Losers of 5 straight and 9 of their last 10 games...the Mets return home from an atrocious road trip to take on a team that they might actually be able to hang with- the Washington Nationals. The Mets are 8-4 this year against them; which includes a 5-1 record at Citi Field. Unfortunately, the Mets won't get to see their old teammate Livan Hernandez in this series but they will have to face their nemesis John Lannan- who accounts for two of the four Nats' victories over the Mets this season. The Nationals prior to being swept out of Philadelphia had actually looked semi-competent; going 4-3 in the 7 games before that series. Each team has a mere four wins this month.

If you're keeping track at home by the way, the Mets' tragic number to elimination from the race to the #1 overall pick in the 2010 draft is now 4. A series victory this weekend will do the trick. Meanwhile, the Nationals' magic number to clinching their 2nd straight #1 overall pick is 12.


Pitching Matchups for this series:

Tonight: JD Martin (4-4 4.29 ERA) vs. Mike Pelfrey (10-10 5.09 ERA)
Martin's last start (W 5-3 @ FLA): 5IP, 2ER, 2H, 4BB, 4K
Career vs. NYM: 0-1 11.25 ERA, 2.00 WHIP, .444 BAA in a gane (start)
Road this season: 3-2 3.86 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, .224 BAA in 5 games (all starts)
Pelfrey's last start (ND 10-9 @ PHI): 6IP, 8ER, 10H, BB, 3K
Career vs. WAS: 3-4 3.79 ERA, 1.49 WHIP, .275 BAA in 10 games (all starts)
Home this season: 6-3 3.56 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, .264 BAA in 15 games (all starts)

Saturday: John Lannan (9-11 4.08 ERA) vs. Tim Redding (2-6 5.52 ERA)
Lannan's last start (W 7-2 @ FLA): 5IP, ER, 6H, BB, 3K
Career vs. NYM: 3-3 3.73 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, .271 BAA in 8 games (all starts)
Road this season: 4-9 5.55 ERA, 1.58 WHIP, .286 BAA in 15 games (all starts)
Redding's last start (L 0-1 @ PHI): 6IP, ER, 3H, 2BB, 3K
Career vs. WAS: 2-0 2.37 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, .224 BAA in 4 games (3 starts)
Home this season: 1-3 6.42 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, .261 BAA in 14 games (6 starts)

Sunday: Garrett Mock (3-8 5.89 ERA) vs. John Maine (5-5 4.45 ERA)
Mock's last start (L 0-5 @ PHI): 6IP, 5ER, 7H, 2BB, 2K
Career vs. NYM: 0-0 1.80 ERA, 2.00 WHIP, .222 BAA in 6 games (all in relief)
Road this season: 2-2 4.82 ERA, 1.66 WHIP, .300 BAA in 12 games (6 starts)
Maine's last start (L 4-5 @ PHI): 3IP, ER, 2H, BB, 2K
Career vs. WAS: 7-3 4.52 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, .204 BAA in 12 games (all starts)
Home this season: 4-1 2.48 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, .176 BAA in 5 games (all starts)

Will the Mets make fans happy for 3 games? Will Mets fans even show up? Can the Mets score? Will Lannan's recent mastery of the Mets continue? Stay tuned.
Read More...

Monday April 21
Mets @ Chicago Cubs
7:05 PM
NYC TV: SNY
CHI TV: WCIU
National TV: ESPN

Tuesday April 22
Mets @ Chicago Cubs
2:20 PM
NYC TV: SNY
CHI TV: CSN Chicago

Wednesday April 23
Mets @ Washington Nationals
7:10 PM
NYC TV: SNY
WAS TV: MASN

Thursday April 24
Mets @ Washington Nationals
7:10 PM
NYC TV: SNY
WAS TV: MASN & MY20

Friday April 25
Atlanta Braves @ Mets
7:10 PM
NYC TV: SNY
ATL TV: PTV

Saturday April 26
Atlanta Braves @ Mets
1:10 PM
NYC TV: CW11
ATL TV: SPSO

Sunday April 27
Atlanta Braves @ Mets
1:10 PM
NYC TV: CW11
ATL TV: SPSO
Read More...

So when we last spoke, I called out not only the Mets line up, but the Mets bullpen to step it up in this week of games against the Washington Nationals and the Philadelphia Phillies. A week later, it seems that my challenge was answered by David Wright and company, as the Mets just completed an impressive week of baseball that included a sweep of Washington and a series victory against Philadelphia.

On Tuesday night Mike Pelfrey took the mound on yet another Jackie Robinson Night at Shea (and yes that was said in a negative way). I'm just going to make a quick public service announcement about Jackie Robinson, that I know some of my fellow bloggers share with me. Jackie Robinson was a great player, he was a great American for his contributions to not only baseball and society, and he was a great BROOKLYN DODGER. Listen I am a fan of history, and the Brooklyn Dodgers for that matter, but it seems with the pending opening of Citi Field, Mr. Wilpon is kind of forgetting that we are the NEW YORK METS. My point being, it would be nice to see some more Mets history invovled with not only this ballpark, but the organization in general. Instead of celebrating the last season at Shea with another Robinson Night, let's have a Seaver Night, or a 1969 Night, or something Mets related. I mean, we are the Mets for God's sake, not the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Now back to Tuesday's game. Ladies and gentlemen can we have a standing ovation for Mike Pelfrey please? Where has this Pelfrey been all of the past two seasons. I mean seven shut out innings from him was just what the doctor ordered on Tuesday night. That was the type of start the Mets needed, and the 6-0 victory was the game the Mets needed to kick off the new week. Pelfrey is starting to earn the respect that I so have wanted to give him for the longest time. Even though he didn't pitch as well on Sunday night against the Phillies, he still got himself out of some tough jams. Can you really fault the man for getting burned by the best second baseman in the league. I'm critical, but not that critical.

After a come-from-behind win on Saturday, the Mets and Nationals played themselves a half marathon of a baseball game on Thursday night. Just to put things in perspective, I was already at my third bar of the night once the Mets finally "pushed" across the winning run in the bottom of the 14th inning at Shea. Trailing 2-1 in the eighth inning, Carlos Delgado did something correct for the first time all season by pushing across Ryan Church to tie the game. In the 14 inning it wasn't even a heroic RBI base hit, but a wild pitch by Washington's Joel Hanrahan that ended the game. The Washington reliever, already in the midst of a sloppy inning let one get away allowing Damion Easley to score the winning run.

Sloppy was the only way to describe the game, but if there is one positive we can draw from it, that would be the bullpen. Six Mets relievers threw seven scoreless innings to keep the Mets in the game. The bullpen in general looked pretty damn solid this week. Billy Wagner looks dominant as usual (along with his awesome wad of dip), we welcomed back Duaner Sanchez, and Aaron Heilman has seemed to settle down. Once again Joe Smith is having another solid start to the season, we can only hope he keeps it up for the whole entire season this year.

So after making waste of Washington it was off to Philadelphia for another round with the Phillies. Johan Santana made yet another important start in this young season as him and Phillies ace Cole Hamels met up for a highly anticipated Friday night showdown. Seven innings later Santana had struck out 10 Phillies and only gave up 3 runs as he led the Mets to a critical 6-4 victory, extending their winning streak to four games. Oliver Perez had himself another great start on Saturday, but in typical Mets fashion the bullpen went and made things interesting. After Scott Schoeneweis and Smith each gave up a run, Billy Wagner put the meat of the Phillies line up in their place and the Mets walked out with a 4-2 victory. Sunday night as I stated ealier Chase Utley made Mike Pelfrey look normal for the first time this season. Utley drove all of the Phillies first four runs. A solo home run in the first and a three run job in the fifth. The Mets made it interesting by tieing it up in the sixth, but the long ball was our downfall all night as Pedro Feliz hit the go ahead home run to give the Phillies a 5-4 win and end our hopes of a sweep in Philly.

This week was exactly what the Mets needed. Jose Reyes has returned to classic Jose form, Wags looks good, Wright is awesome, and even Beltran is starting to come alive. With road games against the Cubs and Nationals, and a three games series back at Shea against the Braves, it has been the perfect time for the Mets to wake up. If the Mets can win two at Wrigley, it would be a huge momentum push coming into the huge Atlanta series this upcoming weekend. Once again I would like to think that we will steamroll the Nats. All-in-all the Mets get a solid A for their efforts this week, and hopefully the effort they have put forth will continue this week.

P.S. As much as I hate to say it, well done to the New York Rangers. I still hate you though.
Read More...

The Mets completed the sweep of the Washington Nationals tonight when Damion Easley scored the game winning run in the bottom of the 14th on a wild pitch by Joel Hanrahan.

After all the talk of the booing at Shea over the weekend against the Brewers, the Mets really needed to come out and put a few wins together, and thats exactly what they did. Even if it is the Nationals, who once again look like they're gonna be abysmal this year, any wins at all have to be confidence boosters for the Mets, and hopefully this week will help to put 2007 away for good.

Nelson Figueroa was brilliant once again tonight, going 7 innings, giving up 2 runs on 3 hits, and had 7 strikeouts. Not to mention he had one hell of a web gem against a liner hit by opposing pitcher John Lannan, catching the ball behind his back on the follow through of the pitch. The only blip in Figueroa's night was a two run homer to Nick Johnson in the 4th inning. Not bad for a guy we were considering our number 7 starter coming into the season. Who needs Pedro when we got Nelson Figueroa???

The big hit of the game was Carlos Delgado's game tying single in the 8th inning. Holy crap did Delgado actually get a big hit in a big spot with two outs???

This weekend, the Mets will head out to Philly for a 3 game series with the rival Phillies. Johan Santana will take on Phillies ace Cole Hamels... talk about a match up of aces, it should be one hell of a game.
Read More...

Another week, another wrap up, and another round of question marks regarding the 2008 New York Mets. After getting our hopes up with an impressive series against the Phillies, the Mets took another giant step backwards with a horrendous series against the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Mets opened up the last season at Shea Stadium in true New York Mets fashion on Tuesday, as the bullpen blew a great game for Oliver Perez. Perez threw another 5 2/3 scoreless innings for the home team, but in the end it was the classic Mets bullpen giving us another classic result. Scott Schoeneweis was the main culprit along with support from his always reliable cast of Jorge Sosa (who I guess doesn't need days off anymore), and Aaron Heilman. The Mets bounced back nicely on Wednesday though, as Mike Pelfrey helped stop a three game skid in pitching five strong innings. Pelfrey and stopper...hmmmmm. Just when things were looking good Heilman (who not surprisingly is my Dave Mlicki Award Winner of the week), nearly blows a great outing by John Maine. Well he blew Maine's chances at a win, but at the same time he was bailed out by this weeks Ed Kranepool Award winner, Angel Pagan. I love this kid. He is starting to reach levels that only the Teenage Hitting Machine has seen when it comes to young New York Mets outfielders. In case any of you Mets fans have been living under a rock this past week, Pagan is now batting .385 with 10 RBI for the season. Moises who???? Mr. Pagan delivered a game winning RBI on Thursday giving us the first series of the year against the hated Phillies. Things were just starting to look somewhat good...

And then Milwaukee rolled into town on Friday night. At first this series was shaping up to look great. The Mets as team, for the first time since the Marlins series looked great collectively. Heilman was awesome out of the pen, as were his teammates Joe Smith and Billy Wagner (and his awesome wad of dip). Nelson Figueroa gave us a ton of hope in his assignment to replace Pedro Martinez. Figueroa gave up a mere two hits and struck out six, while giving up two earned in six innings of work as the Mets looked pretty impressive at Shea on a rainy Friday night. Then Saturday hit and the wheels started to fall off. Someone needs to take David Wright onto the field before games and just have him work on throwing the ball to first. I applaud Carlos Delgado for mastering the sweep tag manauever that has become all too common in Mets games this season. The good news about Wright is that he is hitting the ball well. The bad news is, no one seems to be able to hit the ball well in clutch situations; including D-Dubs. For instance, Sunday's game. The Mets tallied 14 hits and seven runs in this game...and lost. They also grounded into five consecutive inning ending double plays. The bullpen also had a rough go at it, capping off a shaky two days of pitching that included Johan Santana giving up three home runs in his losing effort on Saturday.

Speaking of Santana. Get off his back. Does anyone really think he is going to go 65-0. Let him get his bad starts out of the way now, because they are going to happen every now and again. Point is the man gives us a chance to win day in and day out. End of story.

So my weekly progress report on the Metropolitans is an overall C+. The only reason we get the plus is because of the fact that we beat the Phillies in a series and ended that horrific losing streak against them. The bullpen was horrible this week minus Friday nights game. The starting pitching was awesome against Philadelphia, and then not so good against Milwaukee. The good thing about that is the guys who pitched poorly (Santana and Perez's Sunday start) are the guys who we most expect to bounce back in a big way in their next starts. Pelfrey and Figueroa having great outings was an awesome sign this week. The line up is still hit or miss. There are days when all hits seems to go our way, and then there are days when I feel we couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a beach ball. I don't know if it's the HGH wearing off, but Delgado needs to wake up. Wright and Carlos Beltran are putting up soid numbers, but they need to hit more in the clutch; especially with Jose Reyes and Luis Castillo both nursing injuries. I don't know what Ryan Church and Pagan have been eating, but they both need to keep at it. They are both picking up a lot of slack that is being missed by Reyes and Delgado right now.

Looking ahead to this week, the Mets have what should be a gimme series against the Washington Nationals to close out their homestand. The Nationals win over the Atlanta Braves on Sunday marked their first win in nine games. This is the type of series where the Mets need to work out any last kinks, because a series with the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park awaits this weekend (which I look forward to seeing a lot Mets fans there, I will be looking to go to the game on Saturday if I don't acquire tickets to Game Five of the Devils/Rangers series).

All games of the Washington series will be broadcast on SNY and start at 7:10 PM. For the Phillies series, Friday's game will be on CW11 and will start at 7:05 PM. Saturday's game will air on FOX and start at 3:55 PM. Sunday's game is the ESPN Game of the Week, and will start 8:05 PM. For those of you in the Washington area you can catch the games on MASN, and for those of you in the Philly market (this guy) Friday's game can be viewed on CSN.

Looking forward to another week of Mets baseball...and playoff hockey LET'S GO DEVILS!!!!!
Read More...

The Nationals are looking at free agent Paul Lo Duca, who won't be back with the Mets after hitting .272 with nine homers in 119 games for New York. The Nationals like former Rule 5 draft pick Jesus Flores at catcher, but they're looking for some insurance in the event he can't handle the job full-time. Lo Duca still wants to play regularly, so Washington is probably a long shot for him unless all his other options fall through. Read More...

The Mets completed the 3 game sweep of the Nationals at RFK stadium by beating the Nationals by a score of 8-2. The Mets outscored the Nationals 21-8 during the series.

The Mets' bats continue to produce as this was the 8th straight game in which the Mets had scored at least 5 runs, and their 5th straight game of scoring at least 6 runs.

The Mets went 5-1 on the 6 game road trip to Pittsburgh and Washington, which helped them extend their lead over the Phillies and Braves to 4.5 and 5.5 games respectively.

Last week, I had said that the Mets would need to win at least 6 of the 9 games against the "second rate teams" (the Marlins, Pirates, and Nationals). The Mets accomplished that goal, and have now opened up a bit of a lead in the NL East.

However, the road from here is difficult, over the course of the next 4 series, the Mets will face the Padres, Dodgers, Phillies, and Braves; all of whom are contenders looking to make a playoff run.

LAST NOTE: Congratulations Global New York Mets for this the 100th post on the Blog, may there be hundreds more Read More...

As the old saying goes, to make the playoffs, all you have to do is play .500 ball against your division rivals, and beat up on the second division teams. The Mets will need to use this lesson the next week and a half.

After a disappointing series loss to the division rival Atlanta Braves, the Mets will spend the next three series facing three of the worst teams in the National League with a series at Shea against the Marlins, before traveling to Pittsburgh to face the Pirates and to Washington to face the Nationals.

It is incredibly important that the Mets (for lack of a better word) "beat up" on these pathetic teams, in order to get back to winning and opening up their minuscule 3 game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies. This is especially important with the Phillies and Braves playing each other this weekend.

The Mets have to win at least 6 of the 9 games in this set of bad teams, in order to maintain a safe lead in the NL East for the immediate future. This should be easily doable for the Mets despite their heartbreaking loss to the Marlins in the opener of the series. With the return of Carlos Beltran, the Mets lineup is finally back to full strength, and should have a series of bad starting pitchers to face over the next 8 games.

The Mets still have 7 games remaining with the Phillies, and 6 games remaining with the Braves, so every win from here on out (including those against the second rate teams) will be crucial. Read More...

SAN FRANCISCO -- With the crack of the bat a brief stillness settled over the right-center field bleachers at AT&T Park as Barry Bonds' record-breaking homer rocketed toward the crowd.

Then the scrum was on.

Police escort the fan who caught Barry Bonds' ball out of the stadium.

As the specially marked baseball landed a few rows up, dozens of fans wrestled for it and the promise of riches it carried. Suddenly, the metal bleachers vibrated with energy. Grunts, cheers and the cries of frightened children broke the silence as parents sought to shield their youngsters from the chaos.

In the middle of it all was 22-year-old New Yorker Matt Murphy, who emerged from beneath the pile holding the ball Bonds hit for career home run No. 756. His face was bloodied and his clothes stretched and torn from his battle in the bleachers.

A team of San Francisco police officers moved in, extracted Murphy from the crowd, and quickly led him through a tunnel and into a secure room.

As he high-fived other fans, Murphy, wearing a New York Mets Jose Reyes jersey and cap, slid the ball into the back pocket of his plaid Bermuda shorts.

Reporters screamed out questions, but all he managed to say was, "I'm Matt Murphy from Queens, N.Y."

"I just hope he didn't get hurt," Bonds said after the game, which the Giants lost 8-6 to the Washington Nationals. He said he had no interest in getting the ball back for himself.

"I don't want the ball," Bonds said. "I've never believed a home run ball belonged to the player. If he caught it, it's his."

Murphy and a friend were en route to Australia and in San Francisco for a one-day layover, a Giants spokesman said. They purchased tickets just before the game.

He and the friend, dressed in New York Yankees regalia, were razzed by nearby Giants fans. "Hey, this isn't New York!," one shouted. Murphy and his friend just laughed it off before settling into their seats.

Murphy declined to make himself available to the media.

Baseball memorabilia experts have pegged the ball's value at $400,000 to $500,000. That's well below the $3 million fetched by the ball Mark McGwire hit to break Roger Maris' single-season home run record in 1998, but still a hefty sum. Read More...

From ESPN.....

Unable to reach agreement on a trade for Chad Cordero, the Mets and Nationals were said to be also talking to the Diamondbacks about a possible three-team deal. According to an official of one team that had spoken with those clubs, the Mets and Nationals ran into a hang-up over the Mets' refusal to include a second prospect in the trade. It's believed that the Mets were willing to trade highly regarded pitching prospect Phil Humber for Cordero, but when they were unable to agree on a second piece, the Nationals sought to expand the deal. However, the official said the Mets were adamant about making a one-for-one swap, so the chances of an expanded deal were described as unlikely.

...

The Gagne sweepstakes was down to the Red Sox and Brewers by Tuesday afternoon. The Yankees and Mets signaled that by turning their attention to other deals, according to executives from multiple teams. The Mets said no on any of their young outfieldes -- Carlos Gomez, Fernando Martinez and Lastings Milledge. Read More...