Tom Seaver Fan Club

The Mets home opener ended the same way they finished off last season. Losing to the Philadelphia Phillies. On April 8th, the Mets were defeated by the Phillies 5-2. The Mets were up 2-0, thanks to a home run by Carlos Delgado and a RBI by Ryan Church that sent in Carlos Beltran who doubled a few batters before. But later in the game the Phillies put some numbers on the board, scoring three runs in the seventh and two in the eighth to give them the victory. Mets pitcher Oliver Perez pitched 5 very good scoreless innings and came away with the no decision, but it was reliever Scott Schoeneweis who ended up with the loss pitching in the seventh and givin up those three runs to lose the game. This was not a very good game for the Mets. They wanted to come in to Shea Stadium with a bang and they just didn’t make it happen. Second basemen Luis Castillo left after the fourth inning with soreness in his surgically repaired right knee and will most likely take a day off to rest and will probably help the soreness. He was replaced by Damion Easley he did not get a hit. The Mets look to come back tomorrow and hope to show the home fans what they’re really about.

On Wednesday May 9th, the Mets got their first win at Shea Stadium this season. Mike Pelfrey got his first win of the season pitching five solid innings and the Mets beat the Phillies 8-2. Surprisingly the Mets only had five hits compared to the eight hits that the Phillies accounted for. But the stat that stood out the most was the nine walks and four errors the Phillies gave up that led to six unearned runs by the Mets. This was quite a sloppy game on the offensive end for New York, but the bullpen was what held them in there only giving up three hits in four innings and not giving up any runs. Damion Easley started at second in place for injured Luis Castillo, going 1-3 with two RBI’s and one run. One key player wasn’t in the lineup for the Phillies… think his name is Jimmy Rollins. Oh yeah, the 2007 NL MVP. Without their star, Philadelphia looked completely lost in the game and clearly aren’t meshing well. This win for the Mets stopped a three game skid and ended a nine-game losing streak to Philadelphia. The Mets go for their second straight win against the Phillies tomorrow at home.

On April 10th, the Mets once again beat the Philadelphia Phillies- without Jimmy Rollins. Starting pitcher John Maine, pitched 5 good innings only giving up one run and the bullpen did there job to beat the Phillies 4-3, in a game that went to 12 innings. The Mets batters were much more productive getting nine hits but had only four runs. Funny how that works. Angel Pagan led the way going 3-5 with two runs and one RBI. With two outs in the 12th, Reyes doubled off Tom Gordon and Pagan grounded a single to center. Center fielder Jayson Werth’s made a good throw home and a very close play on the speedy Jose Reyes, who slid around catcher Chris Coste and appeared to touch the plate with his left hand just before Coste applied the tag. Rollins did get his chance to pinch hit in the ninth inning but Billy Wagner struck him out.

On the 11th, Mets beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-2. Long time hometown fan, Nelson Figueroa, was the starting pitcher for New York and had his first win of the season. Figueroa pitched six good innings and only gave up two runs. The Mets had eight hits and an RBI each from Angel Pagan, Carlos Delgado, Damion Easley, and Raul Casanova. Pagan and David Wright each had two hits and were the only Mets players that had more then one hit. Wright, Delgado, Carlos Beltran, and pinch hitter Endy Chavez provided the four run for the Mets. The bullpen was excellent in the 7th, 8th, and 9th inning, not giving up any hits, walks, or runs. This 5-4 team needs the bullpen to play like this to make a September run.

Johan Santana didn’t get the start at Shead Stadium he wanted. It was a showdown between Santana and Milwaukee Brewer’s ace pitcher Ben Sheets and Sheets took the W and defeated Santana in his home debut. Neither star pitched that well, but Sheets pitched well enough in his 7+ innings giving up five hits and three earned runs. Santana was pulled a little bit into the 7th inning after he gave up a home run to Gabe Kapler to make the score 5-2. He finished his day by giving up six hits and three home runs to go with his four earned runs. The final score, Milwaukee Brewers beat the New York Mets 5-3. The Mets didn’t get the bats needed to overcome Johan’s sub-par performance only getting five hits including David Wright’s home run that brought in two batters, but that seemed to be the only thing that went right for them. All-Star shortstop Jose Reyes missed the game after finding out he had a mild strain in his left hamstring and is listed as day-to-day; Damion Easley filled his place and went 0-4. It’s still the beginning of the season and the Mets are at .500 with a record of 5-5, but have yet to find a constant base for the pitchers and batters to mesh in the same games. The Mets play the Brewers again tomorrow at home and will try to prevent a two game skid.

The Mets finished off there home series against the Brewers on April 13th on a unfortunate note. In a game that totaled 25 hits, the Brewers once again defeated the Mets by a score of 7-9. This was a very exciting game and a game that both teams starting pitchers weren’t very happy about their outing. Brewers pitcher Jeff Suppan only lasted four innings letting up nine hits and six earned runs, and Mets pitcher Oliver Perez gave up similar stats after pitching to three Brewers in the fifth and finished his day by giving up nine hits and six earned runs as well. The Mets took a good lead at the end of the third by a score of 6-2, but then the Brewers scored four runs in the 4th inning, two in the 6h, and one in the 7th, to secure the win. All of the starting players for the Mets had at least one hit besides first baseman Carlos Delgado. Angel Pagan, Luis Castillo, Ryan Church and Damion Easley, who filled in for Jose Reyes again, had two hits, and Brian Schneider provided three hits. David Wright got his second home run in two days. Like I said in my last game post, the Mets have yet to mesh their pitching with their hitting. Very Explosive on the bats, poor performance from the starting pitching and reliever Jorge Sosa who got the L, pitching 1+ innings letting up two hits and one home run to go with his two earned runs.

I apologized for the lack of posts but I’m back and am going to summarize the Mets first week of the MLB season (not including opening day.)

On April 1st, the Mets didn’t get the start they wanted from Pedro Martinez. That was because 57 pitches in to the game, he limped off the mound. After retiring Matt Treanor in the fourth inning, Pedro grabbed both his midsection and lower back region and after talking with Mets manager Willie Randolph and team medical officials, was taken out of the game. It was later found out that he had a strained left hamstring. Besides the loss of Pedro, the Mets unfortunately came up short in the 10th inning losing to the Marlins 4-5. Florida came out swinging right out of the gates getting two runs in each the first and second inning but the Mets came back scoring three runs in the fourth and one in the fifth to tie the game at four. Neither team could capitalize the rest of the game so it went in to extra innings. After the Mets couldn’t get any runs on the board in the top of the 10th, Marlins third baseman Robert Andino hit a home run with two outs in the bottom of the inning to win the game. Reyes, Castillo, Wright, Delgado, Church, and Pagan all got one hit and catcher Brian Schneider got three hits to lead the team. Wright, Delgado, Church, and Pagan were the players who provided the runs. After Pedro’s bad start giving up four hits, two home runs, and four earned runs, the bullpen played great only giving up one hit and zero runs until Matt Wise gave up that home run in the 10th for the loss. That was the only hit he gave up. The Mets hung in there but it was an unfortunate ending to a long game.

On April 2nd, the Mets redeemed themselves by putting a whooping on the Marlins beating them 13-0. Oliver Perez was great pitching six shutout innings, only giving up five hits and one walk, and striking out eight. After Perez, the bullpen was awesome only giving up one hit to go along with two strikeouts. On the offensive end, Ryan Church and David Wright each homered, Carlos Beltran had three doubles and the Mets racked up 17 hits. A very impressive stat was that besides the pitchers, every player who started on the Mets, tallied at least one hit. A very impressive win for the club. This victory showed how good offensively the Mets can be and the pitching is for real.

On April 5th, the Mets moved to their next destination, Atlanta, to play the Braves. The outcome wasn’t as successful as the last game. Mets starting pitcher John Maine only lasted four innings giving up eight hits and four runs, and the Mets were beaten by the Braves 11-5. The Mets got a total of ten hits so the bats held up their own, but the bullpen was awful giving up seven hits and seven earned runs. The big play of the game happened in the bottom of the seventh inning when the Braves were leading 5-3, Atlanta’s pinch-hitter, Kelly Johnson, hit a two out grand slam to break open the close game and extend the score to 9-3. Some small stats– David Wright was 0-for-4, ending his 20-game hitting streak that began Sept. 19, 2007. Clearly not an area of concern while he is still batting .353. After this game, Carlos Beltran was hitting a team best .438 and had six doubles to lead the MLB in that category. This was a very poor outing from the pitching crew. The boys are very inconsistent and need to improve in many areas. The Mets finish their last game on the road against the Braves before they return to New York for the home opener.

On April 6th, the Mets did basically the opposite at Turner Field then they did the day before. Johan Santana had a very good seven innings only letting in one run but the run support was not there. The game turned into a pitchers battle when John Smoltz, who made his first start after opening the season on the disabled list, pitched five very good scoreless innings and earned the win by beating the Mets 3-1. The Braves completed the mini-sweep and the main reason they won was because they got the runs when they had the chances. The Mets did only have five hits compared to Atlanta’s eight, but the real stat was how many men were left on base. The Mets had 14 compared to the Braves seven. Weird the say but the best hitter on the Mets was probably Santana. He was one for two with a double. Very solid stats for a pitcher. The Mets finished off their road game series on an unfortunate note and with a record of 2-3, but look to start new when they play their home opener on April 8th against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Johan Santana insisted he was nervous before the Mets season opener. He didn’t look like it at all. Johan came to shine in his first game as a Met and pitched seven great innings in the Mets win over the Florida Marlins with a score of 7-2, striking out eight and only giving up three hits and two earned runs. Besides the dominant play of their star pitcher, the Mets did the job hitting the ball too by getting ten hits and seven runs and only striking out three times. This was a great game played by the Mets and a big win to start the season.

The Mets hitting was very successful. The big three- Jose Reyes, David Wright and Carlos Beltran- did their part as they each got two hits. Reyes was 2-4 with one rbi and one run scored, but surprisingly was caught stealing in his first attempt this season and only attempt in the game. Wright was 2-4 with two doubles and one walk. His biggest play of the night was his double in fourth, when the bases were loaded sending home all three, which made the score 5-0 at that point. Beltran was 2-5 and his two hits were doubles as well, while only scoring one run. Newcomers Angel Pagan and Ryan Church each had one hit, one rbi, and one run. Very good numbers for a six and seven hitter. One of Pagan’s hits was a double and also had a walk. Carlos Delgado and Brian Schneider each were hitless, although Delgado got walked once, while Luis Castillo, the number two hitter in the rotation, was 1-3 with two walks, one run, and one stolen base. Santana didn’t have a great hitting performance going 0-3 with one strikeout leaving two on base, but no one is holding it against him because, one- he’s a pitcher and two- he made up for it by his wonderful pitching performance.

Besides Santana’s strong performance, the bullpen did their job only giving up two hits (all by reliever Matt Wise) and zero earned runs. After Santana’s seven innings, the eighth inning was split by Wise, Scott Schoeneweis, and Jorge Sosa who all did very well. The game was secured in the ninth inning when Aaron Heilman closed it out with two strikeouts. The pitching crew in this game was wonderful only giving up five hits and two earned runs.

This was a great way for the Mets to start their season, Santana was dominant and the players did a great job on the offensive end. All together it was a good victory over a young team and a great showing by the new look Mets. They played the Marlins again yesterday, which will be the next post.