Padres unload on Harvey, defeat Mets 7-3

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

You had to figure that rookie Matt Harvey would eventually have a rough major league start. The surprising part is that the first lousy start of Harvey’s big league career came in the pitcher’s haven of Petco Park.

Harvey’s outing got ugly right away as Chase Headley drove a lazy change-up up and over the right field wall. With Everth Cabrera already on base with a double, Headley’s blast gave the Padres a 2-0 first inning lead. Harvey settled down to nicely pitch around Will Venable’s triple in the second, but he got into trouble once again in the third.

With the bases empty and two outs, Harvey issued his first walk of the afternoon to Headley. The next batter, Carlos Quentin, ripped a double up the right-center field gap that scored Headley all the way from first. Yonder Alonso came up next and smashed a Harvey fastball over the center field wall for a home run to give San Diego a 5-0 lead.

“He has a power fastball. … We knew he was going to throw it,” Alonso said. “We knew he was a guy that liked his fastball and he was going to be around the plate. We were hopeful that he was going to leave them up and [we could] put good swings on them.”

After the game, Harvey said he was having issues with locating his pitches.

“When I tried to go away, it was either six inches away or six inches middle,” Harvey said. “It was one of those days where I couldn’t find the strike zone. And when I did, it was not quality. I wasn’t executing the way I had the last two starts. It’s just one of those days.”

Harvey ended up getting through two more innings without allowing another run. He ended his day with four doubles and two home runs allowed in five innings pitched. However, Harvey’s five strikeouts and just one walk allowed are a nice little silver lining to hang onto.

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Mets vs. Padres lineups and stuff

Posted on August 5, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

The Mets face an old friend today in Jason Marquis. In his travels throughout the National League, Marquis has started 18 games (plus seven relief appearances) against the Mets and pitched 110 total innings. His 4.58 ERA and 1.51 WHIP against New York and pretty much in line with his career total versus everyone, so it’s not like Marquis has been particularly vexing (or not) for the Mets.

This season, Marquis made seven starts for the Twins and was horrible (8.47 ERA in 34 innings), but then he was released and picked up by the Padres at the end of May. With San Diego, Marquis has played with a passable 4.08 ERA in 68.1 innings. Most surprsing, though, is the 61 strikeouts logged by Marquis in those innings (and only 19 walks). Over a full season, that’s around 180 punch outs, a mark that Marquis hasn’t even come close to in his career.

While a pitcher finding success by moving to PetCo is not a new thing, Marquis’ increased strikeout numbers suggest that he may be at least a little bit for real. Plus, it’s not like Minnesota’s Target Field is a bandbox.

Hopefully Matt Harvey will get a bunch of groundballs in his third career MLB start, because Valdespin in center field makes me queasy. Even though Andres Torres was terrible last night, playing Bay over him against the righty isn’t likely much of an improvement.

San Diego manager Bud Black has moved Everth Cabrera up in the order, which could be a response to him reaching base four times in the past two games. He’s pretty much put up the same offensive profile as Logan Forsythe this season, anyway. Forsythe, by the way, is sitting again to make room for 23-year-old Alexi Amarista.

Remember to enjoy today’s game, everyone. Follow me @apy5000 and let’s hope Matt Harvey has an awesome day.

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Baxter walks into history, Mets down Padres 6-2

Posted on August 5, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

Last night in New York’s 6-2 win over the San Diego Padres, Mike Baxter became the first Mets player to walk five times in a nine-inning game. He’s the first major league player to walk five times in a nine-inning game since Ryan Howard did so in 2006.

“Sometimes you foul off some pitches. When you miss a fastball that you usually put in play, it extends the at-bat. And sometimes you get ahead in the count and you try to work it a little bit,” Baxter said after the Mets beat the Padres 6-2 Saturday night. “It was just kind of a strange night.”

Baxter is now batting .310/.425/.493 in 87 plate appearances this season. Also notable was Daniel Murphy going 4-for-4 with a double and a pair of runs scored. Jeremy Hefner struck out two batters and walked none in six innings while allowing just one run. Josh Edgin pitched a pair of scoreless innings and Frank Francisco earned the save after Bobby Parnell allowed a Chase Headley home run in the ninth inning.

Here’s the complete box score.

The Mets did most of their offensive work in the second inning, when they scored four runs against Edinson Volquez. Ike Davis led off with a single and Volquez then loaded the bases with walks to Murphy and Baxter. After Andres Torres struck out for the first of three times, Josh Thole was walked to break the scoreless tie. Volquez recovered by striking out Hefner, but then Tejada walked to drive in a second run. The ball was finally put into play again on Jordanny Valdespin’s two-RBI double that broke open the game.

For Padres fans, the game marked the MLB debut of reliever Cory Burns. In 65 innings with triple-A Tucsco this season, Burns has 77 strikeouts and 16 walks with a 0.94 WHIP, so as a Mets fan, I’m pretty jealous. Although Burns struggled with his control (three walks) he showed some nasty off-speed stuff and got through his 1.2 innings without allowing a run.

Today, the Mets and Padres play the rubber game of their three-game series. Matt Harvey will make his third career MLB start while Staten Island native Jason Marquis takes the hill for San Diego.

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Thole gets railroaded, Mets lose to Padres 3-1

Posted on August 4, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

Ugh what happened last night? R.A. Dickey was rolling along and didn’t even allow a base hit until Yonder Alonso ripped off a single in the fifth inning. Dickey was able to keep Alonso from scoring, but in the next inning, the Padres tied the game at 1-1 without even recording a hit.

Dickey started the inning with a walk of Cabrera, who is hitting .231/.318/.325 for the season. After a sacrifice bunt by starting pitcher Clayton Richard, Cabrera swiped third base on a sneaky delayed steal. Lead-off hitter Chris Denorfia took advantage of the heist by driving in Cabrera with a sac fly.

The real drama hit in the seventh inning, though. With Carlos Quentin on first base and one out, Alonso lifted a fly ball to medium-deep right field that Scott Hairston somehow didn’t have enough time to get under. Hairston dove and missed, prompting Quentin to chug around third and try to score.

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Mets to wear sweet 1989 throwbacks tonight in San Diego

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

19…19…1989

Check it out! It’s Metro gone retro. The Padres are holding a throwback party, and as their costumes, the Mets are wearing road jerseys from the 1989 season.


Unfortunately, from 1988 through 1992, the Mets wore boring Yankees-style “New York” across their chests on the road. I don’t think anyone in San Diego would be upset if the Mets wore their cool script 1987 roadies instead.

Oh, well. Here’s what the Padres will be wearing:

I’m too young to remember those brown jerseys (humble brag?), so this should be fun. Also, here’s a view of the back of the shirts, courtesy of the Padres official Twitter feed.

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Mets win wild one in San Francisco, back at it tonight

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

Last night the Mets won a crazy game in which they fell behind the San Francisco Giants 4-2, came back to take a 6-4 lead in the eighth, blew that 6-4 lead in the ninth, and finally won 8-7 in the 10th inning.

Scott Hairston was instrumental in the victory. He was in the starting lineup because San Francisco’s starter was outstanding lefty Madison Bumgarner, but Hairston stayed in the game to hit two crucial home runs against right-handed relief pitchers.

In the top of the eighth, Hairston hit a two-run blast off of Sergio Romo to tie the game at 4-4. After Bobby Parnell and Josh Edgin allowed the Giants to tie the game in the ninth inning, Hairston struck again in the 10th with a lead-off homer off of Santiago Casilla.

It’s a good thing the Mets were able to score an eighth run on Rob Johnson’s safety squeeze, because Manny Acosta was very shaky in his half of the 10th. He allowed San Francisco to score on a Nate Schierholtz RBI single before getting Brandon Belt to fly out to deep center field for the third out.

Here’s the box from Monday night.

  • Jeremy Hefner actually looked pretty good, but was hurt by a lot of soft contact getting through.
  • The game probably would have been more relaxing if Jon Rauch had been allowed to stay on for the ninth after he got through the eighth with just seven pitches. Rauch is actually starting to grow on me because, despite his inability to miss many bats, he just doesn’t walk anybody at all.
  • Bumgarner looked almost unhittable early on, but he strangely unraveled in the fourth inning when, with two outs, he walked Jason Bay on four pitches. He then fell behind Ronny Cedeno before surrendering the two-RBI double that gave the Mets a 2-1 lead.
  • After Hairston tied the game in the eighth, Justin Turner hit a huge RBI double to give the Mets a 5-4 advantage. The newest Giant, Marco Scutaro, then misplayed Rob Johnson’s groundball to allow Turner to score from second.

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Davis slugs three home runs, Mets lose to Snakes 6-3

Posted on July 28, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

When your team’s suddenly hot young slugger hits three home runs in a game and your team only scores three runs… well that’s pretty sad. Tonight (Saturday), the Mets lost to Arizona 6-3 even though Ike Davis went 4 for 4 with three round trippers. All three were off of Diamondbacks starter Ian Kenneday, who pitched splendidly to everyone else, and the first two dingers were nearly identical blasts to straight away center. The third went down the right field line.

In his fourth at-bat, Davis ripped a single to right field off of Arizona set-up man David Hernandez. There was nearly a fifth chance, but Davis was left on deck as the game ended with J.J. Putz striking out David Wright.

I didn’t see any of Chris Young thanks to a social engagement, but apparently he got rocked. Young allowed six runs in just four innings with two strikeouts and two walks. Miguel Montero hit a two-run bomb in the fourth, while Aaron Hill and Ryan Wheeler hit RBI doubles in the first and second innings, respectively.

Besides Davis being a monster, the Mets kept the game watchable with a trio of nice bullpen performances. Ramon Ramirez pitched two scoreless innings and Manny Acosta struck out three in one and one-third innings. Josh Edgin wrapped things up with a pair of strikeouts in the eighth.

Davis is still hitting just .216/.281/.448 on the season, but the 20 home runs show that, at the very least, he can be depended on to hit for power. There’s still a lot for Davis to work on, but given that power hitting is something that the Mets sorely lack, he’s on the right track. Another good sign is that Davis is dealing with a career low BABIP even though he’s hitting line drives more often than in his previous two seasons. In other words, Ike is probably not a career .216 hitter.

Sunday at 4:10 PM the Mets finish their four-game set with Arizona. R.A. Dickey will take the mound for New York and Joe Saunders will pitch for the Diamondbacks.

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Mets get amazing Harvey debut, then go right on losing

Posted on July 28, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

Havery’s incredible debut
Thursday night gave the Mets some hope for the future, as 2010 first round pick Matt Harvey’s major league debut went better than anyone could have imagined. The rookie became the first player in the modern era to strike out 10 or more batters while recording two hits of his own in an MLB debut. All told, Harvey struck out 11 batters in five and one-third shutout innings while allowing three hits and three walks in New York’s 3-1 win over Arizona.

“We knew [Harvey] threw hard; we knew he had a hard slider,” [third baseman Ryan] Wheeler said. “The changeup, I mean, I’d seen one changeup in the [triple-A] All-Star Game and it wasn’t good, and today his changeup seemed to be on. So that was the best I could do on a scouting report. The only thing we knew was that he had a really good arm, and he showed that today.”

Scott Hairston knocked in a pair with a double in the first inning, and Rob Johnson hit a sac fly to take advantage of Andres Torres’ triple in the fourth.

The only bad news about this game is that some irrational fans might expect Harvey to do this in every start. I’d be surprised if he pitched another game like this all season. That said, the 11 strikeouts seems to show that Harvey’s stuff translates over to the big leagues, so you have to at least view him as a high-ceiling guy for the time being.

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Mets are hopefully done losing now

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

Thanks to the Penn State football team being in dire straights, my attention has wavered a bit from the Mets, who are in admittedly less dire straights. Don’t tell the Mets fans, though. Sure, a 47-51 record after 98 games would be considered acceptable back in April, but it’s the way they’ve come to that record that hurts, isn’t it?

Hey at least the Mets are swooning before the trade deadline instead of after. This way, the front office is less likely to make a pointless trade. Last season, the San Francisco Giants were so jazzed up about defending their league title that they traded away stud pitching prospect Zack Wheeler. That was really, really good for the Mets, if you don’t recall.

Of course, people are still upset that general manager Sandy Alderson is actually sticking to the rebuilding plan instead of amusing fans with minor acquisitions like Brandon Lyon and Brett Myers (combined Fangraphs WAR this season = 0.4). It’s amazing how one magical first half can make so many people forget that we’re in the middle of a multi-year process.

Anyway, the Mets lost again today to the Nationals to fall to 1-11 since the All-Star break. Jeremy Hefner was pretty good, but Stephen Strasburg was predictably better. Now that the Nationals can hit the ball (back in April and May their offense was dubious at best), they appear poised for a shot at the title, even with that Strasburg innings limit hanging over their heads. Washington won 5-2 and Ike Davis hit his 16th home run of the season.

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Football Culture!

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Aaron Yorke

On Monday morning, the NCAA crashed their “hammer” down on the Penn State football program. A four-year bowl ban and a loss of 10 scholarships per year for four years were penalties designed to humble Penn State’s proud football program. The vacation of all wins from 1998 through 2011 and a $60 million fine (with the money going to charity) were just icing on NCAA president Mark Emmert’s cake of darkness.

The penalties handed out by the NCAA were supposed to “change the culture” of Penn State and scare other schools into downplaying the importance of their football programs. However, recently occurring events seem to imply that student wellfare is still taking a backseat to the desire of football coaches to win football games.

For example, I don’t think Emmert anticipated that frenzy that would occur when he opened up the recruitment of Penn State’s current roster to every school in the country. Today, coaches from various schools were witnessed loitering outside of the Lasch Football Building, waiting for the opportunity to recruit PSU players.

“Our players are in our building right now and they don’t want to leave the building because there are coaches from other schools in the parking lot waiting to see them,” said O’Brien, who spent the morning at ESPN’s Bristol, Conn., campus.

According to defensive back Stephon Morris, coaches were even stalking the players in their apartment complex.

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