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Game Recap: Wagner Rips Team After Another Loss: Nationals 1- Mets 0

By Andrew Rizzi | May 15th, 2008

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Mike Pelfrey pitched the game of his life, carrying a no-hitter into the 7th inning, but he ended up with the tough luck loss in a 1-0 game. The bid for the first no-hitter in Mets history was broken up by Aaron Boone, who led off the inning with a legit single. Then in the 8th, with Pelfrey still pitching, the Nationals got the only run of the game. Jesus Flores ripped a double off the left field wall, and he later scored on a sac fly from Felipe Lopez.

The 9th inning was as painful as possible from a Mets fan point of view. Carlos Beltran led off with a single that got through the infield and into right. Ryan Church then flared one the other way, and it looked to be a sure base hit that would put the Mets in business to not only tie but win the game. But left fielder Willie Harris made possibly the catch of the year, diving headlong and robbing Church and the Mets.

Beltran would then steal second, and go to third on an errant throw from Flores. Once again the Mets were threatening, and still there was only one out. But that one quickly became three, when Carlos Delgado lined out to first and Beltran was doubled off to end the game.

Jason Bergmann got the win, tossing 7 shutout innings and striking out 9.

After the game things remained tense, as Billy Wagner snapped at the media and criticized his teammates.

““Hits, we’re not getting consistently. Pitching, today, Pelfrey pitched a fantastic game. We had our chances, we didn’t get that hit. The other day, we’re coming back and we don’t get that hit and we don’t make the pitches. It’s a culmination of just not getting it done. We’re not earning our money.”

When pushed further, Wagner apparently looked towards Delgado’s locker and said,

“Can somebody tell me why the (bleep) the closer being interviewed and I didn’t even play, while they’re over there not getting interviewed? I get it, they’re gone. (Bleeping) shocker.”

The clip can be seen here on metsblog.

Rizzi’s Rant:

There is certainly one big positive to come out of this game, and that is obviously Mike Pelfrey’s performance. He was superb, and this was easily his best start as a pro. He was throwing first pitch strikes with consistency, and did not seem to have much of a control issue at all. Pelfrey deserved a win today. Hell, he deserved two wins with the way he pitched today. But the offense just was not there.

If we cannot get one run off a guy who came into the game with an ERA near 12.00, then maybe we just aren’t that good of a team. Each day I am starting to think more and more that this just isn’t the year. And as if the bad play wasn’t worrisome enough, the post-game comments trouble me even more.

The fact that these type of comments have been happening for more than a full year now tells me two things:

1) This clubhouse is divided, and it does not seem to be a healthy environment. When one of your team leaders is bashing his teammates on a consistent basis (see Wagner’s reaction to Ollie Perez’s flop against the Pirates) it is just not a good sign for team chemistry, which I have always thought was very important in baseball. Everyone needs to be on the same page, and these guys don’t even appear to be in the same book.

2) Willie Randolph does not have control of this team at all. I have been a staunch supporter of Willie since day one of 2005, even after losing his first 5 games as manager. I have always said other than Bobby Valentine he is my favorite Mets manager in my life as a fan. But I am starting to think a change might be needed. I am certainly willing to give him the rest of this season; after all there are still 123 games left. But if we are the same team on October 1 that we are today, the Willie Randolph era should be swept away, and a new reign should be brought in.

A few breaks here and there and the Mets are probably in first place, so I am not on the ledge or anything. But anyone who is a die hard Mets fan can see that this team lacks the passion, fire, and cockiness it had all of 2006. The funk needs to end real soon, so maybe the energy of the Subway Series is just what the doctor ordered…

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 6:36 pm and is filed under Rizzi's Rant, Willie Harris, Jason Bergmann, Jesus Flores, Carlos Beltran, Mike Pelfrey, Billy Wagner, Carlos Delgado. 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.

4 Responses to “Game Recap: Wagner Rips Team After Another Loss: Nationals 1- Mets 0”

MikeinMIami says:

May 15th, 2008 at 7:24 pm

Like I have been saying for 2 years, Willie Randolph needs to get fired… Period! This team is going nowhere with Willie. The team does not want to play for him and its a flat boring team with With willie as coach. Please fire Willie Today!
Leslie Monteiro says:

May 15th, 2008 at 10:50 pm

I have been a Willie Randolph guy, but now, it’s time for the Mets to fire him. He has become Art Howe before our eyes. He is so much like Howe, which is not a good indictment on him.
MikeinMIami says:

May 16th, 2008 at 5:21 am

Leslie, I said it the minute they lost to St. Louis in NLCS. They should have traded Aaron Heilman and fired Willie Randolph the very next day.

LAST YEAR WAS AN UTTER DISASTER AND THIS YEAR IS A PROLONGED DEJAVU FROM LAST YEAR. THE TEAM CONDITIONS ARE GETTING WORSE NOT BETTER AND SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE.

Mets cannot and willnot win as long as Willie Randolph and Aaron Heilman are still on this team.

They should seriously consider Julio Franco for a bench coach job and need someone with some Fire. Willie just cant get it done, he doesnt know how.
Guyser says:

May 16th, 2008 at 9:22 am

I think we have to keep in mind that so much in baseball is very arbitrary. Other than HRs, Ks and BBs, almost everything else is beyond the players’ control. You can whack the cover off the ball all day and still end up with an 0-4 collar. Little dwibblers where you barely make contact can turn into game winning hits.

A hard hit shot from Scott Rolen can become just another flyout when Endy Chavez is out there. Whereas a little nothing hit down the first base line from Mookie Wilson can make history when Bill Buckner is on the field at that particular time.

Take yesterday’s game for instance. The key play was Willie Harris’ amazing catch. But look at what was behind that play. Ryan Church did *not* hit that ball hard at all. If you were to determine the play’s outcome based on how well Church made contact, Church should be out. Period. Nothing spectacular about it.

However, because of the *location* of the hit (as opposed to how well Church hit it) the play somehow becomes almost a sure hit for Church. But again, it should have been a sure hit not because of something great that Church did, but because of the location of the not so great contact. Location is arbitrary. Location is variable.

In a twist of fate, Willie Harris happened to be playing left field and playing quite a bit off the line. Somehow, Harris was able to get to that ball from his position to make a catch that was really little more than a fluke. His making that catch is pretty much arbitrary and variable too. Sometimes, he’ll make it; but if he were playing a couple of inches closer to centerfield he won’t.

So we got the correct result based on the quality of Church’s contact (namely, a fly out), but we had to have two different variables cancel themselves out for the correct result to happen.

When the ball is in play, sometimes the fielders get it and sometimes they don’t, regardless of anything the Mets players do or don’t do. The results often have little to do with how well they’re playing.

What’s more telling about yesterday’s game is that Bergmann struck out 9 Mets in 7 innings and Pelfrey struck out 4 Nationals in 7.2 innings. Yesterday, Bergmann was a better pitcher.

Tha Nationals simply outplayed us — at the same time that the Reds were outplaying the Marlins; go figure *that* one out.

I can’t get too upset with the Mets’ fortunes because I don’t know how much the players can really help. So much is beyond their control.

However, stupid stuff *is* within their control. Why on earth was Beltran running on contact with Delgado at the plate with one out? Why did Reyes try for third if it wasn’t *dead certain* that he’d make it?

Stuff like that drives me nuts. And unfortunately, I think we can hold Willie accountable for much of it.

But who knows? Maybe we’ll sweep the Yankees this weekend and Willie will return to being a genius and everyone will be wondering whether Girardi knows his a– from a hole in the ground.

We can only hope.

Let’s Go Mets!!!!!!!