John Maine didn’t have his best stuff tonight, but was picked up by the offense. The Mets were tied with San Diego for last in the NL with six homers, but got three tonight from Ryan Church, Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran.
I’ll wrap up the game for you below, and invite you to check into the Chat Room to share your thoughts on how you saw the game.
FROM THE CLUBHOUSE
John Maine on his performance: “I have been up in all three games. I don’t have a great feeling with my fastball right now.’’
Willie Randolph on the home run barrage: “I don’t concern myself with home runs, but it’s nice when they happen. I’ll take them.’’
Ryan Church on hitting second in the order: “I love it. I see more fastballs with (Jose) Reyes on base and hitting in front of David (Wright). I’ll get a pitch that I can do something with.’’
GAME ANALYSIS
1st INNING: John Maine’s control was off, but Ryan Church goes deep off lefty Matt Chico. Mets 1, Washington 1.
2nd INNING: Maine settled down, but the Mets missed a chance to get at Chico.
3rd INNING: It’s cold. Bubba Burgers are overrated. And, the between innings music has been lousy tonight.
5th INNING: There’s nothing quite like power. Homers from Reyes and Carlos Beltran have smoothed the edges from Maine’s rough outing. Mets 5, Washington 2.
7th INNING: Maine didn’t make it through seven. He gave up two runs on five hits and four walks in 6 2/3 innings. Power picked him up. Nice job by Joe Smith to get out of the inning.
9th INNING: Billy Wagner gets the save.
NOTEBOOK
Tonight was the Mets’ first come-from-behind victory of the season. … The Mets have used the same outfield of Angel Pagan, Carlos Beltran and Ryan Church in each game. … Pagan’s hitting streak was snapped at seven games.
94 Comments
JM – coming strong with the funnies tonight! I love it!
Here’s a thought: start trying Angel Pagan at first base in practice. Anybody with me?
tomg – Let’s not give that crown to DC. I’m sure you remember the infamous Yenner Mot (and other names) from the Rangers blog!
Spiderpig – count me in. but you probably knew that already.
Steve C –
Have you ever played a competitive sport? Cavorting with your opponent is a no-no. You want to stomp on them.
It wasn’t the money that ruined the game. It was the guys hiding their stirrups. Give me a guy who proudly displays his stirrups and I’ll give you a ballplayer who gives a damn.
Where have you gone Bob Murphy, Lindsey Nelson, and Ralph Kiner?
Most New Yorkers like mustard on their pretzel!!! sorry Gary , but that is NOT a Philly thing…..
I don’t need a guy who lives up in the ultra rich area of Greenwich Connecticut telling me how us New Yorkers need to eat our pretzels…
This is why , I get my Mets baseball on the WFAN, ...Howie got screwed, he should have been the guy they put on SNY…..
Gary, you really have no friggin clue…..
To Steve C.: He has 90 pitches two outs into the seventh, but I think Willie will go to the pen.-JD
Maine has been struggling early this season. It needs to be addressed.
Spiderpig –
OK, I’ll bite – How are the Rangers/Devils doing?
Gut check time for John Maine, just needs to retire Belliard and he can shower.
Annie – Haha, horrendous officiating on both sides, but mostly against the Rangers, I think, even though I’m biased. The Devils just tied the game after a Devil slashed the stick out of the Rangers’ goalie’s hand. It’s hard to watch because of the bad officiating. It’s hard for me to complain about baseball umpires right now.
Mustard on pretzles absolutely.
Maine- man in the 70’s and 80’s the pitcher would have been left in to get himself out of that mess.
I hate picth counts… hate hate hate..
i need a drink..
Good decision to pull Maine at this point. Zimmerman is the tying run and Maine didn’t give you a sense tonight it was a slam dunk he’d get out of it. ... Great job there by Joe Smith.-JD
Smith is hotttttttttttttttt.
What happens when Wise is ready to come back??
Maine is such a fricken sportsman. did you see his reaction. and also in the dugout. good for him…
JD- perhaps. but the bullpen has been sketchy. they do look a wee bit better than last year. But i like my starters going to 8 or 9. call me old fashioned.
I agree with you Steve by and large, but in that particular instance…it was time. Two straight walks, whether we like it or not (because of the pitch count), he probably was getting gassed…so, it was probably a wise move.
Spiderpig – the town where I live sent two guys to the Majors – Brian Leetch and Brad Ausmus. So we are all interested in those sports. When the Rangers won the Stanley Cup with Brian – he brought it home to the High School so everyone could see it. Brian and Brad were also the battery on the High School baseball team that won a state championship.
anyone watching American Idol? Elliot Yamin!!! I had to turn the channel, Gary Cohen is killing me…..the only guy that has a clue is Howie….
PS – We will be fine, Pedro and El Duque fighting for the 5 spot!!!! not bad
Good call by Willie, and great stuff from Joe Smith. As to what happens when Wise returns in a few weeks, I think the Mets will make the only logical move and send Joe Smith to NOLA in case they ever need Jorge Sosa to walk the ball park and give up homeruns.
I snickered a little when Milledge got hit.
I’m a bad person.
Annie – That’s so cool. Were you there to see the Cup? How did you feel about Brian being traded from the Rangers to Leafs? Pretty bad move by Sather, in my opinion.
Good to hear Smith is hot again. Hopefully, he can keep it up, unlike last season.
Lets Go METS!
Spiderpig – Yes, it was cool. My late husband was a volunteer hockey ref in town and came home one day and said Brian was a comer – at age 6 he could skate back and forth without falling down even once.
I wasn’t at MSG to see the cup game, but I saw it on TV and the actual cup I did see at the High School.
Nobody liked Brian being traded – Glen Sather was a jerk then and is a jerk now. I once got to go to Hockey Night in Canada at the Forum and met Jean Belliveau – that was a Big Deal for me.
Oh No – did I hear Howie say “Billy Wagner”. Cross your fingers.
Johnny Estrada is listed at 254 pounds.
Beltran…you scared the crap out of me.
I guess that’s why you’re a gold glover.
It’s in the Books, says Howie. – John Maine owes Beltran for this one – and I sense a Mets awakening. Sweep tomorrow?
“Heeeeeee struck him out!”
Cross your fingers for Wagner? It was a save situation; he should do well, which he did, I guess.
Wow, I just heard on the ESPN2 game that the Yankees fans complained about Hawkins wearing #21 since that was O’Neil’s number. What a bunch of whiners. Annie, what’s your opinion, since I know (if I remember correctly) that you’re a fan of both teams?
Thats a wrap! woohoo!!!!
Both teams? there are 2 NY teams. The Mets and who?
;-]
Great win tonight. Maine, despite some control issues, was very good, Joe Smith and Wagner were fantastic, and the offense did a good job as well, chasing Chico after 5 innings.
Let’s make it a sweep tomorrow night!
another solid win!
Yes, I am a fan of both because the Yankees were my Dad’s team and he taught me about baseball and took me to games starting when I was about 3. The Mets are mine.
I think they should have left Hawkins alone with #21 – Paul O’Neill, a short term, but well loved Yankee is never going to have his number retired.
In fact, the only number I believe will be retired is #2 (since 42 is already retired for Jackie Robinson).
Ok, Now Annie is the Met and Ranger know it all on this Blog??? Sorry about your hubby, but we have all lost family…and I was at the cup game…but I guess since you saw it on TV you know it all…..I met Glen Sather for a benefit for sick kids, A jerk as you say…..well he helped my sick kid ....nice going Annie…..
PS – Every High School has kids that made it…geez you are sooo special…...
PSS – wre you at big shea tonight? just wondering…...
Another solid win against a team you have to beat up on.
Maine-he should take a page out of Pelfrey’s cool and calm book. He just seems to want to rush thru the end of his games. Hope he calms down.
Reyes-maybe the best thing that happened was for him to get a couple of days off.
Delgado-maybe he should take a couple days off.
Smith-does he get shafted or do they trade someone away when Wise is ready?
Milledge/Church-looks to me like Mets got the better of this, especially when you throw in Scheinder. Milledge is the same guy as before-can’t hit breaking pitches, makes poor breaks on balls, plays some goofy positions in the OF and does some bonehead baserunning. While Church is doing quite well against lefties and is making all the plays in the field. Maybe in the long run, it will be a mistake, but it looks pretty good now.
Delgy needs to take a seat.
Clear his mind and get him back to his hitting diary.
Whatever happened to that black book of Delgado’s. They would show it all the time in 06. Then never in 07 or so far this yr. Maybe that is the problem.
Scoopcoop…we’ve happened upon his problem.
He needs his diary back!!!
We must solve this issue!
Pedro is convinced he will be back in APRIL. I think all those eggs and mangos have gone to his head . . .
Oh, and the Braves are now 5 – 9. I’m fairly petty and enjoy watching the Braves lose more than I do the Mets win.
Braves lost another 1 run game. There BP is sad. Did Hudson get hurt? Only went 3 inn.
“More important to the Braves than their current three-game losing streak is figuring out the reason why Tim Hudson experienced such a decline in velocity in this latest setback.”
By the way Mike Jacobs 6hr/12 rbi. Can’t field but he is off to a hot start.
There’s like 4 or 5 guys down in AA who are hitting 400 so if we want to go down there for a replacement hitter we have choices.