Tag: New York Mets

box
Cubs 96-61
Mets 87-71

POTG: 3B A Ram (2 R, 2 H, 2 RBI, 3 BB, HR)
very close: RP Cotts (1.1 IP, BB, 3 K, 0 R, 0 H, 2 marooned)
Runner Up: LF Soriano (2 H, 2B, RBI, BB), SS Ryan Theriot (3 H, 2 R, SB, still over 300), B D Lee (2B, 2 R, RBI, 3 BB), RF DeRosa (2 H, 3 RBI, HR), CF-LF Johnson (2 H, RBI), C Blanco (2 H)

That was the one of the best games of the season, even if you only picked up right before Z was pulled out of the rotation. Big scores and comebacks and the other team making comebacks and relievers walking tight wires and living to tell the tale. Of course, it was completely meaningless for the Cubs and there might be 20 people besides myself who watched the game in Chicago (there’s a rumor there was a slightly more vital game), but it still was pretty great.

A completely crushing loss for the Mets. FanGraphs has them peaking at 91.1% win chance before the Cubs started there rally back from 5-1 and a 93.% after Murphy’s triple to lead off the 9th. The Mets had runs on 1st and 3rd with no outs in the 7th, 1st and 3rd with no outs in the 8th, and 3rd with no outs in the 9th and scored all of 1 run. And that’s Keith Hart, Jeff Samardzija and Bobby Howry, not guys who’ve been lightning the world on fire.

This doesn’t make up for 1969, but this sure is some good vengence for 2004 and the Victor Diaz game. Hopefully Harden kills them tommorow (or they continue comitting suicide), and then they burn Shea to the ground.

Mets 63-48
Cubs 58-52, -1, -2

POTG: LF/RF Cliff Floyd (H, 2 BB)
Runner Up: C Jason Kendall (2 H, 2B, R) – I just couldn’t give it to him, though maybe I should’ve.

And I thought August meant the end of massive roster moves. What do I know. I think the only thing more worrisome than going for a month without the leading home run hitter on the team is everyone talking about how the Cubs might be better of without the guy they’re paying a lot of money for a lot years. It’s going to be a lot of fun between now and 2014ish.

I’m sure they call up Pie, I’m just not sure about how everyone is deployed. Lou could go with a whole platoon outfield – Floyd, Pie, Jacque left to right against righties, Murton, Pagan, DeRosa against lefties – but I think it’ll be more mix and match depending on who’s hitting well and who matches up. I don’t expect Murton to get a lot of playing time, but it’s kinda amusing he and Jones have to be brought back from banishment to play important roles for the next 2-4 weeks. Theriot moving up to leadoff is a given, and I think the second slot also gets played by matchup and who’s going strong. It’ll be a different look offense, and they’ll need someone to get hot.

The semi collapse of the bullpen is a bigger problem. It was going to happen with 3/5ths failing to give quality starts, but the result is Dempster going back, Ohman going really bad, and Marmol getting over used. Eyre may or may not be coming around, but he’ll certainly start getting the chances to prove something again, because Ohman seems toast.

08/02: IP, 4H, 3R
08/05: .1IP, 2H, BB, 2 R

At least Kerry looked fine and didn’t blow out his arm on his first pitch. It’s hard to believe he’ll make it thru his next pitch, much less the rest of the season, but he should be an improvement over the ferris wheel of AAA relievers.

I couldn’t stand the ESPN crew last night. They lost me for good with the Joe Morgan discussion about Luis Castillo having played all his career in the AL and never in Wrigley. I’m sure everyone on the crew immediately knew Morgan was wrong, but no one said a word. It took about 15 seconds to confirm Castillo not only had played in Wrigley, but this was his 60th regular season game here. I hear they got around to correcting it sometime later, but I was busy trying to get the WGN audio to sync up with my TiVo at that point.

Mets 62-48
Cubs 58-51, 1/1

POTG: SP Ted Lilly (7.2 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, BB, 8 K, W [12/71])
Runner Up: 3B A Ram (2B, BB, R, RBI), 2B Mark DeRosa (2 RBI, H), CF Jacque Jones (2B, 3 H, RBI)

The difference in this game, as FOX showed many many times, was Ryan Theriot “beating out” an infield hit with two outs in the third. It scored a run, and kept the inning going. Bad calls are a part of all sports, but apparently they weren’t a part of things John Maine could handle on this particular day. You can’t let things gets to you and start walking the other team, but that’s what the Met pitcher did, and it was pretty much over from there.

This was a really good performance by Lilly. Both home runs came after the 6 run inning, when he was just trying to challenge batters and get outs, and he was successful with that against everyone but Alou.

I hate the Fox announcers. iTunes was getting a workout during this game.

Stat for no reason…

career pitching wins
78 Z!
71 Lilly
71 Wood
64 Marquis
62 Miller
59 Dempster
34 Howry
19 Eyre
12 Hill
12 Wuertz
11 Marshall
10 Cotts
07 Marmol
05 Ohman
01 Cherry
00 Guzman
00 Gallagher
00 Petrick
00 Rapada

I did listen to the last couple of innings for the Brewers game last night. That must’ve been an awesome win for Brewer fans, getting a 2 run home run in the bottom of the 8th when you’re down by 1. It was decidedly less awesome for me. I didn’t think to check the San Diego/San Fransisco game, and I’m probably better of for it.

Tonight’s the swing game. Past all the 300 win hype, a win on Sunday gives the Cubs a winning and successful homestand. They’ll need the good Jason Marquis to show up, for sure.

Cubs 57-51, -1/-1
Mets 62-47, +5

POTG: 1B D Lee (2 H, HR, SB)
Runner Up: 2B Mark DRosa (2 H, R), C Jason Kendall (2B, RBI, BB), SP Z (5 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 5K, 7BB)

This is the the funk I was worried about for this homestand. The pitching and hitting have struggled at the same time and these are slightly tougher teams than the recent Cub matchups. They were bound to cool off and lose some games, and they’re going get hot again at some point, I hope. I’d hate to think the high point of the season was being .001 in the lead for two days.

The big source of concern is Ryan Dempster, who’s been not much since returning from the DL.

07/21: IP, H
07/24: IP, 2 H, (UER), SAVE
07/28: IP, H, 2 BB
07/30: IP, H, BB
08/01: IP, H, 2 BB
08/03: IP, 5 H, 1 BB, 4 ER
Total: 6 IP, 11 H, 6 BB

The hits are skewed by yesterday’s performance, but he’s also averaging a full walk per inning pitched, which is just crazy. Ryan was giving up 3.81 walks per 9 innings before he went on the DL, so things have really sky rocketed.

With Marmol usually pitching well (though this was one of his worst games), and Wood simply existing, it will not take long for outside pressure to build for a change. It’s not there yet, because as bad as Ryan’s been, he hasn’t blown a save yet, but I think it’ll be the story that just won’t die if he does blow one.

Cubs 17-19
Mets 24-13

POTG: RP Neil Cotts (1.2 IP, K, 2 marooned – no one stood out, so why not)
Runner Up: P Jason Marquis, but only as a hitter (2 H, 2 RBI, R), SS Cesar Iztirus (2 H, 2B, RBI), LF Soriano (2B, BB, SB, R), 3B A Ram (H, RBI, BB)

Why does Jose Reyes hav Zumbido’s music? That was SO disorienting.

Where do you even start with this one? I don’t actually know, that’s I’ve been stuck at this sentence for a while now.

Pinella’s never been good at manging a bullpen, and I think nothing has really changed. I can’t imagine that any of the guys, besides Dempster, have a shred of confidence at this point. And as much as Lou can threaten otherwise, he can’t just yank people from the minors and expect them to be any more effective. This is his situation and he’s got to deal with it.

I was surprised at the way the last couple of at bats were managed. In close and late situations, Lou’s opted to use up all his bullets early, rather than risk losing with some still left in their chambers. This was the opposite. Eyre hasn’t been all that effective, but obviously Wuertz wasn’t really much himself tonight, and there’s a career lefty platoon edge against Delgado. If you don’t trust Eyre, there’s still logic in bringing in your perceived best reliever (Dempster) for the most critical situation – he was held back to pitch later, and ends up pitching not at all.

Maybe it’s a different strategy because things haven’t been going that well, maybe he wanted to build Wuertz up, but it was definitely different. Personally, I hate pitching around and walking the bases loaded, especially when preceded by another walk, and expecting that same pitcher to suddenly start throwing strikes. Wuertz was trying to be too fine, trying to get away from making contact while getting strikes, and he simply didn’t have enough control to pull it off.

THIS was the Jason Marquis I though we were getting – 4 R, 5+ IP where a 6th good one probably would’ve won the game (and 2 H!)- so I’m not too surprised here. I’m more disappointed by the offense disappearing after the first two innings, instead of outting this out of reach a bit more.

Before this road trip, I figured the results would say a lot about this team. Unless they turn it around tonight, it’s saying there’s a lot wrong. Fittingly, it’s Z’s turn in the rotation.