Good Enough: Mets 6, Phillies 5

by Eric Simon on Jun 10, 2009 12:31 AM EDT

Johan Santana won again, improving his record to 8-3 on the season. His trend of merely decent pitching continued, though, as he allowed five runs -- all coming on four homeruns -- and nine baserunners in seven innings. In his first seven starts this year, Santana allowed eight total runs in 46 innings, or 1.57 runs per nine innings. Over his last five starts -- spanning 23 innings -- he has allowed 20 runs, or 7.83 runs per nine innings. We all got so accustomed to the dominant Santana of the season's first six weeks that it's something quite shocking to see him at his most pedestrian.

This isn't simply a case of a great pitcher dropping off from "otherwordly" to "just phenomenal", because Santana has been nothing like phenomenal since the middle of May. He's been rather average, actually, and while I wouldn't go as far as to say that it's discouraging, it surely isn't encouraging, especially considering how frustratingly unreliable the rest of the starting rotation has been. Can the Mets prosper without Santana at his best? Sure, but they're going to need to get a helluva lot more out of the rest of these stiffs.

Santana threw first-pitch strikes to 25 of 29 batters he faced.
Francisco Rodriguez threw first-pitch strikes to just one of the four batters he faced.
Homeruns from David Wright, Carlos Beltran and Ryan Church: all good signs.
Luis Castillo saw 27 pitches but went 0-for-5 and was the biggest detriment to the Mets tonight, at least in terms of WPA.
Home plate umpire Lance Barksdale needs to have his tenure reevaluated after botching an easy safe call at home plate in the bottom of the sixth. Fernando Tatis -- perhaps unwisely, considering there were no outs -- broke for home on a Ryan Church grounder to first. Ryan Howard bounced the ball to catcher Carlos Ruiz, who was very clearly still juggling the ball eight-to-ten inches above Tatis's sliding foot. The tag was not applied; Tatis was safe. For his part, Barksdale had a perfect view of the play, so I commend him for being in the proper position. However, he still made the wrong call on a play that I could very clearly see even without the benefit of replay. The Mets won anyway, but that's just a first class screw job from someone who is supposed to be among the best in the business.
Omir Santos stranded five runners in his first two at-bats before singling and scoring in his third. The OPS is down to .713; OBP holding steady at .286.

Swag Contest

Swag contest results can be found here and the next game's swag form already available. You can read more about the swag contest here.

SB Nation Coverage

* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* The Good Phight Gamethread

Win Probability Added

Big winners: Pedro Feliciano, +21.0% WPA, Johan Santana (batter), +17.6% WPA
Big losers: Luis Castillo, -18.4% WPA, Johan Santana (pitcher), -17.4% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Santana RBI double in sixth, +23.6% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Rollins two-run homerun in sixth, -31.3% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +11.8% WPA
Total batter WPA: +38.2% WPA
GWRBI!: Ryan Church

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by JADDENHOPKINS; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.

Num	Name	# of Posts
1	JADDENHOPKINS	78
2	jasondg	63
3	JohnPeterson	63
4	cjmulrain	49
5	Michkin	46
6	aparkermarshall	43
7	JoshNY	39
8	Prince	39
9	Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright	36
10	pingel	31

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Comments

It bears mentioning

that Santana ignored Jerry’s bunt sign before rapping the double to right that tied up the game.

“I don’t want to just bunt or foul it off and get myself out,” Santana said.

by jasondg on Jun 10, 2009 12:40 AM EDT reply actions

+1 to Santana

"We have to find a way to play better, there's no doubt. Overall. I'm not pointing fingers at anybody. Offense, defense, pitching -- we have to find a way to play better. The reality of this is, coming here to Pittsburgh and being swept -- personally, I feel embarrassed." -- Carlos Beltran

by EMSfan9 on Jun 10, 2009 12:53 AM EDT up reply actions

Santana for manager

by James Kannengieser on Jun 10, 2009 10:11 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

Seriously, that sounds good.

He’s smart, respectable, and knows more about strategy than our current guy. Plus we can save some money.

by JohnPeterson on Jun 10, 2009 12:57 PM EDT up reply actions

I'm not too worried about Santana.

Just leveling off after an insane hot streak. And remember-
2nd half pitcher. Just sayin’.

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on Jun 10, 2009 12:52 AM EDT reply actions

Wow look at Pedro F's WPA

I think this makes the following comment, made by GenJackRipper in the gamethread all the more relevant:

Just got here
Help me out. If we have a ROOGY in Sean Green, who has been effective of late, why do we burn our set-up man in the 8th for one batter?
Just asking?

This is a great point here. You had a spot coming up in the Philly lineup just begging for Pedro Feliciano. He’s about even with Parnell there in usefulness, perhaps even a better choice after Werth. Werth is notorious for his platoon splits. Unless you’re somehow worried that Werth has a significantly better chance to go deep against Green vs. against Parnell, it seems like the benefit of retaining Parnell in a close game might outweigh the risk of the dropoff to Green for one batter.

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Mark Himmelstein on Jun 10, 2009 12:54 AM EDT reply actions

Ha

I got into a heated argument with a friend about this as we watched the game. He didn’t have a problem with using Parnell for one batter then pulling him for Pedro. I thought it was incredibly stupid and wasteful. Green or Stokes would have been fine against Werth and then Petey for the lefties.

by Zwill on Jun 10, 2009 1:09 AM EDT up reply actions

Honestly

I’m just glad Jerry didn’t try to let Feliciano start the inning against Werth. After the Matt Diaz fiasco, that is a kind of victory in itself for Jerry.

I mean, I kind of get the “This is the Phillies, time to go balls to the wall” mentality. If anything, using Parnell against Werth ever so slightly enhanced your chances of winning the game in nine innings. The problem is, it substantially hurts your chances if the Phillies do manage to scratch out a run. At home, its not quite so awful, since you can still use Frankie in the ninth. On the road, it would have been unequivocally a mistake. Here, it was just a questionable decision, and probably something far too deep to expect Jerry to think through thoroughly in real time. But its certainly still relevant, if not correct, and certainly worthy of examination.

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Mark Himmelstein on Jun 10, 2009 1:20 AM EDT up reply actions

I was at the game and couldn't tell who was warming up

but I was wondering if Jerry was thinking about using Frankie against Rollins if Howard or Ibanez had extended the inning. Of course, as you said, that thought process wouldn’t have mattered if the Phillies had tied up the game before that point.

by Mount17 on Jun 10, 2009 1:24 AM EDT up reply actions

Good point

That’s another huge risk. What if Pedro puts Ibanez or Howard on? Then you have two baserunners and no Bobby Parnell to pitch to Jimmy Rollins, who had raked against Santana, and Pedro Feliz. Jimmy may have crappy overall numbers this year, but I’d much prefer to let Green face Werth just in case you need Parnell to face Rollins in a game deciding PA. You probably have to turn Rollins around, he’s been better righty all year and had handled Johan quite well. So with no Parnell, its Stokes or Green. Stokes looks like a better option for Rollins, but Green might be better against Feliz, and when a decision isn’t easy, its also easy to make a mistake.

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Mark Himmelstein on Jun 10, 2009 1:38 AM EDT up reply actions

this is a great point,

but unfortunately, I doubt many Mets fans see it the same way. In fact, maybe even better than Green would be Takahashi with his sick split against righties.

by alexSVK on Jun 10, 2009 2:02 AM EDT up reply actions