MVN - Most Valuable Network

Hands Down: Fizzled Sparks Edition

When you look at the pitching matchups, there are some games where it seems as though winning would be an absolute steal (Nelson Figueroa vs. John Smoltz back in April is about as perfect an example as I can think of) and others that are “must-wins,” not in the sense that the season is over if you don’t win but in the sense that it’s a game the team should be able to bank on winning. Tonight was one of those “must-win” games for the Mets, making the fact that they did not win rather frustrating. Johan Santana vs. J.A. Happ (whose only prior major-league outing was a shellacking at the hands of the Mets a little over a year ago) is the sort of game that you have to take care of, and on a rainy night in Philadelphia, the Mets couldn’t do it. While it wasn’t officially over until Shane Victorino delivered a walk-off in the bottom of the ninth, in my opinion this game was lost when Chad Durbin came in with the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth and proceeded to strike out six of the seven batters he faced. In the end, it was yet another instance of the Mets not being able to win a start by their ace, and those losses hurt more than most precisely because they’re the games you’re supposed to win.

Thumb: Santana allowed just two runs in eight innings against one of the best offenses in the league at their hitter-friendly home park. It’s exactly the sort of performance the Mets were looking for when they traded for him over the winter. Ramon Castro contributed two of the Mets’ four hits, including the only one to go for extra bases.

Pointer Finger: It took Santana just 95 pitches to get through those eight innings. Happ threw 96 pitches and didn’t make it out of the fifth inning.

Middle Finger: Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado each went 0-for-4, with Beltran’s bases-loaded strikeout to end the fifth being particularly damaging. I’d also like to flip the bird at the decision to pinch hit for Castro in the ninth - again, the team had a grand total of four hits, and two of them belonged to him! I really don’t get it - letting Castro bat and then having Ryan Church pinch-hit for Chris Aguila would have made much more sense.

Ring Finger: The Phillies have enough Met-killers and plain old everyone-killers that I never really looked at Victorino in that light, but he’s a prime candidate for the next edition of the All Met-Killer team. Before tonight’s game, Victorino was a career .300/.351/.500 hitter against the Mets in 133 plate appearances.

Pinky Finger: Okay, who wants to set the odds on Keith confusing Jerry Manuel and Charlie Manuel at least once this weekend?

This entry was posted on Friday, July 4th, 2008 at 6:43 pm and is filed under Ramon Castro, Hands Down, Shane Victorino, J.A. Happ, Carlos Beltran, Chad Durbin, Carlos Delgado, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Johan Santana, 7 Train. 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.