Results tagged ‘ Braves ’

Mets’ sloppy homestand

The New York Mets have been anything but amazing in this 11 game home stand. They go 2-2 against the San Francisco Giants, 1-2 against the Atlanta Braves, and lose three of the last four games against the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Mets are anything but amazing this season. I will continue to stick to injuries are not the reason the Mets are losing these games. Not an excuse. I’m not buying it anymore.

The memorable highlights from this homestand.

David Wright’s injury.

DWright5.jpghttp://newyork.mets.mlb.com/images/2009/08/16/6cn3TEdh.jpg
Luis Castillo homers for the first time against the Giants.

JMartinez.jpgJoe Martinez the hometown boy dazzles the New York Mets.

Derek Lowe struggling.
http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/images/2009/08/18/nfj6rvAM.jpg
Mets and Braves each put on a 8 spot. Mets did it the first game off Lowe, and Braves did in the second game off Bobby Parnell.
http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/images/2009/08/20/b3KeOLXG.jpg
Kenshin Kawakami was awesome vs Johan Santana.
http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/images/2009/08/20/ilFEjd8H.jpg

http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/images/2009/08/21/p8SYLTAV.jpg
Mike Pelfrey has his stuff in the first game against the Phillies.

http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/images/2009/08/22/mqiYRgFy.jpg
Pat Misch is the culprit for the Mets losing to the Phillies.
Utley.jpgThe game in which Eric Bruntlett made the triple play. This should’ve stand out better.
http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/images/2009/08/23/lQMOeplX.jpg
Jayson Werth hitting a home run.
Ruiz.jpgCarlos Ruiz after hitting a three run home run against Oliver Perez.

Pedro Martinez pitching for the Phillies.
Martinez.jpg


Eric Bruntlett (4) completing his triple play effort.
Bruntlett.jpg
Here is what happened in the last game.
Howard.jpg
Ryan Howard hits a three run home run.
This was the man who gave it up, Bobby Parnell.
Parnell.jpgAll photographs by Associated Press and MLB.com

Here are the scores for the homestand.

Giants vs Mets
Mets win 3-0
Giants win 5-4
Mets win 3-2
Giants win 10-1

Braves vs Mets
Mets win 9-4
Braves win 15-2
Braves win 3-2

Phillies vs Mets
Mets win 4-2
Phillies win 4-1
Phillies win 9-7
Phillies win 6-2

Next road trip the Mets take on the Marlins, Cubs, and Rockies. This is do or die for them. What did the Mets do this homestand other make the visiting teams better. The ceremony for the 1969 Mets was no good luck charm for them. The Phillies, Braves and Giants put on a better show than the hometown Mets. The Mets go 4-7 in this homestand. That’s not an inspiring marathon for the hometown fans at all.

Some of my friends told me that looking at Citi Field during the homestand was much better than watching the actual field. There’s so much to do walking around rather than sitting on one spot. That’s what most fans were doing during that series. Go walk through those hallways, you can still see the game. The ballpark is more roomy, more legroom and even the highest seats, you can still see the game up close. Great ballpark but the team isn’t so.

I’ve been reading some other Mets fans thoughts and their “what if” the Mets players come off the DL right now? What difference will it make? In my opinion, it won’t make a difference. Angel Pagan is the perfect center fielder and lead off hitter right now. Daniel Murphy pretty much solidified his first base spot, so I don’t see Carlos Delgado coming back to the Mets. Gary Sheffield was held “hostage”? That talk is gone now.

Jeff Francoeur and Johan Santana have been hit by injuries too lately.

This is my latest Mets recap, and thanks for reading.

Billy Wagner’s back….Livan is cut

Braves beat the Mets again 3-2 to take the series. Johan Santana loses, Kenshin Kawakami wins. Rafael Soriano saves the game.
ATLNYM

   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   R   H   E 
Atlanta
0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0   3 9 1
NY Mets
0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0   2 9 0

However, one bright moment was Billy Wagner’s first game with the Mets. He pitches a scoreless 8th inning and strikes out two batters. He enters the game with the song “Enter Sandman” by Metallica. Doesn’t Mariano Rivera use that song? He strikes out Reid Gorecki and Brian McCann, while Chipper Jones flies out.

Bad news, is Livan Hernandez has to go. Wow, I just thought that Livan has been one of the consisitent players on this team, and because of his few flops, they let him go? He leaves with a 7-8  record with an ERA over 5.

What are the Mets to do now?

Here are the standings for the NL East

NL East W L LB
Phillies 68 49
Marlins 64 56 7
Braves 63 57 8
Mets 56 64 16
Nationals 43 77 28

Mets still have a long way to go

Mets lineups and their games with the Braves

Since I have not talked about the Mets for a few days I might as well talk about how they did last few games. I’m not going back to the day with the San Francisco Giants, I’m going to talk about the first two games while hosting the Braves.
ATLNYM

I’ll give short summaries for the first two.

Game one
Braves 4, Mets,9.

Oliver Perez beats Derek Lowe.

Matt Diaz hits a three run home run in the second inning, Adam LaRoche hits a solo blast in the third inning. The Mets would respond in the fourth inning by scoring 8 runs, 10 hits and effectively knocking off Derek Lowe out of the game. Gary Sheffield had two doubles in that inning also.

Game two
Braves 15, Mets 2

Biggest part of the game was the 8 run second inning, with Brian McCann’s three run home run. Adam LaRoche and Matt Diaz also homered later in the game. Jair Jurrjens beats Bobby Parnell in the pitching matchup.

What are the Mets to do now?
Here was their Opening day lineup

Jose Reyes      SS
Daniel Murphy   LF
David Wright     3b
Carlos Delgado 1b
Carlos Beltran   CF
Ryan Church     RF
Brian Schnieder   C
Luis Castillo       2b
Johan Santana   p

Here was their lineup in their last game, at the time of this posting

Angel Pagan               CF
Luis Castillo                2b
Gary Sheffield              LF
Daniel Murphy             1b
Jeff Francoeur             RF
Fernando Tatis            3b
Omir Santos               C
Anderson Hernandez   SS
Bobby Parnell               P

I’ll note some differences here.
1. Jose Reyes, David Wright, Carlos Delgado, and Carlos Beltran are not playing because they are injured.

2. Johan Santana and Brian Schnieder were not scheduled to play.

3. Because Carlos Delgado is out, Daniel Murphy and Fernando Tatis have to plantoon at 1st base, when they are usually outfielders.

4. Anderson Hernandez was with the Nationals on opening day, Jeff Francoeur was with the Braves as well. Both ended up with the Mets with Hernandez coming out of waivers from the Nationals, while Francoeur was acquired by trade with Ryan Church. Gary Sheffield started the season as a Free Agent.

5. Angel Pagan and Omir Santos weren’t with the Mets on opening day, they were called upon subsequently to replace the injured players, Carlos Beltran, and when Brian Schnieder were on the DL.

6. Luis Castillo is the only player playing the same position in both lineups.

I am refusing to give up on the Mets until the season is finally over. After that we’ll see whtch team I’ll be rooting for depending on who goes there.

In other news:
NYYOAK

The Yankees beat the Athletics 3 to 2, benefiting from Mark Teixiera’s two run home run. Mariano Rivera collects his 36th save. Chad Gaudin didn’t qualify for the win because he only pitched 4 and one thirds innings. I think Joe Giradi should have left him out there to qualify for the win.

ARIPHI

Phillies beat the Diamondbacks 8 to 1. Cliff Lee pitches a complete game and Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, and Jayson Werth each homered. Good offense and great pitching sure wins games in this case.

Later tonight is the start of the NPF (softball) championships. Four teams vie for the Championship title in Akron Ohio.

The teams competing are
1. Chicago Bandits
2. Akron Racers (host team for the event)
3. Rockford Thunder (Illionis)
4. USSSA (Florida) Pride

Seeds 1 and 4 play in a best of three series while 2 and 3 play in another best of three series. The winners of each series face each other in the final round. I believe it’s a best of three series with the winner taking the title. The Bandits are the defending champions and are looking to repeat while the Racers, Thunder, and Pride look to dethrone them.

Go to profastpitch.com for live games and schedule of the events. Unfortunately there’s no TV schedule for this tourney.

Thanks for reading today.

My baseball memorabila and more caps

Tonight, instead of talking about Major League Baseball’s events, I decided to talk about baseball related items laying around my room. I have some caps I didn’t get to show yet and some stuffed animals with baseball shirts on them. Without further ado, here are the caps first.

MetFire.JPG

Mets Fireworks style

Cyclone.JPG

Brooklyn Cyclones (New York Penn League Mets Affilate)

OldMet.JPG             Retro Mets blue cap above, and gray cap with green lettering below.

MetsRetro.JPG            Two New York Yankees caps by Mitchell and Ness
GreenYankee.JPG

WhiteYankee.JPG
             New York Yankees silver lettering cap, with the White Sox caps behind it.

CustomYankee.JPG              Chicago White Sox, primary and secondary logos on one cap.
WhiteSox.JPGWhiteGray.JPG

I do have caps from other sports besides baseball.

Giants.JPGNew York Giants (football) and New York Knicks of the NBA

Knicks.JPGAnd here are my stuffed animals.

PICT0104.JPG                   This is a Chicago Cubs Cow.
PICT0096.JPG               New York Mets mascots.
PICT0100.JPG                 A Yankee Mascot, (my older sister got this at Yankee Stadium as a gift)
YankeeBear.JPG

Here’s my baseball cap collection again.
                  The Colorado Rockies’ alterante home cap, didn’t see this worn yet.
PICT0083.JPG               Colorado Rockies road cap.
Rockies.JPG
            St Louis Cardinals home cap, with the Astros cap behind it.
              This Yankee cap is adjustable, not fitted and only cost me $5. Be careful, this hat is not MLB Merchandise.
PICT0072.JPG
             The Pittsburgh Pirates cap that was ditched last season.
RedPirate.JPG
             This Pirates cap is still worn, almost all the time.
 
BlackP.JPG
           The Milwaukee Brewers alternate home cap.
Brewer.JPG
              Cincinnati Reds road cap, with the black bill.
Red.JPG
           Los Angeles Dodgers authentic cap.

PICT0091.JPG

           Florida Marlins authentic cap.
 Marlins.JPG
              Chicago Cubs road cap that was ditched this season.
Cubs.JPG
            Cleveland Indians road cap .
Indian.JPG
           Cleveland Indians home cap.
Indians.JPG            Atlanta Braves Authentic cap.
Braves.JPG
                   New York Mets home cap with Citi Field inaugural season patch.  
MetPatch.JPG
              New York Yankees cap with 2008 MLB all star game logo.
YankeePatch.JPG
I know these are a lot of caps. I am still looking to continue to add on to my collection.

Thanks for viewing, I hope you enjoyed.

John Lannan completes a shutout as Nationals defeat Mets.

John Lannan pitches nine shutout innings against the New York Mets, only allowing seven hits. Lannan threw 106 pitches in which 80 of them were strikes. Oliver Perez pitches six innings, giving up four hits, and four runs. Brian Stokes and Bobby Parnell pitched no-hit innings.

Here’s the box score

 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   R   H   E 
NY Mets
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   0 7 0
Washington
0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 X   4 4 0

Since the Mets did not score, I’ll discuss how the Nationals scored their runs

The scoring innings
Bottom 4th

Ryan Zimmerman walked.
Adam Dunn singles and Zimmerman goes to third.
Josh Willingham pops out.
Alberto Gonzalez hits a sac fly to score Ryan Zimmerman for the first run, Dunn to third.
Wil Nieves singles to bring home Adam Dunn. Alberto Gonzalez goes to second base.
John Lannan grounds out.

Bottom 5th

Nyjer Morgan is hit by pitch.
Cristian Guzman flies out.
Ryan Zimmerman walks, Morgan stole 2nd base while Zimmerman was batting.
Adam Dunn singles, scores Morgan, Zimmerman to third.
Josh Willingham sac flies to score Zimmerman.
Austin Kearns grounds into a force out.

The Mets had seven hits, one each by Angel Pagan, Luis Castillo, David Wright, Daniel Murphy, Oliver Perez, and two hits by Jeff Francoeur, (the best hitter of the game that is)
Mets players grounded into two double plays, and left five on base.

The Nationals had four hits, one by Ryan Zimmerman, one by Wil Nieves, and two by Adam Dunn. Nationals leave six men on base, but they won by four runs.

There were no home runs hit in the game.

Oliver Perez pitched good, despite allowing four runs, he just didn’t have any run support at all, because John Lannan was great at handling pressure situations and stranding baserunners.

At the end of the day, the Mets are 44-49, and the Nationals are 27-66, even though they played better than their record indicates.

Here are some other scores that have reached their ends.
Braves beat Giants 8-1, in which Brian McCann homered.
Brian McCann drove in four runs, Chipper Jones, Garret Anderson, Yunel Escobar, and Martin Prado each drive in one run, while Juan Uribe hits to bring home Matt Downs for the Giants.

Martin Prado had three hits while Brian McCann and Yunel Escobar each had two hits for the Braves.

Randy Winn had two hits for the Giants also.  

San Francisco
0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0   1 8 0
Atlanta
1 0 3 4 0 0 0 0 X   8 12 0

The Indians beat the Blue Jays 2-1, and Scott Rolen homered for the Jays. Victor Martinez drives in two runs.

Cleveland
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2   2 9 0
Toronto
0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0   1 7 1

I hope the summer is turning out great for everyone.

Mets are sinking while the Braves are soaring.

As I’m talking right now the Braves are beating up the Mets 7-1 in the
bottom of the seventh inning, actually that game is over by the same score. Fernando Nieve was injured and had to
leave the game because he strained his quad, and Tim Redding gives up
another home run against Yunel Escobar, his second home run in as many
games. Javier Vazquez is pitching like an ace despite his losing record
of (6-7) and a ERA of 2.95 coming into tonight’s game.

The Braves have hit six home runs in this series. Two by Yunel Escobar, one by Chipper Jones, one by Garret Anderson, one by Brian McCann, and one by Martin Prado.  What a powerpack for the Braves to hit all those home
runs.

Chipper Jones continues to impress, as he went deep yesterday off Pedro Feliciano of the Mets.

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    Here’s some screenshots from that game by mlb.com

    The Mets won that game 5-1. It was a pitcher’s duel between Johan
    Santana and Kenshin Kawakami. Even though the Mets didn’t homered, they
    won, a suicide squeeze by Luis Castillo to drive in Angel Pagan, with
    one of the three innings the Mets scored in the ninth inning. Angel
    Pagan hit a RBI triple in the ninth inning as well to bring in Alex
    Cora. Jeff Francoeur hits a single to score Daniel Murphy.

    Besides that, it was all Atlanta Braves in this series.
    The tomahawk chop now has the right to bash the Mets after this game is over and the series is over.

    That is it for now. I hope everyone had a fun weekend.

    Mets vs Braves part two

    The Atlanta Braves have put on a show in these two games while hosting the New York Mets. The Braves beat the Mets by the score of 5-3. In Game two, the Braves put on a whooper 11-0 over the Mets. To make this more of an interesting day, Greg Maddux’s number 31 was retired by the Braves and just before the game would begin, Maddux said to the crowd “Let’s beat up the Mets again like old times.”

    Mike Pelfrey was facing Jair Jurrjens in the game. I was expecting a good pitching matchup in this one. It turns out that was not the case right there. Mike gives up two home runs to Brian McCann and Martin Prado. McCann’s home run appears to go over the leaping Jeff Francoeur, the former Braves fielder.

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      Brian McCann going deep off Mike Pelfrey

      Gary Sheffield leaves the game in the fifth inning with a leg cramp, just what the Mets did not want to have, another player go down due to injury.

      When will the injured Mets players (Maine, Reyes, Delgado, Beltran) come back? There’s no offical word as of when they’ll return, but the Mets just need to take care of business with the Braves first.

      As for the Braves, they are hitting the long balls. In the first game of the series, Yunel Escobar and Garret Anderson both hit home runs off Oliver Perez, who was just making his second start from injury, (that’s a good sign, a injured player returning to action, isn’t it?)

      At the rate the Braves are playing, they can put some serious pounding on the Mets. Johan Santana makes his next start against Kawakami tomorrow, on FOX.

      I have a feeling the Mets will return to their true form tomorrow.

      Mets vs Braves

      The New York Mets take on the Atlanta Braves in Turner Field. The Mets will send Oliver Perez on the mound to take on Derek Lowe. It will be the first time the Mets will take on the Braves since the outfield swap of Ryan Church and Jeff Fracoeur. Who will have the last laugh? We’ll have to watch the series and find out, and its a four game series so it should be a fun one.

      Here’s the current standings in the National League East

      Phillies have    48 wins, 38 losses and are leading the division.

      Marlins have    46 wins, 44 losses, and 4 games behind.

      Braves have     43 wins, 45 losses, and 6  games behind

      Mets have       42 wins, 45 losses, and 6 and 1/2 games behind

      Nationals have 26 wins, 61 losses, and 22 1/2  games behind*

      *Do not count the Nationals out just yet, they still have time to make up to clinch this divison.

      I hope the Mets can become more healthy and make a big run. Really, Carlos Delgado, and Jose Reyes have been missing in action too long. Carlos Beltran and John Maine have been hurt for a while now, and so is JJ Putz. The big key for the Mets to take the division, (any team in this divsion for that matter) is to go on a big winning streak of at least nine games. Whoever is the first team to do it, then they should feel more comfortable now and take this divison with ease, I bet the Phillies are feeling that way right now, comfortable, but anything can happen.

      The Mets have the Braves and Nationals to worry about, I hope the Mets can take at least 3 out of 4 from the Braves and 2 out of 3 versus the Nationals at their ballpark and 2 out of 3 over the Houston Astros. After that, it’s a nice homestand against the Rockies (four game series) , Diamondbacks, and then Cardinals (again) only a two game series against the redbirds.

      If Billy Wagner comes back and JJ Putz, there will be three closers for the Mets. Do the Mets stick with Francisco Rodriguez, or give the closers role to Billy Wagner or JJ Putz?

      That is all, good luck for the sechond half of the season.

      Mets go for it at Pittsburgh amongst other things…

      1. The New York Mets will try to win at least once today, same matchup, Mike Pelfrey for the Mets and Ross Ohlendorf for the Pirates. Game starts around noon time. Let’s hope the Mets bats get going in this series, it has in the first game when Livan Hernandez pitched well but an uncharastic issue occured in the Mets bullpen.

      2. Randy Johnson will attempt again to win his 300th career game with the San Francisco Giants against the Washington Nationals in a two game day. He will oppose Jordan Zimmermann. The second game of the double header, the Giants will send out Matt Cain to take on Ross Detwiler.

      3. The Chicago Cubs will take on the Atlanta Braves and this game is available nationally on MLB Network, so any fans wanting some national attention worthy MLB action, tune in to that game. Of course if you regularly see Cubs or Braves games on televison, you should stick to your teams’ brocasting feeds instead due to blackout restrictions. MLB Network will show another game instead. Matchup today is Carlos Zambrano (who is coming off a five game suspension for his actions in a game hosting the Pirates for arguing a safe call.) Jair Jurrjens will take the mound for the Atlanta Braves

      4. The Yankees are coming off from a loss to the Texas Rangers last night, so they should be looking forward to improving from their mistakes, heck they had about a streak of errorless games before this series so this should be no problem to them. Pitching matchup is Brandon McCarthy for the Rangers taking on Chien-Ming Wang for the Yankees who’s looking forward to making a better impression in the starting rotation this time around since having rehab assignments in the bullpen.

      5. The last matchup I’ll talk about for today, Phillies vs Dodgers. The Phillies have won six straight games thanks to an awesome pitching effort from JA Happ outdueling Chris R Young of the Padres. Ryan Howard blasts a two-run home run of the inning in last night’s game. The score last night was 5-1 in favor of the Philadelphia Phillies over the San Deigo Padres. What a sweep! Next opponent, the Los Angeles Dodgers, Cole Hamels vs Clayton Kershaw. Two young lefties going at one another. The Dodgers are really good at home this season, even though Manny Ramirez is halfway through his fifty game suspension. Last night the Dodgers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 1-0 behing strong pitching from Chad Billingsley. Casey Blake’s sac fly was the only run producing play of the game.

      Now for other things.
      Orlando Magic take on the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals tonight on ABC
      Game one is at Los Angeles at Staples Center. Who do you think will win this series?

      That’s all, for the rest of the info go to these sites mlb.com and nba.com for NBA Finals coverage.

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