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Meet the Mets
There has been plenty of complaining about the Mets' bullpen and for good reason. It's ranged between terrible and godawful all season. So when the Mets are able to put lots of runs up on the board, that's a really great thing. That's what the Mets did on Tuesday, up against one of the best pitching staffs in the majors, as they defeated the Rays 11-2. Chris Young got the start for the Mets and was hittable, though he was able to keep the Rays off of the board for the majority of his 5.2 innings. Meanwhile, Jordany Valdespin had a big day as the Mets' DH. He knocked in four runs on two hits and more importantly, he wasn't able to give any of those runs back on defense! Up 3-2 with two out in the top of the seventh inning against Rays' starter Alex Cobb, the Mets exploded for six runs. The big inning was capped off by a bomb of an Ike Davis three run home run off of lefty reliever J.P. Howell, who sadly does not pitch like he did back in 2008 and 09. The homer was Davis' first in a month and it was also his first multi-hit game since May 9th. Progress? Let's hope so. All in all, this was a very satisfying win and kind of unexpected, considering how good Tampa's been. But, I guess "That's Baseball", right?
Choose Your Recap: MLB.com, ESPN NY, Daily News, New York Times, Associated Press, Star-Ledger
The Mets and Rays face off again at 7:10 PM, as David Price takes on R.A. Dickey in what should be an excellent pitching matchup. You can catch all of the action on SNY.
Considering the bullpen's struggles this season, Terry Collins has decided to shake things up down there. Jon Rauch has been demoted from the setup role and the only pitcher who will have a designated job will be Frank Francisco. Furthermore, Miguel Batista may see some eighth inning work because that's totally an awesome idea!
In more bullpen news, Jenrry Mejia is moving to the pen at Buffalo and he could get called up to the majors as a reliever in two weeks, if all goes well.
Some of the team's plethora of injured shortstops are beginning to work their way back. Justin Turner took some swings in St. Lucie, Ronny Cedeno ran on the infield and Ruben Tejada is getting ready to start his running program again today.
David Wright continues to lead NL 3rd basemen in All-Star game votes. Yay...I mean...TRAID!
The Mets announced the signing of catcher Kevin Plawecki, who they took in the supplemental first round of last week's amateur draft out of Purdue.
Around the NL East
It was a good day for the Mets, as three of their division rivals were defeated. The Braves lost to the Yankees 6-4, the Phillies fell to the Twins 11-7 and the Marlins lost 2-1 to the Red Sox. The only other team to win was the Nationals, who defeated the Blue Jays 4-2.
Around the Majors
Andre Ethier and the Dodgers agreed to a 5 year, $85 million contract on Tuesday. Ethier's a good hitter but that seems awfully steep for a 30-year old who's limited defensively and has been basically a 2 WAR per year player.
The Blue Jays released Vladimir Guerrero from his minor league deal and rumor has it that he may be calling it quits. Meanwhile, starter Brandon Morrow is headed to the DL with a strained oblique.
The Cubs fired hitting guru Rudy Jaramillo yesterday, a move that doesn't really seem to accomplish all that much considering the quality of the players on the Cubs.
Remember Brian Roberts? The Orioles' second baseman is back after missing 13 months with a concussion.
Bobby Valentine is on board with robot umpires for balls and strikes, should they ever come to be.