29
2009
Game Recap: Marlins 4 – Mets 3
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Game Summary
The Mets (9-12) lost to the Florida Marlins (13-8) 4-3 who won the series and and got back to their winning ways. The Mets squandered another solid start, this time by Johan Santana who didn’t figure into the decision. The bullpen had another classic meltdown, this time by J.J. Putz who along with Sean Green have blown back to back saves.
Mets Pitching
Johan Santana deserved a win today, but instead he got another no-decision as the Mets bats and the revamped bullpen let him down. The Marlins got to Santana early when they scored two runs in the first inning, which included another homerun by Jorge Cantu that barely went over the leftfield wall. Santana went into shutdown mode after that and held the Marlins scoreless through the seventh inning. Overall, Santana allowed just the 2 runs on 5 hits and he struck out 7 batters. Tough, tough loss.
What should have been a hard fought win for Johan Santana ended in utter disappointment thanks to another bad job by the bullpen. Today’s goat was J.J. Putz who immediately got himself into trouble by walking the first two batters he faced. Then, after a sacrifice bunt moved the runners over, Cody Ross singled through the middle scoring both runners. Terrible job by Putz… simply awful…
Frankie Rodriguez pitched the ninth without incident and I must say I am surprised at how many non save situations he has pitched in already, Billy Wagner would have never tolerated such a thing.
Mets Hitting
Fernando Tatis was the hitting star of the day going 3-4 with 2 RBI’s and and homerun that had put the Mets in front for the first time in the game. He is making the most of his opportunities and much like last year, he continues to hit in the clutch. Tatis also stole his second base of the season.
Ramon Castro also had a couple of hits, but was pulled for a pinch hitter in the ninth. You can read my thoughts on that in the segment below. The Mets did have 16 baserunners so getting on base was not an issue.
However, you’re not going to have too many hitting highlights when you leave 14 runners stranded on base the way the Mets did today. It was just another pathetic effort by the offense which continues to struggle despite all the daily lineup changes.
Random Thoughts
As much as I have grown to like Omir Santos and dislike Ramon Castro, I thought pulling Castro in favor of Santos in the ninth inning with two outs was a terrible call by Jerry Manuel. Castro was having a good game, while Santos had to haul ass from the bullpen to face a pitcher who throwing 99 MPH fastballs. It was just a bad case of over-managing by Manuel.
I also thought that the decision not to let Jose Reyes steal second in the eight inning was another bad call by Manuel. Having Reyes at second would have changed the entire complexion of the Alex Cora at-bat and his liner up the middle may have broken through for a base hit.
David Wright has officially become a liability right now. He should have been rested today so that he could have had two days off to get it together before the Phillies series. Another two strikeouts, a double play, and his fourth error of the season was kind of tough to take.
The Mets wasted another fabulous start by Johan Santana who could very well be 5-0 right now.
Game Ball
A game ball each to Fernando Tatis and Johan Santana.
Up Next
A very shaken up Mets team now head to Philadelphia to play the defending World Champion Phillies for a critical three game series. Mike Pelfrey, Oliver Perez and John Maine will all start in the big weekend series. LGM
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
Went to my first Mets game, a Mayors Trophy game at Shea, in '73. We beat the Yankees 8-4 and I was hooked. I marched in two Banner Day parades, and before the Grand Slam single, there was the "Hendu Can Do" grand slam - I was there. I've collected Mets memorabilia all my life and started Mets Merized Online to feed my addiction.
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A critical series for a team in critical condition.
Jerry Randolph strikes again
Wright is struggling, why not have him bunt with runners on 1 & 2 with no outs? I agree with Joe about resting Wright today so he has 2 days off to prepare for the Phils. And I have no idea why he would pinch hit in that situation. I think Jerry is trying to make something happen instead of letting things happen.
I think Jerry is just at his wits end like the rest of us. I agree that Wright needs some time off. I understand April is not exactly his month, but this is ridiculous.
This whole RISP issue has gone past critical. Something needs to be done. But what?
Plus, when Manuel decided to pull Castro to put in Santos, Castro walked out of the dugout and into the clubhouse. He needs to go already. I don’t care how wrong it was, you stay in the dugout and support your teammate.
Tanya, where did you get the info about Castro going back to club house ? Also how do you get a picture next to your comment. I live in Texas so I was getting the Marlin broadcast. If he did that I think he should be sent down to minors. That is a blatent lack of team concept and should not be tolerated. I know pitchers do it, but a position player. Poor David sounded like he was going to cry again in his post game interview. Again I’m not worried about David, he will come around. I am very worried in how this team finds ways to lose game after game though.
I don’t think you can really call Putz a goat. Putz and K-Rod or going to both blow a few games and if you leave 14 runners on the bases then you aren’t giving them any cushion to work with.
Ken you do bring up an excellent point.
We can’t really blame the ‘pen. Right now, the offense is what is hurting this team…not so much the pitching. If the offense would wake up, and not just in the first inning or two, the pitching staff (starters and relievers) would not be so pressured to perform.
This game was lost because of the offense. We have none!
Time to break up the team. Actually it was time to break it up after 2007. Reyes and Wright stay, they’re way too young and talented to trade away. Plus they’re home grown. I say trade Delgado and Beltran to the Angels for Tori Hunter and Howie Kendrick. I’m not going to sit here and pretend Hunter is as talented as Beltran, he’s not. But this team needs some sort of leadership other than Wright and Beltran certainly isn’t it. If Detroit begins cost cutting I would sell the farm for Miguel Cabrera. He could our 1b for the next 5-10 years. And our cleanup hitter. Besides that I think the front office just needs to realize this team can’t win. In fact to call it a team would be remiss, its a collection of players. The only leader is D. Wright and I think he just isn’t ready to carry that load all by himself.
So Santana, Wright, Reyes stay, everybody else should go. Not saying everyone else is to blame for the past 2 years, because EVERYONE deserves a little blame. But something needs/has needed to be done for a while now. This team has had a funk on it since the 2007 collapse and until major changes are made the odor will stay.
I know most fans live by the “win at all costs” mantra, but I think there is something more important. And thats having a team you can root for. A team that’s fun to watch, and plays inspired baseball. Give me a 70 win team of guys that hustle, play hard and like each other. Guys that communicate, that get on each other when they’re not playing hard, an actual TEAM. I’d much rather see a 70 win team like that, building for the future and moving in the right direction, than what we have now. Which is a collection of guys, who other than a couple, don’t seem to care. And they’re so talented that they will probably win 85 games. And all us Mets fan will be left to suffer through another Summer of watching a team that is downright painful to root for.
Thanks for letting me rant. I needed to get that out, and I don’t feel like calling WFAN and waiting on hold for an hour.
And no, this is not a knee jerk reaction to a few losses. This team needed to make changes after 2007. They didn’t and I had to watch them sleep walk through all of last season. Changes again should have been made this past off season and they weren’t. This has been building for over 2 years now. There comes a point in time when a GM needs to look in the mirror and say, “you know what, this team doesn’t have it”.
For all you stat geeks out there,statistically, I’m sure this team is a championship caliber club. I have no doubt about that. There is clearly immense talent. But there is something lacking that championship teams have and we clearly don’t. Call it fire, heart, leadership, hustle, whatever. But we don’t have it. I’m not going to sit here and pretend like I know that trading Beltran for Hunter, or bringing back Cliff Floyd or Cameron would fix things. I’m not claiming to have an answer for the Mets. But I know one thing for certain, this current group of players that we watch every night, is NOT the answer. And they haven’t been for quite some time.
Nosh, with the outfield in Citi Field as vast as it is, you want to trade away the best defensive player on the team? That makes no sense. Nobody is going to be able to play that outfield like he does.
Beltran is our best player, he is untouchable.
i knew that the Mets would lost Johan start this week. Of course he should be 5-0. Ok, he gave up a homerun. it had to happen sooner or later. Point is we had the chance to win many times in that game, and WERE winning the game until the bullpen blows it. We can’t afford bad bullpen AND bad parting pitching.