3
2011
Offense Erupts, Dickey Pitches Well, Mets Win 9-2
An article by 
The Mets bats came alive, R.A. Dickey pitched a solid six innings and the Mets won there first series of the season, on the road. The Mets didn’t win their first road series until August last season
Game Notes
R.A. Dickey pitched a solid six innings, allowing one unearned run on five hits, walking three and striking out seven. Dickey’s knuckleball was dancing today, and his rubber-armed nature has shown, throwing 108 total pitchers, 69 for strikes. Dickey has seemed to start off this season the same way he ended it, putting batters away consistently.
The Mets bullpen got some solid work today, with Chris Capuano, D.J. Carrasco, Tim Byrdak and Taylor Bucholz pitching the final three innings. Chris Capuano went two-thirds of an inning, allowing one run on three hits and walking one. Capuano was very hittable and maybe it was just not being used to pitching out of relief, but its hopefully not a sign of things to come. D.J. Carrasco came out, and pitched one-third of an inning, striking out one. Tim Byrdak pitched an inning, allowing two hits and striking out one. Byrdak got to face both righties and lefties, so that was a plus to see but he was hit hard. Taylor Buchholz pitched the ninth innings, allowing one hit and walking one while striking out one. Buchholz has looked unsettled in the bullpen.
The Mets bats came out today looking to strike first. Willie Harris, the second batter of the game, hit a two-run home run in the first inning. Then, Lucas Duda hit a fielders choice and Ike Davis scored on an error by Hanley Ramirez. Ike Davis sent an absolute blast out, a solo-shot to deep right center in the third inning. Daniel Murphy, playing second base for the first time this regular season, hit a ground rule double, scoring Angel Pagan. R.A. Dickey knocked two across with some help from a Emilio Bonafacio throwing error, knocking in Lucas Duda and Daniel Murphy. Angel Pagan drew an RBI walk, scoring Hu. Scott Hairston scored Willie Harris on a fielders choice.
Angel Pagan & David Wright – 0 for 5 with 5 walks, 1 run and 1 RBI. May not look pretty, but plate patience is important. David Wright also struck out.
Daniel Murphy – 1 for 3 with an RBI, a run and a walk.
Josh Thole – 1 for 3 with two walks.
The Mets overall today drew nine walks, which is amazing. They scored nine runs on eight hits, which is more a product of shoddy defense then utter domination
Turning Point
When the Mets exploded in the first inning, sending a message and chasing Javier Vasquez.
Game Ball
R.A. Dickey. He went out today and made sure that the Mets would win their first road series in their first chance.
Up Next
The Mets have the day off tommorrow, and will travel to Philadelphia to open a series with the Phillies. The Mets will be sending out free agent acquisition Chris Young up against Phillies lefty Cole Hamels. 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
31 Comments + Add Comment
NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 25 | 18 | .581 | - |
| Nationals | 23 | 21 | .523 | 2.5 |
| Phillies | 21 | 23 | .477 | 4.5 |
| Mets | 17 | 24 | .415 | 7.0 |
| Marlins | 12 | 32 | .273 | 13.5 |
Last updated: 05/19/2013
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what can u say they looked good today.willie harris raising a few eyebrows.
Chris Young v Cole Hamels…
I want to see how that game goes. Chris Young is being thrown right into the fire against the Phillies.
Anyway, great game, and the quest for R.A Dickey to not allow an ER in 2011 begins!
hopefully hamels keeps giving up homers at the pace he did in the spring!
I think the Mets have decent numbers against Hamels.
Pen while only giving up 1 run in final 3 innings just never made me feel comfortable. It was like the Marlins were 1 big hit away from climbing back into it. The reality was that they got the job done.
Murphy at least for today made the plays expected of him but more important he contributed offensively.
Dickey & Niese so far have done well with the bigger question marks of Young & Capuano yet to start. Fingers crossed there.
Harris is off to a good start. Reminds me of Barajas and his early contributions last year. Hopefully Harris can contribute longer than Barajas did.
Ike already with a HR is another good thing to see. It’s all about the kids continued growth. Speaking of which how about Thole so far? There is just something about this kid that makes you believe he has a lot of big hits in his future.
It will be fun to see how far this bunch can go.
Lets Go Mets!!!
“Offense erupts”???????? 8 hits and 4 earned runs is this offense erupting!?!?! Going to be a long year if this counts as an offensive eruption.
Runs are runs, dude. They were unearned, but give the Mets credit for piling on and not letting the Fish off the hook.
Get it? Off the hook? Fish?
Really? It’s been over an hour! Nothing on the “fish off the hook” bit? Nothing at all?
matt, i totally agree with you.
the mets lucked into crap pitching and even worse defense.
funny that the mets are 5 games up on the redsox though.
With fans like Matt and Francis, it’s no wonder why Mets fans get such a bad rap. Geesh no support for the team whatsoever and only looking to poop on a win by saying it wasn’t a real win. Where did all the real Mets fans go? The diehards bthat this site is supposedly the home of?
Never said it “wasn’t a real win” or disparaged the win at all…just saying let’s not call 8 hits and 4 earned runs an offensive eruption. The Mets capitalized on poor pitching and terrible defense, not going to cream myself over 8 hits. Glad to see the win, but an eruption…not so much.
This what teams are suppose to do. Last few years, this team would not have capitalized on that.
yeah, ditto.
it’s a real win – and it’s good that the other team is doing the blundering, but when people start overhyping dickey and the ‘explosive’ offense, something’s got to be said.
this is the same powerhouse that was no hit through six just two days ago, so i’m not sold on it just yet.
well, good teams take advantage of mistakes by the other team, and don’t beat themselves. So it is a good thing to be winning like this.
and not sure why it matters that runs were unearned. They still had to get some big hits to drive them in.
i agree, but the subject of this article should be something like, “mets offense capitalizes on marlins errors …”, not “offense erupts”.
The old Mets wouldn’t have taken advantage of that horrible Marlins defense and would have been lucky to score 1 unearned run, let alone 5. They didn’t waste an opportunity. That alone has them looking like a different team.
and another thing. we got a taste of how our 5th starter looks, and it ain’t pretty.
would not read too much into this. He has not pitched much lately, and was coming in from the pen. He had a good spring, so at least give him a normal start or two before judging!
you’re right.
Wait one minute………..so you are killing the author on using the words “offense erupted” yet here you are judging the 5th starter after seeing ONE inning.
Genius………
If Harris keeps this up he could go from Met Killer to HarryC Killer!
Something else to think about…
3 Games down, 159 to go…
Games finished by K-Rod = ZERO!
After a season in which we struggled to win a series on the road, we won the first series of the new year. Anyone thinking that Thole, Ike and Niese would have sophomore slumps, forget it. They had solid springs and are off to solid startes in the regular season. Great job by the whole team. You win as a team and you lose as a team.
i agree about thole, ike, and niese – they look real good. i also like murphy in this role, and think he’ll add some late inning pop that this team has lacked the last 3-4 years.
the bullpen however …
You just have to find something to complain about…………..Bullpen will be fine.
When they start blowing games at the alarming rate they did in 07 and the GM sits on his hands like his predecessor did, lets talk.
david murphy. LOL
excuse me?
haha, i caught the error as well. fixing it. wrong irishman.
I like Terrys style over the previous Managers. He uses everyone and doesnt let players rot on the bench.This helps the team by not running the same 8 players up every day. Giving the regulars time off and keeping the bench fresh. We will win more games that way.
(OFF TOPIC)
Alderson said Jason Bay(ribcage) still cannot swing a bat, and that may preclude the left fielder from hitting his target of a Saturday return from the disabled list.
http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/mets/izzy_ready_back_pain_implies_no_uQEZRSkGnMJSLODSEtYE9K
Is anyone surprised? I read these type of injuries are tricky and hard to predict as far as healing. I’m just concerned that by the time he does start swinging a bat, he’ll be completely rusty – ala Reyes and Beltran last year when they returned.
Saw the mention of Izzy in this article as well. Early indicators look like they made the right decision on adding Boyer to the 25 man instead of Izzy.
Anyone else wondering if TC will burn out the bullpen by AUgust from overuse like Willie and Manuel did? I hope he has set roles in that pen and sticks with that like Bobby V did, even if guys struglle at times. Confidence and roles go hand in hand.