A Tale Of Two Pitchers

It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times.

Rodrigo Lopez last pitched a big league game on July 26, 2007 with the Rockies. Rodrigo Lopez allowed just two runs on six hits and a walk against the Mets on Friday night. Rodrigo Lopez kept the Mets off-balance and gave his team a good chance to win the game.

Livan Hernandez has started more games and thrown more innings than anyone in baseball since 2000. Livan Hernandez allowed seven runs on ten hits and four walks in three innings against the Phillies on Friday night. Livan Hernandez gave the Mets and their woeful offense almost no chance to win the game.

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Pat Misch, Bobby Parnell and Elmer Dessens threw five scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and one walk and throwing just 64 pitches in the process. Hernandez took 81 pitches to finish three innings. Hernandez's game score was 9! He started with 50! He was 41 points worse than if he had done nothing at all! How many consecutive sentences can I end with exclamation points?!

Here's a quick game: which of these players would you prefer to have starting at second base:

Player A: .331 wOBA in 2009, 1,525 career games at second base
Player B: .319 wOBA in 2009, 3 career games at second base

I defended the Fernando Tatis signing before the season, but he's been nothing short of terrible for the Mets this year, regardless of position. The best thing I could say about the Luis Castillo contract was that it was better than having David Eckstein for four years, but the Mets are stuck with him for now and he hasn't been awful this year. Unless there's an injury we don't know about there's simply no excuse for playing Tatis, a lousy defensive outfielder and, right now, a worse hitter than Castillo, at second base. Ever.

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
* The Good Phight Gamethread

Win Probability Added

Big winners: Brian Schneider, +4.0% WPA, Pat Misch, +1.8% WPA
Big losers: Livan Hernandez, -34.9% WPA, Alex Cora, -5.9% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Werth strikeout to end first, +5.2% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Dobbs two-run single in first, -9.8% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -32.6% WPA
Total batter WPA: -17.4% WPA
GWRBI!: Greg Dobbs

Game Thread Roll Call

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