Marlins 7- Mets 6

The score doesn’t tell you anything about the ebbs and flows of this game.  The amount of times the Mets scored without ever putting the ball in play.

The pessimist would say that the Marlins gave the game to the Mets by walking in everyone and balking* in the tying run.  The optimist saw a team with grit and determination climb back into a game in which a pitcher flat out dominated them.**

*= Multiple replays showed the obvious, that it wasn’t a balk.  The Mets got a freebie.  The umps clearly felt the game swinging and made emotional decisions.  I love when umpires affect games.  I mean that’s what they are there for right?  I’m just saying Met fans, if it happened for our benefit tonight, it will affect us negatively too, that’s just the law of averages.

**= Ricky Nolasco has been the “breakout pitcher” candidate in fantasy baseball land for the last two years.  He was really good coming down the stretch for them last year after being sent down to the minors.  He had a really good spring training.  Of course he was dominant last night.  Threw strikes regularly and had outstanding breaking pitches that also threw for strikes.  Best of all? By the third inning he had thrown 29 pitches and allowed 1 hit and 1 run, Maine threw 54 pitches and allowed 4 hits and 1 run.  No joke.  Ok fine Maine’s pitch count isn’t accurate but it was ridiculously disproportionate.  Nolasco was kicking Maine’s butt in the pitch count department.

They finally worked his pitch count in the final two innings as Nolasco had a bit of wildness in the seventh where they got to the Marlins clear cut weakess, the bullpen.  Renyell Pinto couldn’t find the strike zone and neither could Jose Veras.

Here’s where it gets great and in my opinion the part where the game changed.  Jose Veras came in with the bases loaded to face David Wright playing the righty on righty matchup.*  Citi Field has the smallest area behind home plate in the majors which is 45 feet which enhances the fan experience.  Sure, its the rich fan experience bit experience nonetheless.  Tatis HAS to know this having played last year.  The dimensions should not be a surprise at this point.

*= Its the most insane thing to me that coaches micromanage bullpens.  As a reliever to be a lefty specialist, or righty specialist and come in for ONE batter is pointless.  If he’s cruising keep him in there.  Case in point, Joe Girardi kept Chan Ho Park in for 3 innings, riding the hot hand for as long as possible.  The rule of thumb in managing the bullpen is the same as GM’s for players: take em out sooner rather than later.  But I say, common sense should prevail here.  What do I know, I’m just a loyal fan.

David Wright is up and the first pitch Wright sees is a breaking ball that bounces in the dirt and hits the back stop.  Jose Reyes or someone with capable speed can make it to home with no problem.  But not middle age Fernando Tatis who hesitated to begin with.  The other thing is, you have your best hitter up with two outs.  There is no margin for error in that situation.  You MUST let the hitter hit and drive in the runs.  Unless its a no brainer and he wildly overthrew it but even then, you give the team the option of walking Wright and letting Mike Jacobs walk up to the plate and let’s be honest Met fans is there a more sure out in baseball?  So Tatis shouldve been instructed to stay put.  That’s what should’ve been done and if not Chip Hale the 3b coach, it should’ve been Jerry Manuel’s job to do that.

Making matters worse is Jerry’s assertion that David Wright stole second on his own accord which again, strategically doesn’t make sense since they were willing to pitch to Jason Bay.  But by leaving first base open, the Marlins were not going to take the chance and thus walked Bay. These are silly mistakes that the Mets can’t afford to make and it goes on the manager’s head to ensure that players aren’t just taking decisions upon themselves.  Last year’s most eggregious error were mental ones that just kept popping up and yet the Mets are starting off the season in much the same fashion.

All these errors considered, I think last night the Mets showed marked improvement over last year’s club in this respect: they never quit.  They didn’t allow the errors from other innings affect their psyche going forward and they learned from their earlier errors.  Case in point: bases loaded again and Jason Bay’s on third and a pop up goes to shallow left to Chris Coghlan the reigning Rookie of the Year.  Bay does the right thing by fake tagging up and forces an absolutely horrendous throw.*  Unfortunately Veras was backing it up perfectly.  Bay never went and he eventually scored a batter later.  No harm, no foul and the inning continued in which the Mets eventually tied it.  The Mets never allowed the other team to get away wtih not throwing strikes.  They allowed the Marlins to pitch them back into the game after getting Nolasco removed.  Even Francouer drew a walk** which if you saw him swing at a breaking ball that was no where near the plate from the point the pitch was released, was like watching someone morph into someone else completely.

*= Gary Keith and Ron were absolutely hilarious.  Bill Simmons the sports guy has written about this before but the three man booth only works in very few occasions and this is it.  They each know their role and each play it well.  Gary throws in the dry humor, Ron the excellent analysis and Keith playing the role of the average Joe, if the average Joe won a few Gold Gloves and was considered one of the best first basemen in the 80’s.  On that particular throw Keith immediately yelled whoaaaaa which had to be one of the funniest on-air moments and the three guys had a good laugh at that.  I usually don’t like former players bemoaning the new school for not being fundamentally sound but just watch Keith Hernandez play first base and you’ll know that this guy wasn’t lax about defense.  He was excellent so I tend to overlook the cockiness.

**= Which was another gimme for the Mets in which Keith had yet another moment when he saw a pitch that he thought should’ve been strike three and he let the viewer know it.  He didn’t hide it.  Which is yet another reason why I love these three, even when its a call that should go against the Mets they call it right down the middle and there’s no homer-ism in the booth.  As a Met fan its awesome.  At least Charles Dolan doesn’t own the team becuase then they might be fired and exiled to New Jersey to call games for a minor league affiliate or somewhere like he did to poor Marv Albert.

Last year the Mets would’ve lost this game 7-2 or 7-3, but despite losing 7-6 showed a lot of heart and character that perhaps has something to do with this team being more comfortable around each other and actually playing well together.

One thing that we do know, tonight’s  starter Jon Niese will have to go more than 6 innings and give them an excellent outing so they won’t be stretching out the bullpen much.

Almost game time.  Let’s go Mets!