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Will the Mets Reach .500 This Year?
stevek
Posts: 27,749 ✭✭✭✭✭
in Sports Talk
They seem to be losing more and more recently. Sliding to .500?
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stevek
Posts: 27,749 ✭✭✭✭✭
stevek
Posts: 27,749 ✭✭✭✭✭
stevek
Posts: 27,749 ✭✭✭✭✭
Comments
I admire the thread.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
JS
That the best you can come up with, JS? Man, that's about as weak as the Phillie bullpen or that closer you guys got Tom "In a Flash the Lead Is Gone" Gordon.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
JS
<< <i>Mets win on a bunt with two outs at home in extra innings. What kind of call is that? I guess Randolph will be explaining it. It did work but I'm not sure I want a manager making calls like that. >>
Well, it was Chavez's decision to bunt.
Chávez’s Bunt to Pitcher Goes Long Way for Mets
Barton Silverman/The New York Times
Endy Chávez, who entered the game in the 11 inning as a pinch-runner, surprised the Rockies in the 12th with a bunt single that scored Shawn Green.
By BEN SHPIGEL
Published: April 25, 2007
Swinging away with runners in scoring position last night left the Mets frustrated and empty. So Endy Chávez tried something different. He bunted.
Endy Chávez, being hugged by Howard Johnson, said he noticed the right side of the infield playing deep.
Chávez’s drag-bunt single with two outs in the 12th inning caught the Colorado Rockies flatfooted and allowed Shawn Green to score the winning run in the Mets’ 2-1 victory at Shea Stadium.
The Mets, 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position to that point, used a less taxing but equally dramatic way to come back from a one-run deficit in the 10th. After Billy Wagner allowed a go-ahead run, Damion Easley put Chávez into position for the big little hit with a two-out, two-strike home run, thrilling the announced crowd of 38,500.
“We just pulled it out of nowhere,” Green said.
Facing the Rockies right-hander Ryan Speier in the 12th, Green led off with a walk, advanced to second on José Valentín’s sacrifice and moved to third on a balk when Speier slipped during his delivery. David Newhan struck out and José Reyes was walked intentionally to bring up Chávez, who had entered the game as a pinch-runner in the 11th and stayed in to replace Moises Alou in left field. No one knew exactly what Chávez had in mind, although the third-base coach, Sandy Alomar, had a feeling. He told Green to watch out for a bunt.
“It clicked,” Green said. “This might be a good idea.”
Chávez let the first pitch, a fastball, go by for a strike. He surveyed the Rockies’ defense and noticed that the right side of the infield was playing back.
“So I said, ‘Let’s take a chance,’ ” Chávez said.
Chávez is the team’s best bunter, but he practices drag bunting only against fastballs, not off-the-shoetops sliders like the one Speier was about to throw. Still, Chávez knew that Speier’s sliders tail inside against left-handed hitters, so he was prepared for what came next. He stuck his bat out and pushed the ball between the mound and first base. Speier dived and tried shoveling the ball to first with his glove, but Chávez, his arms raised, had already touched the base.
“I was totally caught off-guard,” Speier said.
Joe Smith, the Mets’ fourth reliever last night, retired the final two batters of the 12th to record his first major-league victory. Afterward, he showed the three balls he was given to commemorate the milestone.
“I threw three pitches,” Smith said. “A nice little symmetry there.”
After pitching a scoreless ninth, Wagner was left in for the 10th. He struck out the first two hitters before Yorvit Torrealba hit a double into the left-field corner, sliding in just beneath Valentín’s tag. Torrealba moved to third on a wild pitch. Troy Tulowitzki, who was hitting .183, then hit a fly ball to deep right-center field. Carlos Beltrán and Green converged near the fence and, with both players on the dead run, the ball landed just out of Beltrán’s reach before both crashed into the wall.
It was the first earned run allowed by Wagner this season, and he was in line for his first loss, too, until Easley batted in the bottom of the inning. Signed to upgrade the bench and add more depth against left-handed pitching, Easley made General Manager Omar Minaya look prescient. After falling behind 0-2 against Rockies closer Brian Fuentes, who had retired 22 of his previous 23 batters, Easley stepped out of the batter’s box to regroup and took the next two pitches to even the count at 2-2. He belted the next pitch, an outside fastball, 400 feet into the seats in left-center.
“When I hit it, I knew I had hit it good,” Easley said.
Since he was hired as manager before the 2005 season, Willie Randolph has shown an uncanny feel for how and when to use his bench players. In Easley’s case, there were no other right-handed hitters on the bench except Ramón Castro, the backup catcher, and Randolph could not afford to use him in case Paul Lo Duca got hurt. Easley was the only option.
“There wasn’t much gut to that one,” Randolph said.
Randolph has tried giving Chávez consistent at-bats and defensive opportunities off the bench, but it has become increasingly difficult with Alou and Green each hitting above .340. Last night, Randolph inserted Chávez for his speed, and it paid off an inning later.
“Endy just pulled it out of his hat,” Randolph said.
Lost in the success of the Mets’ reserves last night was another outstanding performance by Orlando Hernández, who pitched seven scoreless innings. Hernández has allowed only one earned run over his last 14 innings. At one point, he retired 11 consecutive hitters, and he struck out five, all looking at outside fastballs.
His counterpart, the Rockies right-hander Aaron Cook, had similar success, but accomplished it differently. Cook pitched with men on base in every inning except the first and sixth, walking two and allowing six hits. The first came from the man who needed one most, David Wright, whose snapped an 0-for-15 drought. Wright finished 2 for 4 with a walk, but he did not come through in his only at-bat with a runner in scoring position, when he swung at Cook’s first pitch in the fourth and grounded out into a fielder’s choice that caught Beltrán in a rundown.
Reyes, Beltrán and Carlos Delgado combined to go hitless in 14 at-bats last night, and the Mets were victimized by poor situational hitting all game. At least until Chávez solved the riddle.