So where do I begin? Plenty of places to start. We will, as always go to the pitching:
– Johan Santana’s line: 3.2 IP, 10 ER, 1 k, 2 BB, on 71 pitches (48 for strikes- 67.6%). He was cruising up until the 4th inning where basically everything went wrong.* The gist of it was, they got two outs, runners on, and then intentionally walked Carlos Ruiz to load the bases so they could get to Jaime Moyer the pitcher and get the presumed 3rd and final out. Of course Santana goes 3-0 in a flash and the Philly fans began to rise up from their seats** and motivate the team. Two more pitches, and two strikes and order restored it seemed. Then a pitch, high and inside. This is the pitcher. This is a 47 year old pitcher. Have I mentioned this is a pitcher? Now, all the momentum is with the Phillies and of course they capitalize. Three pitches later, Victorino deposits a high fastball, the same one that Polanco took Johan deep with in the first, into the seats at left for a grandslam and by then the route was on. Three pitches later, a batter on after a single by Polanco, and another homerun by another Phillie big bopper and the Mets are out of it. That was it. The game was over for Santana and the Mets.
*= I’m trying really hard not to use 4 letter words to describe this game and especially that bases loaded walk, by our “ace” to the pitcher.
**= I’m not gonna lie, Philly fans definitely influenced a bases loaded walk and they can even take credit for the two other home runs because of how energized they were throughout. They know how to bring it. Definitely a great crowd in Philly. Seriously, I want to throw up just writing that last sentence and watching this game.
What went wrong? A popular reason given will be mechanical flaws. Johan’s fastball remained in the high 80’s barely reaching 90 on very rare occasions and the fastball had little to no movement which means they were straight lasers that were gopher balls to the Phillies who took advantage. Orel Hersheiser mentioned that Johan was only throwing two pitches which I’m not too sure of but if that’s the case then he’s in trouble because that’s a terrible idea. Johan used to throw low 90’s on his fastball which set up the change up. There was almost a 9-10 MPH difference between the pitches during his heyday* and tonight there was about a 3-5 MPH difference between the fastball and change up which is not going to fool anybody. Yesterday I wrote about how Halladay was mixing his fastball speeds. The difference there was he was changing eye angles and painting corners whereas Johan was throwing it down the middle. I dont want to say its mechanical and I dont want to throw out the idea that perhaps he’s not all the way recovered from his elbow clean up but he needs to get some MPH back on that fastball or else he’ll have starts like that again.
– The Mets did start the game off the right way pounding Moyer for 5 runs through 4 but fell eerily quiet the rest of the way as Jamie Moyer and Co. shut the Mets out the rest of the way which of course leads to this discussion: did the Mets quit? Did they just give up after that 9 run fourth which blew open the game for the Phils? Its a fair yet harsh assumption. 48 hours ago, I was thinking and writing about how I felt the culture of this team had changed. How perhaps this team was learning to fight and score and tack on runs and not be complacent and then they get shut down by Roy Halladay yesterday and give up after their ace Johan Santana has an off day. See, this is the difference between the Mets and the Phillies. The Phillies never got down on themselves when they went down early. They just fought and broke through, making adjustments and not letting Johan’s change up get set up. They basically waited on him to throw a strike and he just never could do it. The Mets after falling behind began getting anxious and swinging and grounding out/flying out on the first pitch which of course extended Moyer. It was basically the same thing yesterday. The Mets made Halladay work for 5 innings by having him throw 80 pitches and yet when the Phillies broke that game open, Halladay was on cruise control for the rest of the game which tells you how the approach changed mentally for the Mets. Is it their inability to send a rebuttal? If so, then its a question of toughness and we’re right back to square one. When the Mets went on their winning streak I wasn’t trying to take anything away from them by saying that they were facing teams at the right time (Teams that were scuffling and making mistakes and struggling), but putting things into perspective.
– That naturally leads to this which are Met fans. It was more than obvious that while watching this game the amount of people jumping off the bandwagon would be plentiful but the reaction that was being posted on Metsblog.com was rather shocking and sad. Granted the Mets never gave them anything to cheer about, but it just went again to show you how fickle they are. 48 hours ago they are the best team in the NL East and now they are the worst. There’s no middle ground with these fans and its sad. If anything these last few years have taught us is this: everything needs its proper perspective. No winning streak or losing streak will change my perspective that with the Mets as currently constructed, you can neither be too high or too low, you just watch them and accept them for who they are. They are a middling club. They have hot streaks in them and what I more or less point to is that suddenly the little things are coming back. They are hitting with runners in scoring position. They are hustling out doubles like Fernando Tatis who hit a grounder that went past Ryan Howard and rolled to Jayson Werth. Because Tatis took a wide turn Werth bobbled it and Tatis went in with a double. Those plays didn’t happen so certain habits are being put in place which is good. More so, the clubhouse is a totally different experience from what I can tell and from what I hear. Most people are loose and they are all happy to be around each other. They will have games like this and it will make you scratch your head but again, every team has games like this. I just wish Met fans were just level headed and didn’t get sucked in to these winning streaks and losing streaks in April/May. That will drive you crazy. At the end of May you will have a really good sense of where the team is and where its going.
– So the next few days in Cincinatti will be the true test. There’s Oliver Perez and then John Maine coming up so it will be interesting to see how the Mets respond to this weekend’s disappointing outcome. That in my opinion is the biggest example of whether this group has turned a corner as a team.
– Most fans are going to point to Gary Mathews Jr. and Fernando Tatis taking up spots on the starting line up tonight as a sign that Jerry Manuel quit but I wouldn’t. Manuel has a job of keeping his guys fresh and he figured that he should’ve done it. In fairness I would’ve done that yesterday instead of today in a game that we could’ve won today against Jamie Moyer but again, with the way Johan pitched and the situation surrounding that perhaps it wouldn’t have mattered. Either way its a subject that will tossed around on blogs and heat up debate about whether Jerry Manuel has any business setting up shop as a manager of a big league team. Here we go again folks.
SEASON: 14-11
My Prediction: 13-12 2nd place in the NL EAST (1 day)
For those wondering I have the Mets sweeping this series against the Reds so let’s hope I have more of that fortune telling magic I had a week ago.
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