Giants 6- Mets 5

There’s but one word to describe this game:  Wild.  From Bad Ollie to swirling winds to blown opportunities, this Giants series has had it all but this game’s end result wasn’t so great for the Mets.

Oliver Perez: 3.1 IP, 3 ER, 4 R, 2 K’s, 7 BB, on 2 hits and 98 pitches (44 for strikes- 45%).  Bad Ollie came to play in what was a terrible day for baseball with the winds playing tricks on people (ok, so maybe it was just Giant defenders.)  After talking about how much control the Met pitchers were showing Oliver Perez couldn’t make it out of the 4th inning.  Let’s see where we could go on this:

1st inning: No problem

2nd inning: Walked the first batter on four straight pitches.  Two hits plates a run.  A passed ball moves the runners over.  A groundout gets the run on a play which Reyes could’ve thrown to home but he took the safe play at home. Walks the pitcher.  Goes 3-0 on Rowand but comes back to strike him out.

3rd inning: Walks leadoff hitter.  Fly out.  Walks another on 4 straight pitches.  Walks another hitter and makes it bases loaded.  Two straight fly outs to end the inning.

4th inning: Walks the leadoff hitter again.  Lincecum tries to bunt over the runner on first but Ollie throws wildly to second but Reyes stays on the bag to make the play.  Walks another hitter.  Finally walks another one to end his afternoon.

That my friends is a recipe for trouble and Oliver showed up with absolutely no command of his breaking pitches and credit the Giants.  They never chased anything forcing Ollie to throw strikes.  To say this was unexpected is foolish.  Anyone who’s watched Oliver Perez over the years knows these starts exist and you have to live with them.  The Mets choose to continue with him understanding these outings will come from time to time.  When asked whether there might be a decision to remove him from the rotation Manuel was not ready to commit to a decision, but clearly Perez needs to see someone, but who about what?  Is it his concentration?  Is it just a lack of focus?  Is it just not being able to have command over his pitches?  But then why can he look dominant some times and unable to be close to the strikezone some times?  I feel as though his control goes with his confidence.  If he gets behind, he’s unable to recover mentally and will lose himself in the inning.  Its the same problem Pelfrey had and so far he’s been able to control it thanks to a visit with the psychiatrist this past offseason.  Oliver needs to see one at this point and the Mets need to make it a point to do so, if they continue to have him pitch and hope to see any consistency.

– The bullpen both saved and ruined the game though you can blame the wind.  The wind giveth and it taketh away.  Raul Valdes came and let up two runs, one on a bases loaded walk (inherited situation) and a passed ball.  But then went 3 innings of shutout work to keep the Mets in the game.  Feliciano and Nieve pitched 1.2 IP of scoreless relief as well.  It was Jenrry Mejia who came in and couldn’t stop the Giants as he gave up a walk and a game winning 2 run home run to Aaron Rowand; a home run that was picked up by the wind and blown out.  Tough loss for the Mets especially in a game where they clawed back against one of the better pitchers in the game in Tim Lincecum.  I made a comment yesterday saying that perhaps the Mets have some success against Lincecum and again yesterday it seemed as though they did and looked good in chasing him out after 6 innings.  The Met hitters, while not without much success built up a pretty big pitch count against Lincecum and had a good game plan to try and get to the bullpen early.   Funny thing is, they did that with Halladay and it torpedoed after the Phillies had that one big inning.  So now looking back it seemed as though the Mets gave up the idea of trying to win that game but they always felt, with the Giants bullpen, that they had a shot in winning that game as long as they got to them.  Once Halladay started cruising, you got the idea he was going to finish what he started and the Mets couldn’t stop it from happening.

Lincecum’s line:

– The offense was fortunate all afternoon to get some wind aided offense and also some terrible defense by the Giants.  Two sides of the coin: David Wright struck out for the seventh consecutive time yesterday.  Yes, 7 straight.  He had a RBI fly out, but he struck out 7 times and on the last one, in the 9th he blew his lid and almost left the Mets in a bad spot.  Uncle Jerry had used up all his bench players and by Wright getting thrown out, if the Mets had tied it and went to extras they would’ve had to put a pitcher out there in an infield position which of course would’ve been LaRussa-like.  It was another double switch happy game for Jerry who’s moves continue to get the people’s raised eyebrow treatment.  Wright clearly isn’t right, and he needs help that its becoming painfully obvious that Howard Johnson is not the answer.  Wright’s focus, inability to get around the fastball is all costing him.  He’s also chasing pitches out of the strike zone and just isn’t seeing the ball clearly.  Lincecum had trouble in the first inning which he had runners on second and third and Wright up with 2 outs and struck him out.  Then in the 6th inning with runners on first and second he struck out again.

On the flip side there’s Ike Davis.  He went 2 for 3 drew two walks, struck out once but that’s to be expected facing Lincecum.  He just looked comfortable up there and never fazed as if he were facing an ace.  By the way he never got to face Halladay so in his first outing against a certified top flight pitcher he did really well.  In the sixth with two outs and after Wright struck out for the third straight time, Davis put a 3-1 pitch in the opposite field for an RBI single.  I dont know how he makes it look so easy and Wright just seems to struggle so mightily.  Perhaps Wright needs to smile more, who knows?  Maybe he needs to be helped out by Ron Davis, Ike’s dad.  Either way Wright is looking like a certified out and Davis is sandwiched in there between Wright and Francouer who has gone back to being a certified strike out/out.  I understand why Jerry keeps the line up that way to separate outs but its becoming problematic for Wright to be in such a huge RBI situation and striking out all the time.

– Tough loss for the Mets after having some terrible defense and terrible relief pitching (till the end) by the Giants.  They loaded the bases in the 7th on three consecutive walks.  Then Bay hit a fly ball that was misplayed because of the wind and two runs scored and Reyes got to third on a close play.  Wright then had a sacrifice fly to make it 5-4 Mets.  After walking Davis, Francouer grounded out to Uribe who couldn’t handle it and made it bases loaded.  Barajas then flew out to end the rally.  The Mets could never generate another rally and ended up losing after Brian Wilson came in for a five out save in which he struck out all five batters.  Obviously the Mets got very lucky and could’ve easily been shut out in this game but thanks to a lot of luck they rallied to take the lead but Aaron Rowand’s home run, pushed about 30 feet out by the wind, helped to give the Giants a lead they would never forfeit.

– Mets look to get back on the win column as they face the Nationals for a three game set starting today.  The loss snapped a 9 game winning streak at Citi Field.

THE SEASON: 17-14

MY PREDICTION: 18-13

By the way I have them winning these next three games so let’s hope I got some Miss Cleo in me.  LGM!