31
2012
Resurgent Mets Unable To Complete Sweep, Fall To Phils 3-2
An article by 
Recap:
Now locking up two consecutive series victories for the first time since the All-Star Break, the suddenly streaking New York Mets came to the ballpark today looking to complete a sweep of the rivaled Philadelphia Phillies. However, that wasn’t the case as Jon Niese failed to fend off the Phils following an early lead, falling by a score of 3-2.
With Kyle Kendrick on the hill, the Mets offense took advantage of the short fences of Citizen’s Bank Park, in particular 2/3 of their outfield. Mike Baxter lead off the game with a drive to right center that got out to hand the Amazin’s an early one-run lead. The following frame, Hairston jacked one of his own, doubling the lead and giving NIese a two run cushion.
Despite Jimmy Rollins being benched for lackadaisical play in last night’s game, Niese could not hold off the Philadelphia lineup. Scoring once in each of the third, fourth and fifth, the Phillies took a 3-2 lead, one they would not surrender for the remainder of the ballgame. The southpaw ended the evening while a respectable six innings pitched, allowing three runs on nine hits, while walking one and punching out four, taking a tough loss.
Once Niese’s and Kendrick’s days were completed, it went to the bullpens, where neither team allowed another run. The Mets failed to muster a hit off of the Phils ‘pen, failing to complete the sweep and falling in their final game of 2012 at Citizen’s Bank Park.
Notes:
-After going 121 at-bats without a home run to start the season, Mike Baxter now has two home runs in his past three games. Perhaps making a bid for the 2013 roster? I think so.
-David Wright had himself a two hit game and picked up his 37th double of the year. He is on pace to break his single-season career high of 42 and is currently at his highest total since 2009.
-Scott Hairston also had a two-hit game and launched his 15th homer of the year. Man I hope the Mets can retain him.
Up Next:
R.A. Dickey takes the hill for the Mets, opening up a three game set with the Marlins starting at 7pm Friday.
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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Sure enough the offense continues to be a concern. Make it now once over the last 12 games where they scored 3 or more runs where it didn’t involve a pitcher driving in one of the runs.
Why was Thole playing? I want to see Shoppech.
Thole lifetime was hitting .353 vs Kendrick so that may have played a part.
I’m sure it did but I’m with Hawk here…
We have seen Thole for most of the season and it’s pretty clear the Bat is not good enough to ignore the defense.
And the rest of the season we should be looking to see as much of Shoppach as possible to determine if his Glove is good enough to ignore his bat!
So far (short sample) he has showed Glove AND Bat (hitting .320 which no one should expect to hold)
Right now its way more important to test drive him and see if he should be re-signed for next year.
We pretty much drove Thole for the year and we see it wasn’t very good.
So we should be Playing Shoppach as much as possible from here on out.
Especially when Dickey Pitches!
I like the way Shoppach handles pitches in the dirt. He is very active behind the plate. He is great on change ups and curves that bounce or skid.
History test: Do you remember, perhaps with a bit of a chuckle, the early days of the Mets when they had Choo Choo Coleman, Casey Stengel’s great low ball catcher? BTW, Choo Choo is still going strong and living in Florida.
Oh there’s no doubt considering the in house options and the FA market, resigning Stop is an off-season priority. Honestly, I have seen enough for them to offer him a 2 year extension with a 3rd year option. Still shouldn’t cost that much. Take advantage of him coming off of a down year while you can.
I Remember….
I think the quote was:
“You have to have a catcher because if you don’t you’re likely to have a lot of passed balls.”
LOL
There was only one Casey. When he testified before Congress, it was a great scene.
The one thing you have to love about him wh could never happen today is he never even pretended to blow sunshine up our Butt!
He pretty much told it like it was and made the telling even more entertaining than the game!
In fact his best interviews were after losses not wins!
Can’t wait for the season to be over already to be honest.. It is kinda boring to watch this team. If it wasn’t for harvey there’d be nothing to look on this team. i’m sorry i am down on this team, but it’s frustrating to watch a team that with a tweak here and there would’ve been playing meaningful games as of right now.. It’s a shame it has come down to us being happy in finishing in 3rd place STILL with a losing record, and yet find people in this very mets site saying we’re going in the right direction and that the season was still a success SMH…
Sorry to disagree Alex, but the way this team is playing overall it would have taken a lot more than a tweak here or there. There is a reason that most of us predicted a poor record this year. Just as your favorite player Wright is leveling off to career averages, the law of averages caught up with this team as well.
I do enjoy seeing Harvey, Dickey and look forward to what I hope is a good month from Davis and Duda but yeah there’s not much to be cheery about in terms of the current MLB team.
Then why you disagree? We’re basically saying the same thing minus the tweak here and there. Which btw, just like the jose reyes situation, we will never know how that would’ve turned out since no move was ever made. one can point out how the season spiral out of control because no move were made, but you cannot make an arguement about the season spiraling out of control because that’s what this team was. When the team was 47-39 NOBODY (Including me who predicted 69 wins) was cheering for this team to fail.
Of course not but when you predicted 69 wins you weren’t cheering for them to fail either. Fact is that this team was not good enough to compete and one tweek here or there wasn’t going to make this team go from your “69″ win team to a 90+ win team.
Again, how do you know that??? Nothing was done, the team freefall. how can you say that if a trade had been made the team would’ve freefall? you can’t say that for sure because guess what, IT NEVER HAPPENED!!!!!!
How did you know they would only win 69 wins? You based it on the talent level you saw and your expected outcomes. They also could have tanked with the new player(s), they also could have been playing tight during that stretch because they thought one of their own, even them, were being traded. We will never know. However, if we are making predictions, which you and I do all the time we have to use the evidence before us and the logic provided. If nothing else that is what we expect a GM to do as well. Hopefully.
Actually no we based the wins on what we won last year and who we got rid of FROM that 77 Win team!
LOL, how is that any different than saying you based it on the talent level you saw and the predicted outcomes?
Because we didn’t evaluate what we had we evaluated what we lost and subtracted it from last year where the current talent wasn’t playing!
You seem to be trying to say our problems were predicted by us but here are some things about that prediction (BTW I was not one of the 100 loss predictors) that were wrong…
1 – It was predicated on Duda doing what he did last year, we got less!
2 – It was predicated on Ike Davis picking up where he left off, We got more games, more HRs but Less in the Average! And that hurt the GOOD half of our season!
3 – It was predicated on Murphy being a disaster at 2B, we got more!
4 – It was predicated on David Wright being Wright from last year, We got more!
5 – It was predicated on Scott Hairston being a .235 hitter again, We got More!
6 – It was predicated on Dickey being like last year, We got MORE!
7 – It was predictated on Santana not being effective and healthy, He was effective until he got unhealthy!
8 – Kirk, Valdespin, Baxter, Edgin, were not factored in, We got more from them when we won, Less and then we Lost.
9 – Quintanilla was not involved in the calculation.
Are they actually as Bad as we predicted? NO!
We got MORE from a lot of players and even the few that gave us less did not affect the ability of what we had to win!
If everyone plays to what they are capable of we are not out of this race!
It was the additions we added to last year’s team that cost us the most!
The lack of hitting, fielding and baserunning of Torres…
That Horribly “good day” bullpen costing us games wholesale
The ignorance of looking for LHH to come off the bench when the only two decent hitting RHB are Tejada and Wright! Our LIneup vs Lefties consists of all RH role players not our Regulars!
The Ignorance of going into a season with only one lefty in the pen and having to pitch him until his arm came off!
The Ignorance of having only two REAL OFers both of whom can’t hit a lick because we traded one who seems to field just as well as Torres (only hits 40 points higher) FOR Torres and a BP arm that can only help your team if he pitches for the opposition!
Truth is this team is actually MUCH BETTER than anyone thought, could have been even better if we were not trying to be Tampa Bay and purge all the performers and if it had just gotten a little help (Don’t ask who thats Sandy’s job to determine) it could still be in the race today!
Maybe starting Harvey in the first start Gee was replaced instead of Batista and Hefner would have stopped the slide, and turned that losing streak around!
Maybe not rehabbing Ramirez and Bay two games in the minors coming off injury and then rushing them back onto a roster they shouldn’t be on would have meant we had that extra bat and BP spot to add that lefty arm and maybe they win another game or two during that time.
Maybe if our FO doesn’t go on Radio and TV and say I GIVE UP, SEASON DONE the players themselves would think there is still something worth fighting for.
Truth is this team is not what we predicted they are BETTER! They just needed a little emotional boost to carry on and Terry had run out of ideas! The FO didn’t help by throwing in the towel and came to the decision on harvey he eventually did one game too late!
Prediction from the fans or even analysts are just that, prediction, it’s not as if it’s guaranteed. did you or even any giants fans thought the giants would win the superbowl? HELL, they had their coach fired at 7-7 in the seaon, and miracously they went into another miracle run, come on man, if the team outperform expectations, why not help the team by IMPROVING IT? that’s the least he could’ve did since in the 2 years he’s been here SA hasn’t done SHYT, yet slurpers are still saying “yeah, we’re going in the right direction”..amazing no?
Hey I am trying to have a serious discussion here, can we not degrade it with middle school rhetoric again?
I wanted nothing to do with token gestures at the deadline. The Mets were not in position to go all in this year and we all know it. It has nothing to do with Sandy and I made the same defense for Omar in 2010.
What are you talking about? when have i called you a slurper? i mean, are you one? i was saying the slurpers in here always defend sandy at no end, the man cannot be criticize, he can do no wrong! jesus, the guy is the worst GM we’ve ever had.. Period!
Who are these “slurpers” Alex? You lump anyone who does not think he is the worst GM of all time in that category.
again, if i say he’s been the worst GM of the mets franchise so far, and that he’s been awful at decision making and for his strenght being finding undervalue players he’s been horrendous at that as well what would you say>?????
It is an odd statement to wish a season away. I try to ignore sometimes what’s going on and may not watch every inning of every game but I still manage to catch some of the game if not all of it. Yesterday was a good example. I got hung up on the fact that there were opportunities for Davis and Duda to get us back in the game. They didn’t. In the ninth there were two quick outs and Turner took the HBP. Just for a moment I thought that Thole could do something to get that run closer. I found myself pondering why do I care it’s not like a win would put them in the playoff hunt. Not for long though………I am a die hard. The term is perfect for a Met fan like me. I am looking forward to tonight’s game and the continued success of our resident knuckle baller and hope the offense doesn’t get out scored by Mr. Reyes alone. Here I go again. You see I can’t wish a season away. I can only watch with hope for the young Mets and see how are incumbents finish their season. I am a huge football Giants fan. There just isn’t 162 games which is a marvel in itself and no easy task.
LGM!
still better than 6 months of no baseball at all.
This. I watch the entire season, the entire game – no matter what the standings or the score.
Boring is the last adjective I’d use. Goes from elation to disappointment and even disgust, but never boring. Looking forward to getting a glimpse at the Sep callups for the Mets and watching the rest of the division races play out.
. Looking forward to getting a glimpse at the Sep callups for the Mets and watching the rest of the division races play out”
Sounds like you’ll be saying that for many more years to come… SMH.. that’s that losing attitude that most of you have, it’s like, of we had a poor season, looking forward the draft.. Pathetic to say the least
That being said, didn’t you say you looked forward to Harvey’s starts? What’s really that different in him saying he looks forward to the callups and what the future might hold?
Some of you Met fans are so damn angry……probably would be good for you to take a step back from this ‘boring’ team, as you describe it.
We’re not in the post season race. We all knew this going in. Wasn’t stopping me from watching Met baseball. I’m not that type of band wagon fan.
Agreed, what changed? This is exactly the team that most of us predicted. It doesn’t really matter that it was a season of ups and downs when the end result is exactly what we expected. A young team full of question marks is most likely going to have it’s ups and downs and that is what we saw.
I predicted last place and 74 wins going in. Mainly because of the starting pitching. Too many question marks thin depth wasn’t really addressed and didn’t feel it stacked up at all with the rest of the division.
SP though turned out to be the least of the problems even though we lost 3/5s of the starting rotation. BP, defense and offense in this second half were so much worse.
Listen, the team is boring to watch. that doesn’t mean i am bandwagon fan, that means i am a realist, you say that you knew the team wasn;t gonna win or be in the playoffs race, based on what? i thought you said SA did an excellent job no? You’re just another one of those, you manage to flip the script on what your lord has done. stop this slurpiness some of you have, seriously, it’s getting sadder by the day.
“you say that you knew the team wasn;t gonna win or be in the playoffs race, based on what?”
Yes you did as did all of us.
“i thought you said SA did an excellent job no?”
Show us one place where any of the people you call “slurpers” said that Sandy did an excellent job? And please don’t bring up your feud with Jessup. I really don’t care about that anymore.
Guys like xrtreem, craig lerner, jesse, donal, srt and a few others were just out of control in here defending sandy.. i mean, it was a little disturbing!
Wrong again but you’re just proving my point. Anyone who didn’t join your core must be on the ‘other’ side.
You will fail to find one comment from me defending the FO. My mindset, my statements were always it’s too soon to really judge and anyway……..he’s just part of the packaged deal between Selig and Wilpon brought in to save Fred’s team for him.
I can’t speak for the others because I really haven’t paid attention but I will say that me, SRT, Stick, NJ and various others are categorized as “slurpers” and Sandy defenders all the time when in reality every post we make has more to do with not being ready to judge.
Well lets see….
If a Hater is anyone who doesn’t like or criticizes Sandy’s moves…
Then a Slurper would be someone who likes and defends those moves…
Wear the shoe that fits I suppose.
Just as I explained to Jessup yesterday regarding Moneyballers
If you think Moneyball can work, is a good idea in any case you can think of, and was successful when used previously,… your a Moneyballer!
Now you shouldn’t be insulted by that label unless you don’t fit those parameters and if you do you should be proud of being associated with what you believe!
The only reason to be insulted is if your ashamed of your beliefs, Or if they are NOT what you believe in which case if your arguing against your own beliefs proving your just here to be argumentative and posting to be contrary not actually posting to discuss what you believe!
Arguing with people you actually agree with for some undetermined reason.
If a Hater is anyone who doesn’t like or criticizes Sandy’s moves…
Then a Slurper would be someone who likes and defends those moves…”
Wow…. THE CORE…..
He wants there to be a TWEENER catagory for those who claim to be on the fence…
But the truth is if your not sure of what you think you should not post or comment on things your unsure of!
I stand by my statement. Baseball is never boring to me, especially the Mets. I might be disappointed with how bad they’ve played since the ASB but not enough to stop watching. Winter with no baseball is too long.
Find one comment anywhere where I said SA did an excellant job, just one. Only don’t spend too much time because you won’t find one.
The problem with those of you in the SA haters core is anyone here who did not join you all in mocking the FO with childish slurpy comments were all lumped together on some fictitious other side. Just makes me laugh. It’s been highly entertaining, to say the least.
Good you think that way, problem is, before the slurpers comments, we were called haters because we DARE to criticize the FO. I am sure you were entertaining as well right? funny how you said you’ll give this FO one more chance to show you what they’re all about, and already you’re looking for excuses as to why they’ll do (once again) a shitty job this upcoming offseason.. It’s pathetic and really sad.
Regarding baseball, i love baseball, grew up playing it, watching it, enjoying it as a fan, i didn’t say baseball is boring, however, this team has ZERO excitment, that’s not a knock on the team, it’s just the sad reality. i watch harvey, and i love him and his demeanor, but what else is there to be excited about? Be honest?
Gee Alex, thanks for the permission allowing me to think this way.
Seriously, I just don’t understand the anger from some of you.
So because a few people you don’t like called you something you take it out on the rest of us for having patience? Got it.
SRT, you’re welcome…