Manuel’s Musing

“[Ruben] Tejada is a young player that right now. I kind of like to pick and choose his battles.”

-Jerry Manuel on Ruben Tejada

Game Recap: Mets 7 – Marlins 6

Sweep.

The Good

Fighting back.  Mets were down 5-0 before rallying back with three in the sixth and three in the seventh.

Chris Carter and Angel Pagan drove in the three runs in the sixth on RBI singles.

Jeff Freakin’ Francoeur.  Ten game hitting streak.  2-4 with a three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie the game.  Welcome back, first-week Francoeur.

David Wright is also on fire.  3-5 today with a run scored.

Productive double play.  The Mets took the lead in the 8th on a Ike Davis double play.

The Bad & Ugly

Taka’s start.  He let up five earned over 5 1/3 innings.  Walked two.  Not really terrible, but not good either.

Ryota ain’t right.  One inning, allowing one earned on two walks.  Something isn’t right with him.

Can we have a 1-2-3 9th inning, K-Rod?  Please?

Game Ball

Citi Field, because the Mets love the park.

On Deck

Monday is an off-day before the Mets welcome the Padres on Tuesday night, 7:10 p.m.

Manuel’s Musing

“This, purely, is Oliver Perez. Oliver Perez came in and said his knee is bothering him.”

-Jerry Manuel on Oliver Perez’s knee

What I missed

1. Oliver Perez DL’d with right knee patella tendonitis.

It’s bull and we all know it.  But anything that gets Perez to the DL and hopefully thoroughly through the minor leagues, while (again, hopefully) improving his ability as a pitcher is a good thing.  Unlikely, but a good thing.

Jon Niese took Ollie’s roster spot.

2. Mets win 4-3 on Friday night.

R.A. Dickey is awesome.  Three runs and seven hits over seven innings.  I like it.  He also went 2-3 at the plate, driving in one and scoring once.

3. Mets win 6-1 on Saturday afternoon.

Niese came back from the DL and was awesome.  Seven innings, allowing just the one run.  Ike Davis went 4-4, scoring three times.  David Wright went 2-3 with three RBI, including a monster two-run blast off the Acela Club.

The Mets go for the sweep at home today at 1:10 p.m.

GMJ DFA’d, Castillo DL’d, Santos, Tejada up

Luis Castillo, as expected, was sent to the disabled list.

So long, Gary Matthews Jr.  He was designated for assignment to make roster room.

Ruben Tejada is up to take over for Castillo, and is batting 8th tonight.

Omir Santos is up as Henry Blanco is a bit banged up.  Santos takes GMJ’s roster spot.

Manuel’s Musing

“One thing about Murph is that he’s a baseball player.”

-Jerry Manuel on Daniel Murphy

When I first saw this quote, I thought there was more to it or that it was taken out of context.  Or something.  I was wrong.

More bad news for Daniel Murphy

See you in 2011, Murphy.

Guess the Met! [Solved]

The rules are easy: I post a Mets player photo, but only reveal a tiny part of the image.  From there, your goal is to try and guess which player the photo is of.

No prizes, but pride and honor is on the line.

Here is today’s Guess the Met… Good luck!

Who is this hairy Met?  Post your guess in the comments!!

Guess this was was way too easy.  Seemingly everyone nailed it.  R.A. Dickey!

Why you can’t overturn Jim Joyce’s call

Armando Galarraga should have pitched a perfect game.  Jim Joyce’s blatantly wrong call at first base erased all hope.  But you can’t overturn it.

Hopefully Major League Baseball and the Detroit Tigers do something very special for Galarraga, as he pitched a brilliant game and was robbed of a chance at history.

Last night, after the Tigers game ended, I was IMing with Tejesh of Mets Prospect Hub, and was arguing over whether or not the play should be overturned or adjusted.  Tejesh thought it should be switched, I did not.

Here’s the example I used, with added detail…

Let’s say Johan Santana and Roy Halladay are locked up in a pitching duel at Citi Field.  It’s a one-game playoff to make it to the postseason.  Santana has allowed a few hits and walks, allowing only one run.  Halladay, though, is pitching a perfect game into the bottom of the 9th.

With two outs and the pitcher’s spot due up, Jerry Manuel decides to pinch-hit Gary Matthew’s Jr.  (Crazy, I know.)

GMJ ends up pulling a ball way down the right field line, which lands foul, but is called fair.  Jayson Werth runs over and falls down, breaking both his legs in the process.  The ball skips away and settles on the warning track.  Shane Victorino hustles over to the ball, but trips and breaks both his arms.  Matthews rounds the bases and ties the game for the Mets.

Now, the ball clearly landed foul, but the umpire determined it was a fair ball.  Because it’s not a home run clearing the wall, it’s not up for review.

The perfect game is ruined, but the Mets also managed to tie the game.  If your overturn it, you take a run off the board for the Mets to keep the perfect game intact.  Is that OK?  No.  Not at all.

(Yeah, I know, that will likely never happen, but it’s just an extreme example of why the play can’t be overturned.)

Galarraga was absolutely robbed of pitching a perfect game, but unless you institute replay for every play – be it balls and strikes, plays at first or home, etc. – you cannot overturn or call back Joyce’s call.  It stinks, but them’s the breaks.

Manuel’s Musing

“I can't watch him walk around out there like that. Come on Luis. Come on home and sit over here by me for a minute.”

-Jerry Manuel on watching Luis Castillo walk