Last Night: Perez, Santana, Sheffield

Johan Santana had 5 days of rest between his last start and the first game after the all star break. But for some reason the Mets chose to start Oliver Perez in last night’s game against the Atlanta Braves. Perez actually pitched a decent game allowing 5 hits and 3 runs in 6 innings. He struck out 6 but also walked 4 batters. He kept his team in the game through 6 which is about all that can be asked of him these days.

Perez also hit several points in the game that had me thinking he would implode. A double by Matt Diaz that plated Brian McCann for the tying run in the 4th inning is perhaps the biggest example. Perez intentionally walked the next batter, Casey Kotchman, then struck out the pitcher, Derek Lowe, to end the inning.

Despite what I consider to be a positive outing by Perez I still have to question why Santana wasn’t out there last night. He’s the teams best pitcher and he’s had adequate rest since his last start so why not put him up there and try that much harder to get a win to jump start the second half of the season?

Another issue I’m still confused about is why Gary Sheffield is still playing the field. His lack of mobility caused by his sore hammy. He should have been put on the disabled list right after interleague play ended to allow the injury to heal. I know how important he is to the teams offense right now but what use is his offense if he’s going to allow opponents to score because he can’t catch up to a base hit in time to keep a runner from scoring? That’s what happened last night in the fourth inning.

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