David Wright is awesome at baseball. He is currently, by far, the Mets' most valuable position player. That said, his performance in this game was calamitous. An 0-4 at the plate with three strikeouts and a throwing error to help the Braves score the deciding run in the 9th were the lowlights for David tonight. He wasn't the sole problem -- Jose Reyes went 0-4 and Chris Carter 0-3 on just six pitches -- but wow that was just a brutal 9th inning to watch and the headline of this recap was borne of that frustration. An RBI against Billy Wagner in the top of the 9th, and not a strikeout, would have been comforting for this fanbase right now. Rationality is usually a virtue I try to maintain while watching baseball, but this was a remote control heaving loss.
Johan Santana gave the Mets a great chance to win (seven innings, five hits, two runs, four strikeouts). He gave up a two-run home run to Troy Glaus in the 3rd but then went on to retire 13 batters in a row to finish his outing. Pedro Feliciano pitched an effective 8th but was pulled after allowing a single to Brian McCann leading off the 9th. Jenrry Mejia was summoned, and he walked Yunel Escobar before Wright threw away Melky Cabrera's weak grounder, allowing pinch runner Brent Clevlen to score. There has been talk of sending Mejia back down to the minors and after this game it just has to happen. His presence on the roster adds insult to insult.
Ike Davis and Jeff Francoeur hit solo homers in the 5th to account for the Mets' offense. Frenchy has been scuffling, so good for him. His double play with 1st and 2nd and one out in the 7th was costly but 1-3 with a homer is a triumph for him so I'll allow a mulligan tonight.
Jerry Manuel pulled his usual nonsense, leaving the bunt on with a 3-1 count to GMJoke and Luis Castillo on 2nd with none out in the 9th inning. That's Jerryball -- giving away an out with runner already in scoring position. The next Mets manager could be the incorrigible Roger Clemens and I would find him more tolerable than Jerry, as long as he didn't bunt in every scenario. Also, Fernando Tatis has been exiled to Nick Evans Island.
R.A. Dickey has been freed and will start vs. Livan Hernandez in Washington tomorrow night. Livan's ERA is due for some serious regression so maybe the bats can light him up.
Poem by Howard Megdal
Johan start is fine wine Mets elect not to drink
While misused youngster Mejia allows Mets to sink
Though blaming Wright for most Met woes is unwarranted abuse
No sac fly? Errant throw? For this loss, J'accuse
SB Nation Coverage
* Traditional Recap
* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* Talking Chop Gamethread
Win Probability Added
Big winners: Luis Castillo +18.2%, Johan Santana +14.3% (as pitcher)
Big losers: Jenrry Mejia -30.0%, David Wright -26.1%
Teh aw3s0mest play: Jeff Francoeur home run +15.6%
Teh sux0rest play: Troy Glaus two-run homer -23.2%
Total pitcher WPA: -13.3%
Total batter WPA: -36.7%
GWRBI!: $&%#$%
Game Thread Roll Call
Nice job by Gina; her effort in the game thread embiggens us all.
| Num | Name | # of Posts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gina | 138 |
| 2 | fxcarden | 133 |
| 3 | freakystyley | 122 |
| 4 | sj10689 | 108 |
| 5 | BrockRocks | 91 |
| 6 | Brian. | 75 |
| 7 | MetsKnicksRutgers | 53 |
| 8 | lstorie1971 | 48 |
| 9 | Endys Game | 41 |
| 10 | Shivling | 35 |