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Meet the Mets
In case you've been living under a rock for the past few years, Zack Greinke is really good at throwing baseballs. Really good may even be an understatement. The Mets are good at hitting baseballs, watching baseballs and walking to first base but sometimes you run into an outstanding pitcher and that's what happened to the Mets on Tuesday night. They fell to the Brewers 8-0, resulting in a series split with the Brew Crew. Dillon Gee was...um, well...let's just say not nearly as good as Greinke and we'll leave it at that. First baseman Travis Ishikawa had a big day, delivering two home runs for the Brewers, putting the game firmly out of reach with the second. Offensively, the Mets did little against Greinke, who allowed just five hits while striking out seven. He toyed with the Mets batters, like a puppeteer pulling invisible strings connected to their bats. Oh well, it happens sometimes.
Choose Your Recap: MLB.com, ESPN NY, Daily News, Star-Ledger, Associated Press, NY Times
The Mets start a two-game set with the Reds tonight at 7:10 PM. Johan Santana heads to the hill and he'll take on Mike Leake.
There was some interesting extracurricular activity that took place during the seventh inning of last night's game. D.J. Carrasco allowed a solo home run to Brewers 2B Rickie Weeks. On the very first pitch to the next batter Ryan Braun, Carrasco hit Braun in the arm, forcing Braun to first base and sending home plate umpire Gary Darling out to immediately eject Carrasco from the game. In the next half inning, Terry Collins pinch hit for David Wright, who was seen in the dugout yelling angrily at Collins for pulling him from the game. Not long after, Collins and Wright spoke with each other and made up and the two of them, along with Carrasco, spoke to the media about the situation. Collins said that he did not want Wright getting hit with a retaliation pitch, should the Brewers decide to throw one. Patrick Flood also penned an excellent breakdown of the inning's events.
Rumor has long had it that Citi Field would be host to the 2013 MLB All-Star game. Well, after a long waiting period, it looks like MLB will finally make it official today. The All-Star game is pretty beyond meaningless but it'll be fun to have it at the home stadium for once.
From the infirmary, Jason Bay was cleared to begin some baseball activities and it looks like he'll regain his starting job in left field upon his return in a couple of weeks. Yay? Josh Thole is still waiting for clearance but the good news is that he has not had any headaches since Friday. Finally, Jenrry Mejia and Chris Young are steadily working their way back to the big club and both could move up to AAA Buffalo very soon. Mejia's made two starts with the St. Lucie Mets and could get a look in the bullpen very soon, while Young's second was rained out last night. He'll pitch for St. Lucie today. Howard Megdal took a look at Mejia and Young's quest to become the team's fifth starter.
Mark Simon took an in-depth look at the Mets' defense so far this year, using defensive metrics from Baseball Info Solutions.
The 1962 episode of SNY's Mets Yearbook series will be broadcast for the first time on Thursday evening at 8 PM.
Toby Hyde spoke with Sand Gnats pitcher Jacob DeGrom, the Mets' 2010 9th rounder out of Stetson University. DeGrom sort of came out of nowhere a week ago after missing all of 2011 because of Tommy John surgery. His stuff looks to be legitimate, though, as according to Toby, he features a low to mid-90's fastball and some interesting offspeed stuff.
Around the NL East
Brian McCann hit a home run and the Braves offense knocked Johnny Cueto around, as Atlanta defeated the Reds 6-2 to move back into first place in the division.
The Braves move back into first because the Nationals lost today 6-1. Stephen Strasburg got smacked by the San Diego Padres. What? No, you didn't just hallucinate that. Apparently, some joker put Icy Hot in his jockstrap. Yeesh. Meanwhile, the Nationals have lost another catcher. Over the weekend, Wilson Ramos went down for the year with a torn ACL and his replacement, 23-year old Sandy Leon, left his big league debut after getting run over in an ugly home plate collision. It sounds like he has a high ankle sprain.
Cliff Lee allowed a run on five hits, while walking one and striking out ten Astros batters. Cliff Lee owns a 1.95 ERA and a 34/4 K/BB ratio this season. Cliff Lee also does not own a victory this year and today was no different, as the Phillies' LOLpen blew this one before Hunter Pence hit a solo home run to salvage a 4-3 victory. Bad news for the Phils, as righty Vance Worley will miss his scheduled start due to elbow soreness.
The Marlins beat the Pirates 6-2 behind the arm of Josh Johnson and a five-run fourth inning. Meanwhile, team president David Samson is talking again and says that the team has no interest in moving the Marlins Park fences in next year.
Around the Majors
The Angels shut out the A's 4-0 behind an excellent start from Ervin Santana and solid offensive days from Albert Pujols and Mike Trout. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to save hitting coach Mickey Hatcher, who was relieved of his duties yesterday.
Josh Beckett tossed seven shutout innings with nine strikeouts, as the Red Sox beat the Mariners 5-0. I'm assuming there was no talk of Beckett's off-day golf games after this gem.
Blue Jays third baseman Brett Lawrie was ejected after he slammed his helmet down on the ground in frustration. The helmet bounced off of the ground and hit the home plate umpire, so it wouldn't be a shock if Lawrie misses some time during the Mets' series with Toronto this weekend.
New Yankees closer David Robertson is headed to the DL with a strained oblique. Rafael Soriano will take over as the team's closer for now.