Mets Lose a Yawner

The Mets 5-2 loss was just a small bump in road. The Mets could not put it together last night, but you cannot win them all though I would like them too. It is just tough when you feel like they have great chance to take this one. They had a chance to break it open, but just could not. The first disappointing situation was when Reyes stole second and third base, which is great to see from him, and leaving Piazza coming up with one out and Reyes standing at third. Easy run, right? Nope. Piazza and Floyd both K’d. You cannot get them all, but you need to make some contact in that situation. Let’s give ourselves a sporting chance. The second disappointing situation was a golden opportunity in the 7th inning. The Mets managed to get two runs in and had first and second with no outs. In a park where a double in the gap will score Reyes from first, Howe decides to give the Marlins an out in exchange for two runners in scoring position. He asked the hot hitting Matsui to bunt Zeile and Reyes over. That move essentially took the bat out of Piazza's hand as they then unintentionally intentionally walked him by walking him on four straight balls. Then Floyd came up hacking on the first pitch and flied out to shallow left who was followed up by a K by Hidalgo. My only beef with Hidalgo is not that the K'd, but they way he did it. He looked at strike one which was low, but being called a strike all night. He then looked at the same exact pitch on strike two, which he should have been hacking at. In an 0-2 hole, you kind of felt he'd be up there hacking since the first two were essentially balls called strikes and swung at a high fastball out of the strike zone. I was not a fan of Howe playing small ball in that situation. Take advantage of a weak pen and take your hacks. Do not bunt people over in that situation. You have three chances (barring no one hits into a double play) to get a double with three guys who are more than capable of hitting doubles, which would have tied it. Of course, if it works out, he looks like a genius. However, Howe rarely looks like a genius. I have no problem with Glavine's performance either since he has been so solid all year, he is entitled to trip up two starts in a row. But the Mets only got two runs so they weren't going to give him much to work with anyway. It was just a boring game to watch.

On the bright side the Mets did not fall any further behind the Phillies as they lost to the Braves.

The Pirates were scouting Matt Peterson in his last start. Now here is where I hop off the Benson train. I do not want to give up one of our top three pitching prospects for Benson. Benson still has a ERA of 4.42. I'd rather take my chances with what we have than surrender Peterson for 1/2 season rental. I'm not averse to parting with Peterson in deal for someone like Zito (which I do not think is happening, just an example). But giving up Wigginton, Peterson, plus others is too much for question mark. That move becomes not worth it the second a top five organizational prospect is included.

Jose Reyes has hits in 15 out of 20 games played this year. He currently has a nine game hitting streak and still is batting .218. If you told me he had gotten a hit in 75% of his games, I would have guessed he would have a pretty good average. That is a pretty weird stat in my book. A lot of one hit games have contributed to it. However, the good news is he is definitely heating up and picked up three hits yesterday as well as the fact he has scored 14 runs in 20 games. He was has been in spring training mode, but seems to be getting in regular season mode and shaking off the rust.

Erickson went 8.1 innings giving up seven hits, one run, walked two, and K'd two. I think it is safe to assume he will be brought up.

I'm going to have to say that Scott Kazmir's debut was stellar for AA. He went six innings, K'd 7, and gave up two runs. He allowed five walks and six hits for 11 baserunners in six innings, but it was his first start at the higher level. I'm impressed.

The post hands out grades to all the Mets players.