Mets Morning News: "A" Is For Acostalypse And That's Good Enough For Opponents (But Not For Our Sanity)

Meet the Mets

The Mets fell to the Reds 3-0 last night in a game that despite being incredibly sloppy on both sides, was scoreless headed into the bottom of the ninth inning. Both teams combined to strand a small country's worth of runners on the bases, finding creative ways to go about doing it. It looked like neither team really was all that interested in winning this one, up until Manny Acosta entered the game and served it up to the Reds on a silver platter by putting the first two runners on base. Josh Edgin entered soon thereafter and on a 1-2 pitch, he served up a fastball down the middle that Jay Bruce launched to left-center field for a walkoff three-run home run.

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In one of the better named pitching matchups this year, R.A. Dickey faces off against Mike Leake in game two of this series. First pitch is at 7:10 PM.

TRAID Alert! The Mets claimed catcher Kelly Shoppach off of waivers from the Red Sox and ended up acquiring him for a player to be named later. Shoppach will serve as the lefty mashing platoon mate of Josh Thole and he's a gigantic upgrade over the likes of Rob Johnson and Mike Nickeas, even if he's only a Met for the final month and a half of 2012.

Remember Mike Pelfrey, former first rounder and currently injured league average innings eater? Well, Big Pelf is recovering well from his Tommy John surgery and while it's far in the future, Pelf may be ready for Opening Day 2013. What team he plays for on that day, however, is likely up in the air, as it seems a given the team will non-tender him this offseason. Meanwhile, Dillon Gee has another doctor's appointment in 10 days and may be able to throw after that.

David Wright has had an outstanding season, serving as basically the entirety of the Mets' offense all year but of late, the superstar third baseman has slumped. With his contract up after 2013, signing Wright to an extension will be a big story this offseason and he said that winning is more important than money to him. Unfortunately, the Mets' payroll picture is still very blurry when it comes to extensions and outside acquisitions.

Terry Collins is considering going to a six man rotation at some point, allowing them to help rest some of their starters.

The Mets are hosting a blood drive at Citi Field on Saturday and if you donate, you get two free tickets.

Toby Hyde takes a look at the future of soon to be 26 year old second baseman Reese Havens. I think his take here is pretty accurate -- while Havens has stayed healthy all year, his bat has left much to be desired for a guy his age repeating double A. It wouldn't be a surprise to me if he's off the 40-man or out of the organization very soon.

Under the topic of "Who Knew?", the late Gary Carter apparently coined the word "F-Bomb".

Around the NL East

The Nationals fell to the Giants 7-1, as lefty Madison Bumgarner threw a complete game. Meanwhile, the Braves shut out the Diamondbacks 6-0 behind Tim Hudson and home runs from Dan Uggla and Martin Prado. Finally, the Phillies are just a game behind the Mets, as they shut out the Marlins 1-0. Yeesh.

Around the Majors

Things have not gone smoothly in Boston during Bobby Valentine's first season and the tide keeps getting more rough by the week. Boston's crew of underachieving stars sent text messages to ownership complaining about the manager and a meeting was held in late July to learn of players' concerns.

The first three months of the 2012 season looked to be the coming out party of Pirates' ace pitcher James McDonald but a shaky July followed by a pair of awful starts in August has led the Pirates to consider moving him to the bullpen.

Former fourth overall pick Brian Matusz is moving to the bullpen, as the Orioles are going to try the lefty as a LOOGY. Perhaps he's a good guy for some team to pick up on the cheap as a rehab project.

Matt Garza may not pitch again this season, according to manager Dale Sveum.

The Blue Jays agreed to a two-year extension with catcher Jeff Mathis because...umm...well...not really sure why, actually. Anybody want to guess?

The Royals released infielder Yuniesky Betancourt. It's really shocking that no team would want a baseball player with a .256 on base percentage. Oh wait, no.