Top 9th - A tidy inning after Cincy bats out of order and makes the inning last three times longer than it should have. Mets win 8-3.
Bottom 8th With a different score, the Mets would be regretting that inning after putting runners on first and third with nobody out and scoring no runs. Pedro Feliciano coming in to finish this one off. Still 8-3 Mets.
Top 8th - Good work by Schoeneweis to get out of the jam he created for himself. After putting men on first and third with one out, Schoeneweis struck out Adam Dunn with a good slider. Joe Smith came in to face the red-hot Keppinger and promptly fell behind 3-0 before coming back to strike out the shortstop with a 91-mph inside fastball. 8-3 Mets going to the bottom of the eighth.
Bottom 7th - And the Mets go just as quietly in their half, though Carlos Delgado did get a base hit, dumping one into left field. Delgado is 1-for-3 on the day with a walk. 8-3 Mets going into the eighth.
Top 7th - Schoeneweis with a solid inning, though he was helped a bit by the Reds showing why they're one of the worst teams in baseball. After Ryan Freel reached with a one-out hit, he was picked off fairly easily, 1-3-6. 8-3 Mets.
Bottom 6th - Mets add two, with Easley and Wright each collecting RBI singles. Mets now lead 8-3 with Scott Schoeneweis coming out in the top of the seventh. The line on Perez: six innings, three hits, three runs, four walks and eight strikeouts, which matches a season-best for Perez.
Top 6th - Perez's 100th pitch of the game was one of his worst, a wild pitch that allowed Jeff Keppinger to score from third and cut the Mets lead to 6-3. Keppinger got to third after hitting a run-scoring triple. Edwin Encarnacion gave the Reds their first run, launching a double to left that came out of Moises Alou's glove at the wall. 6-3 Mets heading to the bottom of the sixth with Perez likely done for the afternoon. Still no word on Luis Castillo who was replaced by Damion Easley at second last inning.
Bottom 5th - Mets blow it open, with Carlos Beltran and Ryan Church hitting back-to-back home runs. Beltran's blast, hammered to right, brought home Luis Castillo, who led off the inning with an infield hit. Church's homer was a bomb to center. 6-0 Mets. Not a quality start for the Reds Johnny Cueto: 4 2/3 innings, eight hits, six runs, three walks and five strikeouts.
Top 5th - Almost forgot, Happy Mother's Day. Perez has now thrown 79 pitches through five innings and has ended the last four frames with a strikeout. The victim last inning was Votto, who went down on a slider. Votto also ended the third inning by striking out, also on a slider. 3-0 Mets.
Bottom 4th - Oliver Perez's ERA is going down today and his OBP is going up. Perez walked in the second inning - and added a stolen base - and just now bunted for a base hit. He was stranded, however, and it's still 3-0 Mets. As I'm typing, I just saw another wedding proposal on the Shea Kiss-Cam. She said yes. That concludes the sappy portion of today's blog.
Top 4th - And the dominance continues for Perez, who ended the last inning having thrown just 60 pitches. Pitch No. 60 was an 80-mph slider, which struck out Adam Dunn. 3-0 Mets in the bottom of the fourth.
Top 3rd - Perez is officially in mowdown-mode. Two strikeouts this inning, getting Freel on a 91-mph fastball, then catching Joey Votto looking on a slider that came back across the inside part of the plate. 3-0 Mets with Perez looking as good as he has in several weeks.
Bottom 2nd - Better inning for Cueto. He walked Perez but got a Reyes flyout and then struck out Castillo to end it. The inning did feature Perez stealing second with two outs, the pitcher's first stolen base since 2006. Mets still up 3-0.
Top 2nd - Another good inning from Perez. He allowed a two-out single to Jeff Keppinger but go Paul Bako looking at a slider to end the inning. Before giving up the hit to Keppinger, Perez got Adam Dunn swinging on a nasty slider. 3-0 Mets going to the bottom of two.
Bottom 1st - Johnny Cueto threw five more pitches than Perez did in his half inning, but gave up three more runs. Luis Castillo's triple, and doubles by Carlos Beltran and Moises Alou account for three Mets runs. 3-0 heading to the top of the second.
Top 1st - Not bad, not bad for Perez. A 21-pitch inning that included a walk to Ken Griffey Jr. Perez struck out leadoff hitter Ryan Freel with a 91-mph fastball. Could have been worse. Lately, it has been.
Here's today's live blog. Erik Boland - not Rieber - taking you through this one. Oliver Perez (2-3, 4.63 ERA) taking on Johnny Cueto (2-3, 5.27) of the Reds. Perez has lost three straight, including a 5-1 loss May 5 at Los Angeles, an outing Willie Randolph called in his pregame meeting with reporters, "a stinker." Nowhere to go but up from that.
Comments (3)
Gary Cohen was wrong to blast Willie for the way he handled the batting out of order incident. I looked it up and Willie played it perfect.
http://www.myteamrivals.typepad.com/mr_mets_daily
No Willie was absolutely wrong and did no good...once a pitch would have been thrown to the next batter after Ross...then Ross, who was batting ninth, is considered the proper batter and the batter should have been, by the rules, the lead off man. So if the hitter Patterson gets a hit, then Willie comes out and appeals and the lead off man would be out as once Ross became the proper batter (he was batting ninth) the proper batter should have been the lead off man (the guy after Ross in the batting order)....
By appealing, Willie did no good...Ross was already the first out of the inning...all it meant that Patterson was declared out instead of Ross and Ross assumed the position in the batting order.
It is complicated but let's say Patterson made out and Willie said nothing...then Patterson becomes the proper batter and Ross should now be hitting (even though he had already hit) which means Willie just waits and no matter what the lead off man does in that situation, that would be the third out....
Willie has to wait to appeal till something favorable could come out of it...by appealing when he did, Willie did himself no good whatsoever.
See drop Delgado to 7th and the Mets start hitting. Takes pressure off of him to produce and gives protection to Beltran in the four hole.
I was at the game yesterday and I still think the Mets are missing something. Some type of fire and young energy. Maybe a healty Reyes will provide it, maybe the return of Pedro. Still don't feel like a championship club yet. As much as I detest what I'm about to say we may even consider bringing back Piazza . . .