Thursday, July 28, 2005
All's Well That Ends Well
If you have to lose 2 of 3 to the worst team in baseball, preferably, you win the third game to get out of town on a high. That's what the Mets did last night with a 9-3 thumping of the Rockies.
After falling asleep for the whole series, the bats were awakened in the fifth and sixth innings. The leaders of the offense were two backups, Ramon Castro and Marlon Anderson, who went a total of 4-for-8 with 3 home runs and 5 RBI's while filling in for Mike Piazza and Mike Cameron, respectively. Everybody in the starting lineup had a hit, even Carlos Beltran, who sucks and doesn't seem to care, either. (Although the latter is admittedly an unfair accusation.)
Zamby (5-9, 3.78) finally got some runs and won for the first time since June 28th against Philadelphia. He threw 112 pitches and walked just 3 through seven innings.
Now it's off to Houston. This is, somewhat arguably, the biggest series the Mets have played since the walked out of Turner Field defeated on September 28-30, 2001.
Gaining Ground
Boston won, and the Yankees lost. It doesn't get much better than that.
Oh, but it does. Curt Schilling was able to pitch for the third straight day and be effective. After going 1.2 innings on Monday and 2 on Tuesday, Schilling was able to get the final out for Boston in their 4-1 win over Tampa on Wednesday. Schilling notched his 3rd save in Tim Wakefield's 9th victory.
Meanwhile, at the Stadium, two high-profile lefties regained last year's form. Al Leiter pitched like he did so often last year for the Mets, allowing 12 baserunners and throwing 115 pitches in five innings, en route to a early exit. Despite throwing an staggering average of 23 pitches per inning, Leiter kept the Yankees in the game by allowing just one of those baserunners to score. He exited the game losing 1-0.
Johan Santana, on the other hand, looked like pitcher who went 13-0 in the 2004 second half and won the Cy Young Award. Going 7 strong, Santana allowed no runs on seven hits in winning his tenth game for the Twins. He has been a disappointment so far this year, but a second half remotely like last year's no doubt would quiet the critics.
The Yankee bullpen let the game get out of hand in the later innings. After a scoreless 6th by Felix Rodriguez, Tanyon Sturtze, Scott Proctor, and Alex Graman allowed a combined 6 runs over 3 innings. Joe Nathan delievered his 28th save in a 7-3 Twins wins.
But rest easy, Yankee fans, as help is on the way. The Yankees claimed Hideo Nomo off waivers from Tampa yesterday, and signed him to a minor league contract. Nomo has looked completely washed up over the past two seasons, posting an 8.25 ERA last year with the Dodgers and a 7.24 with the Rays this year. Unlike the move of acquiring Al Leiter, who is a New York guy with pennant push heroics under his belt in the Big Apple, the adding of Nomo has little apparent upside.
Today's Schedule
Twins (Mays, 5-5, 4.46) @ Yankees (Small, 1-0, 4.26), 1:05 PM
Mets (Martinez, 12-3, 2.79) @ Astros (Astacio, 1-4, 8.24), 8:05 PM
The Red Sox have a scheduled off day today.
Other Notes
-The Knicks are introducing living legend Larry Brown to coach the team today. Brown has signed a 5-year deal worth nearly 60 million dollars to come to New York.
-Zach Duke, the Pirates phenom favorably viewed here at Defeat the Empire, went two scoreless innings in Miami last night before rain delay force him to leave the game. Duke extended his scoreless streak to 24 consecutive innings, however, and lowered his ERA to 0.87.
After falling asleep for the whole series, the bats were awakened in the fifth and sixth innings. The leaders of the offense were two backups, Ramon Castro and Marlon Anderson, who went a total of 4-for-8 with 3 home runs and 5 RBI's while filling in for Mike Piazza and Mike Cameron, respectively. Everybody in the starting lineup had a hit, even Carlos Beltran, who sucks and doesn't seem to care, either. (Although the latter is admittedly an unfair accusation.)
Zamby (5-9, 3.78) finally got some runs and won for the first time since June 28th against Philadelphia. He threw 112 pitches and walked just 3 through seven innings.
Now it's off to Houston. This is, somewhat arguably, the biggest series the Mets have played since the walked out of Turner Field defeated on September 28-30, 2001.
Gaining Ground
Boston won, and the Yankees lost. It doesn't get much better than that.
Oh, but it does. Curt Schilling was able to pitch for the third straight day and be effective. After going 1.2 innings on Monday and 2 on Tuesday, Schilling was able to get the final out for Boston in their 4-1 win over Tampa on Wednesday. Schilling notched his 3rd save in Tim Wakefield's 9th victory.
Meanwhile, at the Stadium, two high-profile lefties regained last year's form. Al Leiter pitched like he did so often last year for the Mets, allowing 12 baserunners and throwing 115 pitches in five innings, en route to a early exit. Despite throwing an staggering average of 23 pitches per inning, Leiter kept the Yankees in the game by allowing just one of those baserunners to score. He exited the game losing 1-0.
Johan Santana, on the other hand, looked like pitcher who went 13-0 in the 2004 second half and won the Cy Young Award. Going 7 strong, Santana allowed no runs on seven hits in winning his tenth game for the Twins. He has been a disappointment so far this year, but a second half remotely like last year's no doubt would quiet the critics.
The Yankee bullpen let the game get out of hand in the later innings. After a scoreless 6th by Felix Rodriguez, Tanyon Sturtze, Scott Proctor, and Alex Graman allowed a combined 6 runs over 3 innings. Joe Nathan delievered his 28th save in a 7-3 Twins wins.
But rest easy, Yankee fans, as help is on the way. The Yankees claimed Hideo Nomo off waivers from Tampa yesterday, and signed him to a minor league contract. Nomo has looked completely washed up over the past two seasons, posting an 8.25 ERA last year with the Dodgers and a 7.24 with the Rays this year. Unlike the move of acquiring Al Leiter, who is a New York guy with pennant push heroics under his belt in the Big Apple, the adding of Nomo has little apparent upside.
Today's Schedule
Twins (Mays, 5-5, 4.46) @ Yankees (Small, 1-0, 4.26), 1:05 PM
Mets (Martinez, 12-3, 2.79) @ Astros (Astacio, 1-4, 8.24), 8:05 PM
The Red Sox have a scheduled off day today.
Other Notes
-The Knicks are introducing living legend Larry Brown to coach the team today. Brown has signed a 5-year deal worth nearly 60 million dollars to come to New York.
-Zach Duke, the Pirates phenom favorably viewed here at Defeat the Empire, went two scoreless innings in Miami last night before rain delay force him to leave the game. Duke extended his scoreless streak to 24 consecutive innings, however, and lowered his ERA to 0.87.
# posted by Dave @ 11:49 AM 
