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Recap: The Streak is Over! Mets 12- Dodgers 1

By Andrew Rizzi | May 7th, 2008

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Updated 5/8 at 10:10am… For all of you who are confused about my “The Streak is Over” headline, this has nothing to do with the Mets losing 2 in a row to the Dodgers. It is a reference to the Mets losing 7 straight games that I recapped on the site, until Wednesday.

John Maine went 8 1-3 innings and gave up just 1 run, and the Mets offense tattooed Dodgers starter Brad Penny again, as New York avoided the sweep in dominating fashion, 12-1. Maine becomes the first Mets pitcher to go more than 7 innings this year, and looked sharp for the entire game. He started the 9th inning and got one out, but was pulled after Matt Kemp’s RBI single spoiled the shutout.

With the way Maine pitched he did not need much run support, but he sure got it. The Mets scored 4 in the 2nd inning, 1 in the 3rd, then 6 in the 5th, and a final run in the 6th inning. A lot of those runs came from role players, as Marlon Anderson and Angel Pagan picked up RBIs starting the day after a night game, and Raul Casanova drove in 2 runs. Even Maine got into the act, driving in runs 9 and 10 to knock Brad Penny out of the game. The Dodgers’ ace took the loss to fall to 4-10 against the Mets in his career. Ryan Church added a late solo homerun off releiver Scott Proctor, while both David Wright and Luis Castillo drove in 2 runs.

Everything was clicking for New York today; the offense, the pitching, and even some sparkling defense. In the first inning Andre Ethier hit a tailing foul ball, and Angel Pagan made a running grab that catapulted him over the wall and headfirst into the stands onto the cement ground. He landed on his head and shoulder, but held on for the grab. 40,000 plus fans at Dodger Stadium stood and applauded for Pagan, who had to come out of the game in the 3rd with tightness in his shoulder.

Rizzi’s Rant:

The streak is over ladies and gentlemen! After recapping seven straight losses, I finally get to write about a Metropolitans “W,” and it feels fantastic! It also feels great to see this team play up to its capabilities. Obviously as fans we cannot demand 12-1 wins every day, but there’s no reason we cannot play as solid and mistake free as we did today. And while 12 runs is plenty more than the Mets will average, it is a good sign to see our slumping bats break out. Maybe this will carry over to our homestand now, starting with the weekend series against the Reds.

John Maine was superb today. I still think he will end up having a great season, and today was just a taste of what Maine is capable of. His next goal should be trying to string two or three great starts together.

The Mets absolutely own Brad Penny. If only he could start against us every day. Can we clone him twice and trade him to the Phillies and Braves?

Luis Castillo may be breaking out of his slump…again. I just think Castillo will be the type of player that goes hot and cold all year at this point. Enjoy the hot while you can.

Raul Casanova is a very solid third catcher to have. I still want Ramon Castro back asap, but in the meantime I don’t mind having Casanova as a backup at all.

Ryan Church is amazing. If I was attracted to men…

For all of you who bash the bullpen constantly on this site, we have now found the best way to avoid those problems- just have the starter go into the 9th every single night. Might be a little unrealistic, but that’s your best plan I think.

Great win, pretty decent road trip. When you have a 6-game west coast swing against the best team in baseball and then the hottest team in baseball, 3-3 is very acceptable. Now let’s go home and dominate!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 at 3:26 pm and is filed under John Maine, Luis Castillo, Raul Casanova, Rizzi's Rant, Andre Ethier, Marlon Anderson, Scott Proctor, Brad Penny, Angel Pagan, David Wright, The Usual. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

9 Responses to “Recap: The Streak is Over! Mets 12- Dodgers 1”

Credible Source says:

May 7th, 2008 at 4:25 pm

What f**king streak are you talking about? The two losses?? Shut the f**k up you f**king idiots.
Jessica Bader says:

May 7th, 2008 at 6:15 pm

The comment above this one has been edited for violating the site’s obscenity policy. Consider this your warning - if a word would be bleeped out on network television, do not spell it out in a comment here. Repeated violations of this policy can result in the loss of commenting privileges.

Also, you may want to read the entire post before calling someone an idiot. It’s been a running joke here for a while that the Mets lose every game that Andrew is assigned to recap (at the beginning of every week, Andrew and I work out a schedule of who has game thread and recap duties for each game that week). That is the streak Andrew was referring to.
Andrew R. says:

May 8th, 2008 at 6:03 am

Thanks for backing me up, Jessica. Fortunately, this guy’s ignorant comments do not bother me at all. I am just happy people are reading my recaps!
Guyser says:

May 8th, 2008 at 7:51 am

Congratulations on your first win, Andrew!!!!! I had full confidence in you the whole time. Really, I did. That restraining order I was going to file to keep you away from this site permanently was merely in jest — really. Hell, no judge would have signed it anyway.

Also, I had to fight the urge to shout out a loud “AMEN!!!” when you made your proposal for avoiding bullpen troubles: make your starters pitch deeper into games whenever possible. It seems like such a simple concept. Still . . .

It’s amazing how even rainy, crappy days seem so much sunnier and brighter when the Amazings kick butt.

Plus even more exciting news (for me, anyway), I will get to see my Metsies on local TV since Indianapolis (where I live) is in Cincinnati’s market.

Yahoo!!!!! It’s not Keith and Ronnie, but it’s still pretty cool!!!!
Ken says:

May 8th, 2008 at 10:16 am

all i gota say is…bout time our bats woke up..
Andrew R. says:

May 8th, 2008 at 10:47 am

Thanks Guyser! Do you ever go to Mets/Reds in cincinnati? If so, what are your thoughts on the Great American Ballpark? I’ve never been there, but it certainly seems a lot nicer than Riverdump Stadium…
Guyser says:

May 8th, 2008 at 12:34 pm

Andrew,

I’ve been down to see my beloved Metsies in Cincinnati several times, at both the GAB (got to see Pedro pitch on opening day in 2005) and Riverfront Stadium. In fact, my first baseball game was at Crosley Field in 1970, just before the Reds moved into Riverfront.

The GAB is a wonderful place to watch a baseball game. Since my parents were originally from Cincinnati (they moved to NYC in the 50s before I was born), I grew up with a deep appreciation for rivers. So obviously, the biggest draw for me is your view of the Ohio River over the right field and center field walls. The Ohio is a beautiful river and there’s nothing like watching a tugboat hauling huge barges along while watching a game. It’s a very busy body of water and there’s always something happening on it.

It’s a hitter’s paradise, and sometimes that’s not such a good thing, since I heard somewhere that chicks dig the pitcher’s duel. You don’t get many pitchers duels at the GAB. But the stadium is immaculate and very reasonably priced. You can take your family to a game there, get really good seats, and not have to take out a second mortgage.

By the way, in case you didn’t know, the GAB is named for the Great American Insurance Company, so the ballpark has a corporate name. But somehow it just doesn’t sound corporate because a ballpark should be “Great American” shouldn’t it? Not like Minute Maid Park, sheesh.

The GAB is also attached to the the Reds Hall of Fame and museum which naturally devotes a lot of time and space to Pete Rose — including his brawl with Buddy Harrelson in the 1973 playoffs. The museum also has a lot of stuff on the 1919 Reds who beat the Chicago Black Sox in the “thrown” World Series of “Eight Men Out” fame.

It’s revealing to think of that World Series from Cincinnati’s point of view. Reds fans are like, “what fix? we won that fair and square” and they strongly resent the inference that the mighty White Sox would have won in a cake walk overly the lowly Reds, but for gamblers and their players’ corruption. They believe that they would have won anyway. I don’t really take one side or the other in that debate, but it’s enlightening to see another perspective on something.

Finally, Riverfront (as crappy as it was) has gotten a harsh deal. Much like Shea Stadium, at the time it was built it was the ultimate. A stadium that could be used for football and baseball that had low-maintenance astroturf. We mock such cookie cutters now, but 35 years ago, that was state of the art. Sorta like mocking 8-track tape decks in our cars. Now they’re cheesy as hell, but we sure loved them back in the day.

Riverfront Stadium was part of a large downtown complex that was built in late 60s and early 70s to solve the nearly annual flooding from the Ohio. Before Riverfront, they had lots of tenement houses that got flooded every year. Finally, the city fathers decided to raze the tenements and build an elevated, modern convention center type complex where flooding wouldn’t be a problem. They did pretty much the same thing in St. Louis with the arch.

Also, Riverfront was a beautiful part of the Cincinnati skyline when it was all lit up. The way the stadium lights would reflect off the Ohio River was breathtaking from Northern Kentucky. So, yeah Riverfront sucked, but it had its points.

I’m sure I’ve already given you too much information, but I love the city of Cincinnati and there’s one more thing I want to share. It occured to me several years ago when MLB was contemplating expanding into Las Vegas. The MLB folk decided, probably wisely, that the gambling element from Las Vegas would pose too high of a risk to the integrity of the game.

What people don’t realize is that MLB has had a franchise really close to a major gambling and vice center for 100 years: Cincinnati. Northern Kentucky (just across the bridge) has been a hot bed of organized crime, gambling, prostitution, and every other vice you could name for generations. The Mafia practically owned Covington. And don’t forget that Pete Rose was born and raised in Cincinnati so when he wanted to gamble (legally or illegally) he sure knew where to go. Rose had been gambling illegally since he was in high school.

And ya don’t suggest to anybody around here that Bart Giamatti was a competent commissioner unless you know like karate or something.

That’s probably more than you wanted to know. But there it is.

Let’s Go Mets!!!!

Guyser
Andrew R. says:

May 9th, 2008 at 6:28 am

Very interesting Guyser. I now know more about Cincinnati than I ever thought I would! Thanks!
Jessica Bader says:

May 9th, 2008 at 9:47 am

Guyser, that’s a wonderful, informative, and entertaining comment. I love to hear things like that about cities and ballparks I’ve never had the chance to visit.