NY Mets 2013

[Sausy]

Terrible day yesterday as the terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon essentially pushed off all sports to the side, and I'm sure the Mets players and organization was very much remembering the attack on 9-11 and how much a city can be tested by evil such as these actions. New York came back strong and so will Boston. Thoughts and prayers go to the people of Boston and especially all those directly impacted by the attack.

Mets played two wild games in Denver tonight.... game 1 this afternoon was delayed for two hours and tonight's nightcap ended past midnight here in New York. Lost both, with David Wright and Daniel Murphy highlighting the first game....DWright hitting two impressive drives but he made his first error in 67 games in the nightcap and was part iof a very sloppy efffort in that game that saw too many misplays joined by Mike Baxter, Brandon Lyon and Ruben Tejada as the Mets let an 8-2 lead evaporate to a tie that Colorado ended in the 10th with a base hit off Greg Burke(only remaining Met reliever) by Jordan Pacheco. Mets inflicted lots of damage in both games to both Rockies starters but couldn't solve the bullpen and were unable to extend their lead. Colorado took it to Dillon Gee in the opener, again he can't get past five innings. Mets had to usea parade of pitchers in the second for the shaky Aaron Laffey but were mostly betrayed by careless mistakes, most critical in the 8th Brandon Lyon muffing an easy comebacker and when Bobby Parnell came in to try to record a four out save with an 8-6 lead getting an easy bouncer to Ruben Tejada getting mindlessly thrown away over Ike Davis at first to score the tying runs. Ruben Tejada's inability to get his defense going this year is alarming as he already has 6 errors as opposed to last year's TOTAL of 12.

Mets facing a rough weather day tomorrow, with the possibility of another doubleheader on Thursday when they have an early game on Friday(noon back at CitiField with Matt Harvey against the Nat's ace Stephen Strasburg). Going with my brother to Las Vegas tomorrow and not returning til late Saturday so I'll be taping the Mets against the Nats and the Harvey/Strasburg battle and hoping it will be a great one. See you guys when I get back though there is a chance I can post on my brother's iPAD Friday or Saturday before coming home.

 

[syam24]

I have never liked baseball in Denver, and yesterday certainly adds to that feeling. Mets have had some horrible outings in that venue. Not much to add to Sausy's post, just some opportunities the Mets let slip away, no pun intended. Again Tejada seems to have problems in the cold, but he's not the scapegoat, it was a team effort in sloppy play. Let"s go Mets!! whenever you play again.

 

[syam24]

Current temp in Denver is 19 deg, forecast for game time is 31 deg. Hopefully, we can escape there without any injuries.

 

[sonny10305]

Well the Mets got in to LaGuardia very late last night after a series from Hell, and were all very happy to be home and have that behind them; there was no fun to be had in that trip at all. A lot of the guys wanted to get home and get their housing life in NY in order. They had to endure some of the worst weather you could imagine. I am not gonna blame the loss all on the weather, after all, the opposing team played a well but it certainly contributed to it. I dono how the pitchers were even able to feel the ball and control what they tossed it had to have been very difficult. Then we had Tejada who cost us a game who simply could not cope at all with that cold. He is a warm weather dude never had an experience like that in his life and it showed, I think he will bounce back to his ole self now that he is away from the frigid weather. But again I am not blaming completely the Mets miserable outings on the weather; it would be too easy to blame the cold weather or the high altitude on the crappy performance. I understand that the Rockies also had to pitch in the same conditions and did not have as many problems especially the pen which allowed one earned run in 11 innings in the series. After showing some signs of promise The Mets bullpen was awful this week and ya could not help but compare what last year’s bullpen did falling behind in the count way too much which if you noticed forced some of them to come in with fastballs over the middle of the plate causing major damage done all over the pace. I have to point out Josh Edgin who is beginning to scare me now, where was his velocity it just isn’t where it was last year, it started going south going back to Spring Training. To make it worse he’s working up in the strike zone, his ball is really flat, and I did not see him making any adjustments. I have to watch and see what Pedro Feliciano is gonna do at St. Lucie, who knows maybe he will come around and be our guy.

I am so bummed to hear that Travis d’Arnaud has a fracture in his left foot after he was hit with a foul ball in an AAA Las Vegas’ game Wednesday night. He is wearing a walking boot and got into NY this morning to be examined at the Hospital for Special Surgery to determine the extent of the injury. Depending on what the docs find and if he will need surgery he could be out for as little as a month or as long as two, Then there is the concern that it will heal properly, if it does not he could be plagued by that for the rest of his life. Injuries continue to affect D’Arnaud, he missed the entire second half of the 2012 season with an injury to his knee, and he suffered a back injury which shortened his season in 2010, I hate to say it but that poor kid is injury prone. I will keep in touch with him and let you guys know what’s next for him.

So tonight is (we hope) the big night with the matchup of Harvey and Strasburg. I say “hope” cause the bad weather is not done with us yet and it is supposed to be stormy tonight with lots of on and off rain so who knows how the game will be affected. Shame too cause if they have delays it will affect how both guys pitch; they simply cannot just sit around between rain delays and be expected to pitch at their best. Another exciting matchup will be Matt Harvey vs. Bryce Harper, we are of course hoping for repeat of the last time Harper faced Harvey when Bryce struggled, going 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts.

 

[syam24]

What a great way to return home to Citi Field, with a resounding thumping of the Nats!! Matt Harvey totally outpitched Mr Strasburg, turning in another dazzling effort. His escape from the 7th innning, bases loaded, no out situation was awesome! He got a K, a foul pop to Buck, and a groundout to Murph to end the inning. Solid relief from Rice and Parnell closed out the game for the Mets pitchers. A big nite for the two big lefties in the Mets lineup, Ike and Duda each unloading two long bombs. Lets hope this gets both of them into a hot streak. All in all, a very nice win. Lets go Mets!!

 

[King Gumby VIII]

A very nice win for the Mets. Harvey pitched a very good game.
Geo Gonzalez(1-1 4.50) is pitching for the Nats for today's game.

 

[sonny10305]

“HAR-VEY’s BETTER!”



So chanted the crowd last night Matt is 4-0 with a 0.93 ERA, with ten hits and three home runs with nine walks and 32 strikeouts in a league-leading 29 innings. Yup I said League leading ,Harvey is the first pitcher in baseball’s modern era (like 1900) to win his first four starts while allowing no more than 10 hits in those four starts combined. Harvey’s 105th pitch to end his outing in the seventh inning was clocked at 96 mph. He was great again even thou he didn’t quite have the command of his off-speed pitches that prolly he would have liked to, but so what when he had pinpoint control of a fastball on both sides of the plate with movement in all direction, so it’s ok for him to be a little off with the other pitches. The true test of his awesomeness came in the seventh inning when he had the bases loaded and nobody out. He struck out Suzuki, got Bernandina to popup to the catcher, and got Span to groundout to second base. First time I saw him challenged like that and he came through like an ace. He is a bulldog on the mound, and man oh man did he show what he is made of especially with that seventh inning performance.Crowd chanting “HAR-VEY’s BETTER!” gave me goose bumps,

If you are a reporet trying to get to Matt after the game good luck getting near him past the crowd of media



After the game Matt and some of the boys met with true heroes from our military



Also great to see was Ike Davis breaking out of a 7-for-50 slump with a single homer against Stephen Strasburg and a two-run homer off of Drew Storen, it was Ike’sixth multi-home run game of his career.
So great to see my boy back in action doin what I know he can do hopefully tonight marks the beginning of the return of the Ike Man.

Lucas Duda also homered off of Stephen Strasburg and again off Drew Storen it was his third multi-home run game of his career. The Dude looked so comfortable at the plate putting three nice swings on the ball and drove the ball each time to centerfield. If he and Ike along with Murph and Wright can continue slugging the way we need them to, this lineup is going to be amazing this season.
It was the second time in Mets history that two players homered twice in the same game and both hit the homers in the same inning.

Strasburg struggled a bit through six innings. But it was a hoot to watch these two go head-to-head. The crowd was soo into it, with the boys clearly amped up for this game, after the game when asked about how it felt challenging Harvey, Strasburg said”no big deal” ok Steve whatever you have to tell yourself

It was an extra treat to have Ron Darling in the booth last night if you needed some instruction on the art of pitching you got it in spades from him

This afternoon’s game on Fox is at 3 lineup Justin Turner SS Daniel Murphy 2B David Wright 3B
John Buck C Ike Davis 1B Marlon Byrd RF Lucas Duda LF Collin Cowgill CF and Jeremy Hefner on the mound.
Ruben Tejada will sit today but just as a precaution after that ankle injury. Tejada says he's fine, can run or hit if needed. This will be Justin Turner's ninth major league start and 13th major league game at shortstop JT will also lead off but I sorta wonder why not Cowgill.

Dog day today and yes a few of the guys will bring their pets

 

[syam24]

Pretty good game today, all in all, even though Hefner didn't have much. I've already reached the conclusion that Laffey has to go. He has not impressed much at all, and was dreadful today. The Mets fell behind 4-0, before hitting a 5 spot with two outs. Laffey gave it up after getting the first two outs, then walking Harper before giving up a two run bomb to LaRoche. Both those guys are lefties as is Laffey. Make Harper hit his way on against you! don't walk him. The Mets tied the game on Buck double scoring Murph from first base. Josh Edgin pitched effectively, however, gave up the game winner to Harper, who hit a bomb to right field. He's gonna do that to a lot of pitchers before his career is over, so I don't hold that too much against Josh. THe Mets couldn't get much after that point and fell 7-6. Tomorrow's another day, Lets go Mets!!

 

[sonny10305]

Yeah Syam as you wrote it wasn’t a bad game. I had a good feeling in the ninth that maybe our big guns were gonna pull it off maybe even give us a walk off, and how sweet would that have been but it was not to be.

Hef continues with his problem of not keeping that ball down which as a sinker-ball pitcher he needs to do, he's been keeping it up so far this year. He also needs to work on his delivery he just is not getting good sink or depth to his pitches. I guess the killer was Aaron Laffey who gave up those three runs in less than a full inning. He was designated for assignment and replaced on the roster Robert Carson who has been called up from AAA Las Vegas; he leaves Vegas with a 1.17 ERA. .

The good news last night was we were able to send Gio Gonzalez to the showers early just as we did Strasburg so that felt good.

I was real glad to see Ruben Tejada in there for that at bat I was concerned about that injury he had but he bounced right back which was nice to see. Murphy felt really bad about that throw that caused Rubin to come off the bag and tweak that ankleand no one was happier to see Rubin bounce back as Murph was.Rubin will be back in the lineup at short today.

I forgot to mention yesterday that Travis d’Arnaud will not require surgery to repair a broken bone in his foot and will wear a boot and miss about eight weeks. It is the best case scenario to come out of this situation, even thou of course it is still a setback. Originally Travis could have come up in early to mid June but instead he will go back to the minors and continue working his way to Flushing. Of course we still don’t know if or when he will be promoted to the Majors but there should still be time for him.

We go at it again this afternoon against the Nats the roster will be Jordany Valdespin CF Daniel Murphy 2B David Wright 3B Ike Davis 1B John Buck C Lucas Duda LF Mike Baxter RF Ruben Tejada SS Dillon Gee on the mound.

 

[syam24]

Glad to see Laffey is "outta here!" as Gary Cohen might say. Looking for Dillon Gee to get in a good game, he needs to get on track quickly. Let's go Mets!!

 

[syam24]

Solid game from the Mets and Dillon Gee in particular on SUnday. Gee kept the Nats off balance with a great change up into the 6th inning. THe bullpen came thru, even though Scott Rice got into some trouble during his one inning of work. He walked the leadoff guy, gave up a hit, but then got Werth to hit into a double play before striking out Bryce Harper. Parnell closed it out with a good save performance. John Buck slammed a monster homerun for one run and Mike Baxter got the other run home with a bases loaded sac fly. Enough runs on this day of shutout pitching. (as an aside, I just hope Mr Buck is not juicing. His start seems a bit out of character, and in light of issues with other players in the past, this thought has popped into my head) I know he has showed power in the past in KC and Toronto, but it seems a bit too good to be true for the Mets to be this lucky with a player. Enjoy the off day, Mets! Let's go Mets!!

 

[Sausy]

Glad to see Dillon Gee going like his old self again and the relief effort was terrific. John Buck has had a tremendous April now leasding the Mets with seven home runs and so nice to take a series from Washington. Got back from Las Vegas after midnight Sunday morning so missed both Bryce Harper's big game against the Mets and even more unfortunately missed Matt Harvey's terrific effort Friday night against Stephen Strasburg. I did see the highlights on Sportscenter which showed the crowd chanting" Harvey's better!" and goodness like sonny described it brought chills up my spine how awesome it was. Syam, I have full faith a guy like John Buck is totally legit... he worked a lot on his swing, always been a big guy and just is off to a great start.

Totally bummed to read that Travis D'Arnaud will be out until late June with that fractured foot, though fortunately he doesn't need surgery. His injury last year and this one were flukes though he did have a back injury a couple of years back, so understand how there is a concern about his being prone to injury but hopefully he gets back and is fine and gets called up before September. Terry Collins is a little concerned about Zach Wheeler's wildness in AAA which is uncharacteristic of his time in the Mets minor leagues so far. He may be compensating because of how AAA Las Vegas is NOT a pitcher's friend because of the dry desert air but it's essential he stay within himself but he definitely isn't ready yet for a promotion to the big club. Buffalo was such a bettter place pitching wise but I guess it helps if you are challenged earlier than later with adverse conditions. Hoping we'll see Zach sometime after the All Star break and he gets things together in the meantime.

Coming in for the next three games are the Los Angeles Dodgers..... "Let's go, Mets"!

 

[Sausy]

Tough break with Jonathon Niese getting hit by Mark Ellis' ball up the middle and causing a bruised knee that took him out of the game
as ironically Ellis bedeviled Mets pitching with two big home runs tonight. Relief wasn't so good and while Niese wasn't badly injured it's still possible he may have to skip a start for precaution he heals correctly. Mets go down to the Dodgers in the home series opener 7-2. Hopefully the Mets can get things moving again with a win tomorrow night... as syam cheers on, "Let's go, Mets"!

 

[Sausy]

My bad...damn that's why I hate working late and quickly trying to catch up with Mets games when I come home....Jonathon Niese was struck in the foot last night by that shot by Mark Ellis, not the knee. Still looks like he'll make his next start but the Mets are watching just to make sure. Kirk Nieuwenhuis, who hasn't done much so far in the opportunities he's gotten has been demoted to AAA Las Vegas and replaced on the roster by Juan Lagares. Know VERY littler about him, sure sonny has a better handle on him and hoefully can give us some info on him. Hope Captain Kirk can get back in the groove that marked his first couple of months last year when he was a strong contributor to the Mets fast start early last year.

Matt Harvey goes tonight! Let's go, Mets!!!

 

[sonny10305]

Jon Niese is fine no problem this morning at all. A little scary at first cause he felt numbness there just after it happened but by the time the negative X-rays came back he had full feeling again. He is gonna throw tomorrow and if all goes well with that he will make his next start.

As Saucy wrote The Mets sent Nieuwenhuis to AAA to work on his swing and promoted outfielder Juan Lagares who you got a glimpse of in last night’s game, no, I don’t know him yet workin on it. but looks like really nice and very talented kid should help us out a lot especially from the right side of the plate. He is the lineup tonight batting 8th and playing center field.Meantime Kirk will get the at bats he needs in AAA to get his swing back with the very talented hitting coach and of course Backman.

Shaun Marcum is still up for his start Saturday.

Matt den Deckers cast some off Monday then two weeks rehab and prolly off to Vegas. Good chance we will see both those guys back in Flushing soon.

All excited to see Harvey again tonight. Matt is tied for the ML lead with 4 wins, is 2nd in the majors with a 0.93 ERA and 1st in the majors with 0.652 WHIP. He is a pitcher that can go deep into games; actually he has gone at least seven innings in every start this season. And in those four starts, he’s had only one inning last 20 pitches or longer.

The rest of tonight’s lineup will be Ruben Tejada SS Daniel Murphy 2B David Wright 3B John Buck C Ike Davis 1B Marlon Byrd RF Lucas Duda LF Juan Lagares CF

Kirk wanted everyone to meet his new puppy. Come on, how cute is that

 

[Sausy]

Adorable pic sonny, of Kirk and his new puppy!
Kirk definitely needs work and playing everyday at Las Vegas will be very beneficial for him...not getting enough work right now to correct his mechanical problems at the plate and he needs the at bats and practice to get into a good rhythm again. I don't think Lagares is a huge prospect but anyone who can contribute will be helpful at this point. Matt den Dekker getting healthy fairly quickly and being about two r three weeks away from playing is good news too. Hopeful someday we may see Matt and Kirk as part of a Mets outfield rotation. Certainly currently the two best defensive players out there, and all out grinders as well.

 

[syam24]

AMAZIN' win by the Mets last nite!! Matt Harvey pitched adequately, did a good job, biggest issue was a pitch Matt Kemp hit just over the right field fence at the foul pole. Other than that he was in command. Have to give Kemp his props for hitting that pitch out. The Mets came back with a run on a sac fly by Justin Turner, and a two out run scoring hit by DWright in the bottom of the ninth, driving in Mike Baxter, who had a hustle double off the glove of Carl Crawford. Then in the tenth the Mets loaded the bases and Jordanny Valdespin cracked a GRAND SLAM to win the game. A very nice victory when it seemed the Mets might lose a Harvey pitched game. Afternoon game today, Let's go Mets!!

 

[sonny10305]

I think one of the funniest thing I have seen in baseball was last night when Mattingly held up the game to take his sweet ole time repositioning the infield to 5 cutting the outfield to two then Jordany comes up to the plate and they all had to turn their heads and watch that grand slam go “outta here”

Rubber game today at 1 lineup will be Ruben Tejada SS Daniel Murphy 2B David Wright 3B Lucas Duda LF Marlon Byrd RF Ike Davis 1B Anthony Recker c Collin Cowgill CF Jeremy Hefner
Notice that Duda moves to cleanup, I presume to protect Wright

 

[sonny10305]

^^^I should have also written regarding the move for duda to cleanup it will also take some of the pressure off of Ike and I like that thinking on Collins part always looking out for Ike and trying to do what he can to help get him going

 

[Sausy]

"Amazin" win last night...saw the clips earlier this morning and was so happy after checking the scores occasionally at work last night and seeing bases loaded, one out and Jordanny Valdespin up...then seing the final score and knew it was a grand slam to win the game!Matt Harvey the competitor he is would have none of the "quality start" business even though he was great except for the one mistake to Kemp after getting hit for a run in the first... he really is driven to excelllence and was tough on himself for the home run. It's a quality the great pitchers have, to have that mentality to lock down the opposition but truth is no one is going to be near unhittable every night, or avoid a bad pitch or two ALL the time. But I do love Matt's drive.... he'll never stop looking to always keep having the edge over the hitter and is in that respect like a throwback to the Bob Gibson type greats of the old days.

Great hustle by our hometown boy Mike Baxter getting to second on Crawford's misplay and the Captain DWright lacing a single to score him to tie the game and get it into extra innings for Jordanny's heroics.We know Jordanny loves to get the big hit and this one was the biggest yet. Afternoon game today,"Let's go, Mets"!