Wright’s Wrun Down

What’s up with the doubting of David Wright’s intentions this morning? I’ve read multiple authors doubting Terry Collins and David Wright’s statements that his run down in the seventh was a heady play.

If you missed the game last night #5 roped a single to right with runners on first and third and two out in the top of the seventh inning.  Andres Torres scored bringing the Mets within one run of the lead.  Kirk Nieuwenhuis went to third as the right fielder had to a run a bit to cut the ball down.  David Wright never really stopped and headed to second as the throw went to the catcher who promptly threw it to second hanging up Wright. The Phillies executed the run down poorly ending the debacle with an errant throw trying to pick off Nieuwenhuis going back to third which allowed him to score the tying run.

That’s wordy as hell so I suggest you watch the video here:

http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=21265781&c_id=nym.

If WordPress were cooler or I wasn’t such a cheap skate, I would be able to embed the video so you wouldn’t have to leave the page.  Such is life.

There are thousands of little league teams that try the very same play on a regular basis.

I’m not sure it was the best idea in the world due to the fact it hardly ever works against MLB players, but it is believable that he did it on purpose. Whether Kirk Nieuwenhuis had touched 3rd base before Wright left for 2nd base is irrelevant on that play.

Me thinks those in the media that don’t believe that D. Wright may have done this on purpose have never picked up a bat or participated in a run down before.

Some Quick Game Notes

I’m tired so here’s some quick hits…

• Dillon Gee’s performance tonight snapped a streak of 36 games in which Mets’ starter’s gave up two or more runs.  Out of all of the stats I’ve seen recently, this one illustrates the point I have been making about how average the rotation is collectively this year.
• Ron Darling’s annoyance at how much the Padres’ bullpen slowed the game down was amusing.

“These relief pitcher’s have put a parachute on this game.  Thatcher has faked to second four times this inning…”-Ron Darling

• Even though he had only one hit, David Wright had a huge impact on this game.  His three run blast is obvious, but I really enjoyed his fake throw to first to fool Maybin for an out in the bottom of the frame.  Don’t forget, this happened after his diving stop prevented Maybin from scoring in the first place.
• Chalk up two more runs allowed by Igarashi.  Seems like a nice dude, but I can’t say I’ll be too upset the day we see him leave the franchise permanently.  He is a run allowing machine.
• Jason Bay is Baying again (0 for his last 20)…
• No matter what the situation, a road series win is always a good thing.  Particularly at a park that the Mets have struggled in historically.

A Nifty Win

Ignore the fact the Mets are slightly injury plagued and need some help in the pitching department for one night.

Allow yourself to give them an “atta boy” for a change.  It is enjoyable to see them play with some sticktoitiveness and fight for a win after yesterday’s crushing blow.

A few feel good highlights for me tonight,

• David Wright’s three RBI night including a two run bomb and a big RBI single in the ninth inning. Amazing what the guy can do when his back isn’t broken.
• Lucas Duda is quietly becoming quite a run producer.  His two run, walk off single, gives him 10 RBIs in his last 11 games.  That’s almost one a game for you math majors out there
• Jason Bay goes deep again.  Nothing really witty to say here, I just liked his home run.
• Last but not least, I really got a kick out of Mike Baxter’s family’s reaction to his eighth inning, pinch hit, double.  Sweet.

Of course, a Midwestropolitan.com “Air Claw” goes out to each one of them.  While we’re at it, give yourself one too.

That my friends, is all.  Have a pleasant evening.

Mets Dealt Knockout Blow For 2011 Season

Stupid Atlanta Braves.

I feel like I’ve said that once or twice before in my lifetime….

1. They are going to force me to talk about injuries even though I just got done telling you about my new aversion to doing so.
2. They ruined *Jason’s Game Of The Week.
3. The stupid, dumb, Braves dealt the Mets their 2011 knockout blow by way of a Larry Jones go ahead RBI single in the ninth inning.

*Jason’s Game Of The Week or JGOTW is the rare occasion in which I can actually sit down and watch the Mets from start to finish.  Normally, my schedule dictates that I watch four or five innings and then go back later to watch what I’ve missed. 

Due to the pure specialness JGOTW represents, I hook up my laptop to my flat screen TV and force my family to watch with me.  This typically results in them finding other things to do, periodically checking in on me as I direct various loud noises at the television.

Stiff Hammy And Murph’s Unluckiness

I am not going to even begin to speculate about how severe Jose Reyes’ latest bout of hamstringitis is.  No need for the torment at this point in time.  It sucks. I’ll just leave it at that.

The only silver lining I can see in this situation is that this could conceivably bring his market value down if it results in more time on the DL.  Not exactly something I am doing cartwheels over right now.

The Mets are not wasting any time and are sending him to get an MRI later today, providing me with more evidence of the belief in which shared yesterday,

“If you look at the 2011 season, one thing is for certain, the Mets have managed their injuries in a prudent and reasonable manner.”- Me

As far as Murph’s knee goes, all I can say is how unlucky can a guy be?  He busts his ass to work through injuries, takes advantage of opportunity by blistering the ball all over the field this season, and then blows out his knee because some punk kid named George Costanza doesn’t know how to slide into second base.

At first I wanted to believe it was a dirty play.  However, upon further review (which consisted of the very first replay), Costanza is lucky he didn’t break his ankle.  He slid directly into the base at full speed.  If he had been trying to spike Murphy, his front foot would have been air born, not digging into the bag.

No Way This Team Can Rebound From This

I’m not saying that I am going to stop watching the 2011 Mets.  This team fought the Braves hard this series and I firmly believe we have some more entertaining baseball to watch.  Hell, David Wright was playing shortstop at the end of the game today.  That was certainly interesting.

I just feel like this series was the knockout blow to any slim hope of post season play, if you are inclined to look for one in a 162 game season.  Mathematically speaking the Mets have to gain nine games on the Stupid, Dumb, Braves in 49 chances.

If I’m wrong, it is going to be one hell of a ride.

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Hmpf

This game pissed me off so I’ll react in grunts…

• Pelfrey good game
• Confirmed, Angel Pagan back to his old head scratching ways after hiatus in 2010
• Lucas Duda’s could only enjoy his biggest home run as a Met for a half of an inning
• Daniel Murphy’s lack of a natural defensive position is glaringly hurtful
• Murph can still hit
• Jason Bay hit a home run…..yay
• Jose Reyes is still chilly
• Wish Wright would throw the ball over hand
• Izzy probably wishes he threw a curve ball to Stanton in the 10th
• Mets lose out on an opportunity to gain ground on the Braves

I feel better now.  The good thing is the Mets can still win this series.

I Guess Not

Earlier today I posed the following question:

Go ahead.  Point and laugh at my unfortunate misspelling of the word expect.  Get it out of your system.

If you must know, I mistakenly keyed an x instead of a c when I was tweeting from my phone.  Stupid fat fingers.  They have haunted me my whole life.

Now that’s been addressed I can move on to tonight’s game.

• With the exception of one Jayson Werth at bat, R.A. Dickey pitched well.
• When I posed the question above I wasn’t expecting the Mets to get shut out.  Ouch.

I’m not overly concerned about the shutout.  It was one of those games where the bats were a tad off of a number of pitches.  You’ll have that every once in a while.

• David Wright and Jason Bay continued to hit, which is nice.
• Jose Reyes went 0 for 4.

He’s been on an interesting pattern in the last two series.  He will have on 0fer one night and then follow-up with a Jose night the next game.  My hope is that he isn’t on the verge of a major cool down. 

The bottom line is that the Mets still find themselves in a position to pick up another road series win.  So I’m chalking this one up to not catching a couple of breaks with the bats and expect to see them put the pressure back on at the plate tomorrow.

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Quite The Intriguing Team

You have dealt with injuries to all of your star players and a number of supporting cast members.  You survive the endless talk about losing the most exciting player in the game.  You have been inundated with question after question about where one of your best players is going to be traded since the All-Star Break.  Said player is finally traded.

What do you do?

Sweep a team that was in the playoffs last year and is in contention again this year in their home ball park in a four game series.  Why the hell not.

Four days ago I had accepted that this team was officially in rebuilding mode for 2012. Now I find myself fascinated by the following questions:

• Can this team really shock the baseball world and make a run at the post season?
• Is Lucas Duda for real?
• How long was Wright’s back hurting him and can we expect this type of production now that he is healthy?
• Is Bobby Parnell coming of age?
• Can Jason Isringhausen hold up as the team’s closer for the rest of the season?
• How can this team win when Jose Reyes has one of his worst offensive series of the season (3 for 19)?
• Why is it that we still have not learned the reason for Mike Pelfrey’s excessive finger/palm licking?
• Why do managers, coaches, and training staff still have to wear uniform pants?
• Is Ike Davis still alive?
• Why is midwestropolitan.com this awesome?
• When will Major League Baseball change its archaic blackout restrictions for television coverage?
• Did the Wilpons finally learn to keep their traps shut after the Fred Fiasco at the beginning of the year?
• Is today’s game the mark of Jason Bay finally breaking out of his bay? (This question was more for you, because I have already trained myself not to think about it any longer this season).

Regardless of how many of these questions we get answered, I am happy to say I am anticipating an entertaining remainder of the 2011 season.  I still doubt it will end with a post season appearance, but at least it will keep me from re-organizing my sock drawer or alphabetizing my spice rack.

Air Claws and Errors: July 24, 2011

Just like yesterday, here are some random things that I witnessed or experienced during the day as I throw up an Air Claw for the cool shit, and score an error for the not so cool shit.

Claw– David Wright comes through with more late inning RBIs in the form of a two run jack in the seventh inning.

Error- The Mets drop a series to the effing Fish.  A series they should have won and had plenty of opportunities to do so.  They now find themselves below .500…..again.

Claw- Manny Acosta pitches two scoreless innings and was in line for the win.

Error- Bobby Parnell’s slider.

Claw- for Mother Nature, raining out my son’s baseball tournament shortly after I discovered it was an hour and a half behind schedule  and we likely would have been playing until midnight.

Error- for me, because for some unknown reason I can never spell the word eighth correctly and always have to rely on the automatic spell check to spell it properly.  Ironically, I spelled it right in that sentence after at least two months of always failing to do so.

Claw- goes out to John for sharing his Claws and Errors today, some of which made the list.  Thanks for contributing!

Error-  goes out to the very same John for suggesting we give a Claw for Emilio Bonifacio and his 23 game hitting streak.  A 23 game hitting streak is impressive, but I just couldn’t raise my arm up to claw a Marlin. 

And finally……

Claw- for nine-year old Jayden making that sweet catch.  Most nine-year old outfielders don’t even see that ball as they are too busy picking dandelions.

Error- for the guy operating the pitching machine.  Sweet baseball pants Coach!

Feel free to share your Claws and Errors by posting on our Facebook page wall, tweeting us @mdwestroplitan, or by leaving a comment below.

Wright’s Claw

“These guys are doing that goofy hand thing to the dugout. I’m a little in-between on that. Don’t want to do it but they’re making me. Feel a little awkward doing it… That’s not really me, but they’ve given me a couple options. I don’t have to do the real crazy one. I can do more of a subtle one. I’ll fake that one.”-David Wright

Last night I mentioned that I would like to see Wright display a little more “chest thumping” emotion when something goes well.  I guess this is a start…..

David, if you are reading, if I can Air Claw at home while I’m watching, its ok if you do it when you get a big hit.  I promise.

Welcome Back #5

Two quick observations about David Wright’s return before I call it a night….

1.  It is my hope Wright continues to drive the ball to the opposite field as he did tonight. I never bought into him as a true power player and prefer it when he looks to drive the ball to right field.

2.  I realize it was his first game back from his longest stint on the DL, but I hope he continues to display a bit more of “chest thumping” emotion when he makes a play.  It was good to see him yell in the direction of the Mets dugout after popping up from his slide into third base in the eighth inning. 

It was also nice to see a go ahead RBI late in the game from D. Wright.

Welcome back David.