Mets 1, Nationals 0: Dillon Gee Shuts Down Alex Cora's Team

by James Kannengieser on May 19, 2011 3:57 PM EDT

The Mets continued one half of their 2011 m.o. -- taking care of business vs. bad teams, struggling against good teams. And the Nationals, featuring Alex Cora and Ivan Rodriguez in their starting lineup, are bad. Like Jon Niese last night, Dillon Gee held the hapless Nats scoreless deep into the game. Gee didn't allow a hit until the sixth inning and finished with an effective but not dominant line of 7.2 innings, 3 strikeouts, 3 walks, 2 hits and 0 runs. He also induced more groundballs than flyballs, a welcome oddity considering his flyball profile.

Frank Rodriguez allowed a double to Laynce Nix in the ninth inning, briefly portending a horrible meltdown. But he closed the door with some help from a great defensive play by Justin Turner and an atrocious call against the Nats by first base umpire Phil Cuzzi. Nats manager Jim "Smartball" Riggleman unsuccessfully pleaded his case after it appeared Jayson Werth was safe at first after a groundball to Turner with one out in the ninth inning and Nix on second. Here's a still of the play:

Nice job by Daniel Murphy selling the play but it appears that Murph's foot is off the bag and Werth beat or tied the throw. Whatever, I'll take it. Adam LaRoche followed with a weak groundout to end the game.

Livan Hernandez continued to devour the Mets, allowing just one run in seven innings with seven strikeouts. He threw a 61 mph pitch today. One run was sufficient though as Turner's RBI single in the fourth inning held up. Jason Bay went 3-for-4 with a double. All three base hits were well struck.

The Mets won the battle for fourth place and now sit at 21-22 heading into the Yankees series. Neither CC Sabathia nor Bartolo Colon will pitch for the Yanks this weekend so there is a nice opportunity to start Monday at .500 or better. Tomorrow night's game starts at 7:10 and the pitching matchup is R.A. Dickey vs. Freddy Garcia.

Wayne Hagin-ism of the game: "Guess who's coming to dinner? It's not Sidney Poitier, it's Justin Turner!" -- via Catsmeat

SB Nation Coverage

* Traditional Recap
* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* Federal Baseball Gamethread

Win Probability Added

Big winners: Dillon Gee +44.0% (as pitcher), Frank Rodriguez +14.2%
Big losers: Daniel Murphy -11.1%, Jose Reyes -8.5%
Teh aw3s0mest play: Justin Turner RBI single +14.3%
Teh sux0rest play: Laynce Nix double -13.6%
Total pitcher WPA: +68.7%
Total batter WPA: -18.7%
GWRBI!: Justin Turner

Game Thread Roll Call

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

Num	Name	# of Posts
1	mistermet	77
2	David G	65
3	graves9	46
4	Syler	45
5	Russ	42
6	Seaver73	28
7	TKFJ	23
8	The real Julio from Paterson	22
9	The Frito Pundito	21
10	dcmetsfan	21

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Comments

Bring on Da Yankees!

Chamption of the R.A. Dickey Face contest and "Cromulent Photoshopper Extraordinaire" of Amazin' Avenue!

by Steve Schreiber on May 19, 2011 4:00 PM EDT reply actions

this!

by SFloridaMetsFan on May 19, 2011 4:03 PM EDT up reply actions

may we ruin pizza douche gifs weekend

Let’s go mets

I hate Philadelphia so much.

by the caveman on May 19, 2011 9:55 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions 3 recs

I heartily agree

I say we do a 3-0 triple shutout series sweep, bonus points if the Rays and BoSox win all three days

by Shevshevy on May 20, 2011 12:03 AM EDT up reply actions

Mets Win!

http://youtu.be/skMq-v-TPwI

What Would Matt Szczur Do?

Fact on Villanova Sports

by Hoyadestroya85 on May 19, 2011 4:04 PM EDT reply actions

Great game by Gee

and another big hit by Turner. I hope Terry buys a clue, and moves Turner back into the two hole.

by graves9 on May 19, 2011 4:06 PM EDT reply actions

With any luck...

Pagan will be his old self in the #2 hole before long. Batting Turner 6th really lengthens the lineup with Wright out.

"It’s like being in love with an alcoholic. It’s like, you constantly defend her, and people are like, ‘Dude, your alcoholic friend is a mess,’ and you’re like, ‘Nah, you don’t know her like I do."- Jim Breuer

by spaceboy761 on May 19, 2011 4:11 PM EDT up reply actions

and batting a crappy hit 2nd puts a huge hole in the top of the order

by Balagast on May 19, 2011 4:18 PM EDT up reply actions

*hitter

by Balagast on May 19, 2011 4:18 PM EDT up reply actions

right...

except that thole scored the game winning run.

by indickeywetrust on May 20, 2011 12:04 AM EDT up reply actions

espn's metsblog makes it seem like

bay will get a chance there soon. ideally, thole is a decent enough hitter to handle the two spot, he has just struggled mightily this year

I LIKE IKE!

by astromets on May 19, 2011 4:42 PM EDT up reply actions

You know,

I often wondered why Omar released Livan, especially when we had so many injuries to the pitching staff that summer of ’09. He was fine for a 5th starter. Only reason I could come up with is since that season was over by that point, they wanted to bring up an arm or two to see what they offered as a starter.

Water under the bridge now.

Great outing by Gee. He’s only 25 so I’d much rather have him anyway.

by MetsFan4Decades on May 19, 2011 4:10 PM EDT reply actions

They called up Niese to replace Livan iirc

I had no issue with dumping him at the time.

by graves9 on May 19, 2011 4:17 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah,

I figured it was Niese, plus I think they wanted to see how Parnell would do as a starter as well. Needless to say, Parnell was a failed experiment but so far, so good with Niese.

by MetsFan4Decades on May 19, 2011 4:32 PM EDT up reply actions

factually incorrect

They released Livan just before significant portion of his bonuses kicked in. (And he was not pitching very well at that time.) His release had nothing to do with Niese, who was already on his season ending DL at that time. Prior to Niese’s injury, Niese and Livan were both part of the rotation.

by alexSVK on May 19, 2011 4:43 PM EDT up reply actions

So is that when they brought Misch up

and let Parnell start a handful of ball games?

Livan’s record in the years prior always seem to be a strong first half and fade second half. As I said, he apparently wasn’t going to be part of the rotation going forward so I’m sure that factored into it as well.

by MetsFan4Decades on May 19, 2011 5:29 PM EDT up reply actions

not quite

Parnell experiment actually started about 10 days prior to Livan’s release. Livan was replaced by Redding in the rotation.

by alexSVK on May 19, 2011 5:38 PM EDT up reply actions

yuck

I LIKE IKE!

by astromets on May 19, 2011 5:57 PM EDT up reply actions

Just wondering

b/c Livan was Ollie-terrible and with the amount of pitchers we had go down that summer, it didn’t make much sense unless they wanted to make room for someone else.

by MetsFan4Decades on May 19, 2011 6:12 PM EDT up reply actions

Into the sixth before a hit

Did that get anyone else thinking “Could this be IT?” Especially since the Natinals [sic] were shut out repeatedly?

by WWORDuke on May 19, 2011 4:16 PM EDT reply actions

He did the same thing against the Nats last year in his debut

by Shevshevy on May 19, 2011 4:19 PM EDT up reply actions

If you look in the game thread,

we all were speculating whether it could be.

Chamption of the R.A. Dickey Face contest and "Cromulent Photoshopper Extraordinaire" of Amazin' Avenue!

by Steve Schreiber on May 19, 2011 4:26 PM EDT up reply actions

And were pretty pissed when Livan got that hit.

Chamption of the R.A. Dickey Face contest and "Cromulent Photoshopper Extraordinaire" of Amazin' Avenue!

by Steve Schreiber on May 19, 2011 4:26 PM EDT up reply actions

Livan

damn him.

by MetsFan4Decades on May 19, 2011 4:33 PM EDT up reply actions

hes still pissed omar cut him

damn omar, everything is his fault

I LIKE IKE!

by astromets on May 19, 2011 4:44 PM EDT up reply actions

#BlameOmar

Chamption of the R.A. Dickey Face contest and "Cromulent Photoshopper Extraordinaire" of Amazin' Avenue!

by Steve Schreiber on May 19, 2011 5:31 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

Of course.

Save Jenrry Mejia!

by Ogre39666 on May 19, 2011 5:16 PM EDT up reply actions

I'm kind of glad it didn't happen today.

A little selfish, but when the Mets finally get a no-no, I want to have seen at least part of the game.

"And that's why anybody who invested with Lenny Dykstra should really call that number. Lawyers are standing by."

by BobbyV_Incognito on May 19, 2011 11:43 PM EDT up reply actions

I was at this game

and I’m not sure how many noticed, because when I stood to applaud him after the no-hitter was gone, I got the impression folks thought I was…well, I don’t know what they thought but nobody gave the kid a hand for what he had accomplished to that point.

May 29, 2010: Steven Revetria becomes Giants General Manager. The rest is history.

"118 elements, and still no stanfurdium"- carp, paraphrased

Bandwagons are fun- that's why people get on them in the first place.

by natteringnabob on May 20, 2011 8:11 AM EDT up reply actions

Smatterings of applause were noticable on tv.

by SuperT on May 20, 2011 8:41 AM EDT up reply actions

Good lord, Hagin is a tool.

by SuperT on May 19, 2011 4:21 PM EDT reply actions

Actually got to catch a couple of innings during my lunch hour, good job by Gee today. Bring on the Yanks.

Blueshirt Banter: Covering the New York Rangers

Big Blue View: Unofficial New York Giants blog

by Jim Schmiedeberg on May 19, 2011 4:23 PM EDT reply actions

that murphy play at 1st........

LOL. Umps suck

One day, this team is going to kill me.

by fxcarden on May 19, 2011 4:26 PM EDT via mobile reply actions

Hey, Murph sold that to the umps.

Good for him.
Bobby O commented that many 1st baseman in that situation would have come off the bag to grab it and make sure it didn’t get by them. Bobby said kudos to Murph for hanging with it and selling that to the ump.

They asked Murph about it on post game and he said something like: ‘honestly, I thought I stayed on the bag but I haven’t seen a replay yet. You guys would probably no better than me right now’.
No one spoke up to burst his bubble there. LOL.

by MetsFan4Decades on May 19, 2011 4:35 PM EDT up reply actions

the baseball bullshitting

It is an art.

by SuperT on May 19, 2011 4:47 PM EDT up reply actions

Doesn't Keith..

always say to do that in the booth? Hes always saying you can cheat like that a little.

by Trambone on May 20, 2011 12:17 AM EDT up reply actions

Was Turner actually coming to dinner?

Or was that comment completely off the wall?

By the way, gotta love Sidney Poitier.

by deadspy3 on May 19, 2011 4:27 PM EDT reply actions

It would be nice if we could win some of these by more than 3 runs.

Do not want:

Save Jenrry Mejia!

by Ogre39666 on May 19, 2011 4:35 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs

Off topic

What Makes A Real Mets Fan?
Posted on May 19, 2011 at 8:00 am by Greg Pomes

http://metsmerizedonline.com/2011/05/what-makes-a-real-mets-fan.html

The absolute last person I would imagine trying to describe ‘a real Met fan’.

Some funny stuff there.

by MetsFan4Decades on May 19, 2011 4:41 PM EDT reply actions

its cause you write stuff like this, we think you troll

I know there is a good number of fans who like myself dislike Carlos Beltran. Like me, they think he’s selfish, overrated and overpaid.

I LIKE IKE!

by astromets on May 19, 2011 4:47 PM EDT up reply actions

3 homers basically not good enough for one game/

Head explodes

I hate Philadelphia so much.

by the caveman on May 19, 2011 10:02 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

I will try to explain the 3-homer game from his standpoint, at the risk of my sanity

None of them was a three run homer. Two run homers are rally killers, 3 run homers break the game open. That accounts for the overrated part. Also his hitting the homers did not allow other people to drive in the runs, thus he is selfis— ARGHBRAINEXPLODE

That Beltran is overrated, overpaid, and selfish are not opinions, they are falsities. Does A-Rod spend more than 10% of his salary on academies in Puerto Rico? I don’t see how someone who does that is selfish, but the only way to know for sure is by knowing the guy, and neither I nor Greg Pomes know him personally. He is most definitely underrated rather than overrated (see no MVP in 2006), and if you look at WAR you will see that he has been worth more than his contract. I don’t see how the hell this guy gets so much hate, I was not into baseball from 2002ish until 2010, but I certainly love me some Voltron.

by Shevshevy on May 20, 2011 12:09 AM EDT up reply actions

Haven't you heard?

Those "kids’ are actually middle aged men who give a cut of their future MLB salaries to Beltran. DUH

Save Jenrry Mejia!

by Ogre39666 on May 20, 2011 12:19 AM EDT up reply actions

Hm

that broken picture was a bunch of exclamation points and a number 1 when I hit post. Weird.

Save Jenrry Mejia!

by Ogre39666 on May 20, 2011 12:21 AM EDT up reply actions

they may clear the bases

but i sure love me a 2 run, 3 run, or even a 4 run rally killer!

I LIKE IKE!

by astromets on May 20, 2011 2:08 AM EDT up reply actions

also

i dont love how you confused arod for beltran, its confusing

I LIKE IKE!

by astromets on May 20, 2011 2:09 AM EDT up reply actions

i may have to comment on this

What Would Matt Szczur Do?

Fact on Villanova Sports

by Hoyadestroya85 on May 19, 2011 4:55 PM EDT up reply actions

I think the whole AA community should comment on it.

by SFloridaMetsFan on May 19, 2011 5:12 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

Hm, I wonder is Senorstem will stop by...

Save Jenrry Mejia!

by Ogre39666 on May 19, 2011 5:18 PM EDT up reply actions

Senorstem is about to make a visit.

He just hopes BayonneMetsFan is around again to humiliate him a little more.

Chamption of the R.A. Dickey Face contest and "Cromulent Photoshopper Extraordinaire" of Amazin' Avenue!

by Steve Schreiber on May 19, 2011 5:38 PM EDT up reply actions

Im for it.

"You can spend minutes, hours, days weeks or even months overanalyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what would’ve, could’ve happened – or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move the **** on."
-Tupac Amaru Shakur

by NetsMets4Life on May 19, 2011 5:52 PM EDT up reply actions

I couldn't resist.

I dropped a comment on that post. It’s not under the same name as here though.

by MetsFan4Decades on May 19, 2011 5:31 PM EDT up reply actions

Haha jesus christ

The game got along just fine for over 100 years without using sabermetrics to build a solid roster and a championship level team.

This is just astonishing. How can someone honestly believe that there have been no improvements made in baseball analysis in a century? Even throwing out sabermetrics and advanced stats and stuff there are many, many things that early 20th century baseball people believed as gospel that we now know is factually incorrect.

by joma16 on May 19, 2011 5:44 PM EDT up reply actions

Like radar guns for one.

Save Jenrry Mejia!

by Ogre39666 on May 19, 2011 5:51 PM EDT up reply actions

Or shoulder surgeries.

Or the participation of black people.

"And that's why anybody who invested with Lenny Dykstra should really call that number. Lawyers are standing by."

by BobbyV_Incognito on May 19, 2011 11:44 PM EDT up reply actions 3 recs

Because using statistics is foolish.

The over-reliance on sabermetrics seems foolish and short-sighted to me.

by NetsMets4Life on May 19, 2011 5:57 PM EDT up reply actions

Lol

I know I’m not the only one who feels that way, in fact most ballplayers – former and current – scoff at [Sabermetrics].

Yeah, most ball players probably don’t know algebra either. Does that make algrabra ""foolish and short-sighted" too?

Like me, they think he’s selfish, overrated and overpaid. […] We don’t have to agree on everything and anything. However there’s a civil way to do it without resorting to name calling or worse.

Um, contradictory much?

Save Jenrry Mejia!

by Ogre39666 on May 19, 2011 5:57 PM EDT up reply actions

I see you made the same comment on his post?

by NetsMets4Life on May 19, 2011 6:03 PM EDT up reply actions

Why I have no idea what you are talking about...

Save Jenrry Mejia!

by Ogre39666 on May 19, 2011 6:26 PM EDT up reply actions

LMAO

I think after all the years of ups and downs through the years those who still remain loyal to the team when having multiple chances to jump on the Yankee bandwagon or Giant bandwagon for Football is a true Mets fan. Screw Pomes and his Pompous attitude.

Mets, Jets, Devils, United Football League

by BlueChill on May 19, 2011 6:41 PM EDT up reply actions

MF4D

read that article and now I have high blood pressure.

I though we were friends

One day, this team is going to kill me.

by fxcarden on May 19, 2011 8:41 PM EDT up reply actions

LOL, Oh

very sorry my friend. Have a highball and hopefully you won’t wind up in the emergency room!

Yeah, I just couldn’t help myself, I had to share – considering who authored that post. If it was any ‘normal’ type Met fan I probably wouldn’t have given it a second glance.

All I kept thinking when reading it was ‘hypocrite’.

by MetsFan4Decades on May 19, 2011 9:15 PM EDT up reply actions

.

Hypocrite!

Save Jenrry Mejia!

by Ogre39666 on May 19, 2011 9:28 PM EDT up reply actions

One game under

Squeezed to Song and Bendtner and Song and Nasri oh lovely lovely lovely!
-Peter Drury, the one time his commentating has ever been acceptable.

by Aidan Gibson on May 19, 2011 5:46 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs

This

Would be great to be .500 by the end of the weekend

"Lopez wants it away, and it's hit deep to left center, Andruw Jones on the run, this one has a chance... home run!, Mike Piazza!, and the Mets lead 3 to 2!"

by metsman07 on May 19, 2011 5:49 PM EDT up reply actions

sweep or weep

I LIKE IKE!

by astromets on May 19, 2011 6:03 PM EDT up reply actions

Not last place! Wooooooooooooo!

You don't cheer for the Mets. You drink for the Mets.

by Kevin H on May 19, 2011 5:55 PM EDT reply actions

so does anyone have a spouse that is a Yankee fan?

"Franco made that play because he never quit on the play. He kept running, he kept hustling. Good things happen to people who hustle."

by PCISteeler on May 19, 2011 6:12 PM EDT reply actions

I have a father in law who is

My wife was trained well by me

One day, this team is going to kill me.

by fxcarden on May 19, 2011 8:42 PM EDT up reply actions

No, but

I’ve got two nieces who are. The other niece and nephew are Philly fans.

We did not teach them well.

by MetsFan4Decades on May 19, 2011 9:17 PM EDT up reply actions

I would cry if that were me

I'm a New Yorker born and bred. I support my Jets, Mets, Red Storm and Islanders. I also love my out-of-state Bulls, Clippers, Cowboys & Fighting Irish.

by Xfactor26 on May 19, 2011 9:28 PM EDT up reply actions