11
2012
Johan Santana Good – Bullpen, Not So Much In Mets 4-0 Loss
An article by 
Johan Santana had a good, albeit short outing, the offense provided no support and the bullpen was wild in the Mets 4-0 loss to the Nationals.
Game Recap
Johan Santana took the mound today, and despite some early-inning control trouble, managed to navigate his way through five innings. Santana was much more dominating then his stat-line will attest to, going five innings allowing one run (that scored on a wild pitch) on five hits, walking three and striking out eight. Santana continues to look better and better with each start, from spring training until now. While his velocity was around 88-90 MPH for the day, he was using all of his pitches and avoided trouble until the fifth. To boot, Santana went four pitches beyond his 95 pitch limit.
Manny Acosta was brought in after Santana walked his first batter, and proceeded to walk the next two batters. In an act of serendipity, he got former Met Xaiver Nady to line into a double play, and Daniel Murphy flicked it to Ruben Tejada to complete it. Acosta would get out of the inning with a line-out to center to end the sixth. Acosta would return for the seventh and allow one hit and a walk before his day ended. Acosta’s final line was one and one-third innings, three walks and one hit, no strikeouts. Terry Collins called in Ramon Ramirez from the bullpen, and then was ejected for probably arguing the inconsistent strike zone. Ramirez would strike out his first batter, but then walk in a run and induced a pop-out. Ramirez would finish his day allowing one run on two hits, walking two and striking out one. Jon Rauch come out for two-thirds of an inning and pitched a clean line. Miguel Batista came out for the ninth, gave up a hit, hit a batter and then walked another. Tim Byrdak was brought into a bases-loaded, ninth inning jam, got two outs and then walked home ANOTHER runner before getting a flyout. Byrdaks final line is 1 IP, 0 hits, 1 run, 1 walk, 1 strikeout.
The bullpen was horrible today. Walking seven, hitting a batter and walking in two of the four runs.
Offensively, the Mets couldn’t buy a hit off of Stephen Strasburg. Ruben Tejada had a hit in the first at-bat of the game, and the Mets wouldn’t get another hit until the sixth inning. Strasburg was wildly effective, walking three and hitting Ronny Cedeno. The Mets were a victim yet again of inability to drive in runners in scoring position, or even get runners on base. The batters were just out of sync, making weak contact when any contact was made at all.
Turning Point
Every misplay of a ball by Josh Thole. Those misplays lead to extra bases, a run scoring and even a loss of a strike.
Player of The Game
Johan Santana deserves the player of the game, more than any one player deserves to be the goat. Johan pitched an admirable five innings, and the lack of offense and poor bullpen showing left Santana winless for the 2012 season
Game Notes
Josh Thole had a poor game blocking the baseball, but did manage to throw out Danny Espinosa at third base.
The Mets outfielders and infielders have not been good on the year in hitting the cut-off man and making the correct throws. They are allowing extra bases to be taken, and routinely the cutoff men are dropping the throws and getting lucky the runners don’t advance
The umpiring today was horrible for both teams. Strikes in previous innings became balls in later innings, and on a Jason Bay at bat in the sixth, strike 2 was about 4 inches outside, and strike three was in the opposing batters box.
Despite losing two of the last three, the Mets are tied for first place with the Nationals.
Up Next
The Mets will have off on Thursday, but will travel to Philadelphia for their first road series to face off against the Phillies. R.A. Dickey will face off against Cliff Lee, and game time is 7:05 P.M.
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
13 Comments + Add Comment
NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 41 | 28 | .594 | - |
| Nationals | 34 | 34 | .500 | 6.5 |
| Phillies | 33 | 37 | .471 | 8.5 |
| Mets | 25 | 39 | .391 | 13.5 |
| Marlins | 21 | 47 | .309 | 19.5 |
Last updated: 06/16/2013
Recent Comments
- RKH: on Wilpon Joins Alderson In Painting A Better Tomorrow, But I Need More Than Just Talk: Well this certainly is not good news....
- DrDooby: on Mets Lose A 2-1 Heartbreaker After A Braves Two-Run Blast In The Ninth: If the Mets were contending, then yes...
- DrDooby: on Wilpon Joins Alderson In Painting A Better Tomorrow, But I Need More Than Just Talk: From 1989 where things started to derail...
- Lareplus: on Mets Lose A 2-1 Heartbreaker After A Braves Two-Run Blast In The Ninth: Terry should have brought in Parnell. ....
- Daniel Nelson: on Mets Lose A 2-1 Heartbreaker After A Braves Two-Run Blast In The Ninth: I feel like dieing. I thought TC...
Latest From Mets Minors
Check Out These Great MLB Links!
Photographs From Gordon Donovan
Fans Follow Us On Twitter!
1329 Fans Like Us On Facebook!
2341 Fans Read Our Feed!
1702 Fans Subscribe via Daily Email!
Thole is pathetic behind the plate and has no power,Murphy can not turn a double play, Jason K is shot and Davis and Duda look lost plus Wright has a broken finger.Should be a fun weekend in Philly.
Davis and Duda as younger players with just a full year under their belt can’t be expected to carry the team and that’s what their asked to do when Wright is out. Thole, Murphy and Duda weren’t exactly groomed to play where they are and Bay was signed as he’s entering his decline because “who else were we going to get to play Left Field?”
This is the damage you do to a team’s future over a 12 year period by spending six #1 picks, four #2 picks and failing to take back 6 #1′s or supplementary round picks when they were handed to us on a silver platter, opting instead to resign Valentin (37 years old) Castillo (32 and needing surgery on both knees) resigning Delgado (37) trading Wagner’s two picks for Chris Carter and selling Rod Barajas 5 weeks before he became a supplemental round draft choice.
That’s SIXTEEN 1st, supplementary or 2nd round picks from 1999-2010. That’s why we never have any quality depth on this team and wind up with four first basemen in the starting eight.
t agee you are a joke….
Basball is a simple game. If you do not score you do not win. That was the second lousy game in a row.
The mets walked 10 batters and struckout at least 13 times- Enough said!
It seems to look like that our “lack of depth” and having no bench is starting to creep in.
Cliff Lee in Philly coming up.
Larry Vanover needs to find a new line of work.
with 2 lefties to start in Philly, it would be really helpful if Wright recovered enough to come back by Friday! that will be interesting to see.
This.
Missed the game but reading the comments looks like I didn’t miss much. 10 Walks 2 of which that forced in a run. Offense with 3 hits was non existent though some recognition has to be attributed to Strasburg.
On to Philly.
LGM!!!
Hate to say it after a 4-0 start but the Mets were pretty unwatchable the last two games with no offense at all. I believe Davis is a good hitter that will get going. Duda will hit homers but will he hit above 240. Bay I think is just finished. I feel bad for him but I could see the mets releasing him in a month.
2 bad games and now they are unwatchable?
Any one that thought before the season they would open 4 -2 on the first home stand would have signed up for it a month of Sundays, now they are unwatchable already?
I get passionate fans, I don’t get standing on the ledge fans.
Well, this being the anniversary of the first game the Mets ever played, it seems appropriate that the 2012 edition did it’s very best to pay homage to those ’62 Amazins both last night and this afternoon. And those who were able to get those special discounted tickets should not complain – what does one expect for $2.50?
Seriously, I don’t think they are as bad as they looked the past 24 hours but I see the young kids once again pressing as they did the last two months of last season instead of playing with the poise they had for more than half of last year and the first four games of this one. Some veteran leadership is necessary to help, especially for a team that is rebuilding. David has to step in, even if he’s injured.
What makes you think he’s not?
Ever since Wright went down, the entire offense went with him. The last 2 games were pathetic. I hope this is a lesson to everyone who was hyped up about the Mets starting 4-0. Go into Philly and win the series or else.
With so many lefties in the lineup and Bay not hitting then with David out you have no balance in the lineup and Hairston is a hit or miss type player, strikeout or HR.
Duda and Ike have faced some tough pitching and w/o Bay hitting in between them then they will be pitched differently.
Mets need another RH bat with some power for those days when they face lefties because apparrently Terry believes that Cedeno is a better replacement for David than Turner, that is terrible to put a guy out there, despite his 3 hits the other game, that has an OBP lower than .300 for his career; is this the best that SA could do for a backup infielder? Really?