Mets 7, Pirates 6

I missed today's game as well. I was at a Fourth of July picnic at my grandparents' house, and watched part of the game, until about 3 PM or so. Then, one of my uncles, and a few cousins come in and say "Put on the World Cup." I say, "No, soccer sucks." It becomes an argument and I'm outnumbered and I'm forced to put on a crappy soccer game instead of our national pasttime, baseball. Needless to say...I was not amused. I missed most of today's game so my family could watch...soccer. Sorry, but for the people who call baseball boring yet watch soccer...you're wrong. I saw boring today, and "boring," is a 120-minute soccer game with no scoring.



I was fortunate (well, somewhat) enough to watch the three biggest innings of the game; the Mets' four run-fourth, the Pirates' three-run sixth, and the Mets' three-run eighth (the soccer game was at halftime and I managed to get the Mets game back on). A few thoughts...



1) Glavine didn't look sharp today. Eleven hits and a walk for five-plus innings...ouch. Can we please have a Mets starter finish six or seven innings once? The bullpens' arms will be made of Jello by August.



2) I swear...if Aaron Heilman ever pitches in another close game again, I'm going to throw a brick through my TV. How much longer is he going to be allowed to stink up innings? Seemingly everytime he enters the game with runners on base, he allows them to score. Whenever the game is within one or two runs, he finds a way to tie the game up or give the other team the lead. He is not dependable. I'm tired of seeing him in games. Why wasn't he throwing the mop-up innings Sunday night? He wants to start so bad, let him throw six or seven innings in the middle of the game.



3) I'm assuming that everybody who saw Cliff Floyd's collision in left field during the fifth knew Floyd was coming out. Not because the collision was particularly nasty, but because Cliff Floyd is made of glass. Cliff, you had no shot at that ball, next time let Jose get it and avoid the collision, okay?



4) With the negative out of the way...the offense came up big today, especially in the eighth. With one out, Delgado and Wright picked up a pair of hits. Endy Chavez, in the game for Floyd, doubled home Delgado and gave Xavier Nady two on with one out. He singled them home, with an awfully close play at the plate on Chavez to pick up the tying and go-ahead runs.



I won't say this often, but today was one of the rare times where Chavez in the lineup was the difference between a win and a loss. Chavez's speed was the reason he scored on that play. Floyd would not have scored, and knowing Manny Acta, he may well have been sent (I've been a little unhappy about some of Acta's decisions in that spot). In fact, it was almost too close here; the ball beat Chavez to the plate, but the catcher didn't have good position and couldn't apply a good tag. Good speed from Chavez, and bad defense from the catcher was the difference between the Mets taking the lead and the Mets possibly going to extra innings today.



It wasn't a pretty win, but with the way the Mets have been playing of late, I'll take it happily. The win was only the Mets' second in eight games. After playing so well for most of the season, a slump was to be expected, but this one was hard to take because the team was playing so badly. Nice to see that they picked up a win today. They'll try again tomorrow night, in a game that, barring the severely unforeseen, I should see in its entirety. Kip Wells faces Orlando Hernandez, who may be the last Met to throw into the seventh inning. When the oldest pitcher on the staff is the last guy to throw late into the game, you know that staff has problems.

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http://www.miraclemets.net/2006/07/mets-7-pirates-6.html

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Closer to the Card

The Milwaukee Brewers take game two of their series with the Cincinnati Reds to move 2 1/2 games out of the wild card spot. They made the most out of five hits and three walks, bringing five runs across the...


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http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/015856.php

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Short Start, Late Win

Tom Glavine was the latest in a line of Mets starters unable to go deep into the game. His five-run, five innings of work meant another long day for the New York bullpen. Heilman blew the lead when he relieved...


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http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/015855.php

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The Juice Blog: Distractions

This seems like such a good idea. Writeroom is a hot new program expanding around the Mac universe with a quick Windows copy called DarkRoom.

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http://thejuice.baseballtoaster.com/archives/422645.html

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Fantastic Catch

The Big Lead provides video of Gary Matthews over-the-wall catch....


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Two Bloops and a Blast

Robert Fick and Alfonso Soriano each bloop hits to the outfield in the bottom of the ninth to put the tying and winning runs on base for the Nationals. Ryan Zimmerman comes up with two out and runs the count...


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http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/015853.php

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Bronx Banter: The Goon Show, Part First

There is something I've been meaning to share with you for a long time. When I was thirteen years old my parents had already been separated for a couple of years. My twin sister, younger brother and I lived with my mom during the week in a one-bedroom apartment in Croton, a suburb about an hour north of Manhattan. On the weekends, we visited my father in New York City. It was the fall of 1984. I was heavily into David Bowie and the Talking Heads, comic books and baseball and girls, not always in that order. "Ghostbusters" had come out that summer. My mom took a week-long vacation to visit her family in Belgiummy Ma is Belgian but she was actually raised in Zaire, in the Congo. That meant our father was going to come and stay with us in our mom's apartment.

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http://bronxbanter.baseballtoaster.com/archives/422579.html

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Keith Law On The Angels' Season

As a followup to the Rev's recent midseason review of the Angels, here's an excellent Keith Law article behind the pay wall at ESPN.com regarding the Angels' 2006. Significant excerpts:

The reality is that the playoffs are already hopelessly out of reach for the Angels this year. They're five games out of the division lead in the loss column, with three teams to pass, and they're 16 out in the wild card. And their run differential (they've been outscored by 32 runs this season) indicates that their record is no fluke. They really do stink.

Law recommends that Adam Kennedy, Darin Erstad, Garret Anderson, and Chone Figgins all be removed as full-time starters, and echoes Matt Welch's entirely sensible suggestions, advising the Angels that Anderson has no value against lefties anymore and needs a platoon partner. Here's more:

Substituting Kendrick for Kennedy and Aybar for Cabrera would improve the Angels' offense, but it would leave the team with three major offensive holes: third base, first base, and possibly left field. The Angels should use the rest of this season to figure out whether Dallas McPherson is the solution at third base (he's not) and whether either Kendry Morales or Casey Kotchman is the solution at first base (my money's on Morales). Left field is as much a political issue as it is about baseball: Will the club acknowledge that Anderson's days as an everyday player are done, despite his long career with the club and the two years remaining on his contract?

These are very good questions, and thanks for asking them, Keith.

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http://6-4-2.blogspot.com/2006/07/keith-law-on-angels-season.html

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Pickoff Moves

Today's Birthdays

Babe Birrer LAN b. 1929, played 1958

Brendan Donnelly ANA,LAA b. 1971, played 2002-2005, All-Star: 2003. Talk about red, white, and blue, Donnelly was born on July 4, 1971 in Washington, D.C. He has a terrible postseason ERA overall thanks to his last two times out and his 2002 ALDS and ALCS jaunts, but he held down the Giants for two crucial innings in Game 6 of the 2002 World Series when even K-Rod wasn't getting the job done, and again in Game 7 when he was the first of three relievers to notch scoreless innings to slam the door on San Francisco.

There's a strangely persistent myth about Donnelly that's surfaced over the last year that really needs to be put to bed now, and that is that Donnelly was never the same following the so-called pine tar incident in which an umpire found pine tar on his glove and ejected him from the game. Now, it may in fact be the case that Donnelly isn't the same since that episode, but if we avail ourselves of David Pinto's wonderful Day-by-Day database, we can inspect his numbers up to June 14 and for all 2005 games after that date:

When         ERA   K/9   BB/9  HR/9  K/BB==========================================Up to 6/14   4.34  6.8   1.55  1.55  3.14After 6/14   3.22  7.7   3.0   0.99  2.58

It's clear that Donnelly was actually better in both ERA (dropping by more than a run) and strikeout rate (increasing by almost a full point) despite losing some control over that time and doubling his walk rate. Right now, he's playing hurt, so back off, man.

Chuck Tanner LAA b. 1929, played 1961-1962. An original Angel, he was one of only three pinch-hitters ever to homer on the first major league pitch he saw when he first came up with the then-Milwaukee Braves. Probably most famous for his long managerial record that included the Pirates' only recent World Series win in 1979, he also managed the White Sox, A's, and Braves.

Plunk, Plunk, Plunk, Win: Dodgers 10, Arizona 4

After finally — mercifully — rejiggering the lineup to scootch the permaslumping Rafael Furcal out of the leadoff spot where he hasn't belonged all year, Grady Little's Dodgers broke out of their recent funklet and bashed the Diamondbacks behind Derek Lowe, who got five innings in the books before being replaced by hoss Broxton.

Nomar got plunked three friggin' times, once each by Juan Cruz, Ed Gonzalez, and Randy Choate. So, for that matter, were Russ Martin of the Dodgers, and Conor Jackson by Jonathan Broxton. You'd think that, given how hard Broxton throws, that musta hurt, but Steve Hensen in the Times characterized it as a "graze". Huh.

I hadn't looked up at his numbers lately, but it does seem that Cruz's unrealized potential as a starter should be simply recognized as just that; outside of his seven-inning shutout of Atlanta on June 5, he hasn't been particularly good. On the other hand, you can forgive him some, as this was his first start after coming back from a shoulder injury.

Andre Ethier's on another hot streak, going 4-5 in yesterday's game, one of three Dodgers to have multi-hit games (the other two being J.D. Drew and Jeff Kent).

ESPN Box • Recap

Roster Notes

• The Cardinals have interest in Jeff Weaver now that he's practically free.
• Ricky Ledee will start a rehab assignment at AA Jacksonville Wednesday.
• Jason Repko will start a rehab assignment some time after the All-Star break.
• The Giants will extend Moises Alou's DL time until after the All-Star break.
• Milton Bradley took batting practice for the first time since mid-June.
• Rehab durations are longer than they appear: Rich Harden has been shut down again following a Sunday throwing session.

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http://6-4-2.blogspot.com/2006/07/pickoff-moves_115203027903268945.html

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Games of the Day

Tom Glavine tries to break a bad streak by Mets starters as he faces the Pirates at Shea this afternoon. In their last nine games they've averaged less than five innings an outing, and posted a 9.15 ERA. Steve Trachsel...


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http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/015852.php

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