Tigers 6, Mets 5: We Battled

The Mets began the evening atop the NL East, a scant few percentage points ahead of second place Atlanta. They finished it back in second place, undone by a subpar pitching performance by Hisanori Takahashi and a late-inning failure to bring runners in from scoring position.

Tak2's control deserted him tonight -- he walked four in his four innings of work. He also surrendered two home runs, one each to Magglio Ordonez and Ryan Raburn. This was to be expected, given his below average home run to flyball rate. Righthanded hitters continue to be his bugaboo. He has a 4.58 FIP vs. righties, compared to 1.10 vs. lefties. Despite his poor outing, he managed 15 swinging strikes in 92 pitches, or 16.3%. This is well above league the average rate of 8.3%.

David Wright went 2-for-5 but came up short in two crucial situations, striking out with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh and again to end the game in the ninth. The strikeout in the seventh was against lefty Phil Coke, who was summoned to the mound from the set of Boogie Nights:

Coke throws 94 mph and has an impressive beer gut.

The value of productive outs versus non-productive ones over the course of a season may not amount to much, but Wright's whiff with the sacks drunk in the seventh was especially deleterious. Ike Davis followed with a flyout to center field and the Mets failed to score against hard throwing relievers Fernando Rodney Joel Zumaya and Jose Valverde in the eighth and ninth innings.

Apparently Jerry Manuel has deftly made the transition from "second basemen must bat second" to "center fielders must bat second", as Jesus Feliciano, subbing for Angel Pagan, was penciled into the lineup immediately behind Jose Reyes in the leadoff spot. Feliciano is probably not much of a hitter and would typically be a better fit further down in the batting order where he won't get so many, how you say, plate appearances? To the Mets' benefit, results won out over process as Feliciano went 3-for-5 on the night. Reyes drew two beautiful walks -- let's hope for more from our leadoff man.

Bad Jeff Francoeur: He went 0-for-2 with a strikeout and saw just five pitches. His plate appearances are becoming nigh unwatchable.

Good Jeff Francoeur: Puppy Avenue.

The Twins are in town this weekend and the pitching matchups are as follows:

Friday, 6/25: Mike Pelfrey vs. Kevin Slowey
Saturday, 6/26: Johan Santana vs. Carl Pavano
Sunday, 6/27: Jon Niese vs. Scott Baker

Parts of this recap were composed by Mr. Cool Enlightened Forward-Thinking Statistics Genius.

Poem by Howard Megdal

Furious rally comes up one hit shy
While Takahashi's sell-by date may well be nigh

SB Nation Coverage

* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* Bless You Boys Gamethread

Win Probability Added

Big winners: Jesus Feliciano +14.3%, Ruben Tejada +8.9%
Big losers: Ike Davis -32.1%, Hisanori Takahashi -30.8%
Teh aw3s0mest play: Jesus Feliciano single +12.3%
Teh sux0rest play: David Wright strikeout -15.5%
Total pitcher WPA: -19.1%
Total batter WPA: -30.9%
GWRBI!: Danny Worth

Game Thread Roll Call

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