St. Louis Blues

The Cardinals finished off a sweep of the Mets today, defeating them 12-8. Kyle Lohse (3-0) got the win and Livan Hernandez (1-1) took the loss. Hernandez got away with his soft tossing through three innings, but gave it up in the fourth. Hernandez and Green threw batting practice to the Cardinals for three innings, handing them an 11-3 lead. The Mets fought back with homeruns by Church and Beltran, but it wasn't enough. It was nice that the team showed some life towards the end, but it is really hard to take anything positive out of this series. 

Since Johan Santana's last start, the Mets starting pitchers are 0-3 with a 8.27 ERA. Hopefully the ace can save the day tomorrow, because the other starting pitchers have been dismal. 

It's obvious that the Mets need to get angry. They lack any traces of cojones throughout the clubhouse. Both Green and Parnell threw pitches inside at Pujols and Ludwick, respectively, which was nice to see in contrast to the little league pitches that were being thrown earlier in the game. The team needs to want to win, need to win. Brush hitters off the plate, run into a catcher who's blocking home, anything to get a victory. Who cares if the other team doesn't like it. This team has the talent to be great, they just need to realize that. They need to be arrogant, and hopefully Jerry will be screaming something along these lines into their heads after this series.  

Tomorrow, they move on to the Nationals with Johan on the mound. If they don't win this game, we won't see a win until May. 

Getting it Together

The Mets have lacked chemistry, undoubtedly. The starting pitching, with the exception of Santana, has been shaky at best. They still have not come together on offense. These things will take some time, I hope. John Maine struggled again last night, allowing 5 runs over 5 2/3 innings, but seemed to make some progress in this start compared to his previous starts. The offense was nonexistent, again failing to put together any significant rallies and struggling with RISP.

On a side note, I would like to ask why so many fans have such doubt in Oliver Perez but an inexplicable faith in John Maine. Forget Perez' inconsistency, over the last two seasons with the Mets the two pitchers have almost identical stats. Perez has struck out more, and is undeniably a big game pitcher. He has the talent to be one of the best pitchers in baseball if he can pull himself together. Both pitchers have gotten off to shaky starts this year, yet most fans seem to be thinking "Maine will pull it together, but Perez, he'll always be inconsistent." Perez has shown more signs of life than Maine this season and in the past. I would take Perez over Maine any day. 

 The team has dropped three straight and turn the ball over today to Livan Hernandez (1-0, 4.63 ERA) who will be facing the Cardinals' Kyle Lohse (2-0, 2.57 ERA). Hernandez has looked solid thus far in the season, winning his first start and pitching well through four innings in his second before allowing a three run homer to Milwaukee's Ryan Braun. Hernandez will always give the Mets a chance to win the game, and it seems that when he is pitching the offense will have to step up and score 5 or 6 runs, really not too much to ask for the Mets highly paid hitters. 

Jerry Manuel will also go to a new lineup today to try and mix things up: 

SS Jose Reyes

2B Alex Cora

CF Carlos Beltran

1B Carlos Delgado

3B David Wright

LF Gary Sheffield

RF Ryan Church

C Omir Santos

P Livan Hernandez

Well, first of all, thank you Jerry for putting in Omir. Why has Castro been playing (and not hitting) after Santos proved himself offensively and defensively last weekend? If Santos can be consistent offensively, the Mets have themselves a catcher for a change. Another move I like is Beltran hitting third. David Wright has been the face of the Mets failures with RISP and needed to be moved out of that spot. I think by the end of the year if Wright can put some power together, he will be hitting fourth and Delgado fifth. Also, I like that Jerry is giving Shef a chance to prove himself, although he has got to pick up a few more hits to justify this playing time. Today's game will be a good indicator if he deserves this much playing time. Finally, Cora is replacing the red-hot Castillo and is hitting second. Why can't Castillo hit second, Jerry? 

This lineup looks much, much better. Replace Cora with Castillo and Shef with Murph, and I think the Mets have themselves a better opportunity to put up some runs. We will see how it goes today. 

Let's go Mets!

April 22, 2009 Game 14 Preview

New York Mets (6-7) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (9-5)

Busch Stadium, St. Louis. 72 degrees and sunny. 

John Maine (0-1, 7.20 ERA) vs. Joel Pineiro (2-0, 5.40 ERA)

The Mets head into this game coming off of two straight losses, including a particularly rough one last night at the hands of these very St. Louis Cardinals. It is hard to point any fingers last night because no particular player did worse than mediocre. Oliver Perez looked decent but stumbled (and probably should have been given the opportunity to get that last out in the fifth), the hitting was good but disappeared, and the bullpen was mediocre (I can forgive Putz, he's been outstanding). The discouraging part of all this is that the Mets appear to be a mediocre team, not the elite team they've been touted as. 

Moving on, tonight John Maine is looking for his first win. He has looked decent at times this season, but has yet to put up a quality start. The key for Maine will be how he handles the Cardinals the first time through the order, as he has struggled early in each of his first two starts this season.

Another big thing for the Mets tonight will be the offense. The have been seemingly unable to hit with runners in scoring position thus far, and will need to turn that trend around at some point. They're not gonna win games if they keep leaving all their ducks on the pond. 

On another note, I enjoy the 8:15 start. I don't have to rush to a TV at 7, which is constantly an issue. 

Let's Go Mets!

The Citi Field Era

Well, this is yet another Mets blog. I know this is completely unnecessary but I have been a Mets fan my entire life, read the blogs daily, and have become fed up reading comments sections filled of imbecilic answers from Mets fans. This blog will be to vent my frustration with the Mets and the Mets world.