Bye-Bye Oakland..Thanks for the visit...come back every 34 years...For anyone who was under a rock this weekend, the Amazin's swept the A's this weekend by a resounding run differential over the three games of 20-3 capped off by a 10-2 wiping of the Athletics on Sunday. This sweep came just in time as the Mets continue this homestand by welcoming in the season long slumping cardinals who are paying thier first visit to Shea since Game 7 last year..Somebody needs to make sure the Molina brothers arent invited to join the festivites as the Mets only series against the Cardinals this season was the road sweep at the start of the 2007 season campaign. But back to the elephant loving A's. This series marked the first home season sweep of this season and the first since last August. Green, who played First base for the first time this season said about the sweep " We're back on Track....Whatever feels normal, and on this team, winning feels normal. ... It never felt normal in all that time ... the three weeks. It just felt hard to win, kind of Twilight Zone-ish." So the twighlight zone is over..and all is well in Queens for now.
Carlos Gomez is simply amazing to watch these days. I know I dont want to send him down when Endy comes back and neither does he apparently. Gomez had two infield singles( boy do I love watching hits that go less then 60 ft) and a double on Sunday as he continues to produce at the bat and in the field. It seems to me that he should be bunting on 50 to 60 % of his atbats until someone figures out how to field against him(hint:its impossible) Gomez isnt shy about this topic either " When Reyes goes to hit, when Gomez goes to hit, the infield thinks, 'I dont know how to play these guys' " Reyes has been quoted saying that Gomez is faster then him( the ML leader in stolen bases). Willie hasnt taken it that far quite yet stating " He just explodes up the line. And he doesn't know how to run properly, Right now he's wild and out of control, he is so fast he almost has to stop before he cuts. One he learns how to run with a rythm he'll be even faster." Well, that's certainly a scary thought. Minaya thinks " He's the fastest I've ever seen to first for a right-handed batter." As for Gomez whose raised his batting average to .277 and is hitting .364 in his last 34 atbats says " I don't want to go back to Triple-A," . Well neither do we Carlos, neither do we. Over the weekend , " SNY's Kevin Burkhardt let Met fans in on why Gomez smells his bat before each time he comes up to the plate. Gomez said he began this ritual when he was younger and he noticed that all the great hitters had some sort of ritual before they came up to the plate and this was his original idea on how to emulate a great hitter. Burkhardt ended by asking Gomez what he was smelling for. Gomez keenly replied, " What else...hits"
John Maine deserves to be in the All Star game. He is now 8-4 with a 2.87 ERA. Maine who says he is not thinkinga bout an All Star nomination has put off speculation of his status as the teams most consistent pitcher "I dont think of myself as an ace," Maine says " I'm one of five starters on this team and that's fine with me." After struggling in the fifth inning a bit on Sunday. Maine faced the same batters in the seventh but the second time he struck out Cust and Stewart and forced a lazy fly out to end the inning. Maine said after the game, " Last year I might have been taken out.. I was throwing alot of strikes with my fastball in the first few innings. They got fastballs, so I came back with something different. Its different this year then last." Maine even recorded his first career RBI on a SacFly in the second inning. Willie who is the manager along with Tony LaRussa at the All Star Game says" I see him growing, he's really determined out there." Well, Willie it looks like the whole team gave a hundered percent on Sunday and now look forward to welcoming the red birds into town.
Some Other Notes from this weekend
-How great was it to see Paul LoDuca blow his lid on apparent correct strike call on Saturday
- On Friday, Delgado seemed to have been swinging at a lot of first pitch strikes and making contact.
- Who wasn't sure that Davey was going to come through in the clutch on Saturday. ( I asked him nicely to end the game in 9 innings so I could celebrate the W out)
- Was that throw by Jack Cust in the 1st inning on Sunday not the worst throw Ive ever seen. And hello where in the World was Shannon Stewart on that one?
Monday, June 25, 2007
Friday, June 22, 2007
What's wrong in Paradise
So since my last post, the Mets have gone 2-4, which i guess is better then the previous wednesday to wednesday where the mets went 1-6. So were moving forward right. Well, not so fast. Every time it seems like the Mets are going to get out of this funk, it seems like they just dig themselves deeper. Going into the Yankees series, the Mets had a chance to redeem themselves for thier horrific June play. It appeared after another stellar performance from Oliver Perez (who has taken upon the role as a big game pitcher. No Met fan should ever forget his performance in last year's postseason added on to the fact that his record against the braves and skanks this season is a sensational 5-0) that the Mets would be in prime position to take the series and once again restore the Mets as the Kings of NY in the midst of the skanks sizzling streak. However, this was quickly halted by some abombs and simply horrendous outings by Glavine and El Duque. Following Monday's dominating victory over the Twins, it appeared once again the Mets would be turning a leaf on this dreadful month,but perrenial Cy Young winner Johan Santana had a different plan. So this week, at least, has restored our faith in Ollie and the Maine man.(who dropped his ERA to an absolutely sick number of 2.90 after his seven and a third innings, one earned run performance)
An issue which has been brought up over this stretch is team chemistry. As far as what I can see and what Ive read, this is not a problem. Most of the team agrees that they have suffered alot of injuries and players have not been stepping up to fill the roles. The difficulty of the Mets schedule in addition to Beltran and Delgado slumping have been other reasons the mets believe they are struggling. But the losing will stop. The Mets still own the NL East lead. And the big boys will produce.
I saw a great Idea on METRADAMUS which I think Mets fans should try out. I think everybody needs to rip the month of June out of their calendars (wall or desk, it doesn't matter), take it to the Shea Stadium parking lot before Wednesday's game, and burn it as a sacrifice to the baseball gods. When doing so, perform the following chant:Bel-tran...bomaye! Bel-tran...bomaye! Bel-tran...bomaye! Bel-tran...bomaye! Bel-tran...bomaye!Why not? Nothing else has worked.Some
Other intresting notes posted by Mets TodayAfter running the count to 3-1, Ruben Gotay is batting .600Jose Reyes hits .158 after the same count. (This can partially be explained by the patience he shows at the plate and his increasing amount of walks he is collecting.Carlos Gomez is 4-for-7 (.571) when hitting on a 1-1 count.
To End on a note from Paulie"Sometimes you just gotta go out there and play, and just know that you’re a team and have the confidence in your team that you’re gonna come out out it"
An issue which has been brought up over this stretch is team chemistry. As far as what I can see and what Ive read, this is not a problem. Most of the team agrees that they have suffered alot of injuries and players have not been stepping up to fill the roles. The difficulty of the Mets schedule in addition to Beltran and Delgado slumping have been other reasons the mets believe they are struggling. But the losing will stop. The Mets still own the NL East lead. And the big boys will produce.
I saw a great Idea on METRADAMUS which I think Mets fans should try out. I think everybody needs to rip the month of June out of their calendars (wall or desk, it doesn't matter), take it to the Shea Stadium parking lot before Wednesday's game, and burn it as a sacrifice to the baseball gods. When doing so, perform the following chant:Bel-tran...bomaye! Bel-tran...bomaye! Bel-tran...bomaye! Bel-tran...bomaye! Bel-tran...bomaye!Why not? Nothing else has worked.Some
Other intresting notes posted by Mets TodayAfter running the count to 3-1, Ruben Gotay is batting .600Jose Reyes hits .158 after the same count. (This can partially be explained by the patience he shows at the plate and his increasing amount of walks he is collecting.Carlos Gomez is 4-for-7 (.571) when hitting on a 1-1 count.
To End on a note from Paulie"Sometimes you just gotta go out there and play, and just know that you’re a team and have the confidence in your team that you’re gonna come out out it"
True New Yorkers Wear Orange and Blue
"…if you keep on doing what you always did, then you will keep on getting what you always got…"Do I look scared? No, not really...this is the same team that was one Beltran choke away from being National League Champions last year and they will turn this little funk around. As David Wright noted," Were playing good teams" right so the mets are in a stretch where every team they are playing is a playoff team from a year ago and is above .500 this year.. But as Paulie (everyone needs to vote for him to make the all star game..hes started several years in a row now..and it would be a shame to let a second year guy from the west coast take his spot) says "Were just not getting it done. Im sick and tired of hearing we're banged up. ( we are starting 7 out of 8 our regulars minus Alou but who knows when hell ever come back and at least we get to see a glimpse of our future in Gomez..And as a shout out to rob..thank the lord Ben Johnson is not on the team anymore.)
Paulie continues " Thats not an excuse. We need to play better then we have, bottom line." How could you not agree with that.. Were just not making plays. And it all starts with the big boys. Beltran and Delgado...Where are you? Somebody please tell where they have been in this drought..Its one thing if they were just in a slump as they both are.. Beltran cant seem to do anything at the plate except ground out to second or strike out.. And well Delgado hell jack one here and there but his batting average with runners in scoring position is below .200..how can we score runs if the boppers arent getting the job done. And thing thats driving me more crazy then anything is when we get a runner on third with less then two outs and we cant get him home..So fine neither our three or four batter in the lineup can hit so at least they would make it up in the field right. Well Beltran has just two assists on the season ..sure you can attribute this to less runners trying to advance because of his arm but from 12 last year..thats a significant decrease.. and it just seems like to me that hes scared of the outfield walls (maybe cause of Cameron) but still when youre getting paid as much as he does this is not an excuse. And delgado well he has never been that nimble in the field..but cmon on that Juan Pierre triple last nite ..he didnt even try ...knock it down big man ..thats all i ask..
So At least Reyes and Wright are hitting and playing field and trying to lead this team out of this hole that they find themselves digging deeper every day..but its ok we still have a two game lead in the NL East..i repeat we still own the National League East..Someone needs to dethrown us before there is a real need for panic. To conclude with god (Wright) himself, " It's not something anybody is panicking about around here. We know that we can hit. We know that we can pitch. We know that we can win. So its a matter of time before we snap out of this." I believe Davey because this is the life of a true met fan..Winning has never come easy for us..But this is our time..our team..and THE SEASON HAS COME
Paulie continues " Thats not an excuse. We need to play better then we have, bottom line." How could you not agree with that.. Were just not making plays. And it all starts with the big boys. Beltran and Delgado...Where are you? Somebody please tell where they have been in this drought..Its one thing if they were just in a slump as they both are.. Beltran cant seem to do anything at the plate except ground out to second or strike out.. And well Delgado hell jack one here and there but his batting average with runners in scoring position is below .200..how can we score runs if the boppers arent getting the job done. And thing thats driving me more crazy then anything is when we get a runner on third with less then two outs and we cant get him home..So fine neither our three or four batter in the lineup can hit so at least they would make it up in the field right. Well Beltran has just two assists on the season ..sure you can attribute this to less runners trying to advance because of his arm but from 12 last year..thats a significant decrease.. and it just seems like to me that hes scared of the outfield walls (maybe cause of Cameron) but still when youre getting paid as much as he does this is not an excuse. And delgado well he has never been that nimble in the field..but cmon on that Juan Pierre triple last nite ..he didnt even try ...knock it down big man ..thats all i ask..
So At least Reyes and Wright are hitting and playing field and trying to lead this team out of this hole that they find themselves digging deeper every day..but its ok we still have a two game lead in the NL East..i repeat we still own the National League East..Someone needs to dethrown us before there is a real need for panic. To conclude with god (Wright) himself, " It's not something anybody is panicking about around here. We know that we can hit. We know that we can pitch. We know that we can win. So its a matter of time before we snap out of this." I believe Davey because this is the life of a true met fan..Winning has never come easy for us..But this is our time..our team..and THE SEASON HAS COME
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