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Recap: David Wright’s Mental Mistakes Cost Mets the Game

David Wright made two big uncharacteristic blunders, one on the bases and one in the field that ultimately doomed the Mets as they lost the second game of their series with the Padres, 4-2.

First, in the 5th inning the Amazins were mounting a rally and had already tied the game at 2 on an RBI single by Daniel Murphy. Two men were on, including Wright on first, with one out. Carlos Beltran then flied out to center field, and while the rookie Murphy alertly tagged up to go to third, the veteran leader Wright forgot how many outs there were and was easily doubled up off first. It killed the rally and the Mets never scored again.

Two innings later in the 7th Wright messed up again in a much bigger spot. Pedro Martinez left with one out in the inning and the go ahead run on third base. Pedro Feliciano came in and struck out Jody Gerut for the 2nd out, eliminating the sac fly chance. After Edgar Gonzalez walked, Feliciano got Brian Giles to fist one towards third for what looked destined to be out number three. But Wright played the tough short hop and the ball skipped by him into left field. Luis Rodriguez scored to give San Diego the lead for good, and Wright was left speechless and stunned in the infield.

The Padres tacked on a run in the 8th when Chase Headley hit a solo homerun off rookie Eddie Kunz. It was the first homerun Kunz has allowed in the big leagues, and was especially surprising considering the righty gave up only one homerun his whole career in college. Trevor Hoffman nailed down the save with a 1-2-3 ninth, and the Mets were left waiting for Thursday’s matinee to try to win the series.

Wright’s error also spoiled avery good start by Pedro Martinez, who took the tough luck loss to fall to 3-3. However, around 7:15pm the outing hardly looked like it would be a promising one. Gerut launched the first pitch Martinez threw over the right center field wall to give the Pads a 1-0 lead right off the bat. And two batters later Brian Giles added to the party with a solo shot of his own. Pedro was left scratching his head as he was in a 2-0 hole before he could blink.

But Petey settled down after that and did not allow another earned run. He threw 6 1/3 very effective innings, striking out 3 and giving up 4 hits. He thew 101 pitches and while he struggled at times with control of his secondary pitches, at other times he looked in complete control.

Offensively the Mets were once again baffled by the Korean Cha Seung Baek, who got the win going 6 1/3 and allowing 2 runs. He gave up 8 hits, and stranded 9 runners on base.

The only player who was swinging a good stick all night was energetic rookie Daniel Murphy. The recent call-up had 3 more hits, including his first major league triple in the first inning. He only has 15 at-bats in the bigs, but his .455 average is still impressive.

Rizzi’s Rant:

I know David Wright made costly mistakes, you know it, and I am positive that David knows it. But no one should get on him too hard, and no one should be worried. These kinds of things happen to even the best players of all time, and I do not expect it to become a pattern. DW is the leader of this team, and probably will be the greatest hitter in Mets history when it’s all said and done (provided he stays healthy). Let’s cut him some slack.

That being said, it is now two nights in a row that Wright has made a baserunning mistake, and I think he could use tomorrow’s afternoon game off. In his post-game presser Jerry Manuel said that he was thinking likewise until Wright told him he doesn’t need the day off. So I guess David convinced Manuel to play him, which personally I don’t really like.

I think Manuel has done a great job so far as Manager, but I would sit Wright anyway tomorrow. Of course he is going to say he wants to play tomorrow, he’s David Wright and he’s the man. But he’s only had one game on the bench all year, and with Johan Santana pitching he can afford to sit one more tomorrow. Oh well, maybe he will prove me wrong and go 4-5 with 2 homers.

Eddie Kunz may have given up a homerun, but I think he will be a good pitcher. I did not realize just how bug of a dude he is, standing at 6′6 and weighing in over 250 pounds. He throws a hard sinker and I do not expect him to give up too many gopher balls. His potential is great.

Speaking of potential, hello Daniel Murphy! I love this guy! He does not appear to be a natural superstar, but he is an intelligent hitter who plays hard, works the count, and provides a real spark in this lineup…or at least he has so far. I am very excited to see what this kid can do down the stretch.

Tomorrow is a must win now that we are 3 games behind the Phillies. We cannot fall much further back, and with Johan on the hill we have to take this series. Not gonna lie, I am once again getting nervous about just how good this team is. The bullpen needs to come together quickly and the bats need to come up with clutch hits. I am going to bed, hopefully to dream about Robin Ventura’s grand slam single in the ‘99 NLCS…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 6:41 pm and is filed under Chase Headley, Pedro Feliciano, Carlos Beltran, Rizzi's Rant, Cha Seung Baek, Dan Murphy, Eddie Kunz, Pedro Martinez, Brian Giles, David Wright, San Diego Padres, Edgar Gonzalez, Jody Gerut, Trevor Hoffman, 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.