Game Recap: Mets 9 -- Reds 7

Wooooooosh. That was the sound of every Mets fan exhaling.

On The Mound
Taking the mound for the Mets was Mike Pelfrey, who did not get off to a good start. A four-run first inning, including a three-run home run off the bat of Joey Votto. Pelfrey labored through five innings, allowing five hits and only the four runs from the first inning. He walked four and struck out two through the five innings.

It was a tough five innings for Pelfrey. He didn't have his control tonight, which became a theme for all the pitchers, but he made it through the five innings in line for the win. The bullpen just had to make it interesting.

Bobby Parnell made his first appearance of 2009, pitching a scoreless inning of relief. He issued two walks with two outs, but made if out of the inning unscathed. Pedro Feliciano started the seventh inning and got one out before allowing two hits, putting runners on the corners. A fielders choice allowed one run to score. Feliciano issued another walk before leaving the game in favor of Sean Green. Green let up a single, letting another run score.

Parnell looked good throwing the heat, but also struggled with the control. Feliciano was all over the place and couldn't settle in for his outing. Green had a short outing, and let an inherited runner score.

J.J. Putz entered for the 8th inning and let up a Willy Taveras one-out triple. Taveras then scored on a sacrifice fly, bringing the Reds withing two runs. Francisco Rodriguez entered for the ninth inning and made it quite interesting. Struggling with control, K-Rod issued two walks while on the mound. Another runner reached base on an error by Carlos Delgado who was called for taking his foot off the bag too soon. Rodriguez eventually worked his way out of the inning, as Laynce Nix flew out to the warning track with the bases loaded to end the game.

Honestly, isn't this what bringing K-Rod on board was supposed to stop from happening? The Mets won, I guess that's all that matters, but it was not easy or enjoyable. But hey, it wouldn't be the Mets without the worrying.

At The Plate
A few standout performers at the dish for the Mets tonight.

In the first inning, Delgado crushed a two-run home run to right field off of Edison Volquez. David Wright, who had walked, scored on the round-tripper.

The first two of a nice night for Delgado.

Fast forward to the fifth inning, with Jose Reyes singling to lead off the inning. Daniel Murphy followed up with a single of his own. Wright then grounded a ball to shortstop Alex Gonzalez, who botched the play to allow everyone to reach base safely. Delgado put together a long at bat against Volquez before grounding out to first base and driving in Reyes from third. Carlos Beltran followed that up with a single up the middle, plating two more runs.

The boot by Gonzalez turned out to be a huge turning point of the game. Those two runs came in handy for the Mets later in the game.

In the seventh inning, Wright knocked a one-out double to left field before Delgado singled him home for his fourth RBI of the game. After an intentional walk to Beltran and an unintentional walk to Ryan Church, Brian Schneider ripped a line drive to right field. Jay Bruce moved in on the ball, slipped, fell and had the ball skip past him. The bases cleared for all of Schneider's RBIs and he stood on second with a double.

Shotty play by the Reds led to a few Mets runs. It's not the best way to have your offense get runs across the plate but it still works.

Game Ball
Carlos Delgado, even though his "error" could have cost the Mets the game.

On Deck
Mets go for the sweep in Cincy tomorrow afternoon for a 12:10 p.m. game.

The Mets have two closers, now what if they had three?

Billy Wagner to J.J. Putz to Francisco Rodriguez.  Talk about a nasty bullpen.

Wagner, recovering from surgery on his left arm, has been cleared to throw off a mound on Tuesday in Port St. Lucie.

"I'm going to break all the rules by getting back before they expect it," Wagner told Marty Noble of MLB.com.  "I'm going to get back.  I'm not going to get any saves.  That could be some bullpen."

Would it ever.

Let's just imagine Wagner pitching the seventh inning for the Mets, handing that off to Putz for the eighth and then to K-Rod in the ninth.  That's 694 combined saves between the three of them.

Obviously it's not set in stone that Wagner can be back this season, if at all. If he can get back though, he's still under contract with the Mets and they could use him in the bullpen if they think he can help the team.

That would be mighty interesting.

Gary Sheffield can't play in the field, says so himself

Gary Sheffield has been shagging fly balls with some of the Mets in preperation to possibly play in the field this season.  He did not perform very well and he admitted that himself.

Via Adam Rubin:

Sheffield said there's no way he'd be able to play 130 games in the outfield this season, or whatever the equivalent of a regular player gets. "They'll see I can't do that real quick," Sheffield said with a smile.

I agree it wasn't the best signing in the world for the Mets, but he still will help the Mets off the bench.

Sheffield seems to have the right attitude here, as the article notes that he wants to tap the mind of Marlon Anderson, who seems to be the pinch hitting guru of the roster.

I guess this means Ryan Church and Daniel Murphy don't have much to worry about.

What a lead

Newsday just posted their story from the first game of the 1969 season. The New York Mets lost to the Montral Expos by a score of 11-10.

Check out the lead that Ed Hershey wrote for the article:

Now a whole new country can laugh at the Mets, and in two languages no less.

Too funny.

The Verducci Effect on Mike Pelfrey

A theory I've been pointing to all off season comes from SI writer, and fellow New Jerseyite, Tom Verducci. He believes that if a young pitcher, usually under the age of 25, has his inning pitched increase by more then 30, he is at risk for an injury the next season.

Mike Pelfrey fits that category.

Verducci met with Pelfrey down at spring training, and much of his latest article focuses on Pelfrey and a handful of other young pitchers he has "red flagged" for injuries in 2009. Of the 10 pitchers Verducci picked, Pelfrey had the seventh largest jump in innings with 48.

How much should those guys be worried? Over the previous three years I red-flagged a total of 24 young pitchers at the start of those seasons. Of those 24 at-risk pitchers, 16 were hurt in that same season. Only one of the 24 pitchers managed to stay healthy and lower his ERA.Not the greatest news in the world for Mets fans or Pelfrey.

Hopefully the Mets have enough arms in their system that a significant injury to Pelfrey, who pitches tonight in Cincinnati, can be overcome.

Video of the 'worst seats in Citi Field'

Commenter PaulD did a little reporting and shot some video of what I claim to be 'the worst seats in Citi Field.'

It seems the Mets have tried to alleviate the issue of the obstructed views by installing televisions behind the out of town scoreboard.
Thanks, PaulD!

David Wright for Evan Longoria? Really?

Posted on the LoHud Mets blog:

80s’Joel writes: “the mets need to trade that choke artist David Wright for a a left fielder and move Dan Murphy to 3rd base he might not have the power of wright but he hits average and IN THE CLUTCH. We should trade wright while he still has some value. I would trade him for Longoria straight up and you could most likely get a prospect or two for him as well. The mets should do this while they still can.”

What do you say to this?

Do you point to Wright's .340 AVG/.416 OBP/.577 SLG for September of 2008? Or maybe his .352/.432/.602. of September, 2007?

Maybe you note that Wright has a .300 career batting average with RISP?

What about Wright's .384 OBP with RISP and two outs for his entire career?

Or maybe, just maybe, you point out that with the bases loaded over his career, Wright has put up .393/.444/.768?

Oh, and Daniel Murphy has a career .182 AVG with RISP and two outs.

Or you can just point out that Longoria's batting average with RISP is almost 60 points lower than Wright's. With the bases loaded? Wright's only hitting 130 points higher. How about Longoria's OBP vs. Wright's OBP with the bases loaded? Only a disparity of 194 points -- I'll leave it to you to guess who has the .250 OBP and guess who has the .444 OBP.

But 80s'Joel is right, David Wright just isn't clutch...

Johan Santana's handshake routine [Video]

Too cool.

What's with the Mets and the handshakes?
First Jose Reyes, now Johan Santana...

The SNY graphics are too 'bloated'

SNY debuted their new graphics package this season, specifically to target the HD market.

For a fan who watches most of the games in standard definition, I find the graphics to be too large and invasive into the screen. I'm not alone in my sentiment, as reader Byron Brewer noted in an e-mail.

Not sure if you watched either of the SNY broadcasts. In any case, they have a new on-screen graphics on the top of the screen to display score, baserunners, innning, etc... It has a nice new modern look, but it's incredibly bloated and goofy looking. I watch all the HD broadcasts and I think the new graphic is really bloated and distracting. I like the idea, but they need to reduce the size quite a bit.

The main problem I have with the new graphics package is the line score at the top of the screen. To work with an HD set, the line score is set further down on the image leaving a gap on top of it. It takes away precious television space and allows you to see over the top of the line score.

This is mostly due to the bases that stretch above the normal horizontal line. To accompany the second base area, the "field" lies above the line score.

Am I being too picky? Probably. But it's the little things like this, that I know can be fixed quickly, that start to bother me.

Are the new SNY graphics too 'bloated'? Vote in the poll on the right!

Baseball Digest: Citi Field vs. Yankee Stadium

Head over to Baseball Digest
to read my comparison between
Citi Field and Yankee Stadium.