There's an old baseball mantra that goes something like "Pitching and Defense is what wins ballgames." While we can probably debate the truth of this old adage, it is highly probable that when both pitching and defense fail, you end up with a game like Saturday evening's 8-5 loss to the Marlins. Chris Capuano rolled through the first five innings but things fell apart for him in the sixth, when the Gaby Sanchez Show began. Cap dissects his ugly sixth inning here.
D.J. Carrasco made things worse in the seventh, combining with some poor defense on the part of David Wright and Daniel Murphy and by then, the game was basically over, save for a pair of impressive ninth inning home runs from Lucas Duda and Jose Reyes on back to back pitches.
The Mets and Marlins play the rubber game of their series in Miami tomorrow at 1:10 PM. Dillon Gee will take the start for the Mets and he will be opposed by Anibal Sanchez.
The Carlos Beltran rumor mill keeps churning and luckily, he's still selfishly impressing the scouts. While the Mets are still looking to trade Beltran in the very near future, they don't want to have a firesale, meaning that there's a good chance Chris Capuano will stick around. According to sources, the Rangers have apparently made Carlos their top offensive target on the trade market, making everything Nolan Ryan said while the Mets were in Texas last month sound silly. Of course, there's also this tweet from David Lennon linking Beltran to the Giants. Lots of hot air is wasted at the trade deadline. Let's sit back and see how this turns out.
In injury news, Johan Santana was hanging around the dugout during yesterday's game and was hopeful but cautious about his impending return. The Mets still are hopeful that Johan will return to the mound this season and if all goes well in his bullpen session today, Johan could begin a rehab assignment soon.
Jason Isringhausen is closing in on his 300th save.
Finally, remember that music video that appeared last week featuring Jose Reyes? Well, here's a little background on the whole production. Apparently, Lil Wayne was so impressed with the video that he wants to work with Jose once baseball season is over. I don't know a thing about rap but it all sounds pretty cool to me.
Around the NL East
The Phillies beat the Padres 8-6 on Saturday afternoon. On the trade front, they have turned their attention to Astros' RFer Hunter Pence. We've seen Ed Wade deal with his former team a few times in deals involving Brad Lidge and Roy Oswalt and while those didn't seem to cost the Phils a ton in talent, this one could bring back a truckload for the rebuilding Astros. Speaking of Lidge, the Phillies righty is off of the DL after missing the entire first half of the season with rotator cuff and elbow issues.
The Braves were smacked around by the Reds, losing by a score of 11-2. Chipper Jones is on the comeback trail for the Braves, as he played at Single A Rome in the SAL on Saturday. It'll be interesting to see if this affects the Braves interest in Carlos Beltran.
Around the Majors
Hall of Fame induction day is today and the festivities will kick off at 11:30 AM on MLB Network and MLB.com. In case you forgot, Robbie Alomar, Burt Blyleven and Pat Gillick will be enshrined at Cooperstown. Marty Noble wrote an article about Burt Blyleven's incredible curveball and surprisingly doesn't put down the soon to be Hall of Famer as some writers (coughJonHeymancough) have for being a product of the "statheads" campaigning for him.
In the weak NL Central, the Reds are looking to acquire pieces for a run, while the Dodgers are trying to keep focused on losing despite swirling trade winds. The Rays are also shopping players, namely CF B.J. Upton and SP James Shields. I'd personally love for the Mets to somehow acquire Big Game James, though we know that it's probably just a dream at this point.
The Mariners lost their 14th consecutive game on Saturday. That, folks, is what we call immediate regression to the mean. Ouch.
Interesting article here on Yankees pitcher Kei Igawa. It's pretty incredible that the guy is still pitching in the minors on the Yankees dime, yet you never hear a thing about him. Meanwhile, the Mets pay some deferred money to Bobby Bonilla and it's a big deal every year when some reporter wants some filler to troll Mets fans with. Hate the media.