Tonight’s Lineup
Tonight’s lineup was posted a little while ago. As noted earlier Brian Schneider is back from an injury.
Perhaps more notable is that Carlos Delgado is batting in the sixth slot in the order. Delgado has been horrific lately. I’m curious if this is in response to his .208 average with 1 home run or just some kind of strategical move on Willie Randolph’s part. Probably the former. The latter doesn’t make much sense.
This Delgado issue is being carried over from a poor 2007 season. I wonder what Omar Minaya’s answer is for the following question: how long until Delgado goes and someone (anyone) else replaces him? I know what he would say publicly but what is the actual answer?
Anyway, here’s the lineup:
| # | Name | Position | ||||
| 7 | Jose Reyes | SS | ||||
| 1 | Luis Castillo | 2B | ||||
| 5 | David Wright | 3B | ||||
| 15 | Carlos Beltran | CF | ||||
| 16 | Ryan Church | RF | ||||
| 21 | Carlos Delgado | 1B | ||||
| 19 | Angel Pagan | LF | ||||
| 23 | Brian Schneider | C | ||||
| 57 | Johan Santana | P | ||||
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Schneider Back
It looks like Brian Schneider‘s bruised forearm is well enough to let him play tonight.
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Get Your Head in the Game
Yesterday’s game was lousy. The Mets lost 8-1 to the Cubs but it was even uglier than the score shows. When explaining the loss some people talked about fundamentals (or lack thereof). Others talked about lack of concentration. The bottom line is what Yogi Berra once said: “We made too many wrong mistakes.” Get you’re head in the game and stop making them.
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Cox & His Cigar: Who Cares?
In the last couple of days I’ve seen probably about a dozen stories asking what will happen when it comes time for Atlanta manager Bobby Cox to light his traditional post game cigar when the Braves visit Shea Stadium this weekend. (The latest one can be found here.) Why is this such a big story? Who really cares?
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Mets At Cubs Today
I’ve been away for a few days but I’m back and ready to go now. And so are the Mets. They’ll be playing the Cubs today with first pitch coming up in about 15 minutes. The Mets are starting some backups today in typical day game after night game fashion. Angel Pagan will start against his former team after sitting out the last two games.
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Easley Beats Nats in 14th
With Carlos Beltran sitting out with a stiff neck the Mets pulled off a 14 inning 3-2 win over the Nationals last night. (As usual the extra inning games always seem to end one inning after I go to bed.) The winning run was scored when Damion Easley ran home on a wild pitch. Easley had led off the inning with a single, moved to second on a wild pitch and moved to third when a pick off attempt went bad. So depending on if you’re a glass half empty or half full person you’ll either say the mets were lucky to win it or that they won with great heads up base running that took advantage of opportunities that were not normally there.
Either way they won the game and move on to face the Phillies for a 3 game set at Citizen Bank Field in Philadelphia. The Phillies are not the Nationals and you must be up from the first at bat until the last to beat them even if, as expected, Jimmy Rollins doesn’t play. With Beltran’s stiff neck it’s possible the Mets will be without their start center fielder for one or more games over the weekend so the rest of the lineup will have to pick up the slack.
Anyway, there was more good news in the bullpen. Joe Smith pitched well again (1 1/3 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K) and Duaner Sanchez (1 2/3 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 K) pitched his second consecutive game. And Billy Wagner and Aaron Heilman pithed a scoreless inning each too. These guys are proving that they can get the job done. Now it’s up to the starters to put in their innings to keep the relievers from being over worked and the offense to give them leads to work with. So far they’ve had problems getting all three of these facets to match in a single game.
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Beltran Powers Mets Past Nats
Carlos Beltran broke out of his shell for his first home run last night en route to the Mets 5-2 win over the Nationals. Beltran’s 3 run shot followed solo homers by Ryan Church and Jose Reyes.
Reyes has been on fire the last two games since returning from a minor hamstring injury. He gives Beltran some of the credit. He said Beltran told him that he changed when he should be himself. I’m not quite sure what that means but apparently being himself has helped him have two excellent games against the Nationals. Let’s see him continue that over the weekend against the Phillies.
Joe Smith has another good outing. He has now pitched 6 2/3 innings over 7 games this season allowing just 1 earned run. He’s allowed 4 hits, walked 2 and struck out 5. Not bad for a guy who was lucky to make the team out of spring training.
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Crasnick: Banny On The Verge
Jerry Crasnick at ESPN.com has written about several young pitchers on the verge of something big. Coming in at fourth on the list (out of 9) is Brian Bannister. About the former Met Crasnick says “Outside of Greg Maddux, there might not be a pitcher in the game right now so consistently described as “cerebral.” ” High praise indeed. Makes you wonder what Ambiorix Burgos is capable when he’s healthy.
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Mets Shutout Washington
David Wright hit a homer in his third consecutive game as the Mets beat Washington 6-0 last night. He also hit 2 doubles and drove in 5 runs. But Wright’s exploits were not the only highlights for the Mets.
Jose Reyes returned to the lineup and went 4 for 5 with 2 singles, a double and a triple. Duaner Sanchez made hist first appearance in 1 1/2 years in a scoreless 9th inning. And Mike Pelfrey pitched 7 shutout innings (5 hits, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts).
It was an excellent game for the Mets (with the exception of Aaron Heilman‘s shaky 8th inning) but it’s hard to get pumped about beating a last place team after giving away their last two games. The team they beat last night cannot be viewed in any way as a contender. In fact they’re not even good enough to be called a pretender. So pardon me for not getting excited about this one.
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Correction: Reyes To Play
Contrary to what I wrote in my last post Jose Reyes will be in the lineup tonight. Furthermore in contrast to what Willie Randolph said yesterday he has dropped Luis Castillo to the 8th slot in the order. Ryan Church will bat second. Moving Castillo down makes sense until he is healthy but I’d rather see Angel Pagan bat seconds instead of Church.
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