Apr
5
2011

Forever Young, Mets Beat Phillies 7-1

An article by Sean Kenny

Chris Young, in his Mets debut pitched a great first game, going five and one-third innings, giving up one run on five hits with four walks and seven strikeouts and the offense exploded in the third inning, chasing Cole Hamels in their 7-1 victory.

Game Notes

Chris Young looked pretty good in his first outing for the Mets. He allowed five hits, but didn’t start allowing hits and runs until after the 4th inning. Young had some control issues, but as they like to say was wildly effective. Despite the lack of speed difference in his pitches, Young kept hitters off balance. If this was just a sign of things to come, this could be a great season for Chris Young. He split even with ground balls and fly balls 5 to 5.

The bullpen came out and got in some solid work today. D.J. Carrasco came out and allowed one hit in one and two-third innings, striking out one. Tim Byrdak came out, and did exactly what he was expected to, striking out Ryan Howard and allowing zero hits in his inning of work. Bobby Parnell finished up the game allowing one hit, a ground ball just out of the reach of Chin-lung Hu. The pitching was spectacular today.

The offense today came alive for one inning, and thats all that was really needed. RBI hits by David Wright, Ike Davis, Brad Emaus and Chris Young in addition to Angel Pagan scoring on a wild pitch . All of this damage chased Phillies starter Cole Hamels out of the game, only allowing him to pitch two and two-third innings. The Mets tacked on a run for insurance on a Scott Hairston RBI single, scoring David Wright. The Mets stole three bases (Reyes, Pagan, Wright) and drew four walks (Pagan, Beltran, Hairston, Davis). Despite no massive offensive contributions, the Mets capitalized when they had runners in scoring position.

13 overall hits for the Mets, pretty good day.

David Wright, 4-5 with 2 RBI, 2 Runs, a stolen base and a strikeout.

Angel Pagan, 0-3, hitting .143 but has a 4:1 BB:K ratio and picked up his second SB of the season.

Brad Emaus, 1-4 with his first MLB RBI. Welcome to the big show Brad.

Mike Nickeas – 0 for 5 with two strikeouts. Where are you, Ronny Paulino?

Turning Point

The top of the third inning and the Mets hitting with RISP.

Game Ball

Split between David Wright and Chris Young. David Wright had a phenomenal offensive game, as did Chris Young. Mr. Young was 3 for 3 with an RBI and a run. He also pitched a pretty good game.

On Deck

The Mets will look to guarantee a winning series tomorrow, sending Mike Pelfrey to face-off against Joe Blanton of the Phillies. Game time is 7:10 pm

About the Author: Sean Kenny

Sean Kenny is a student/writer currently attending school at the City College of New York. For more Mets news, notes and thoughts follow him on twitter @TheSeanKenny

18 Comments + Add Comment

JerseyGuy276 April 5, 2011 at 10:42 pm

Great win. Nice to see Young had a great first game. If only I could have actually watched/heard it .
- Met Maniac April 5, 2011 at 10:44 pm
  
  Great win, I agree. I missed the game too, but it’s good to read all the positives that took place tonight.
  - JerseyGuy276 April 5, 2011 at 10:55 pm
    
    I don’t think I’ll be ok with reading about every win in the month of April haha.
Met Maniac April 5, 2011 at 10:46 pm

Great game by David Wright and as Bayonne mentioned in the chat, he is looking a lot like the 05-06 version which can only mean good things to come. Get Thole back in the lineup, he’s young he does not need to rest after a day off on Monday! Play his ass off!
- Hitman April 5, 2011 at 11:48 pm
  
  While I agree wholeheartedly with Thole playing his ass off, I would like to say that the Mets need another backup RHB catcher. Nickeas was very unimpressive for me tonight. He just looked overmatched all night.
  - t agee April 6, 2011 at 9:42 am
    
    He really is not a Major League capable hitter. His defense looked real good last night, not sure who called the game but it was a game plan that worked but the lineup would function so much better with another RH hitter in it and I don’t think Thole will ever hit LHP well.
    - Hitman April 6, 2011 at 5:42 pm
      
      I would like to see the Mets pick up Chris Snyder of the Pirates. He’s solid offensively Vs LHP and defensively (capable of throwing out about 30% of baserunners.) Good option of a backup while Paulino is gone for who knows when.
- t agee April 6, 2011 at 9:39 am
  
  I’m not sure what else besides being just a little late or swinging just a little low but does Wright ever hit a line drive into the stands? Down the line? near the foul pole? I never see Wright hit a foul ball anywhere but straight back. Clearly he’s never out in front of the ball.
- Metsie April 6, 2011 at 10:37 am
  
  I give some of the credit for Wright’s success to the fact that Beltran is protecting him in the lineup.
  
  And don’t knock Collins for replacing Thole too quick.
  It was mentioned on the broadcast that the reason Nickeas was in there was he had done a lot of work catching Young in ST and thought they worked well together.
  
  Also I think I see some genius in what Collins is doing.
  
  You want them to play as a team and the way you do that is to let the guys on the bench know they will probably get into any game! This is smart (ok I admit genius is a little too strong a word LOL).
  
  COllins said he wants to start his bench guys at least once a week so they get 4 PAs to keep them fresh so when they are called to come off the bench and PH they are not rusty and stale.
  
  At this point of the season and considering how important staying healthy is I have to say it’s a pretty good plan to use.
  
  It makes everyone feel like they are part of something and it will have benefits later on in the season when most teams start to tire out but we have kept our guys rested and healthy early on so they can stay strong for the dog days of august.
srt April 5, 2011 at 11:36 pm

That was fun. Let’s continue the fun tomorrow.

Glad to see Wright apparently getting off to a good start. He’s had some slow Aprils in the past.

Waiting for Pagan to join the party.
Mr North Jersey April 5, 2011 at 11:57 pm

Anytime you beat the Phillies it’s a great win. Very impressed with how Young had the Phillies baffled over the 1st 4 innings.

I know Wright had a good game going 4 for 5 and Young was impressives with his outing and his added offensive contribution going 3 for 3 but for me what i was most impressed with was the bullpen.

The Phillies are notorious for lat game comebacks so as soon as Young left the game excuse me if I was feeling concerned with how well the Pen would perform.

Turns out that for today they performed great. Carrasco coming in to get that inning ending double play was just great to see.

The final line for the pen was: 3.2/IP 2/H 0/R 0/BB 2/K

Good job.
sarge April 5, 2011 at 11:58 pm

I like what Young brings to rotation, over the top with a small change up that gets batter down in the strike zone, looked good against Howard.
Pitching is what will determine how far Mets go, oh, and Pelf and Johan pitching like they know they can.
- t agee April 6, 2011 at 9:48 am
  
  Young won’t get as many strikeouts on his split next time through Philly, they’ll be looking for and taking that pitch. He’ll have to have a plan to take advantage of that. Howard just missed a HR and there were two others that in warmer weather are out of the park. I feel that Young gave us a chance and can improve throughout the season, but he’s going to have to.
  
  On the other hand who would have thought that Alderson would have put together a team that would all be hitting well below Chris Young?
russell Zanca April 6, 2011 at 12:14 am

Every day, good baseball, that’s all I ask.

Way to go, Metsies!
Squidoo April 6, 2011 at 2:06 am

Nice to see this team playing with this type of confidence. It’s been a while.
jay'smets April 6, 2011 at 8:43 am

Great all around effort. Strong pitching, solid defense, good hitting with runners in scoring position and the bullpen sealed it with a kiss. Nice job……
Metsie April 6, 2011 at 10:42 am

Young pitched a good game, Looking at his motion though I can see why he has had some injury issues. I can’t suggest to chage his motion it is a big reason why his pitches work but lets just hope that all the surgery has been good enough to hold up to the stress he puts on that whip motion.

Getting him a lead early sure helped as well. As it has every pitcher so far.

We are hitting and the pitching has benefited greatly from it. The only question left to answer is can the pitching win us a game when the bats go quiet.
We will probably see when we face Halladay.
Forever Young, Mets Beat Phillies 7-1 | Welcome to nYahoo! April 9, 2011 at 9:40 am

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