The 'Ropolitans

4/18/10

About last night…

Because last night was so odd, here’s a bit of a refresher of the weird…

The winning pitcher was a closer.
A starting pitcher earned the save.
The Cardinals sent a reliever to the plate to pinch hit – with the bases loaded – before catcher Bryan Anderson.
Felipe Lopez, who hit a grand slam the night before, pitched last night. He pitched to Raul Valdes, the pitcher who surrendered the grand slam.
Lopez played: shortstop, third base, pitcher and third base again.
Valdes picked up his first career hit in the 18th inning, but was thrown out at second after a wide throw to first.
For some reason I will never understand, Ryan Ludwick attempted to steal second base in the 19th inning…with Albert Pujols at the plate.
Kyle Lohse, a pitcher, played left field while Lopez and Joe Mather, another position player, pitched.
The Mets were able to score twice off of Mather – but only on sacrifice flies.
Mike Pelfrey, who earned the save, leads the Mets in wins and saves.
Only Oliver Perez did not appear in the game for the Mets.
Last night was K-Rod’s first save opportunity of the season.
Mets pitchers walked 11 batters and struck out 19.
The Mets left 13 on base while the Cardinals left 22 ducks on the pond.
Of the Mets nine hits, all were singles.
Of the team’s 24 combined hits, only two were for extra bases.
Six Mets played the entire game. Five Cardinals lasted all 20 innings.

…did you follow all that?

Manuel’s Musing [Epic Edition]

Jerry Manuel was in rare form before and after last night’s crazy game. There are just too many gems to pass up…

“I know 'Frenchy' has never managed. You're 25, 26 -- I mean, c'mon. He's a guy that's very likable, very talkative.”

-Manuel on Jeff Francoeur

“That was pretty crazy. This is about the wildest one I’ve been involved in, the longest one I’ve been involved in, the most decisions I’ve had to make. We fought, we fought, we fought all day. We needed to win this one.”

-Manuel on last night’s game

“Pelfrey asked to pitch. He stepped up and said, ‘Hey I can do this.’”

-Manuel on Mike Pelfrey, the closer

“He's on hip-hop, we're playing jazz.”

-Manuel on Jose Reyes batting third

“Fighting all day to stay in the game. We just couldn't mount nothing offensively. We just couldn't get anything going offensively. But, to their credit, they went out and played on the other side of the ball, and played very well. That's a sign of things to come for us.”

-Manuel on last night’s game

4/17/10

Game Recap: Mets 2 – Cardinals 1 (TWENTY INNINGS)

Wasn’t that fun?

The Good

Pitching. Every pitcher outside of John Maine and Oliver Perez got into this game on the mound (Maine pinch-ran), and everyone tossed scoreless frames except for Francisco Rodriguez. Mike Pelfrey earned his first career save. Johan Santana struck out nine over seven innings of four-hit baseball. He walked only one. Pretty much every other pitcher outside of K-Rod was downright spectacular. Could not ask for much more. 13 IP by the bullpen and only K-Rod surrendered a run.

The Bad & Ugly

Hitting. Just awful. They were held hitless until the sixth and only had one hit through 11 innings. They scored their only runs on sacrifice flies – against Joe Mather, a position player, who had a hard time throwing strikes. They eventually picked up nine hits, all singles.

K-Rod. How much are you being paid to save games? Oh, yet you’re the only one to give up a run. Perfect.

Tony LaRussa’s managing. Very little of what he did tonight made any sense at all.

Jerry Manuel’s managing. Very little of what he did tonight made any sense at all.

Game Ball

Mike Pelfrey

On Deck

They’ll do it again tomorrow, hopefully in less time, at 8 p.m.

Game Chat: NYM @ STL [Game 11]

Join in and chat with your fellow fans!
Chat removed, as usual.

Lineup in St. Louis [Game 11]

Jose Reyes – SS
Luis Castillo – 2B
David Wright – 3B
Jason Bay – LF
Jeff Francoeur – RF
Fernando Tatis – 1B
Rod Barajas – C
Angel Pagan – CF
Johan Santana – LHP

And I present the best lineup of the season.

Game Chat will be up around 4 p.m.

Manuel’s Musing

Manuel's Musing “It's frustrating, there's no doubt about it. You have to applaud the fact we have, at least in these first 10 games, given ourselves a shot to win.”