3
2009
Mets Comeback Falls Short; Lose 6-5 To D’backs
An article by 
The Mets came close to pulling a rabbit out of their hat tonight after falling behind 6-0 to the Diamondbacks after two innings. They came up a run short, but came so close to tying and winning the game if not for another baserunning blunder by Angel Pagan.
Nelson Figueroa was called up to make the start after compiling a string of solid starts for Buffalo. I was one of those who was hoping to see the Mets give him another shot in the rotation, but alas it wasn’t meant to be.
Figgy was lambasted by the D’Backs who teed off on him like he was pitching batting practice. It was so brutal that Jerry Manuel had to pull him out of the game before he could complete the second inning.
He wound up lasting just 1.2 innings and allowed six earned runs on ten hits, three of which were homers. Yuck!
If there was one bright spot in this game, it was definitely the amazing job by the bullpen. Under the worst of circumstances, they came out and combined to pitch 7.1 scoreless innings. Tim Redding led the way with 3.1 solid innings, followed by two strong innings from Bobby Parnell. Feliciano and Stokes finished up.
The Mets got on the board in the third inning thanks to a lead-off double by Omir Santos followed by Angel Pagan’s sixth triple of the season.
In the fifth inning, the Mets had a chance to blow the game open when Luis Castillo singled with the bases loaded to plate two, followed by a single from David Wright who drove in another run. The Mets would only score three runs as Gary Sheffield grounded into an inning ending double play.
After the inning, Castillo and Cora both confronted Angel Pagan for stopping at second base instead of easily taking third base. Had he gone to third, Castillo would have ended up on second base with a double, and both would have easily scored on the David Wright single to tie the game. It was the second base running blunder by Pagan in this series.
Daniel Murphy led off the sixth with his seventh home run against Dan Haren to bring the Mets within one run at 6-5, but that would be all the offense the Mets would muster for the rest of the game.
It was nice to see the Mets fight back like they did despite being in a six run hole after two innings. Give them credit for turning a laugher into a pretty good game.
The loss does set the Mets back further in the wild card standings as they fall to eight games behind and seven teams still remain ahead of them.
Tomorrow, the Mets begin a four game series against the Cardinals. Johan Santana goes up against Joel Pineiro.
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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Hope this stops all the talk that Figgy is anything more than a AAAA pitcher.
DFA him yet again. And while you are at it, pack Angel Berroa with him. It is a disgrace that we have a player like Angel Berroa on our roster.
I agree; get rid of both of them. Unfortunately, there is no one worth bringing up. Might as well just go with a roster of 23 and wait for injured players to return to fill the 2 spots. My funny.
Let’s pick the GOAT of the gam. Is it Figueroa or Pagan? Why waste a GOAT on Figueroa who will not be around very long? I’ll go with Pagan who was the difference maker to seal the loss. The 2nd Half GOATS are:
Parnell, Pelfrey, Cora, Perez, Pelfrey, Santana, Niese, Green, Pelfrey, Pagan.
Well it was a good game. They tried and the bullpen did a great job. I like seeing Tim Redding there. He is working out now. Sure, they lost, but as loses go it was not so bad.
I agree – even though we got another “L”, I thought they showed fight and heart coming back against a good pitcher, just came up short.
I think Fig is the goat not Pagan. Last week we are killing him for being too agressives, seems he got spoken to about it, so of course he’s gun shy last night, another case of we can’t have it both ways.
Fig certainly qualifies to be the goat. However, the win was still there to be had with good baserunning. Pagan put the L in the bank. But it’s pretty much a tossup. Figgy will be gone shortly, so it’s almost a waste of the goat to pin it on him. After all, we can see now that he is not really a Big Leaguer, so why blame him? It is also a sad reflection of Buffalo that the best they had to give us was of no real value.
True enough