Johan Santana starts today to extend the Mets winning streak to three straight here and six in a row overall. Santana has eight no-decisions on the season, with the Mets going 4-4 in those games. There’s little doubt he could have won 20 games with more support.
A lot going on today:
-The Mets get reliever Luis Ayala for Anderson Hernandez. Let’s not get carried away and think he’s the answer. He is 1-8 with a 5.77 ERA.
-David Wright gets the day off.
-Ryan Church left Florida for New York because of the approaching bad weather.
-Billy Wagner returned to New York to have his left elbow examined.
83 Comments
Good news from Miami: Cubs up 4-2 on the Marlins in the 7th.
now its 5-2
David, Annie: Not to get on my high horse here, but let Eddie Kunz get back on a horse in Binghamton or New Orleans, not Pittsburgh and not today.
I’m not in the mood for any bullpen BS.
Johan’s in complete command.
Let him finish.
Well down here in Miami looks like the Marlins pen is taking a page out of the Mets book turning a 2-0 lead into a 5-2 defecit in the 7th inning this comes on the heels of blowing a 5-3 9th inning lead on Friday.
whats with the mets wearing the black uniforms every game of this road trip? im not complaining though, i dont really like the other ones
Matt,
You win you dont change things easy as that…
Well lets check that one more time and make it an 8 run 7th for the Cubs against the Fish.
works for me
I LOVE the Mets black unis with the old school road lettering. Mets and the Padres’ sand roadies with ocean blue lettering are the best in MLB.
gil- couldnt disagree more about the padres unis lol
Gil –
I’m not sure, has Manuel ever let Santana finish? If that’s his plan, OK.
FYI, Mussina left the Yankee game in the 7th inning ahead 15-3.
Two really great pitchers worked today.
and while we’re talking about unis, i wouldnt mind seeing the mets wear the grey uniform with the all blue hat and blue socks, like they wore in yankee stadium
8-2 Cubs.
So it’s fairly safe to say we’ll finish today no worse than 3 1/2 up on the Fish.
annie- manuel let johan finish a few weeks ago against the cardinals…then again we were up by 7 or 8 runs
Johan looks very strong right now.
1. Matt B: Come on, dude, it’s a San Diego thing! I lived there for the last 10 years before moving down south. The sand and sea color motifs are PERFECT for Aerica’s Finest City.
2. Annie: I’ve said this often in this forum, that my feelings about modern managers’ utter paranoia about starters throwing over 100 pitches and their collective cowardice in removing them after that threshhold is beyond words that can be printed in a family newspaper. I grew up in the ‘70s and ‘80s watching Mets greats like Seaver, Koosman, Matlack, Gooden, Darling, Fernandez and many top-notch starters on other teams. It would be incomprehensible for any of them or any other quality starting pitcher to be lifted after pitching a three-hit shutout after seven innings.
And back in the day, any pitcher worth his salt would be called more than a few epithets by his teammates, opponents and fans for not fighting his manager if the skipper wanted to remove him.
I’m for kickin’ it old school.
The complete game shutout used to be a badge of honor for a starting pitcher and it still should be.
Gil – I agree with you completely – I saw Koufax.
Old school rules.
Johan is the man.
He sealed the deal.
WAY TO GO!
God i wish Johan would step up and earn his contract. How could he give up 3 hits.
nice 5 pitch inning for johan, also good to hang on to a 4-run-lead once in a while
You know after the debacle that was Monday afternoon I expected the team to go on the road and just squeak by series wins. However, for the most part they’ve dominated these weaker opponents in taking 6 in a row.
My heroes have always been pitchers and Santana was one today – he was in total control of the game and won “going away” like a thoroughbred.
Howie has put this game in “The Book” and tomorrow John Maine gets the ball to keep the streak going. See you then – it’s a day game.
If you extrapolate Jerry’s performance over a full season, you’ve got 99 wins.
21 games from last home stand thru raod trip and next weeks home stand that Mets had to go at least 14-7 to have a chance. 10-3 so far.
22 wins to 90. 22-16 the rest of the way not out of reach.
tiffany- manuel has just gained 34 wins, which is as many as the mets had when randolph was fired, and manuel has been manager for 14 less games than randolph
I suppose any new meat is good for the pen, but Ayala is nothing to get excited about. He’s thrown 57 IP in 62 games, with 63 hits and 22 BB and only 36K. His ERA is 5.77. The sad news is that these poor numbers are comparable to Heilman, Smith, Sanchez, Schoeneweis. I dont know anything about him though. Does he have lights out stuff or something else that suggests that he has potential? His career stats arent much different.
So, having just written that, I found this little tidbit on Ayala, which is encouraging. It is from May.
“Reliever Luis Ayala is back to being the player…overmatching hitters with his power sinker…Ayala hasn’t given up a run in his last seven appearances—a 7 2/3-inning span…
http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080529&content_id=2793971&vkey=news_was&fext=.jsp&c_id=was
Ski,
You say that Ayala’s career stats arent much different to this year but that couldnt be further from the truth. Prior to his injury in the World BAseball Classic that cost him all of ‘06 Ayala was a very good middle man with a sub 3 career ERA. Even coming back last year his ERA was 3.19. He’s having a down year no doubt and I’m not expecting anything huge from him but he does have a track record and can easily catch lighting in a bottle in a pennant race.
John, I went to the B-Mets game tonight @ Bowie. Castillo was taken out of the game after his second AB (GO 1-3, BB) for a PR. I asked one of the players if Castllo was OK and was told that he was called up. I don’t know if that means the Mets for tomorrow or NO for another day of rehab (Binghamton has the day off). Dillon Gee looked really good (6 IP, 1 ER, and the got the win).
I don’t have high hopes for Ayala… I mean, jeez, when is Omar just going to change the name to the New York Expos Of Six Years Ago… but he HAS to be more useful than Andy Hernandy.
The Andruw Jones of AAA Shortstops, for heaven’s sakes.
Dave,
I agree that his ERA was better, but IMHO, the hits/walks per inning is a better stat for relievers. His WHIP was about 1.2 (pretty good)prior to this year at 1.4 to 1.5, which is pretty bad. We didnt give up much and maybe there is something there, but I dont see an upgrade. CHeck out this link to read about his exploits lately – sounds like he’ll fit right into our sorry BP. http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20080810&content_id=3286617&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=was
Ayala has been going thru some personal issues. Hopefully that works out and it is the cause of his bad yr and he turns it around to even last yrs numbers. Give Ayala a chance.
People like to get on Omar, and I for one still feel the jury is out on Mets scouting and player dev, but he has done pretty well on acquiring these guys who were suppose to be done (Tatis for one) or are messed up mentally (OP) and have come in and contributed.
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