Marlins 7, Mets 6: Nobody Likes a Tease
by Alex Nelson on Apr 8, 2010 12:52 AM EDT
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Well, that wasn't as fun as Opening Day, was it?
The Mets lost by a score of 7-6 in extra innings, and for most of the game, things weren't nearly that close. The Marlins out-hit the Mets 17 to six. The first six-and-a-half innings only took two hours or so, which is just about as much time as the last three-and-a-half required. Ricky Nolasco dominated, the Mets bats -- which had appeared so potent in the first game -- laid dormant.
And then something funny happened in the seventh inning. Nolasco ran out of gas, and the Marlins decided they didn't want to win, and, quite frankly, there's no way they deserved to. They played about as poorly for three innings as I've ever seen a big league team play. They made mental errors, they played poor defense, their relievers couldn't get the ball over the plate -- the Marlins walked eight batters from the seventh inning onward. It was ugly. And the Mets still lost. If you're going to lose, you might as well get it over with quickly.
The negatives are pretty clear. John Maine really didn't show a whole lot. He immediately struggled, giving up a double to Cameron Maybin, who came around to score on a Hanley Ramirez single. Maine was strangely reliant on his offspeed stuff in the opening frame, and he showed little command over his fastball. And he was his usual inefficient self right from the get-go, requiring well over 20 pitches to get through that rocky first. He settled down and found his fastball in the second, but the top of the Marlins order wasn't fooled in the third. Jorge Cantu hit a homerun, Dan Uggla walked, advancing to second on a wild pitch before coming around to score on John Baker's single. Ramirez tacked on another run with a homer in the fifth. Jenrry Mejia, making his major league debut, followed Maine, allowing one run in one inning of work. The Marlins hitters really didn't have much trouble catching up to his heat.
Initially, it didn't look like Nolasco had much, either. Alex Cora led off with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly. But whereas Maine didn't really improve, Nolasco calmed down and entered a groove. The biggest difference between the two pitchers: Nolasco was actually able to throw his breaking pitches for strikes, which was enough to consistently fool the fastball-loving Mets lineup.
The runs the Mets scored were almost entirely the result of the gross incompetence of the Marlins' bullpen, as Renyel Pinto, Jose Veras, and Leo Nunez all lost the strike zone one after the other. Pinto was the culprit in the seventh, giving up a single to Fernando Tatis with a runner on first before hitting Cora with a pitch to load the bases. He then walked Luis Castillo to bring home the Mets' third run. And they may have done more damage if not for a blunder of their own: Veras replaced Pinto and threw a wild pitch on his first toss home, but Tatis must have a severe case of brick blindness and was out by a mile at home plate as the ball bounced back to Baker quickly.
But the Marlins weren't finished trying to out-inept the Mets. Veras gave up a couple singles to start off the eighth, a Dan Uggla throwing error brought home one of those, and then Veras walked the bases loaded. Fredi Gonzalez had seen enough of Veras and brought in his closer, Nunez, for a four-out save. He walked in one run, and balked home another. This is apparently the only way the Mets can score runs; they were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
In the end, it wasn't enough. Hisanori Takahashi, in his major league debut, gave up a run on a couple of singles sandwiched around a sac bunt.
As for positives? There weren't many. Gary Matthews Jr. continues to make us look foolish. Jeff Francoeur drew a walk after falling behind 0-2 in the eighth. David Wright and Jason Bay had solid games.
Poem by Howard Megdal
Mets are hoping for 30 starts from Maine
Insane
Marlins bring on gaggle set to relieve
A sieve
Need just one hit to bring winning run across
A loss
SB Nation Coverage
* Traditional Recap
* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* Fishstripes Gamethread
Win Probability Added
Big winners: Gary Matthews, Jr., +18.7% WPA, Francisco Rodriguez, +13.3% WPA
Big losers: Hisanori Takahashi, -36.6% WPA, Rod Barajas, -26.3% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Eighth-inning balk by Leo Nunez brings home Gary Matthews Jr., +25.8% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Ronnie Paulino RBI single in tenth, +28.4% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -43.1% WPA
Total batter WPA: -6.9% WPA
GWRBI!: Ronnie Paulino
Game Thread Roll Call
Nice job by Schmidtxc; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.
| Schmidtxc | 189 |
| blueandorange4life | 153 |
| Gina | 150 |
| bm01bath | 134 |
| aparkermarshall | 132 |
| Brian. | 114 |
| Evan_S | 107 |
| The Glider | 105 |
| metsguy234 | 88 |
| BringBackBobby | 86 |
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Comments
What exactly did Matthews do
to deserve that +18.7 WPA?? 2 walks and a run scored? He also grounded out in the games biggest at bat, and more importantly, miss judged a fly into a single and hurled an offline throw in the 10th when a decent online throw gets Helms easy. Seriously, screw WPA.
Hah
GMJ got +25.8% WPA when he scored on the balk. So your right, he should have actually been negative on the game.
"For $11.4 million you can actually get a good player. But of course this is one of the things foolish organizations do: They complain that they can't afford good players after spending millions of dollars on not-good players." --Rob Neyer
Tatis lost 10% for running like a fool
The balk is a weird WPA situation. You can’t credit the batter with it. I wonder if Fangraphs makes a choice on who gets credit for it depending on who “causes” the balk or if it’s always credited to the lead runner.
I did enjoy that exchange in the booth when the Marlins bullpen was giving away runs
Keith: I’ve never seen a bullpen pitch this badly, ever.
Gary: ’08? September?
dangerous loss
Yeah one game, ok…but if this was not an abberation, if this is our team, this year is lost. What a horrible game to lose. The Marlins did all they could to lose this game, but the Mets couldn’t get one or two big hits in the middle of all those walks/errors to seal it. So much for letting the phenom get his feet wet in a meaningless moment. That one run when the Mets were down three (making it four) turned out to matter. I was listening (with typical shame) to Wayne “send me to Vegas” Hagen, as the Mets introduced ‘their best arm’ on the team, and cringing behind the wheel as he got slapped around by three of his first four hitters. The future looks bright…
Mookie Wilson still hoping to win it for New York. 3 and 2 the count, and the pitch by Stanley, and a ground ball, trickling, it is a fair ball...GETS BY BUCKNER...rounding 3rd Knight...the Mets will win the ball game. The Mets win. They win! --Bob Murphy
wasted 7 pitchers...hate to say it, but nice play by Baker
I can’t stand the way a bullpen is used these days. The Mets used way to many pitchers i that game, yes we got back into the game but nothing says we couldn’t have done the same with 4 pitchers.
If I was the manager, Mejia would have pitched the 6th and 7th. He got hit some in the 6th, but he was throwing strikes and finished the innings better than he started. He pitches the 7th an dthen gets lifted for the PH.
Now Green should come in and pitch the 8th, lets say all things stay the same and we tie it up in the bottom of the 8th.
well K-rod is not there for pitching the 9th when we are tied. Leave Green or go to Takahashi now. He gives up a run, make him finish the inning anyway. Guys have to learn to push through bad innings.
so now if we have a lead tonight and we need to save the game, K-rod has been used 2 games in a row. Not a big deal in April but it could be come June. Plus now the Marlins have seen his stuff 2 times, and a good hitter can adjust to any pitcher if they see them every night. Use your pen wisely and sparingly and they will still be strong in September. That is why we have trouble closing out seasons, burned out pen.
That sucked.
"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!"
Gil Hodges IS a Hall of Famer.
by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Apr 8, 2010 7:38 AM EDT reply actions
Maine, I'll give him a D for the game, Lackey gets an A
well he had a tough outing, lets hope he is just not in a groove yet.
He only had 1 inning where he retired the side in order,
he gave up runs in 3 of the 5 innings he pitched
he threw 93 pitches thru 5
gave up 2 HR
only 1 BB kept him from getting an F
Lackey 6IP,2BB3K, 0 ER
but some of other guys we wanted to sign didnt do so well either
Davis 4 ER in 4 IP
Marquis 6 ER in 4IP
Mets w/out Lackey
Hmmmm…Wilpon’s and Bernie Madoff odor still lingers.
This season I will expect the worst but I will be prepared for 'worser'.
by LOUtheMETandNATSfan on Apr 8, 2010 6:13 PM EDT up reply actions
scoring on a balk gets you 25.8 WPA?
I won’t even try to understand how that works.
Why in the World
Would Jerry use Tak2 in the 10th to face Helms (who kills LHP) and potentially Hanley. Shouldn’t he have just going Nieve there?
Remember how Jerry (mis)used Schoeneweis?
What makes you think he’s gotten any better at bullpen management since then?
Omar & Jerry are conspiring to drive me to drink. That, or they're just honestly totally incompetent.
by BobbyV_Incognito on Apr 8, 2010 9:28 AM EDT up reply actions
maine's velocity
He couldn’t control it, but how hard was he throwing it?
Seemed to be topping out at 90
or thereabouts
The fastest I saw from him was 91.
"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!"
Gil Hodges IS a Hall of Famer.
by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Apr 8, 2010 8:49 AM EDT up reply actions
NY Post said 88
I think he worked between 91-92 mostly when relatively healthy. Was he getting it up that high this Spring? This is still early and I think the control of the fb is more the issue than the velocity right now.
I was very encouraged by Pelfrey’s control this spring, not that ST numbers mean much, and not that slotting makes that much difference, but maine isn’t really the number 2 right now.
Time wise, that game felt like Yankees-Red Sox
I’ve got one week free of MLB Extra Innings, so I was going to sit through that game if it went til 2 in the morning (okay, not really). After it was over I sort of wished the Mets had just lost 6-1 without the rallies.
It’s probably a good thing that I can’t watch them all year because by the end of the season I’d be in cardiac arrest for yelling from my couch at Jerry. Really, Alex Cora is your leadoff hitter? You know, just because he’s subbing for Reyes doesn’t mean he has to hit in Reyes’s spot in the order, you know that right? Mike Jacobs . . . ugh.
One last bitch about Extra Innings – where the hell is the HD? Yeah I’ve become one of those snobs, and watching things in standard def is like watching in black and white. Gee, thanks for showing A’s-Mariners in HD at 10:30, that’s might nice of you.
Positives
I’d add KRod, Pedro and Nieve’s pitching performance to the list of positives. Then again, they were the 3 less likely to be causing any angst in the BP this season.
Heard Jerry’s post game comments that he’s not concerned with Maines drop in velocity on his fb. I find that very hard to believe, but then again – what was he going to say there?
I’m just really tired with seeing replacement players up and down the lineup. No one’s fault so nothing to be done there. At least it appears Jose will be back this weekend.
I didn’t have as big a heartache with Tatis going there as some did. It took an very accurate throw to get him out there.
Also didn’t have a problem with Wright stealing second in that situation either.
at the risk of saying what might be obvious to everybody not working for the Mets
John Maine is hurt. And I think he has been hurt since last year if not before. He never had a proper operation on his shoulder, his velocity is way down and his command is gone. And his body and face give every apperence of somebody who is pitching through pain. A proper team with depth would shut him down perhaps for the year and allow him to have an operation. The Mets are not a proper team and their depth is now pitching for the Phillies, other teams and/or wasted in meaningless roles. I am glad Bay is on the team but as usual Omar did one thing well and then went to sleep.
I know it is only Game 2 but I don’t see any way the Mets contend with this staff. We have not even seen Ollie yet.
Chan Ho Park, quality relief for the other NY team
this is the way to use a middle reliever. He threw 3 innings, 36 pitches. Now yes it was a very good outting but the point even if he gave up a run or 2 keeping him in, saved the rest of the pen. we need middle guys to go 2+ innings
ideally we'd have starters capable of going deeper than 5 as well
by KeithsMoustache on Apr 8, 2010 10:26 AM EDT up reply actions
ideally
but is it realistic? Plus I think he might mean last night when Maine was clearing heading for a short work day it would have made a lot more sense to use someone in long relief than use 7 different pitchers. Especially with a rookie coming up in the rotation, I expect Niese to be good but if he goes less than 6 innings who’s even available?
Knowing Jerry Meija will pitch tonight, cause it’s never too early to blow out a young pitchers arm.
in billionaire russian playboys we trust.
Well, you don't see Evans and Carter out there, do you?
Omar & Jerry are conspiring to drive me to drink. That, or they're just honestly totally incompetent.
by BobbyV_Incognito on Apr 8, 2010 2:38 PM EDT up reply actions
BTW, 2500+ comments on the game threads?
Must be a record. This place has just exploded.
Omar & Jerry are conspiring to drive me to drink. That, or they're just honestly totally incompetent.
by BobbyV_Incognito on Apr 8, 2010 10:34 AM EDT reply actions
I think the record was broken at the game were luis droped the pop up
granted a lot came after the game was over
I Believe in 2010
by Jadden Hopkins on Apr 8, 2010 10:58 AM EDT up reply actions
Just glad to have baseball back
Some positives:
1. Plate discipline — largely a result of the Marlins, but the Mets have faced some pretty shitty pitchers the last couple of years as well, and I liked their approach last night a lot. Now if we can just get Reyes and Pagan in there…
2. If Mejia keeps struggling, maybe we can get a Calero-Mejia swap in a couple weeks.
Negatives:
1. The Virus Formerly Known as Mike Jacobs. Even worse than I thought.
Me too
I wasn’t nearly as pissed about this loss as I would have been if they would have just stayed pat on their 6-1 score. I actually found myself happy that there is this much excitement so early in the season.
I was also stoked to see Francouer working the count. Two games two walks.
by Coolpapabell on Apr 8, 2010 12:07 PM EDT up reply actions
I knew if we di not score in the bottom of the 9th
we were not winning.Can’t trust anybody in that bullpen.
I Believe in 2010
wrong focus
The bullpen will have its up and downs like all pens do. The starting rotation though after Santana is in shambles.
Yup
We have to pray that Pelfrey and Niese come through. Boy, signing Pineiro was a bigger need than I ever anticipated.
by Coolpapabell on Apr 8, 2010 12:09 PM EDT up reply actions
I hate the loss.
But I love the return of that cat picture.
"He's definitely mixing it into his repertoire. That's French for 'repertoire' " - Keith Hernandez
by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on Apr 8, 2010 10:58 AM EDT reply actions
Agreed
Fat deamon cat is also a favorite of mine.
by Coolpapabell on Apr 8, 2010 12:09 PM EDT up reply actions
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