“The damned thing’s over,”
Legendary New York Mets announcer Bob Murphy, was talking about a marathon game between the Mets and Braves. Of course I’m referring to the seven game losing streak. The Mets were down in Atlanta this week and lost two of three games to the Braves. Friday night’s game was rained out, making Saturday’s action a double header. The Braves took both ends, but the Mets win the final game of the series.
3 Up
1. Dillon Gee: No ifs, no ands, and no buts, Dillon Gee is the weekend star for the Mets. Pressed into duty as a spot starter Sunday Gee pitched a gem going 5 2/3 innings giving up only one run. Gee looked really good on the mound and during the post game show on Sunday Terry Collins indicated that Gee will be taking Chris Young’s slot in the rotation.
2. Terry Collins: In Sunday’s game Terry managed as if it were game seven of the World Series. He went so far as to use both Chris Capuano, and R.A. Dickey in relief. I really like the way Terry has handled this whole losing streak. Terry has remained totally positive. What I found very telling about Terry was how he handled reporters after Saturday night’s double header loss. There was little doubt that Terry was upset with his team (especially Daniel Murphy), but he stayed calm and cool with the press, and never mentioned which players he spoke to or what about. Terry is doing a good job here, he knows this is a process, and good things take time.
3. Pedro Beato: Beato came in Saturday night and he looked great. So far this season Beato has not given up an earned run is six game appearances spanning nine innings. Early in the season Beato has been one of the few bright spots in the Mets bullpen.
3 Down
1 David Wright: It pains me to put one of my favorite Mets here, but Wright was 0-11 this weekend. This season Wright is batting .271 with 16 strike outs. Simply put in a big series against the Braves, with the team struggling Wright has got to step up and do better.
2. Mike Pelfrey: Game two Sunday night we saw a classic Mike Pelfrey meltdown after disagreeing with the home plate umpire’s call. Clearly, Pelf is not the number one on this staff. So far this season he’s 0-2 with a 9.72 ERA. Frighteningly Pelfrey has only pitched a total of 16.2 innings in four starts this season (an average of just over 4 innings a start). Pelfrey is no longer a kid around here, I’m getting sick of his act and he clearly has to pitch better.
3. Bob Ojeda: I’m not sure what Ojeda’s angle is here, but Saturday night after game two of the double header Ojeda called out R.A. Dickey for appearing on FOX’s coverage of game 1. Dickey was talking about a mountain climbing expedition he’ll be making in January for charity. Ojeda was appalled by this! First off, Ojeda came off as a coward, by not mentioning Dickey by name. If Ojeda was so upset with Dickey he should have called him out directly. During his rant Ojeda said players shouldn’t talk about what they will be doing during the offseason, this early in the season. Maybe Ojeda is right. But what about this, when pitching for the Mets in 1988 Ojeda was doing some hedge trimming and injured his finger. He wasn’t the same after the injury. One thing I know for sure, starting pitchers should NEVER do their own landscaping!
