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Around SBN: The Amateur Mathematics Of Linsanity

Grounded: Cardinals 3, Mets 0

Tonight was Dave Duncan's grand vision come to life, and one of the most dominant pitching performances of 2009. Joel Pineiro struck out just one Met -- David Wright, to no one's surprise -- but he added 22 groundball outs to just three flyball outs. Met after Met pounded the ball into the ground, while Cardinal infielders sat back and gobbled them up. Pineiro needed 100 pitches and just two batters over the minimum to silence the Mets' potent unimaginably anemic offense. He also improved upon his league-leading groundball rate of 2.52 and maintained his NL-best homerun rate (3.0% before Tuesday's action). He's only 30 years old and will be a free agent after this season, so if he keeps this up he'll be looking at a nice chunk of change on the open market.

This isn't the first time Pineiro has frustrated the Mets. Back on September 27, 2007, the Mets held a one-game lead over the Phillies with four games to play. They had just been swept at home by the Nationals and, instead of a well-deserved off day, had to play a make-up game with the Cardinals at Shea Stadium. Pedro Martinez started for the Mets and pitched seven strong innings, striking out eight while walking one and allowing three runs -- two earned.

It wasn't enough, though, as Pineiro held the Mets to just three hits and a walk over eight innings, striking out six and coaxing 15 groundball outs along the way. The Mets lost the game 3-0, then lost two of their final three games against the Marlins to fall short of the NL East crown.

As for tonight's game, I wish there were more to talk about but the Mets did literally nothing of any consequence. Elmer Dessens tossed two perfect innings of relief, so there's that. By request, I've added a link to a traditional game recap in the "SB Nation Coverage" section below, so if you want a blow-by-blow account of the game instead of whatever it is I do here, you can check that out by clicking below.

Star-divide

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

* Traditional Recap
* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* Viva El Birdos Gamethread

Win Probability Added

Big winners: Jeremy Reed, +2.9% WPA, Elmer Dessens, +2.6% WPA
Big losers: Alex Cora, -11.2% WPA, Fernando Tatis, -10.0% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Ludwick bases-loaded strikeout to end third, +7.1% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Schumaker FC+Err in third, -16.1% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +4.1% WPA
Total batter WPA: -55.1% WPA
GWRBI!: None

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.

Num Name # of Posts
1 Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright 43
2 itsmetsforme 41
3 mets81 36
4 jasondg 30
5 Prince 27
6 The Glider 23
7 Michkin 17
8 aparkermarshall 16
9 lstorie1971 15
10 dcrockett17 14

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Such A Shame...

…the Mets had to play a makeup game in 2007.

It seemed awfully clever when they postponed the game originally just to set up the rotation for a trip to Philly.

by EastFallowfield on Jun 24, 2009 6:36 AM EDT reply actions  

a week to forget

i attended three games at Shea that awful week in 2007, each one more horrific and soul crushing than the last. First, there was the game against the Nats when they blew a 5-0 lead and Phillip Humber somehow started the most important game of the season to date. Then there was the aforementioned Pinero game where Pinero looked like Cy Young. Then of course the grand finale, Sunday’s debacle against the Marlins. I actually for the only time in my life, wrote a letter to the Mets management basically asking if I could get some kind of prize (or at least my money back) for sitting through what may have been at that time, the three worst regular season losses in franchise history. About two months later, I received a box in the mail with no note or letter. The box contained a 2007 Media guide which I already had, some video of the the 2006 Mets and an invitation to buy season tickets for 2008.

by Endys Game on Jun 24, 2009 2:51 PM EDT up reply actions  

lol

I can just imagine them getting that letter and being like “hmm, there’s a few left over pieces of crap laying around, just throw them in a box and mail it out.”

by cjmulrain on Jun 24, 2009 3:53 PM EDT up reply actions  

Another part that sucked

was when the Yankees played the Braves and flesh-eating bacteria wasn’t discovered on all the balls.

by hotspur on Jun 24, 2009 9:30 AM EDT reply actions  

Do-nuts?

I SAID NO ETHNIC FOOD!

Grission and Husart - that is either the non-union Mexican equivelant of "Starsky and Hutch" or the key to winning the World Series.

by IanB in MD on Jun 24, 2009 10:13 AM EDT reply actions  

The Mets may have lost yesterday

but that picture is a win.

"We must win and we must know how to win rather than win because we have statistical people."

by Evan_S on Jun 24, 2009 3:04 PM EDT reply actions  

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Judging by the comments to Matt Callan’s ode to 1986 Mets: A Year To Remember from a few weeks back, the video has a devoted Mets fan following. Despite being too young to remember anything about that season, it has a special place in my fandom as well. It was part of a two video rotation (Ghostbusters being the other) which ran almost daily on my television for a few years in the early 90s. And it remained a once-in-awhile watch through high school and college. 

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"How'd we do it? Mirrors!"
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