It's really an amazing thing that's happened to Mike Pelfrey this season. You almost don't want to talk about it too loudly because, if you're like me, you're still secretly worried it'll all come crashing down, but through the first two months of the season, Mike Pelfrey has been the best pitcher on a staff that includes Johan Santana.
Pelfrey has shown flashes of this before, most notably during a 3-month span in 2008. After the regression we saw last season, however, there was every reason to think those 3 months were the exception to a consistently dispiriting rule.
I'll admit that I was a doubter, but Pelfrey's evolution is something I've never really seen before. I've never seen the Mets promote a highly touted prospect, watch him struggle mightily, watch the team let him struggle mightily, for years, at the major league level, and watch it all become worthwhile as he finally puts it all together.
The operative word in that last sentence is "let". This kind of player development is exactly what the Mets are usually terrible at. A result, principally, of New York's "win now" mindset, the team has shown tremendous impatience with its prospects over the years.
For whatever reason, with Pelfrey they stuck to their guns, and he's rewarding them handsomely now.
Yessir, our little Mikey's all growns up.
* * * * *
What a series.
In the game on Wednesday, Gary Cohen remarked how unlike every other Mets-Phillies series this Mets-Phillies series had been.
For three games the Mets made the Phillies look inept offensively, capitalized on their scoring opportunities, and fielded the ball crisply. Did we steal a few signs along the way? Possibly. (Suck it, Charlie Manuel.)
They played flawless baseball, and today we wake with them 2 games out of first place. Remarkably, it's still possible that they'll end this month where they began it -- in first place.
To do so, they'll need to take their show on the road. At some point, the Mets need to starting winning series' away from Citi Field.
I forget who said it, but sometime late in last night's game, one of Gary, Keith, or Ron commented that this had been the Mets' most complete performance of the season.
Indeed, last night was everything you could have asked for. The Mets put on a commanding display of offensive efficiency, playing get 'em on, get 'em over, get 'em in early and smacking the ball around late.
On the rubber they stymied the Phillies time and time again. First there was R.A. Dickey getting the comebacker to start the 1-2-3 double play in the second or third inning, then there was Raul Valdez striking out Cole Hamels and Ryan Howard with runners on second and third with no one out. David Wright helped Valdez snuff out the threat by making a diving play to his left.
There's three basic parts to a baseball game, hitting, pitching, and defense, and last night the Mets did all three of them flawlessly. It was exactly what they needed to do in a big game like yesterday's.
Tonight they need more of the same. Hisanori Takahashi will square off against Joe Blanton. I know Takahashi has been great all year but he's still an unknown commodity in the starting rotation.
But... BUT... if they can somehow eek out another win tonight, they'll put themselves in a commanding position to silence a lot of critics, and put themselves back squarely in the conversation about the NL East.
Last night was everything you could have asked for.
Now I'd just like to ask for more tonight, please.
The Mets did what they had to do this weekend, taking two out of three from the Yankees with their two best pitchers on the mound.
Now comes the hard part. Now they've gotta keep it going against the Phillies (i.e., the rival that really matters) with the makeshift back side of their rotation about to take its second turn.
They say momentum is only as good as the next day's pitcher, so what do you say R.A. Dickey? How about you Hisanori Takahashi? Things settle down for the Mets after that, with the suddenly terrific Mike Pelfrey going in the series finale.
On the opposing side, the good news is we'll miss Roy Halladay this series. Honestly though, if the Mets are going to stay in contention this season, they need to win games started by guys other than Pelfrey and Johan Santana, I don't care who the opposing pitcher is.
With Jason Bay heating up at the plate, and David Wright hopefully working through his prodigious strikeout issues, the lineup has shown more signs of life lately.
If the Mets can find a way to win this series, it would go a long way toward putting that disastrous last road trip behind them and reaffirming, at least for the time being, that they deserve to be in the conversation regarding the playoffs.
More than anything though, they need to prove to themselves that they can beat the Phillies without their two best horses leading the way. With Dickey and Takahashi (the latter of whom, granted, has been terrific for us all season) going tonight and tomorrow, that's the situation they're presented with over the next three games.
Do you remember how exciting it was when David Wright came up as a 21-year-old in 2004? How limitless the possibilities seemed then? And how all those "possibilities" seemed like certainties after he popped off for 27 home runs ans 102 RBI in his first full year in '05?
Those memories are like daggers in my mind now. First there was the disaster that was Wright's 2009 season, now we have the strikeout fest that is his 2010 campaign.
We're just not watching the same player anymore. I don't know if it's mental or physical or mechanical. Doesn't matter really.
What matters is that Wright is a shell of his former self. As a Mets fan it's extremely troubling on the level of what it means for the team's prospects. Beyond that though, what really upsets me about his -- I don't know... decline seems the wrong word, more like waywardness -- waywardness is that it makes watching him so unpleasant.
Every time he steps to the plate I cynically pray that he won't strike out. Every time he gets two strikes on him I say to myself "please don't strike out, please don't strike out, please don't strike out" as I wait for him to flail at a fastball out over the plate for strike 3.
Wright was never a guy who never struck out, but it used to be within reason; from 2005-2008 he struck out between 113 and 118 times per season. It was a predictable, totally reasonable strikeout rate.
And then 2009. And now 2010.
I've never seen a player strike out the way Wright does these days. The K number ballooned to 140 last year, and is on pace to reach 223 this year. That's not a typo, not a misprint. He's on pace for 223 strikeouts; if he does it, he would tie Mark Reynolds' all-time record for strikeouts by a batter in a season, set last year.
And this from a guy who used to be such a great two-strike hitter. Aye-aye-aye.
* * * * *
This isn't just about Wright's hitting, though that completely screwed us in the game tonight. I mean, I realize Billy Wagner is throwing gas and that he's a strikeout pitcher, but even going into that at-bat, with the go-ahead run on third and one out, did any of us think there was any chance Wright wouldn't strike out there?
But there's also his fielding. First came the implosion in Florida, now comes his errant throw to end the ball game tonight. I realize it wasn't a completely terrible throw, but rationalize it all you like, the Mets still lost because of it.
All in all, it was another bad inning for Wright in what's quickly becoming the worst season of his career (and that's saying something after 2009). You can say all you want about the improved power and RBI numbers, but the batting average is way down, the strikeouts are way up, and the guy no longer feels like a difference-maker.
He feels more like a headcase. Or worse, like an overvalued third baseman who we cherish for sentimental reasons, rather than his actual contributions in the here and now.
* * * * *
It pains me to write all of this. Go back through the archives of this blog -- we've always loved D-Wright.
And god knows the team's woes aren't his fault. If Carlos Beltran were out there every day or Jose Reyes were actually contributing or Jason Bay weren't making like the biggest first-year-of-his-contract bust since the 2005 version of Beltran, all of this might be water under the bridge.
But all of those aren't the reality. The reality is this team needs Wright to be the player that he was from 2005-2008, and he's simply not that guy anymore.
Maybe something clicks for him and he gets back to that place, but right now he looks so completely lost it's hard to imagine how he could.
Oh well. We'll always have the memories of that 21-year-old prospect, and the excitement that came with the certainty that things were finally going to turn around for us Mets fans.
I was struck by a moment of sublime zen somewhere around the 8th inning. Jenrry Mejia had coughed up the Mets' improbable 1-run lead, and all of a sudden the Mets were trailing once again.
None of it bothered me too much. The Mets were on their way to their first home defeat in 10 games, but my honest response was something akin to ho-hum.
There are several credible explanations for my nonchalance. Chief among these is the fact that any way you look at it, this was a game the Mets deserved to lose.
Oliver Perez was awful. Strike that... calling him "awful" isn't fair to the word "awful". Awful doesn't begin to describe it. You know what it was? It was the kind of start that made you long for the days of Steve Trachsel. Yep.
Tim Lincecum was going for the Giants, and any time Lincecum matches up against Ollie you can acknowledge the Mets are a serious underdog. Lincecum didn't have his vintage stuff, but even without his best stuff, when the Mets managed 2 runs off of him you had to feel that they'd really lucked into something.
But back to the Mets' pitching. I don't know that I've ever seen so many walks in a 9-inning game. They escaped relatively unscathed in the early going, but in the end it caught up with them. You live that dangerously for that long and eventually you're going to get burnt, and that's just what happened with Aaron Rowand in the 8th inning.
In all, it would have been great if they'd have found a way to win, but the important thing is that they took two out of three against a very good San Francisco team.
We had those two wins in our back pocket today, and that's another contributing factor to why I kept calm as the Mets lost this game. More than anything though, I don't think anything could kill my mood right now after a really great weekend.
Friday night out at Windswept Fields Citi Field was just about perfect. Good game, good people; it was just one of those nights where everything just came together.
Then last night me and Little Miss Citi had Cinco de Mayo night with S.O.A.F.O.M.G. and two of her friends, capped by an epic, hours-long game of Apples to Apples.
All in all, I had too much wind behind my sails to let this game get me down. The only disappointment is in not knowing who Jerry Manuel would have sent out to play third in the bottom of the 9th after David Wright got ejected.
If the Mets lose tomorrow, well, expect crushing depression. But as for now, after this weekend, I can handle it. Go get 'em tomorrow.
Heckuva time at the old ballpark last night. Me, Little Miss Citi and a bunch of friends hit up Citi Field yesterday, the better to bear witness to the latest heroics from Met legend Rod Barajas.
There were two undeniable highlights. The first was the connection between the lyrics of Lady Gaga's hit smash, "Bad Romance," and Rod Barajas' last name.
A substantial part of the inspiration comes from Y2K Godfather Sippy Momo, who, on Opening Day, could be heard singing "Ga, Ga, Ga-la-Rraga!" in ode to one-time Met Andres Galarraga.
It took me a month, but last night it hit me somewhere around the time of Barajas' first home run. "Ra, Ra, Ba-Ra-Jas!" I cheered, and when the occasion came again in the bottom of the 9th, my god did I yell it with fervor.
After a walk-off win it was off to McFadden's for my first trip at Citi Field. The McFadden's there has a lot going for it, and it's really cool that Mets fans now have a place to congregate after big games (aside from the 7 train, of course).
It's a huge space; it's one of the biggest bars I've ever been to, actually, so it can accommodate about as many people as would ever likely want to go.
So that's the good news.
The bad news is that the bar, for all its mammoth size, seems to have waiters enough to serve only a small fraction of its patrons.
We grabbed a table, but after waiting endlessly for a waitress, I decided to try my luck at the bar itself. Bad move. The bar was jam-packed, there were about five servers total on the wrap-around bar. (I also loved how two potential waitresses were dancing on the bar.) I never had a prayer.
Eventually I gave up and returned to my seat, by which time my friends had managed to flag down a waitress. Once the beer arrived all was well at McFadden's.
I had a few other minor quibbles. For one thing, they should have close captioning on the televisions after the game. A lot of the people there probably wanted to know what Barajas had to say after the game; with the music blasting there was no way to hear it (fair enough), but they could throw everyone a bone by including the text on screen.
Beyond that, the restroom area is just bizarre. It's a major work in progress from a physical perspective, for one thing. As you wait on line, the wall across the way isn't complete (i.e., it doesn't go all the way to the ceiling), which makes it look run down.
Once you're in the bathroom, for some very bizarre reason there's a bathroom attendant. He was a nice fellow, and his mints and cologne offerings were refreshing enough, but still... a bathroom attendant? At a sports bar? It was just... why?
That said, the major issue with the bathroom is that, in a bar that can accommodate hundreds (if not thousands) of people, most of them men, the men's room has exactly one urinal and two stalls. If you were building a bar of that size, why on earth would you include only three places for guys to take a leak?
In the final assessment though, the good far outweighs the bad. Again, it's awesome that there's now a place to go after wins to soak it all up with fellow fans. If there's an honest to goodness Mets bar in all of New York City I haven't found it, so it really is a unique experience. It just needs a few tweaks around the edges.
Anyway, from where I sit now it looks like the weather may hold up and we'll get a ballgame in today. If so, it'll be a big start for Johan after last Sunday's debacle. Let's hope for a bounce back.
In the euphoria following last Friday's 9-1 win over the Phillies, the Mets knew their talking points. To a man, each of them expressed a certain "look at me now" satisfaction in having taken their winning streak on the road.
You understood why they might have a chip on their shoulder in that respect. For all the brilliance of their 9-1 homestand, the detractors were quick to point out that for the Mets to be successful, they would need to start winning more games on the road.
Zoom forward to the present and it's clear the Mets have a lot left to prove to those detractors.
One formula for reaching of the playoffs requires a team to take two of out of three at home and play .500 ball on the road. Right now the Mets, 11-5 at home and 4-8 on the road, are managing one half of that equation handily, and failing miserably at the other.
No doubt, this was a hard-fought series in Cincinnati. The Mets played well, but ultimately fell short two out of three games. After the debacle in Philadelphia on Saturday-Sunday (the latter of which was an eminently winnable game), the Mets could have really used a series win in Cincy to help stake their claim as being a legit contender.
Instead the questions linger. Who are the real Mets? Are they the team that stumbled early? The team that reeled off a 9-1 homestand? Some combination of the two?
Personally I'm not sure. It's really been a funny season. I expected the pitching to be terrible and the hitting to be dynamic; instead, we've gotten pretty much the reverse.
Jason Bay looks awful right now, and has for most of the season. Jose Reyes has basically contributed nothing. David Wright's been great (particularly, I'm required to note, with regard to the power numbers), but it hasn't been enough to compensate for the other two's non-contributions.
Meanwhile, Jon Niese, who took the loss yesterday, has been better than most of us would have hoped. Ditto Mike Pelfrey, save the implosion last Saturday. And then there's the bullpen, where Hisanori Takahashi has been a godsend, Jenrry Mejia has seemed like the real deal, and Fernando Nieve has pitched effectively.
At some point you almost expect these two trend lines to reverse. You expect to see the pitching falter and the offense wake up. In this season, however, the better assumption has been to expect the unexpected.
Which brings us back to the Mets. I'm still trying to figure out what we can reasonably expect from this team. Now that they've gotten their act together and proven to themselves they can win games, it's going to be very interesting to watch them over the coming weeks.
How will they respond to the lost road trip when they return home tomorrow?
This was a disappointing road trip, but it was just two series -- can they put together a better showing next time?
It had become difficult to remember, but there was actually a time when John Maine looked like he could become a reliable, productive pitcher for the Mets.
You never thought he would be a No. 1 type guy, or if you did you were crazy, but there was plenty reason to believe he might slide in comfortably as a No. 3 or 4 type starter for a long time to come.
But as the years went by the injuries took their toll both physically, and, you'd have to think for a guy like Maine who would beat the shit out of himself if he could, mentally.
Until last week against LA he had really looked bad, and the alarm had officially been sounded when calls for starting Dillon Gee or Hisanori Takahashi began to gather steam.
But in his last two starts John Maine has righted himself, and his latest effort came at a time of significant need.
Make no mistake, coming off the weekend debacle in Philly and the disappointing extra innings loss to Cincy on Monday, the game last night was a big one for the Mets.
Fresh off an 8-game winning streak, the last thing the team wanted to do was piss it all away in some extended losing streak, but after the last three days all of the pieces for such a collapse were there.
But in stepped Maine to right the ship, and he gave the Mets everything they needed through the first 6 innings of the game. After "Nightly Nieve" gave up back-to-back homers in the 8th, Maine's effort didn't prove decisive, but it put the team in position to win the game, which it did when Met legend Rod Barajas homered for the millionth time this season.
So yesterday was a big game, and I'm going to put today's game in the same category. They've got an off day tomorrow, so the taste from today's game will last longer than most.
If they win today they come back home with two straight wins and a 3-3 road trip under their belts. If they win today and Philly loses, they come back home in first place.
If they lose today, however, there's no way to look at the road trip as anything but a failure. They were the hottest team in baseball going in to it; to come away with two wins in six games would be tremendously disappointing.
And so we turn the ball over to Jon Niese, who today occupies a similar space to the one I mentioned Maine used to occupy. It would be very "productive 3rd starter-ish" of Niese to go out and get the Mets a win today. Here's hoping he can do it.
The Wheels on the Bus Keep Falling Off, Falling Off, Falling Off
Another day, another missed opportunity for the Mets.
A night after their "ace" imploded in ingloriously horrific fashion against their biggest rivals, the Mets found themselves with a bit of a statement game in Cincinnati.
Were these the same old Mets, the team with the glass jaw and a knack for letting other teams kick them when they're down? Or were these the newer, grittier Mets of the 9-1 homestand?
I hate to say it, but on this night at least this team looked a lot like the one from past seasons. Poor situational hitting, bad fielding (Reyes HAS to knock that ball down), walking pitchers and paying the price (or is that this year's trademark?), all of it just leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.
* * * * *
For as good as they looked as recently as Friday night, the wheels on the Mets express have come off rather fast.
When the season began, I, like many, predicted this team would finish the year with a record somewhere around .500. Early-season hot streaks can fool you though, and I'll admit that I had started to play the 'what-if' game to find a way to put the Mets in the playoffs.
What if Pelfrey and Niese can keep this up? What if Francoeur can drive in 90-100 runs? What if Beltran comes back and turns this lineup into a juggernaut?
The past three games have been rather sobering. You watch this team play enough games and eventually you see the flaws. The absurd amount of walks. The amazing disappearing plate discipline when the team falls behind. Every at-bat given to Gary Matthews Jr., Alex Cora, and Frank Catalanotto (seriously, does this team have one credible pinch hitter?).
Teams with these kind of flaws are close enough to being real contenders to keep things interesting, but not deficient enough to drive you nuts. And maybe that's what we're in for this year. A team that has its up, its downs, and ultimately finds its way to a happy medium around .500.
Maybe I'm not giving them enough credit. After all, they're still in second place, just .5 games out of first. And let's be honest, if they'd won tonight I'd have been singing their praises for their resiliency, and I would still do that on Thursday if they find a way to win tomorrow and Wednesday.
But the missed opportunities are starting to mount. Mets fans know all too well what happens to teams that leave wins on the board. Eventually the losses cave in around you and all that's left is a futile game of "if only we'd won that game against...".
For now I'll try to think positively and remind myself it's just three games. Besides, in May there's always tomorrow.
I guess we can put the whole "who's better?" debate about Johan and Hallady to bed, can't we?
Honestly, what a pathetic, pathetic outing. What's so disheartening about it is that Johan has always been the ultimate competitor.
Tonight... I don't know. The Mets gave him all the runs support he ever should have needed. He had the pitcher up with two outs and couldn't throw him a strike. He clearly let the crowd affect him.
It was all so unlike anything we've seen from him before. The only game that really compares is that one against the Yankees last year, the one that basically confirmed there was something physically wrong with him.
It's depressing in its own right. Coming off of Roy Halladay's gem yesterday, it's all at a whole 'nother level of demoralizing.
As I write this, the fourth inning continues, all with two outs, no end in sight. Ken Takahashi has stepped in for the ghost of Johan Santana. The Mets should have won this game easy. Should have taken two of three from their hated rivals and reasserted themselves in the NL East.
None of it's gonna happen. If I had any principles at all I'd stop watching.
Mets Extra is an independent sports website that is not affiliated with any other news outlet. Mets Extra (including its predecessor, Yankees 2000: Promote the Curse) is not affiliated in any way with the New York Mets, the New York Yankees, WFAN Sports Radio 66 ("The FAN"), Major League Baseball, the National League, the American League, or any other professional sports franchise or entity.
Mets Extra is an independent sports website that is not affiliated with any other news outlet. Mets Extra (including its predecessor, Yankees 2000: Promote the Curse) is not affiliated in any way with the New York Mets, the New York Yankees, WFAN Sports Radio 66 ("The FAN"), Major League Baseball, the National League, the American League, or any other professional sports franchise or entity.
