25
2012
In The Most Unholy Of Fashions, The Friars Demoralize Mets 11-5
An article by 
Recap:
It was a tale of two ballgames for Jeremy Hefner and the Mets as the rain kept pouring as did the San Diego offense, resulting in a bruising 11-5 loss.
Jeremy Hefner got his first major league start after several successful long-inning relief appearances. His entire family flew in from Oklahoma to see the 26-year old pitch in front of a crowd of nearly 25,000. After a 1 hour and eight minute rain delay however, it became pretty obvious that the Hefner family would have been better off saving the air-fare.
After two strong innings, the rain cause a 68-minute delay that worked in favor of the Padres. Hefner proceeded to give up five hits including four doubles to surrender a 4-spot to the worst scoring team in the National League. Hefner’s final line for the evening was 3 2/3 innings pitched, six runs, and nine hits… Yikes!
However, there were some bright spots on the evening, not that any of them came from the pitching side of this ballgame. David Wright had himself a three hit game, falling a triple short of the cycle. His two-run blast brought the mets to within three before Terry Collins decided the game was over by sending Manny Acosta to the hill with his 10.80 ERA and all. Andres Torres looked a bit better at the plate, going 1-3 with a walk and a stolen base. Finally Ike Davis came through with a pinch-hit two run sngle coming on the heels of being told he will not be sent down to the minors.
Goat of the Game:
Mother Nature, for spoiling Hefner’s starting debut.
Notes:
-Ike’s two-run knock was his first multiple RBI game since April 16th against Atlanta.
-With Wright’s 3-5 performance, he now has his average back up over .400, his OBP over .500 and his 27th and 28th RBIs of the season.
Next Up:
Dillon Gee takes the hill tomorrow as the Mets continue their series with the Pades starting at 7:05pm.
About the Author: Clayton Collier
Clayton, a Long Island native and die-hard Mets fan, started writing online about three years ago. He is currently a Journalism major with a minor in Broadcasting at Seton Hall University. Although very disappointed with the current state of the team, Clayton remains hopeful that the young prospects in the farm system will bring the Mets back to a respected franchise in baseball once again. Besides writing for MMO, Clayton is also a staff member at 89.5 WSOU, Seton Hall's modern active rock radio station. You can contact Clayton by following him on Twitter: @Clayton_Collier or E-mailing him at MaybeNextYearMets@yahoo.com
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 24 | 18 | .571 | - |
| Nationals | 23 | 20 | .535 | 1.5 |
| Phillies | 20 | 23 | .465 | 4.5 |
| Mets | 16 | 24 | .400 | 7.0 |
| Marlins | 11 | 32 | .256 | 13.5 |
Last updated: 05/18/2013
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Doublecheck that headline theres no baseball team known as the friars. I am assuming autocorrect got the best of you there.
New to MLB, Brian?
“Friars” has been a nickname of the Padres since they came into the Bigs–1969?
A friar is another name for a Catholic priest, you know, “Father” or “Padre.”
Really sucks that we lost this one to open the series against a lousy team. We rarely have an easy time of it against Pads. Rain delay games always seem lopsided and greatly favor hitters. Oh, well. Got get some mojo today on. Not imperative we win the next three, but it sure would make for a great weekend. Let’s get back to work tonight.!
Nickname makes sense, although it must have fallen out of use since 1969 because ive been watching for my whole life (18 now) and I dont think ive heard it before. Always good to learn something new though.
although now that i think about it, their mascot is a Friar.
Yikes, guys – the sky ain’t fallin’. We’re 3 games over .500 & competing for the WC and division lead. It’s almost June. Things could be a lot worse. Hefner was pitching great until the rain delay – maybe the Bunnies got hold of him before he returned to the mound!
I really enjoyed SNY’s interview with Sandy last night. He is so methodical and it appears that he will not sacrifice a short term benefit for a long term gain. Thus, our more talented arms on the farm will not be rushed to accommodate the ML roster. I’m fine with that.
What is happening now is part of a necessary growth process. Let Kirk & Baxter continue to develop, let’s see what we have with Rob Johnson & Vinny Rottino, let’s see if Ike can rebound & let’s see what Bay brings off his DL stint. He wasn’t doing poorly when he got injured. Hasn’t Cedeno been a pleasant surprise? And remember, Tejada & Thole are about a week or two away from returning. I’m very much on the fence with Torres – it’s weird but I think his presence adversely affects Kirk’s development, which I consider a priority.
As for the pitching, overall the tandem of Santana, Dickey, Niese & Gee have pitched very well. Byrdak & Parnell have been tremendous, Francisco recently has been outstanding, Rauch & Benitez very serviceable. Ramirez has been a disappointment and Acosta seriously flawed. I think Nickeas should become his personal catcher in AAA. Still, it’s a manageable situation with the glass half full.
No offense, because I agree with most of what you said, but there is not a lot of developing to do for Mike Baxter. Lets not get carried away and say he is a future starter in the OF. He’s a nice luxury to have as a 4th OF that is LH and can play all 3 OF positions and has done well pinch hitting. Making him into a full time starter would most likely reveal more holes than Swiss cheese.
You know, i like clayton, but as soon as i saw you were doing the recap, i knew that after getting beat down by the padres you were gonna praise wright for his game, as if it didn’t matter, read this again: “However, there were some bright spots on the evening, not that any of them came from the pitching side of this ballgame. David Wright had himself a three hit game, falling a triple short of the cycle”
Ok, you said there were SOME bright spots, yet only drool about wright’s game…We got BEAT down right,? the theme of yesterday here was :”we win as a team, we lose as a team”
His two-run blast brought the mets to within three before” That was a great CLUTCH hit…
So if you were writing a game recap, you would have omitted Wright’s performance? He went 3-5, home run, double, 2 RBI. That wasnt a bright spot?
Man that complex is really starting to take over you. It’s about all you focus on. Notice, in your omission that the author also talked about Davis as a bright spot as well so your “Ok, you said there were SOME bright spots, yet only drool about wright’s game” would be inaccurate.
Seriously only you would take “David Wright had himself a three hit game, falling a triple short of the cycle. ” as drooling over a player. Wow, it is seriously becoming an obsession now.
What was your bright spot, that the Mets lost?
Obviously that Wright didn’t hit for the cycle.
Should you be encourage that the team got their butt whipped by one, if not, the worst team in baseball? I thought this was a team game no? One player exceeds, so it doesn’t matter we got our asses kicked… but hey, when he fails in clutch moments then it’s a team game.. Can we be consistant here please.. Jeez..
So now you are telling the author to not look for bright spots in a loss? Most authors still add a couple of bright spots to a post game report. Doesn’t sugar coat the loss.
Did you stop reading before the Notes section?
It was an ugly loss attributed soley to the pitching and Wright/Davis were the only two note worthy performances worth mentioning.
Facts are facts and in this case wasn’t even a stretch to note those two were the only bright spots worth of a mention.
Hey in a game like that you have to hunt for bright spots but Ramirez looked better before going out with an injury. 1.1 innings, 1 hit, 0 walks and 2 K’s. Certainly an improvement.
Yeah, I agree a out Ramirez. Wonder if he’ll go on the DL and if so, who takes his spot?
It’s got to be someone capable of pitching multiple innings. SSS yet but Carson doesn’t look like he’s ready to be part of the solution.
schwinden back to be a long/swing man?
I would expect Ramirez to be the next guy up.
Yes, let’s act like all Clayton wrote that Wright was the main part of the “bright spot” of last night’s game. Oh, but wait! What’s this?
“Andres Torres looked a bit better at the plate, going 1-3 with a walk and a stolen base. Finally Ike Davis came through with a pinch-hit two run sngle coming on the heels of being told he will not be sent down to the minors.”
Did you see this or did you stop reading after reading about Wright? You will do anything just to shit on Wright, won’t you? How sad. Let’s see YOU write a game recap one of these times, being unbiased.
Not a great way to start an 11 game homestand. Losing that bad to the Padres is pretty humbling to say the least.
That is why the run differential is lopsided for this team and they are still above .500. They have all the characteristics of a young team developing confidence. When things snowball they snowball.
Seriously though it honestly is amazing that after all this they still only trail the Braves and Nats by 2 wins.
That is why the run differential is lopsided for this team and they are still above .500″
Isn’t that called being opurtinistic? Or something like that?… Everyone is starting to notice that this team is just a lucky team… for what it’s worth, which to me is nothing, the pythagoran have them with a losing record, like 8 games below 500.. Now, the sabergoons can explain to me what the hell does that mean? that they’ve been lucky to be where they are? that they’ve taken advantage of a soft schedule and teams with injuries? or they’ve faced teams at the right time? Please chip in..
I’m far from a ‘saber goon’ but…….
Schedule is not indicative of anything so far. April should have been tough and for the most part was not.
We’ve managed a winning record so far against the NL east.
We’ve swept the Phillies, did it once to the braves early on, but got swept by the Astros. Go figure.
For a team that’s expected to finish last, playing around. 500 ball is probably the best we can hope for right now.
I think they just show all the signs of a young team. Ups and downs, highs and lows.
It’s just a formula used to tell you what they “should” have won. It’s not really too important. What it can do is tell you if a team may play to a certain level at some point.
It’s based on runs scored and runs allowed. The problem I have with it, is its so general. For example, it “assumes” that Ike Davis is a .150 hitter for the entire season, or it “assumes” the bullpen will be in a major slump all year.
So if the Mets are -8 (which I have no idea if that is true) then you could assume their “good luck” will run out. But, to be fair, it doesn’t assume that the things that were BAD will eventually turn around.
I am not going to talk about saber stuff or the Pythagorean theorem. I even taught math for a year and don’t understand that stuff.
However, it appears a couple of things to me. One this team has shown to be very good in close games and hit very well with 2 outs. Two, they seem to be a team that goes with the momentum. As I said earlier when the game snowballs it snowballs. I don’t think they have the talent to blow teams out but are so young that they can be blown out. Seriously how much of that run difference is because of 5 blowouts? That would certainly even things up.
To back up my point, they are 4-10 in blow outs and 9-5 in one run games. So a team that is 3 games over .500 would expect both of those to even out.
IMO, no way to evaluate Hefner’s performance because of the hour rain delay.
Either he’s too inexperienced at the ML level to have handled it and/or it wasn’t a good idea to bring him out there to begin with. That was probably attributed in part to having no long man in the BP – which I just don’t understand.
I heard TC’s idea of an explanation on that. Curious what Warthen’s thoughts were on that.
And Acosta should never pitch multiple innings. He’s been brutal so far this year.
Acosta should never pitch.
Honestly, I am not sure they could afford to bring in another pitcher there. He might should have been quicker with the hook though. I thought Carson was supposed to be a guy who could log some multiple innings too.
‘Acosta should never pitch.’ LOL. Probably more accurate.
I think he’s been misused somewhat this year though. Don’t understand the multiple inning appearences and he should not pitch in high leverage situations. He’s a middle innings type pitcher only. That’s his ceiling’ IMO. Need those type guys too but shouldn’t be trying to make him something he’s not.
I am actually starting to think Terry is Jerry Manueling him. Telling him sink or swim. Either get him the heck off my team or start pitching well.
I suggested that yesterday, and really think it is true. Force him back down the FO throat to try and get rid of him!
Or maybe he is a guy who wants to give someone a chance to prove themselves like how he stuck with FFF and is with Ike? Perhaps guilty of “trusting his players” too much?
The way our team has been hitting that game was practically over before Acosta ever got the ball.
Ramirez was pinch hit for and there was no other pitcher to throw in there to get you to the 8th inning.
Would you have poreferred that Terry blew out the bullpen to try and get back one game and ruin the rest of the homestand in games that were probably much more winnable?
Thanks for all the responses on the pythagorean stuff.. Sounds like it’s more luck than anything else… Or just another FLAW saber system…
Well that is what saber stuff spends a lot of time doing, trying to get rid of luck or quantify it. That is why I am not a big fan of stuff like BABIP…
What I am saying though is that it could be luck that they are winning some close games or it could be that the team is “gritty” in close games but when they get down things snowball. Is that lucky or just the signs of a young team?
Or it could be closer to reality and that is that games that should not have been close were made close by the pen giving up runs and leads that cause more 1 run games than there should have been!
pretty sure that the Pythag is not a Saber creation (though not being a saber person, I can’t swear to it). But I do not that it really needs a lot of games (full season) to start being at all relevant. Actually, most saber calculations do too. In the infamous small sample, all kind of weird things can happen, but given enough chances, they tend to even out over time.
for the run differential, right now it means that they have eben winning a lot of close games, and have lost a few large blowouts. so using it to predict (project) the rest of the year is a crap shoot at best.
Hey I saw the Marlins are looking for a CF replacement to get them by until Emilo returns. I wonder if we could work out something like Torres for Mike Dunn? Dunn has not been very good this year but is LH and would be a better replacement for Carson.
I know it’s interdivision but those types of trades can happen for nobodies.
Hey, YOUSE GUYS!
Haven’t your Mets had enough bad luck for to last for a life time?! I am more than ready for some Mets good luck, so take that Pythagoras!
Well I like Hefner but like a gremlin I don’t like what he becomes after he gets wet. The guy that came out after the 68 minute rain delay was a doubles machine. Though in fairness you have to wonder why he came out after that long a delay to begin with even if you know the answer was it’s too earl\y to go to the pen.
Positives for me was Mr. Wright continued good play *ducks from Alex* and Ike getting a hit at home. Those are truly rare this season so you got to enjoy them when you get them.
He was fine the first two innings, Nerves probably caused the shaky opening in the first but he settled down and got out of it, He was fine in the second.
Then the Rain hit.
I understand why Terry let him go back out.
Who else do you send in if not Hefner?
We don’t really have a reliable long relief guy in fact Hefner WAS the closest guy we had to fit that role on the Roster.
Would anyone have preferred Acosta or Ramirez instead? Would it make sense to go all out on our Bullpen to win one game and risk overworking the pen for the duration of the homestand?
There were probably also sentimental reasons for throwing hefner back out there, His first MLB start, family in the stands…
You can Quibble with the move it sure didn’t put Hefner in the best position to succeed.
But I understand and can’t really complain too much that they put him there because all the alternatives were far worse!