The Mets made their first trade of the off-season tonight, they have traded Angel Pagan for Ramon Ramirez and Andres Torres. Ramirez is a great reliever who posted a 2.62 ERA last year for San Francisco and if my memory is correct, Torres had 16 homers for SF in 2010. This is a great deal for both sides. The Giants and Mets swap center fielders who were not the same in 2011 and the Mets get a stud reliever out of the deal. Great work Sandy.
3 Standout Performances:
This game WAS arguably the game of the year that is until the 9th inning came along. K-Rod comes in and struggles against his old team. You could not write a better script than that…for a while that is.
I feel bad for Izzy.Everyone now is going to question, is this guy done and can he pitch anymore. He is fine. He had ONE bad outing. I felt bad for him as he was booed off the field.
Chris Capuano today was not AS bad as his line showed today. He made 3 bad pitches (arguably 2) and they all landed in the seats. I do believe, however that Braun’s HR was not a bad pitch at all.
Ruben Tejada has been tearing the cover off the ball since his re-call.
Grade for the Game: B
Angel Pagan gets ready for BP
3 Standout Performances:
What a good game for Angel tonight. He had been in a little bit of a cold streak up until now and hitting that home run could really get him going on a hot streak.
The Mets truely fought for this game. Down 4-0 early and 5-4 late they really stepped up and came back to win this game.
Beltran is really heating up going into the trade deadline. Hopefully the Mets will get at least one great prospect for him.
Dickey pitched well tonight giving up 4 runs in 6 1/3 innings of work. Although his true bright spot was his 2 for 2 with an RBI at the plate.
Grade for the Game: B+
To view tonight’s box score click here
3 Standout Performances:
You could tell the team felt the pressure from that loss last night. They just didn’t look the same as they did on that roadtrip. Hopefully, that will be gone by tomorrow.
Ronny Paulino has hit great all year long, he drove 2 doubles today, one in the gap and one down the line. He has been great so far this year.
Pagan is a different hitter since his return from the DL.
I am making no excuses, but Jordan Walden (the Angels closer) has filthy stuff. That slider of his is nearly unhittable. I tip my hat to him.
This team has so much more fight that we did last year.
Grade for the Game: B-
By the Numbers:
Niese was great once again, he got ground balls and kept the Braves hitters off balance all night long. He fell apart a little bit in the 7th and I was disappointed that Terry didn’t let him try and get out of it.
Those strikeouts by Byrdak were huge, especially the one from McCann, one of the best hitters in the NL. He bailed Niese and Beato out of that tough, tough inning.
Jose Reyes…Jose REYES….JOSE REYES
The Mets stole a ton off a tough Jurrjens today..he is usually very tough to steal off of.
It seems the Mets win so much easier when Bay isn’t in the lineup. It is a very sad thing.
Grade for the Game: B+
By the Numbers:
Capuano was great today as he kept the pirates off balance and didn’t allow a run to score. He has been a great 5th starter.
Jose Reyes was Jose Reyes…again.
The play where Murphy scored on the sac fly was weird because it took awhile to notice that it was Pagan not Murphy that was called out, good thing they scored.
Murphy has been such an underrated hitter all year long and is second in the NL in batting average since May 21st, only lower than Reyes.
Back to back homers for what seemed like the first time all year just what this team needs!
The offense and rotation is rolling…this could be a very good stretch for this team.
.Grade for the Game: A
By the Numbers:
Dillon Gee is just a great all around pitcher. He does not have ace like stuff but, he is surely pitching like an ace this year. He simply knows how to pitch and can execute even after a rough first. A 7-0 start for arguably the most underrated rookie on the season.
For some reason the Mets can rake against Charlie Morton when no other team can, now if only they could hit the ACTUAL Halladay…
Jose Reyes….you guys know the drill. AMAZING!
Josh Thole and Ruben Tejada have really turned it on this year hitting very well at positions the Mets were unsure of coming into the year.
Lucas Duda looks like a different hitter from earlier this year. He has so much power and he hit the ball so much harder than a 1 for 4 night tonight.
I love watching this non-power lineup for the Mets, getting hits with runners on has been where they have thrived during this good stretch for the offense. Power baseball is exciting, but line drives and singles can be great too.
Grade for the Game: A-
By the Numbers:
Jon Niese was great tonight tying his career high in strikeouts, working efficiently, and getting out of jams. His only problem was the 4 walks tonight and the RBI double by Fielder. He threw a career high in curveballs which was the key to his success tonight.
It’s kinda funny that Jose Reyes was the only hitless Met position player tonight.
The Mets are winning during this power outage because of key hitting, stealing bases, and their starting pitching. Entering the game since May 20th the Mets are 1st in batting average and 3rd in average with RISP. Homers mean nothing, runs do.
Ruben Tejada looks like a different hitter from last year, he is no longer overmatched at the plate and is showing that he could take the starting 2nd base spot when Wright and Ike return.
The Mets took 2 of 3 from the team with the best home record in baseball…now that is a statement.
Grade for the Game: B+
By the Numbers:
Niese was great tonight and is really locking in as a left handed threat on the mound. His year ERA is now 3.75 which is great seeing what is was at after April.
These types of losses really bring a fan down, especially when they happen every single night. When a team is blowing leads at home, in front of THEIR fans, it is just an awful sight to see.
The Bullpen is simply terrible lately, I mean just awful. It seems that everyone is giving up runs left and right.
Pagan has been great since coming back from the DL and fixed exactly what was wrong with him.
Grade for the Game: D
