:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/photo_images/7868990/148303423.jpg)
Meet the Mets
The power went out during the second inning of last night's game at Turner Field. Maybe it should've stayed out. Chris Young did not have his best command. Wait, scratch that. The entire Mets' pitching staff did not have their best command, as they walked 11 Braves en route to a 7-5 defeat to open up the second half of the year. Young gave up a pair of runs in the first inning, though it could've been a whole lot worse as he worked around three walks (thank Dan Uggla for popping out on the first pitch he saw with the bases loaded). The power outage came in the top of the second and lasted about 15 minutes and then the Braves got a charge of their own, courtesy of backup catcher David Ross' three-run home run. Ross got the start in place of Brian McCann, who's on paternity leave. Down 5-0, the Mets rallied back for four runs in the fourth inning but that was as close as they'd get. The fifth inning saw the Mets load the bases with nobody out but they couldn't squeeze a run from that. One of the highlights of the game was rookie lefty Josh Edgin, who came on to clean up a Miguel Batista mess. Edgin struck out Juan Francisco and Michael Bourn to get out of a bases loaded jam in his first big league appearance, a pretty impressive feat. Unfortunately, things didn't go as well in the sixth, as he gave up a tack-on home run to Chipper Jones and Ramon Ramirez allowed another of Edgin's inherited runners score to basically put this one away for good.
Choose Your Recap: MLB.com, ESPN NY, Daily News, New York Times, Associated Press, Star-Ledger, Bergen Record, NY Post
The Mets send their best pitcher to the mound as they look to even up their matchup with the Braves. R.A. Dickey takes on Tommy Hanson this afternoon at 4:05 PM on Fox.
Rumor has it that the Mets are interested in acquiring Kelly Shoppach from the Red Sox if the price on Ramon Hernandez is too high. Shoppach would certainly fit the lefty-masher backup catcher role that the Mets could use.
Dillon Gee underwent surgery yesterday in St. Louis on his damaged artery and everything went as expected. The righthander is expected to remain in the hospital until early next week and he is expected to be out for 6-8 weeks, though there's no schedule as to when he'll begin to throw again.
Closer Frank Francisco suffered a setback yesterday, as his injured rib cage still did not feel right. He'll be reevaluated in the next couple of days. Jason Bay's rehab continues to chug along, albeit with lots of 0-fers. He went 0-3 in his second rehab game yesterday with St. Lucie and is expected to move up to Buffalo shortly.
With the loss of Dillon Gee, the Mets' rotation has become thin again and in order to remedy that, Terry Collins may begin to use R.A. Dickey more frequently after August 1st. Meanwhile, Chris Young's short outing on Friday means that he should be set up to start on Wednesday in Washington, instead of Miguel Batista.
Mike Kerwick in the Bergen Record has a nice feature on new Mets' lefty Josh Edgin, who was a wrestler in High School.
The Mets passed on signing 2nd round draft pick Teddy Stankiewicz, a starting pitcher from a Texas high school. Stankiewicz will head to Arkansas and the Mets will get the 76th pick in the 2013 draft as compensation.
On the way out to State College, PA, the Brooklyn Cyclones' bus got into a fender bender with a tractor-trailer. Luckily, nobody was hurt.
Around the NL East
The Nationals defeated the Miami MarLOLins 5-1 behind the arm of Jordan Zimmermann. The PhiLOLadeLOLphia PhiLOLies fell to the Colorado Rockies 6-2 as Cliff Lee fell to an hilarious 1-6 record. The Phillies may be 14 games under .500 but ESPN's Karl Ravech just isn't buying that the Phillies are dead.
Around the Majors
Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier were both activated off of the DL by the Dodgers. That should help their anemic offense.
The Cardinals are likely to sign recently released reliever Brian Fuentes.
Former Phillies star Lenny Dykstra plead guilty to three counts related to a bankruptcy fraud case and he could face a maximum of 20 years in jail. Really a shame what that former Phillies legend has done to himself.
The Brewers may be willing to give Zack Greinke 100 million reasons to stay in Milwaukee but the pitcher is likely to test free agency anyway.
There are lots of big egos and hurt feelings in the Boston Red Sox clubhouse and one of the biggest of them all, Bobby Valentine, may be losing the faith of his players. This whole mess in Boston is a disaster. Considering the fact that there were calls for his head in the first week of the season, it seems like nobody gave Bobby V a chance.
21-year old Red Sox farmhand Ryan Westmoreland was forced to undergo a second brain surgery yesterday. Westmoreland, at one point a top prospect in the organization, had the initial surgery on a cavernous malformation back in March 2010.
Pirates first rounder Mark Appel decided to forgo a deal with the team and head back to Stanford for his senior year. Meanwhile, the Orioles agreed to a deal with righty Kevin Gausman out of LSU. His bonus is worth $4.32 million. The Nationals also signed thought-to-be-unsignable righty Lucas Giolito. They got him signed at just under $3 million. The Nats suddenly have some scary good pitching in their system.