I wonder what Bruce Drennan thinks of this game. Oh, Jason Donald!
The Mets "pounded" 12 hits, but just one, a go-ahead two-run homer by Ike Davis in the 5th inning, went for extra bases. Seven of the 11 singles were of the infield variety. Indians' fielders, led by shortstop Donald (two errors), obviously haven't been watching Tom Emanski's Defensive Drills Video. And Luis Valbuena -- please don't give him back to the Mets.
David Wright went 3-5 with three RBI. He leads the National League with 50 RBI, if that's your sort of statistic. His slash line is now .293/.384/.528, nearly identical to his career line of .307/.388/.519. Jose Reyes provided the highlight of the game, scoring from 2nd base on a Wright groundout in the 5th. Shades of Mookie Wilson.
Johan Santana notched the win, giving up four runs on seven hits in seven innings of work. However, he had only one strikeout and generated just six swinging strikes. The strikeout issue is no longer the elephant in the room that no one is talking about -- it is the cheetah walking down 42nd St. on the front page of the New York Post. Frankie Rodriguez gave up a two-run bomb to Shelley Duncan with two outs in the 9th inning to cut the deficit to one, but then retired Trevor Crowe on a flyball to left to earn the save.
Kevin Burkhardt spent nearly an entire inning interviewing Bob Feller, the Hall of Fame pitcher. His opinions about today's game are always entertaining. Feller claimed that he once threw a fastball 107 mph and said of his velocity: "on a good day, between 102 and 105 [mph]". Maybe that's true, who knows. Seems pretty unlikely though. It was definitely one of KB's better interviews. Feller looks and sounds great for 91 years old. "Rapid Robert" enlisted in the U.S. Navy on December 8, 1941 and missed four seasons of baseball to serve during World War II.
The Phillies, Marlins, Braves and Nationals all lost tonight. The Mets are just a half game out of first place in the NL East behind the Braves (no games out in the loss column). The next three opponents after the Indians are the Yankees, Tigers and Twins. Given that those teams are quite good compared to the disastrous Tribe, an Indians sweep would be nice. Jon Niese vs. Mitch Talbot is the matchup Wednesday night. Talbot has a shiny 3.59 ERA that isn't supported by his peripherals. It's the perfect time to raise his .263 BABIP.
Poem by Howard Megdal
Mets continue their rampage of terror
Over awful teams who commit many an error
Wright takes NL RBI lead, in MVP mix
Guess Mets don't need to find him a fix
Santana staggers, survives, a cause for alarm?
Questions abound on his soundness of arm
Ike Davis boomed home run that looked like a punt
So why in the hell did Jerry ask him to bunt?!?
SB Nation Coverage
* Traditional Recap
* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* Let's Go Tribe! Gamethread
Win Probability Added
Big winners: Ike Davis +24.8%, David Wright +18.7%
Big losers: Chris Carter -9.3%, Angel Pagan -7.2%
Teh aw3s0mest play: Ike Davis homer +23.1%
Teh sux0rest play: Trevor Crowe single -16.7%
Total pitcher WPA: +6.2%
Total batter WPA: +43.8%
GWRBI!: Jason Bay
Game Thread Roll Call
Nice job by fightoffyourdemons; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.
| Num | Name | # of Posts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | fightoffyourdemons | 160 |
| 2 | Gina | 91 |
| 3 | CTRefJay | 81 |
| 4 | Michkin | 75 |
| 5 | Gorfax | 65 |
| 6 | MetsKnicksRutgers | 63 |
| 7 | Syler | 56 |
| 8 | blueandorange4life | 45 |
| 9 | Jsz | 43 |
| 10 | itsmetsforme | 42 |