Much better game for the Mets tonight, as John Maine pitched very well from the start (6.0 IP, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO, 1 HR). Ryan Church picked up his 30th RBI and 8th HR of the season. Brian Schneider and Jose Reyes also drove in runs.
For the Nationals, Ryan Zimmerman homered off of Maine in the third for his sixth of the season. Rob Mackowiak also drove in a run. John Lannan wasn’t great tonight, going 6 innings with 4 earned runs off of 12 hits, with a walk, two strikeouts, and a home run. Luis Ayala continued to struggle, surrendering an earned run in the eighth on two hits and a walk.
Matt Wise allowed a run in the 7th, but was still credited with a hold, as was Duaner Sanchez, who apparently still has the confidence of Willie Randolph. Billy Wagner notched his eighth save of the year.
Maine continues to be the Maine man, as the rest of the Mets pitching staff remains a wild card. Other than Johan Santana, there’s no one I’d rather see on the mound for the Amazin’s. Should be interesting tomorrow as Claudio Vargas goes against Tim Redding.
-Jonathan Kraft
Categories: Mets · Nationals
Tagged: Mets, Nationals, John Lannan, Johan Santana, Ryan Zimmerman, Billy Wagner, Duaner Sanchez, Matt Wise, Tim Redding, Brian Schneider, Luis Ayala, Jose Reyes, Ryan Church, John Maine, Claudio Vargas, Willie Randolph, Rob Mackowiak
The Game: Washington Nationals (16-23) at New York Mets (19-17)
The Matchup: John Lannan (3-3, 3.40) vs. John Maine (4-2, 3.00)
The Story: The Mets look to rebound after a less than stellar effort last night that saw the two primary scapegoats, Nelson Figueroa and Jorge Sosa, get designated for assignment this morning. Tonight, the Mets take the field behind their second-best starter, John Maine, who was two outs from pitching a complete game shutout last week in Los Angeles. The Mets scored 12 runs in that game, and run support is much in demand for New York.
The Nationals’ biggest surprise of the season, John Lannan, takes the mound just miles from his Long Beach, New York home. Lannan has found great success this year, save one start when he surrendered 5 earned runs in 3 innings on May 2 at Houston. The southpaw Lannan relies mostly on his breaking ball, and has been very effective, posting a K/BB ratio of 1.89.
The Lineups:
Nationals: [Not yet posted]
Mets: Reyes (SS), Church (RF), Wright (3B), Beltran (CF), Alou (LF), Delgado (1B), Easley (2B), Schneider (C), Maine (P)
Categories: Mets · Nationals
Tagged: Mets, Nationals, John Lannan, Nelson Figueroa, Jorge Sosa, John Maine, Beast-Off
Actually, “Pitcher’s got a big butt…in AAA New Orleans!”
Nelson Figueroa can’t take the heat:
Figueroa was fuming over the behavior of some of the Nationals’ players during the third inning, whom he accused of singing and chanting as he pitched to Austin Kearns with the bases loaded and the score tied, 3-3.
“They were cheerleading in the dugout like a bunch of softball girls,” Figueroa said. “I’m a professional just like anybody else, so I take huge offense to that. … I think they need to show a little more class and professionalism. They won tonight but, in the long run, they are still who they are.”
Figueroa is as mild-mannered a player as the Mets have in their clubhouse, so his words resonate.
He wouldn’t say specifically who the Washington players were, but his tone indicated that it wasn’t something the Mets would take lightly. With three more games this week, a feud between the two teams could be brewing.
Lastings Milledge, the controversial outfielder the Nationals acquired from the Mets this winter, defended his teammates’ conduct.
“Well, what are we supposed to do?” Milledge said. “We’re not supposed to cater to anybody on the opposing team. We’re not going to cater to him or anybody else, so whatever. We’ve been down the last couple days; we want to get something going. If you don’t like it, you’ve got to just deal with it.”
Luckily for him, he won’t have to anymore, as he’s been designated for assignment.
-Greg Berlin
Categories: Mets · Nationals
Tagged: Mets, Nationals, Nelson Figueroa, Lastings Milledge, Austin Kearns
Phuture Phillies writes today about Scott Mathieson’s possible second Tommy John surgery:
The news on Mathieson isn’t good.
He’ll visit Dr. James Andrews [of Birmingham, Alabama] for an arthroscopic procedure Thursday in Birmingham, Ala., though there’s a good chance Mathieson will need another ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction.
Mathieson said he was told by Andrews that a scope might solve the issue, which would keep him out for a shorter time frame. He’s not ready to concede his season, yet.
“I’ll wake up [Thursday] and I’ll either be out four to six weeks or a year,” Mathieson said by phone.
There really isn’t a lot else to say. Its a shame to see a promising arm struggle with injuries, especially right after he reached the big leagues. We can just hope that he doesn’t need a second TJ, and if he does, that he can recover quickly.
To echo Phuture Phils, this is just unfortunate.
———–
For the record, here at NL Beast we find Dr. James Andrews of Birmingham, Alabama to be a comical phenomenon in sports. Every time his name is mentioned it always seems to be tagged with his location, and it almost always is a bad sign for the player. But no disrespect to the guy - he’s a renowned surgeon. This ESPN feature article is pretty awesome.
-Greg Berlin
Categories: Phillies
Tagged: Dr. James Andrews of Birmingham Alabama, Phillies, Scott Mathieson
Categories: Mets
Tagged: Jose Reyes, Mets
Just when we thought that Omar was going to take the “fiscally responsible” move and demote Joe Smith to make room for a starter for tomorrow’s game, someone knocked some sense into him. Here are the roster moves made today by the Mets:
Demoted: RHP Nelson Figueroa, RHP Jorge Sosa
Promoted/Activated: RHP Claudio Vargas, RHP Matt Wise, IF Fernando Tatis
DL: OF Angel Pagan
This should be goodbye to Sosa; I’m sure there will be lots of crying by Mets fans over that. I feel bad for Figueroa but wouldn’t be at all surprised if he’s back soon unless Vargas has a great start tomorrow. Tatis has been playing extremely well in New Orleans, and deserves Pagan’s spot. Hopefully it’s nothing serious with Angel and he’s back soon. In terms of Wise, well, hopefully he can be that 6th inning reliever that the Mets have been missing all year.
-Jonathan Kraft
Categories: Mets
Tagged: Angel Pagan, Claudio Vargas, Fernando Tatis, Jorge Sosa, Matt Wise, Mets, Nelson Figueroa
[cross posted at http://AlexKellner.com]
I will be heading to Camden Yards tonight to see Josh Beckett face off against Jeremy Guthrie. In light of that, this week’s AL roundup will discuss the Baltimore Orioles record thus far this year. The expectation of the Orioles coming into 2008 was that they would be vying with the Giants for the worst record in baseball. Having traded away star shortstop Miguel Tejada and ace Erik Bedard (and making attempts to trade away Brian Roberts, which may still happen), Baltimore was in a full-blown rebuilding process.
Peter Angelos, the owner of the storied franchise, ran the team into the ground and last year “handed”* the reigns over to Andy McPhail. McPhail definitely got good value for Bedard in centerfielder Adam Jones, which gives the Orioles a great young outfield with Nick Markakis and too a lesser extent Luke Scott (who came over in the Tejada deal).
*Angelos certainly didn’t hand over the team to McPhail. He is still meddling in trades and the day-to-day operation of the team. He is right up there with Jeffery Loria and the Nutting family as the worst owner in baseball. The Orioles fans deserve better, but he doesn’t appear to be leaving any time soon. (more…)
Categories: General
Tagged: Adam Jones, Asdrubal Cabrera, Baltimore Orioles, Cliff Lee, FanGraphs, Goose Gossage, Jeremy Guthrie, Joba Chamberlain, Joe Posnanski, Manny Ramirez, Nick Markakis, Orel Hersheiser, Peter Angelos, Scott Kazmir, Yu Darvish
The Game: Philadelphia Phillies (21-18) vs. Atlanta Braves (19-18)
The Matchup: Kyle Kendrick (2-2, 4.93, 18/12 K/BB, 1.59 WHIP) vs. Jo-Jo Reyes (1-0, 2.25, 6/5 K/BB, 1.75 WHIP)
The Story: The Braves own the league’s worst road record at 5-14. They are coming off losing 3 of 4 in Pittsburgh and they are struggling to get out of 4th place in the division. Hit with injuries to several key players, the Braves are still one game above .500. One of those injuries was to first baseman Mark Texiera, who left yesterday’s game 1 against the Pirates in the 4th inning with back spasms. He did not play in game 2 and no word if he’s in the lineup for today.
The Phillies are also looking to right the ship. After a solid start to May, the Phillies went 3-4 on a somewhat disappointing road trip. Despite splitting 4 games with the NL leading Diamondbacks, they lost 2 of 3 to the Giants after a surprise homer given up by JC Romero to Steve Holm in Sunday’s 4-3 loss.
Kyle Kendrick is coming off of two 6 inning, 3 earned run starts. He earned a no decision in both of those games. In his start previous to those games he went 7 innings. However, he has let up 10, 8, and 7 hits respectively in is last three games. On the bright side, Kendrick has only given up 2 walks in his last 4 starts. Kendrick has gotten generous run support, with the Phillies scoring at least 5 runs in all by one of his starts. Perhaps that is masking Kendrick’s numbers. He has not looked particularly strong in any consistent stretch this season.
Stat of the Day: The Phillies have the 4th worse fielding percentage in baseball at .978. They have 33 errors in 39 games. The Rangers lead the league in errors, with 38 misplays in 40 games.
Lineups:
Phillies
Rollins (SS)
Victorino (RF)
Utley (2B)
Howard (1B)
Burrell (LF)
Werth (CF)
Feliz (3B)
Ruiz (C)
Kendrick (P)
Braves
Escobar (SS)
Kotsay (CF)
Jones (3B)
McCann (C)
Norton (1B)
Francoeur (RF)
Johnson (2B)
Blanco (LF)
Reyes (P)
-Greg Berlin
Categories: Braves · Phillies
Tagged: Braves, JC Romero, Jo-Jo Reyes, Kyle Kendrick, Mark Texiera, Phillies, Steve Holm
Marlins rally not enough against Reds
Despite three early homers by Jeremy Hermida, Hanley Ramirez, and Dan Uggla, the Marlins were not able to hold a lead against the Reds. The Reds scored a pair of runs in the fifth and sixth innings to take a 4-3 lead, but Uggla tied it up with a sac-fly in the 7th. In the top bottom of the 7th Taylor Tankersley gave up two 2-run home runs to Jeff Keppinger and Brandon Phillips.
In the top of the 8th the Marlins gave their best effort to tie the game, rallying with two outs. Luis Gonzalez scored two on a single to center and Mike Rabelo knocked in another after an error by Ken Griffey Jr. But that would be all for the Marlins, who left two on base to end the inning. Francisco Cordero notched his sixth save of the season, securing the Aaron Harang’s first win since April 10th. Tankersley picked up the loss, breaking a 7 game winning streak for the first place Marlins.
Final score: Reds 8-Marlins 7
Braves split double header against Pirates in two lopsided affairs
In game 1, the Pirates shutout the Braves, needing only a Freddy Sanchez bases clearing double in the 3rd to get the job done. Despite 5 walks and 3 fielding errors, Zach Duke let up no runs and only 5 hits in six innings of work to get his second win of the year. Jair Jurrjens only lasted five innings and recorded his third loss of the year. Adam LaRoche knocked a ball out of the park in the 8th inning against Jeff Bennet, icing the win. It was the sixth in a row for the the streakingPirates.
Final Score: Pirates 5-Braves 0
The Pirates would not have as much luck in game 2. Tim Hudson pitched a gem, going 7 innings, allowing no earned runs, only 2 hits, two walks and striking out 5. The only runs the Pirates managed all day was on an error in the first inning Braves first baseman Greg Norton. The Braves shook off their offensive struggles from game 1 and crossed the plate 8 times in the win. Steady hitting throughout the lineup helped the Braves break a three game losing streak; a streak that came right after winning 6 in a row at home.
Final Score: Braves 8-Pirates 1
-Greg Berlin
Categories: Braves · Marlins
Tagged: Marlins, Braves, Hanley Ramirez, Jeremy Hermida, Tim Hudson, Pirates, Zach Duke, Freddy Sanchez, Reds, Luis Gonzalez, Dan Uggla, Ken Griffey Jr., Greg Norton, Jair Jurrjens, Adam LaRoche, Jeff Bennet, Mike Rabelo, Aaron Harang, Francisco Cordero, Jeff Keppinger, Brandon Phillips, Taylor Tankersley
I certainly hope not.
David Murphy asked Ruben Amaro Jr. just that question:
“We’re hopeful. Things have been very slow with him. Obviously, he’s had a couple of setbacks, which hurt us. But we still have to let it play out and see how it’s going. He’s back throwing off the mound again, which is a good sign, but he still has some fatigue in his groin and he’s got to get himself healthy before we even really consider him being an option for us.”
[Kris] Benson is well behind schedule. He’s still recovering from an injured groin, which followed a bout with biceps tendinitis. The Phillies initially thought he’d be ready to help the team sometime this month. Now, there’s no telling when he might be ready to go.
Combine that situation with the fact that the Phillies have used more than five starting pitchers in each of the last 15 years, and the chances are good that the team will eventually find itself looking for help from its minor league system.
General manager Pat Gillick said a couple of weeks ago in Pittsburgh that if Benson didn’t pan out, the Phils would likely look internally for pitching help should a need arise. The prospects of finding a starter via trade or the waiver wire simply aren’t good.
So who will it be?
(more…)
Categories: Phillies
Tagged: Phillies, Adam Eaton, David Murphy, Carlos Carrasco, Pat Gillick, Ruben Amaro Jr., JA Happ, Antonio Bastardo, Drew Naylor, Kris Benson
