Mets 5- Giants 4 F/ 11

These Met catchers sure have some magic don’t they?  Another catcher the Mets got instead of paying for Bengie Molina and another walk off home run against Molina’s Giants.  Simply…well…AMAZIN!

– Johan Santana started the game and once again a Met pitcher saw the 8th inning.  But once again the bullpen let them down but we’ll get to that later.

Johan Santana went 7.2 IP, gave up 8 hits, 4 ER, 6 K’s and and walked no one on 101 pitches (74 for strikes- 73%).  That’s two consecutive games that Met starting pitching hasn’t given up a walk.  In fact, in their last four games, the Mets have had 4 walks, a period in which they’ve gone 3-1, and two of those walks were handed out today.  Otherwise you’d have to go back to John Maine last Tuesday to see a Met starting pitcher give up a walk to a hitter.  That’s an impressive string of focused baseball that the pitching staff has put together.  I’m going to be the first to tell you that I’ve been down on Dan Warthen but it seems as though all that coaching is finally paying off.  The focus this past Spring Training was about the Mets pitching staff throwing strikes and it seems as if its beginning to take hold.

– Yesterday while eating at Elena 43, the Yankee game was showing and I noticed how AL pitchers just tend to get deeper into games by keeping pitch counts low.*  Being that pitch counts are so important nowadays I think the policy of throwing strikes is helping that.

*= Shout out to the YES Network who put up a pitch count meter along with the regular graphic that shows the score, the count, the inning and runners on.  Its a crucial addition as the pitch count is becoming a vital statistic for teams to employ.  Now SNY needs to get on that though their slow motion cameras are very excellent.

– In the offseason the Mes were very much after Bengie Molina and many considered a done deal.  The Mets made an initial offer which was laughed off by Molina.  The second offer was the one year/$5 million offer which never changed.  Molina wanted two years and as time wore on, and the Mets not moving from their position, forced Molina to go “back to where he felt comfortable” to San Francisco for a one contract for $4.5 million.  Molina conducted an interview yesterday in which he talked about him feeling burned by the Mets as he was preparing this past offseason to be the starting catcher for the Mets “watching video of the Met pitching staff.”  His entire interview was bizarre to say the least.  Consider that he’s on the Giants talking about how much he wanted to come to the Mets.  Well, the Mets two catchers have not only helped this pitching staff tremendously with their experience and know how, they’ve given them pop at a position where its pretty much hit or miss.  Consider that only Joe Mauer is the elite catcher in this era.  ONLY.  No one else folks.  Victor Martinez doesn’t call as good a game and no other catcher gives offensively what Mauer does at such a tremendously important position.  But the Mets have two catchers who can guide their erratic pitching staff to such good starts.  Just an FYI: Bengie Molina left the game when he pulled something hitting a off the wall…single.  Yep, Bengie Molina folks.  By the way, Henry Blanco has a steal to his credit.

– One big improvement i saw over the last two days is this idea that certain pitchers like throwing to certain catchers.  Yesterday the Mets went with Rod Barajas behind the plate, though he had only caught one of Mike Pelfrey’s games.  Today Henry Blanco caught Johan Santana who he’d not caught in a Met uni.  Now, Blanco has caught Johan before, in fact he caught him in his Cy Young year of 2004, but this idea that some prescribe to of certain pitchers being more effective with certain catchers can hopefully begin to be put to rest.  Both catchers provide optimal leadership and we now see both can give some big hits when called upon.

– The Mets keep winning despite Jerry Manuel’s flaws.  As I mentioned a few days ago I’m leaning towards the dark side in wanting Jerry’s head after again using Fernando Nieve in a big spot though he had given Hisanori Takahashi enough rest and him proving that he can pitch innings if called upon to do so.  Nieve let up a few soft hits and gave up the lead.  Nieve needs a few days off yet Jerry refuses to give him that and continues to push him into games that he has no business being in.  Hopefully he’s learning but I doubt it.  He then brought in Feliciano who couldn’t get his hitter out until he brought in Jenry Mejia.  That’s 12 pitchers and he went down 3 relievers.  Imagine the Mets didn’t win it in the 11th, what would’ve happened then?  Jerry just needs to stop overthinking it.

-Think about it this way the Mets have now played 5 straight games in which the game has gone down to the final at- bat and are 3-2 in those five games which is great.  This is a great early season test for a team that has been charged with showing no fight or effort or grit.  Hopefully the Mets settle in and start putting a great stretch together.  That’s nine in a row in Citi Field, a stadium the Mets wanted no parts of last year.

– The Mets head into the finale of the series looking to sweep and if fans are worried about how they will fare against the defending two time Cy Young award winner consider his previous two outings against the Mets, courtesy of Baseball-reference.com:

2009:(at SF) (Mets Win 8-6) 6.0IP 10H 5R 5ER 3BB 8K’s
2008 (at citi) (Mets win 7-0) 6.0IP 9H 4R 4ER 2BB 4K’s 2HR all.

So perhaps, I’m just saying, the Mets have his number.  We shall see. LGM!

THE SEASON: 17-13

MY PREDICTION: 17-13

I have them winning tomorrow, so let’s see: LETS GO METS!