Game Summary

Hisanori Takahashi started for the Mets and got roughed up by the Tigers early in his worst start of the season. Takahashi, who has had a great string of great starts, had trouble getting outs against Detroit. Some noticeable tactics that he was going for in the game that could have cost him are that he was trying too hard to pitch backwards and was trying to get his fastball up to 97 instead of hitting his spots like he normally does. Takahashi only recorded enough outs for 4 innings pitched, giving up six earned runs on eight hits and two homeruns. He walked four and struck out four as well. The lefty imported arm needs to bounce back in his next start or it could be back to the bullpen for him. Takahashi receives his third loss of the season.

Elmer Dessens enter the game in the fifth inning with the bases loaded and no outs. He starts it off immediately by walking in a run. He would allow two runs to cross the plate (both charged to Takahashi) before getting out of the fifth inning. He would stay in to pitch another inning only giving up one hit, one walk and struck out one batter in his two innings of work.

Parnell and Igarashi, both throwing some high heat, combined for two shutout innings. They had one hit, five strikeouts and one walk between them. Nice work boys! Nieve and Feliciano rounded out the ninth inning with two hits combined and one walk. This could have been a night the Mets would have used Valdes, if he hadn’t been sent down and replaced by Josh Thole who has yet to make an appearance in a game despite being called up twice already this season.

The offense started off slowly but fought their hardest to get back in the game. Mets were down 3-0 before getting anything going. This is not like the Mets of late. They usually score first in the early innings. The Mets did make a nice run for the lead in the sixth inning, scoring three runs and then another run in the seventh.

Angel Pagan was out of the game and his fill in for the night, Jesus Feliciano, had a nice three hit game. Two singles, a double, and two runs scored. Also made some nice plays in center that would make it on the Top 10 Plays list tomorrow.

David Wright would be the only other player to get a multi-hit night, but not where it counted most. He had many opportunities to either make the game closer or to tie the game up. He ended the night with two hits, a double, one RBI, one run scored to go with his two big strikeouts.

Reyes, Bay, Blanco, Tejada, and Carter all contributed with one hit each. Blanco started tonight with Barajas having woken up to a sore back.

Francoeur and Davis both had 0-fers along with a pair of pinch hitters, Cora & Tatis, both going 0-1.

Turning Point

Takahashi did not have his A-game tonight and the two homeruns really proved that.

Game Ball

Jesus Feliciano did a great job filling in center with Pagan healing. I still think Feliciano missed out on a big scoring opportunity, but can’t complain with a three hit night.

Up Next

Mike Pelfrey takes the mound for the Mets as he looks to be the first Met pitcher with ten wins. Mets will match up with the Twins who throw out Kevin Slowey who has recorded seven wins, but has a tendency to give up a lot of runs. Game time is 7:10 PM. Let’s Go Mets!

Hisanori Takahashi, making his first MLB start, delivered a solid outing but the Mets offense couldn’t buy a hit off of Yankees starter Javier Vazquez and took the loss 2-1.

Game Notes

Hisanori Takahashi couldn’t have done anything more impressive even if he tried today, stretching himself 6 innings, throwing 101 pitches with an absurd level of control. Takahashi struck out 5, gave up 5 hits and walked 1. The Yankees couldn’t put together multiple hits against Takahashi, and in the one situation when they did Takahashi pushed them back never giving an inch while mixing his pitches. Hopefully Takahashi can get more stretched out and stay effective, because the irony is in the fact that the long reliever out of the Mets bullpen has the ability to be a starter who can go out and give you a solid 7 innings.

The bullpen was steady and Mets fans were greeted with their first sighting this year of Elmer Dessens. He promptly decided to give up hits to the first 3 batters he faced, allowing the only 2 runs of the game. Oliver Perez came out for 1/3 of an inning and walked one, showing that he hasn’t forgotten what he is all about. Fernando Nieve made an appearance, but it was literally that as he walked one and was pulled. Pedro Feliciano came out for the 8th and looked the best he has all season, striking out 2 and keeping the Mets in the game. Manny Acosta pitched the 9th, and gave up 1 hit. Acosta has been a good surprise out of the pen.

The bats were not informed the goal of baseball is to make contact where players aren’t, or so it seems as they only mustered 4 hits the whole game. 2 of those hits came in the 9th inning on doubles by Jason Bay and Ike Davis with the Davis double scoring Bay. Everyone’s favorite Met of the moment, David Wright ended the possible rally off of Mariano Rivera by grounding out to 2nd base to end the game. Can blame be placed on David? He struck out twice…once looking on a questionable 3rd strike call.

Wright, Pagan and Barajas went 1-10 with 6 K’s and 1 GIDP. Although most of the lineup struggled, this is just the sign of the ineptitude.

Jason Bay just missed a home run off of the high right-center wall.

Ike Davis is still mashing the ball, looking more and more comfortable every day.

Game Ball

Hisanori Takahashi, you provided the Mets fan base with a 2nd straight pleasant surprise of pitching efficiency and durability.

Up Next

The Mets will look to even the series, sending Mike Pelfrey and his 5-1 record to the mound to face off against Yankees starter Phil Hughes. Game time is 7:10 PM

The Mets will welcome Elmer Dessens back to the fold as they signed him to a minor league contract today. He’ll be eligible to compete in Spring Training.

They also inked a deal with right-handed pitcher Clint Everts to a Major League contract. His numbers in the minors are quite impressive.

Last week Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported that the Mets had signed Everts to a minor league deal, but with today’s move he immediately gets added to the Mets 40 man roster.

Everts, 25, was highly sought after and was being pursued by 15 teams at the Winter Meetings.

Last season, he was 8-1 with a 1.65 ERA in 44 relief appearances while pitching at three levels in the Washington Nationals farm system including Class-AAA Syracuse. In 60 innings pitched, he allowed 49 hits and walked 26 while striking out 68 batters.

Everts was originally drafted by Omar Minaya, then with the Expos, with the fifth overall pick in the 2002 Amateur Draft. He could prove to be a solid sleeper for the Mets down the road.

Dessens returns to the Mets after a decent effort last season during a short stint in which he made 28 appearances and posted a 3.31 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP in 32 innings pitched.

Dessens is clearly an insurance policy who will do most of his toiling in Buffalo, While Everts has a good chance of making the bullpen with a solid spring.

In 2009, Dessens was quite the bargain for the Mets as he had his best year in the big leagues since 2005, posting a 3.31 ERA in 32.2 innings.

His K:BB ratio wasn’t the best (14:10), but he was still able to manage to get hitters out.

The 13 year veteran has compiled a lifetime record of 48-62 throughout his career and has an ERA of 4.53.

According to Bill James’s projections for next year, Dessens should expect to see his ERA inflate a bit to 4.11.

I have no problem with the Mets trying to bring back the 38 year old, however I think that offering anything above a minor league deal would be a huge mistake as the team should work on building around younger players, especially in the bullpen.

To me, the ideal role for Dessens would be a spot in the Buffalo Bisons bullpen. and only be used in the event that one of the relievers on the big league team get injured.

The Mets jumped out to an early lead against Cubs’ starter Rich Harden.  Cory Sullivan hit his second home run in as many days to give the Mets a 1-0 lead in the second inning.  The game remained 1-0 until the fourth inning when Lee and Ramirez combined to give the Cubs the lead.  Lee started the inning with a base hit off Figueroa, bringing up Aramis Ramirez.

Ramirez entered the game with a career batting average of .417 (5 for 12) and a home run against Figueroa.  His second career home run off Figueroa came in the fourth inning after Lee’s single.  The blast gave the Cubs a 2-1 lead.

The lead was short-lived as the Mets struck back in the bottom of the fourth.  Cory Sullivan drew a one-out walk from Rich Harden and went to second on Harden’s errant pickoff throw.  After recent call-up Josh Thole’s single put runners at the corners, Anderson Hernandez tied the game at 2 when he reached on an infield single.  However, the Mets left the potential go-ahead run in scoring position when Nelson Figueroa and Angel Pagan struck out to end the threat and the inning.  The two strikeouts gave Harden nine strikeouts through the first four innings of the game.

The Cubs half of the fifth inning was the time for Derrek Lee to shine.  After handing out his “it’s a boy” cigars to his teammates in the dugout while Kosuke Fukudome singled to left, he promptly launched the first of his two proud poppa blasts into the left field landing at Citi Field, giving the Cubs a 4-2 lead.

Speaking of poppas, with apologies to Big Poppa (the late rapper Notorious B.I.G.), these altered song lyrics should best describe what happened Saturday at Citi Field.

Figgy, Figgy, Figgy, can’t you see?

Sometimes your pitches just hypnotize me.

Unless your name is Derrek Lee.

Then they end up in the left field landing.

The Mets were able to cut the Cubs’ lead in half in the seventh inning when Aaron Heilman made his Citi Field debut for the Cubs.  Yadier Molina’s BFF continued to show why he was so reviled in the minds of the Flushing Faithful.  Sole surviving member of the Three Fernandos (seems like ages ago when they had their heyday), Fernando Tatis led off the inning with a single.  He later advanced to second on a wild pitch by Heilman.  Tatis reached third on a base hit by Angel Pagan and scored on a sacrifice fly by the smaller-helmeted David Wright.  The fly ball cut the Cubs lead to 4-3, leading to an early trip to the showers for Heilman, who exited to a growing crescendo of boos. (or were they Cubs fans saying Lou Piniella’s first name as he took Heilman out of the game?)  The Mets were not able to tie the game as John Grabow was able to get Daniel Murphy to ground out to second base to end the inning.

The failure to pile it on when Aaron Heilman was in the game came back to haunt the Mets just one pitch into the next inning.  Elmer Dessens was called upon to pitch to Derrek Lee, who responded by claiming the left field landing in the name of Lee.  So prodigious was the blast that a man attempting to catch the hot potato literally fell head over heels down the stairs while making the play.  Despite the inability to remove the “wow” from his lips after Lee’s homer, Dessens settled down and retired the next three batters to get out of the inning.

The Mets had one more good scoring opportunity in their half of the eighth but could not replicate the five-run eighth inning of the previous night.  They loaded the bases against Grabow and closer Carlos Marmol with two outs in the inning.  Angel Pagan was able to work the count to 3-2, but popped up to center to end the threat and for all intents and purposes, the game as well, as Marmol was able to retire the Mets in order in the ninth inning.

Nelson Figueroa did not pitch badly in his six innings of work, giving up seven hits and two walks to go along with eight more strikeouts (18 Ks in his last two games).  However, the four runs he gave up on the two-run homers by Ramirez and Lee were sufficient for the Cubs to end the Mets’ winning streak at two.  Still, Figueroa showed that his recent success at Triple-A Buffalo was not a fluke, as he has been very good since his call-up from the Bisons.

Tomorrow is the rubber game of the series, as the Mets hope to finally win a series for the first time since late July.  Mike Pelfrey will try to reverse his recent stretch of poor performances against Randy Wells.  Game time is at 1:10 PM.  The Cubs have had difficulty scoring in this series if not for the long ball.  If Pelfrey’s sinker is working on Sunday, the Mets might finally have that long-denied series victory.

But as the season wore on, and the bullpen innings continued to mount, we began to see some cracks as May came to an end.

Jerry Manuel was quick to take the blame for his ineffective bullpen lately, but there’s more to it than that.

“What I need to do is really refresh the bullpen,” Manuel said. “I probably, to a fault, use them too much. I have to do all I can to refresh them and that will help. “What I have to do is trust the other people I have down there.”

I can hardly blame Jerry Manuel for his reluctance to use Takahashi and Switzer. I can hardly blame Jerry Manuel for his starting pitchers failing to give him the innings he desperately needs. Blaming Manuel for the state of the bullpen is a bit short-sighted as the problems lie much deeper than Manuel. 

To begin, we lost J.J. Putz for a long stretch thanks to a bone spur that Omar was aware of when he made the trade. We also survived a big scare when severe muscle cramps sent A-Rod to the ground crying in pain. Luckily, Rodriguez came out of it intact and was back on the mound days later.

Once Putz was put on the DL, Bobby Parnell was expected to take over as the setup man. It seemed like a well deserved promotion at the time for the young right hander who had been performing well as the first line of defense in the seventh inning. However, things started to unravel almost immediately. Parnell’s ERA by month tells the story: April 1.74, May 2.46, June 15.88.

Parnell has appeared in 36 games so far this season, and that ranks him 2nd in the National League. Lefthanded hitters have tagged him for  a .357 average and an .884 OPS. His numbers against righthanded hitters are only slightly better at .338/.815. This train looks like it has left the station. Some say that it’s a case of overuse, but I think the lack of effective secondary pitches have more to do with it. When you throw mostly fastballs, eventually hitters will just wait for one, and that’s exactly what they are now doing.

Pedro Feliciano has gone from untouchable to very hittable, and he leads the league in appearances after leading the league last season. Feliciano is clearly a case of overuse, and the Mets must find a way to reduce the workload before he goes completely into the tank like he did last season. Feliciano has become too valuable to be treated so carelessly. He has pitched in 40 games and is on pace to make over 100 appearances. His ERA jumped from 1.40 in May to 3.60 so far in June. In his last six appearances he has an 8.15 ERA and that doesn’t even include inherited runners scored.

Sean Green has gone from bad to terrific to bad again after last nights performance. The real Sean Green lies somewhere in between which still would make him an important cog in our bullpen. Again, yesterday’s poor outing might also be a case of overuse. He allowed three hits and two earned runs, and wasn’t able to register an out. It was his second consecutive poor performance, but before that he had not allowed a run in 15 straight appearance. Green is probably the most valuable piece we have to show for that J.J. Putz trade, and if used effectively he has proven just how valuable he could be to this team.

Ken Takahashi and Jon Switzer are so bad and so ineffective, they are not even worth mentioning. Both of their spots will probably be taken up once John Maine and Oliver Perez are activated from the DL.

I believe the Mets have someone very serviceable languishing in the minors in righthander Elmer Dessens. The 38-year old veteran has put together a solid season in Class-AAA Buffalo and I was very surprised when the Mets tapped Jon Switzer for a promotion and bypassed Dessens ten days ago.

Dessens has pitched 35 innings and allowed just 29 hits and 6 walks for a 1.00 WHIP. His strikeout to walk ratio of 28/6 is rather impressive even if it was compiled in AAA. He has racked up 11 saves and owns a 2.40 ERA. He seems to be a crossover type pitcher as lefthanders are hitting just .160 against him.

The Mets bullpen is in dire need of some fresh arms. They must find away to get their starters to go longer into the game, but that continues to be a big problem for the rotation. Until they get that figured out, they need to get Jerry Manuel some arms he can trust.

Clearly, Manuel has over relied on Parnell, Feliciano and Green. He avoids Stokes, Takahashi and Switzer like they have the plague, although his reluctance to use Stokes is puzzling.

Dessens may give Manuel another option he can trust. He is a veteran reliever who has been around the league and knows the ropes. Dessens is by no means a savior, but he can be a serviceable arm right now, and with no days off until July 6th, the Mets would be smart to give him a callup.