16
2012
Swept In Atlanta: Braves Tomahawk Mets 6-1
An article by 
Coming off the All-Star break, the Mets looked to hit the ground running like they did to start the 2012 season. Instead, they did just the opposite, playing three poor excuses for baseball games across the board as the Braves completed the sweep of the Mets today by a final score of 6-1.
Following one of the aces getting rocked in Atlanta, the other [Johan Santana] took the hill to play stopper. Going toe-to-toe with Ben Sheets who was making his first start in two years, it appeared that the Mets would have the advantage in this one. However, the Amazin’ lineup continuing the recent stretch of making average pitchers look like Cy-Young contenders, the game remained scoreless through the first four frames.
Then came the bottom of the fifth. Matt Diaz led it off with a double, which was followed by a walk to Paul Janish on some questionable calls by none other than home plate umpire CB Bucknor. The controversy with Buckner became a larger focal point of the inning when Santana had already begun his delivery and was in the process of releasing the pitch when Michael Bourne had stepped out of the batters box while asking for time. Instead of calling the pitch a strike (which would have resulted in a strikeout) Bucknor granted Bourne’s time very late, wasting a nice pitch from Santana. Bucknor then called a two-seamer on the corner from Santana a ball, setting up a 2-2 count before Bourne ripped a double to drive in the first run of the game.
Dan Warthen then came out to argue and according to him, when Bucknor asked if he was arguing balls and strikes, Warthen didn’t answer his question but instead replied with a “quip”. Bucknor took that quip as an “affirmative” and tossed him from the game. Warthen stated in post game that his intention was to have a word with Bucknor when he left the dugout and not to go to talk to Santana. He also said he expected to be ejected once he left the dugout, which of course was the result.
From there, Santana’s night just got uglier as that opened the door for a Martin Prado sac fly, a Jason Heyward RBI single and capped off by a Freddie Freeman three-run bomb to make it a 6-0 game before Santana retired the side. Santana ended his day with a final line of five innings pitched allowing six runs (all earned) on eight hits, walking two and striking out three, taking the loss to fall to 6-6 on the year while boosting his ERA to 3.59.
After that the game was pretty much over. Scott Hairston had himself a one out double and was brought home by Andres Torres to score the only run for the Mets of the ballgame. They tried to rally in the ninth, but two fabulous grabs surprisingly by Matt Diaz silenced the bats to hand the Braves the sweep of Flushing’s finest by a final score of 6-1.
Goat of the Game:
CB Bucknor, for continuing to solidify himself as the worst umpire in the game. His awful calls gave the Braves two extra outs in the fifth and gave Bourne two extra chances alone. Why he is still a major league umpire is beyond me. It seems everytime he is calling a game, there is always controversy. His lack of ability as an umpire makes me want to side with those who wish to bring automated strike zones into the game.
Notes:
-After taking a Golden Sombrero last night, David Wright continued to be stifled, going 0-2 with two walks in the loss.
-In his first start in two seasons, Ben Sheets shut out the Mets over six innings, picking up his first win since 2010.
-Mets pitching needs to find the strikezone, even if the umpires are wrong. They walked 20 batters and allowed 21 runs this series. That’s not going to cut it.
-Miguel Batista warmed up for several innings in the ‘pen today as Collins seems to be using him quite liberally. Could this be a sign that the Mets are leaning towards Harvey?
-Mike Baxter went 2-2 with a double and two RBIs in his first rehab start in St. Lucie while Jason Bay went 2-4 with a stolen base in his rehab start in Buffalo.
Up Next:
Now at just three games over .500, the Mets take a breather on Monday before heading off to Washington turn to Jonathon Niese to take on the division-leading Nationals in what could be a do or die series for the Amazin’s Tuesday at 7:10pm.
Following the All-Star Break, the Mets ship is sinking fast. Can they bail themselves out before it’s too late?
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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These umpires are f*cking ridiculous. Hurry up and die Selig, so we can get a commissioner that will actually do something about it.
Our two aces came up duds when team needed them. R.A. has been on a bad stretch lately despite umpiring, only he can answer what is up.
I see that the Duda experiment in RF might be coming to an end due to his poor defense, maybe he can take over and platoon with Bay when he returns?
Bad umpiring but there seemed to be no energy today after the great stand yesterday, maybe the BP blowup just sucked the air out of all the team today, cause Warthen coming out to argue was a strange scene since none of the umpires on this crew made a right call.
Of all places to start the 2nd half Mets had to go toTurner Field where they have a bad record, boy do I dislike their announcers and some of their players, Diaz among others.
I was left on the floor yesterday after that blown loss and then Santana looked good until 5th, then the other foot came down on my back while I was down, sheeesh, of all places to be swept, next would be Philly then Nat stadium .:(
I have to say outside of Glavine (whom I did not like as a Met) their announcers are straight homers. I can’t stand to hear them call a game. They make the worst observations, say the dumbest things during the game, and no Braves player can do any wrong, even when they have done something wrong. As for C.B. Bucknor, he and Angel Hernandez need to be fired, they make some of the worst calls in baseball. It was clear Santana was getting squeezed a bit, while Sheets was getting some calls on the outside part and bottom of the zone. The homeplate ump yesterday stunk as well. Mets are going to have to take it to the Nats, which at this time seems like a tall order. Lastly don’t give up on LuDu, it’s his first full season at the grind, and he has some things he needs to figure out at the plate. He just needs to focus on going up the middle and to left and he will start to see those ripe pitches in his wheelhouse again. I have noticed that many of the other lefthanded hitters are going the other way with some success. Torres batting lefthanded had 2 hits to the opposite field.
Whining and making excuses is for losers. A 2 time Cy Young winner shouldn’t lose his call when CB makes bad calls. He’s had him behind the plate a lot of times. No excuses. The whining needs to stop in the clubhouse and out.
The reality is Duda is a DH and belongs in the AL. SA may as well trade him off for pitching help. I’d put my chips on Valdespin as his replacement in the OF.
I liked Warthen standing up and being a man for a change. Getting ejected was worth making the point.
Looks like this team has had its run and is ready for the second half swoon. Plenty of ammunition now for SA to adopt the sellers role. All we can hope now is that he doesn’t damage the future too badly. Santana due to be sold off at the trade deadline. Not quite the Seaver Midnight Massacre, but close considering he gave us the 1st no-no for the franchise.
Agreed on all cylinders. Seems like where Santana used to get angry and smoke people, he now gets upset can’t find the strike zone of C.B. Bucknor and gives up gopher balls.
In that god awful inning that started with the should have been caught ball by Torres., everything dramatically fell apart.
It is time, and TC has become awful good at this, to put it behind them and go into Davey’s house and start hacking. At this point we need 8 runs a game to win. Our bullpen is a mystery. We traded Angel to get Ramon. Torres was a throw in. Ramon was ok yesterday but has been anything but consistent. Seems like as we move to the next series we are adding Bay and that’s it. We need to make a deal in a hurry that may carry a back up catcher and a reliever.
Seems like the song “I Need A Miracle” by the Grateful Dead fits the bill here. Every day!
The offense is sputtering and it seems like every facet of the team suffers with adversity.
That’s unity I guess.
C.B. Bucknor cannot call a game and appears to have a bone to pick with the NY Mets. If the scenario with Warthen is true he got tossed for a comment. There was no argument about balls and strikes. How could there be? There weren’t any that were called correctly in that one stretch, letting Bourn out of that box in that point of a delivery and then calling a strike a ball equates to having it in for Santana.
But even then we took that scenario and laid down. It might have been time to pull him or in the future understand that he cannot dominate when angry any longer. He is now a smooth pitcher that needs a compliment of solid defense and a decent umpire to make the change up work.
IN any other season, in the most recent past, this would have been more misery to a lost season. Right now it’s the rubber meets the road. It’s a love hate relationship with a changing and developing team.
LGM!
why is there still any discussion about batista starting Wednesday? The logical answer is Young, since it is on his regular turn. Worry about the 5th starter next week when they finally need one.
Just an ugly loss/sweep. What can only be described as stating the obvious, this was not the start the Mets had hoped for to begin the 2nd half.
Sheets comes in and pitches six 2-hit scoreless innings and on top of that Santana after what appeared to be Torres misplaying that ball to lead off the 5th followed by the ump squeezing him resulting in 3 runs he then just implodes and gives up a 3 run HR to Freeman.
Santana imo despite everything had to hold it at 3 but either he just had nothing left in the tank or lost his composure. Either one not good.
I don’t even want to begin to speculate how the Mets made SheetThe Metss look un-hittable for 6 innings.
One of the Mets traits this season has been how resilient they are. Whenever they’ve taken a punch to the gut and the talk began that this is it they are going down. They have responded to such talk with “not so fast” as they picked themselves up. So once again the talk begins of this is it they are going down and we wait to see if unlike recent seasons can they get pick themselves up and say “not so fast”?
In the end for all the talk about needing a closer or needing a lefty or needing a right handed bat if the starters can not pitch a lot better than they did in this series where Mets starters (Young, Dickey & Santana) pitched to a 11.08/ERA none of those other moves or non moves will matter.
Off day 2morrow b4 heading into Washington. A sweep and the Mets split the road trip. Just win one 1st and let’s take it from there.
LGM!
Mets did make Sheets look like Roy Halladay today. I was looking for them to work deep counts on him and wear him down, but instead they seemed a little aggressive (overly) and with Bucknor’s MadduxGlavineSmoltz 90′s strike zone they looked horrible. They seemed to be looking to get on that flight out of town especially after Wright flied out deep to right with 2 men on. I don’t know but they need to get it together quick or they will find themselves in a distant 3rd place.
After taking a Golden Sombrero last night, David Wright continued to be stifled, going 0-2 with two walks in the loss”
Well, his OBP was 500 for the game so…
Now at just three games over .500, the Mets”
Still find that incredible…. Be proud of what the mets have accomplish so far.. remember, even though we have been sabotage by the FO, the team stick together and are playing well
Hey that’s pretty original. You managed to take shots at Wright, Sandy, and OBP. Never seen that before…
Loved the first half, did better than I expected. In that SA was right: this team was fun to watch.
Since late June though the reason they’ve faltered is the SP. We’ve had a bad BP all season, lack of a RH bench bat, questionable defense. But the SP has kept them in it. Now the SP is starting to slip. Doesn’t help that we lost Gee either.
If they don’t upgrade the BP and the SP doesn’t get back on track, we might very well wind up exactly where all predicted the Mets would be, coming into this season: under .500 and in last place.
I’m hoping the team has enough fight in them to right the ship. Next two weeks will be very telling.
And for the love of all baseball gods, the idea of inserting Batista into the rotation has to be null and void. Might as well raise the white flag if they’re gonna do that.
Wait, How did i take a shot at the Golden boy??? By saying his OBP was 500 for the game?? Am i wrong about it or something? Nitpicking much?
And about your Favorite GM, we all know he sucks… You guys will not admit because that’ll mean that me, maniac, vinny, metsie, bayonne and others are rght.. And god forbid we are right about something in this blog.. Only you and a few others are supposed to be right, noone else is.