, "I noticed something about Delgado's swing Gaer."
• Keith loves to talk about footwear, especially Crocs, or lack of them.
• Mex loves to talk about his Tootsie Pop, usually in a bin or in his mouth.
• Keith seems to point out every ad-placements as possible.
• The Coors Freeze seems to amaze him more than anything
• New SNY camera angles also seem to astonish him as he's always caught saying, "Great angle guys."
• He seems to like color too, as he's always talking about the colored highlighters for his scorecard.
• I keep noticing that Keith makes fun of Kevin Burkhardt so much, especially around other fans and stuff.
  
• ..and to top it all off, Keith just loves to talk about the Cardinals and how events during his time there. He also loves to talk about the Cardinals Minor League system and his events there too. Hello Tulsa.
  

That's not all of them, but yeah, those are the great ones that pop into my head. He has such great chemistry with Gary and he gets extremely entertaining during a blow-out or an extra inning game. His spontaneous jokes are just great and I firmly believe he loves his job way too much.

With fun comes controversy. Of course you all remember the incident with the comment towards women being in the dugout and how he states that a woman should not be in the dugout. Comment aside, he brushed it off and continued to be as random a commentator can be, and every enjoys it.

I may be a bit biased, but I truly think that the team of Cohen, Hernandez, and Darling is easily the best broadcasting team in the business right now. Cohen's perfect play-by-play, Darling's in-depht analysis, and Keith's speech about how he hates the head-first slide just fits every position. Keith's great, and he know's he great.

Thanks Ryan!

Game Recap: Braves 6 -- Mets 3

The Mets are slumping. Hard.

They lost to the Braves 6-3 tonight and only picked up two hits. All their runs came on back-to-back-to-back bases loaded walks in the third inning.

The Mets have dropped five of their last six. Rough.

Use this thread to vent.