A hearty good afternoon to everyone out there in the blogosphere today. Roderick Boone here live from a sun-splashed Shea Stadium. I interrupt the wall-to-wall Brett Favre with this special news bulletin. Flash: The Mets are playing a noon game today and we are about set for the first pitch of the series finale with the Padres.
We'll see if the Mets finally find a way to beat the Padres, who've had their number this season.
For starters: Johan Santana (9-7, 2.86 ERA) opposes Josh Banks (3-4, 3.65). Santana is 4-3 with a 2.74 ERA in day games and is coming off that great start in Houston in which he allowed one run on three hits in 6 1/3 innings.
Top of 1st: Santana is off to a good start. Scott Hairston flew out to center, Tadahito Iguchi struck out and so did Adrian Gonzalez.
Bottom of 1st: Jose Reyes and his protege Argenis Reyes both grounded out to the pitcher. David Wright, who lobbied manager Jerry Manuel not to give him a day off last night, singled to center. Carlos Beltran, in the cleanup hole today, singled to right and Wright went first to third. Fernando Tatis struck out swinging to end the threat.
Top of 2nd: Two innings in and the Padres are on the board. Kevin Kouzmanoff popped out to J. Reyes in shallow left and Chase Headley followed with a 395-foot homer into the bleachers in left. Jody Gerut flew out to the warning track in right and A. Reyes made a nice play on a Nick Hundley's pop fly to shallow right. Padres 1, Mets 0.
Bottom of 2nd: Banks makes quick work of the Mets in their half. Daniel Murphy and Ramon Castro struck out, and Nick Evans flies out.
Top of 3rd: Luis Rodriguez flew out to right before Santana did the one thing pitchers never want to do: walk the opposing pitcher. He made up for it by fanning Hairston and Iguchi for the inning's last two outs.
Bottom of 3rd: Santana grounds out to Banks and J. Reyes tripled down the rightfield line to get himself into scoring position with less than two outs. A. Reyes popped out to short. Wright hit the first pitch he saw hard to right and Gerut tracked it down. That's two runners in scoring position left on in the first three innings.
Top of 4th: Gonzalez struck out. Kouzmanoff squibbed one to Santana and he took it to first all by his lonesome. Headley walked and should have been picked off first, but Evans' throw to second was way off target and Headley was credited with the first steal of his career. Gerut struck out swinging for the third out.
Bottom of 4th: Beltran ripped a leadoff double to left centerfield and Tatis walked. Murphy came through with a sharp single to center to score Beltran and tie the game. Castro struck out and Evans singled up the middle to plate Tatis with the go-ahead run. Santana tried to sacrifice the runners to second and third, but Murphy was thrown out at third. J. Reyes grounds to second. Mets 2, Padres 1.
Top of 5th: Really fast inning there for Santana. He got Hundley to pop out to second, Rodriguez to fly to right and Banks to ground out to shortstop.
Bottom of 5th: A. Reyes grounds to short, Wright doubled and Beltran moved him over to third with a grounder to second. But Tatis lined out hard to Kouzmanoff at third.
Top of 6th: Hairston led off with a double to left and went to third on Iguchi's slow roller to Evans at first. Gonzalez walked and Kouzmanoff grounded to second. A. Reyes made a heady play and tagged Gonzalez and threw to first for an inning-ending 4-4-3 double play.
Bottom of 6th: Mets tack on another on a Evans' sacrifice fly. He drove in Murphy, who led off the inning with a single to left. Mets 3, Padres 1.
Top of 7th: Santana is still in and strikes out Headley for the first out. Gerut grounded out to short and Hundley popped up to short.
Bottom of 7th: Beltran's two-out single and steal of second is wasted as Tatis strikes out swinging while Beltran was attempting to swipe third.
Top of 8th: Rodriguez and pinch hitter Edgar Gonzalez singled back-to-back to start the inning. Manager Jerry Manuel lifted Santana after 104 pitches and Duaner Sanchez came in and promptly hit Hairston with the only pitch he threw to load the bases. Once Brian Giles was announced as a pinch hitter for Iguchi, Manuel summoned lefty Pedro Feliciano. He got Giles to ground weakly to second and A. Reyes threw home for the force out. Gonzalez lined one past J. Reyes at short to score Rodriguez but E. Gonzalez inexplicably slid into third instead of trying to score from second. Joe Smith relieved Feliciano and got Kouzmanoff to chop to second. A. Reyes dove and got it, tossed to J. Reyes, who threw to first for the third out. Evans made a great scoop on Reyes' throw, which sailed a bit to the right of the bag, and managed to stay on the base. The Padres argued the throw took him off the bag to no avail. Mets 3, Padres 2.
Bottom of 8th: Mets go 1-2-3 and we head to the ninth. Wonder who will close it out?
Top of 9th: Ouch. Scott Schoeneweis serves it up. With one out, Gerut blasts a 1-0 pitch deep into the Mets' bullpen to tie the game and Santana's bid for his 10th win is spoiled. Mets 3, Padres 3.
Bottom of 9th: Endy Chavez pinch hit and singled to center. J. Reyes tried to bunt, but popped it up to Heath Bell. A. Reyes lined out to left and Wright drilled a two-run walk-off homer 350-feet to win it. FINAL: Mets 5, Padres 3.
Comments (3)
The Rays just picked up Bradford from the O's who was put on waivers. I don't get why the Mets didn't put a claim out there for bullpen help. His apperances are a lot less in what they have now. The bullpen won't last the rest of the month.
I need to go to Costco for more Tums.
The Mets didn't put a claim on Bradford because they didn't have the opportunity to. The waiver system goes from worst to best in the league, then if a player is unclaimed, he is available to teams from worst to best record in the other league.