All Good Things

...must come to an end.

The amazing hot streak the Mets had been on just last week now seems like ancient history. The Mets need to recover from three consecutive losses, two of which were just pathetic on their part. Last night they wasted an unusually solid start by Ollie Perez.

This crap can't go on. The team needs to get it together now if they want to hang around with the big boys in the league come October. A great first step would be to say goodbye to mediocrity like Raul Valdes, Frank "Smithtown's Own" Catalanotto, and Gary "Leadoff Hitter?" Matthews Jr. The Mets have perfectly good guys in the minors (Nick Evans, F-Mart, Parnell, Calero, Hessman, Chris "The Animal" Carter, I can go on) to fill these spots. It's ludicrous that we're instead stuck with this lot of aging, below replacement level guys getting obscene amounts of playing time. The buck needs to end here or this team will be sitting at home this fall.

8/19/09 Braves at Mets Lineups

The Specifics

Braves at Mets

Game 2 of 3 (Mets lead series 1-0)

7:10 PM on SNY

Flushing weather, courtesy of Weather.com

The Pitching Matchup

Jair Jurrjens (9-8, 2.99 ERA) vs. Bobby Parnell (3-4, 3.50 ERA)

The Lineups


Mets
1. Angel Pagan CF
2. Luis Castillo 2B
3. Gary Sheffield LF
4. Daniel Murphy 1B
5. Jeff Francoeur RF
6. Fernando Tatis 3B
7. Omir Santos C
8. Anderson Hernandez SS
9. Bobby Parnell P

Braves
1. Omar Infante 2B
2. Garret Anderson LF
3. Chipper Jones 3B
4. Brian McCann C
5. Adam LaRoche 1B
6. Yunel Escobar SS
7. Matt Diaz RF
8. Ryan Church CF
9. Jair Jurrjens P


The Notes

-Bobby Parnell makes his 3rd career start tonight. He is 1-1 with an ERA under 2 in his first 2. His pitch maximum appears to be a regular one at this point: around 100 pitches.

-The Mets are sticking with the lineup that produced big yesterday.

-Martin Prado is out of the Braves lineup due to sporadic headaches he has been suffering.

-Oliver Perez and Jerry Manuel agree that Perez should be able to make his next start.

-Pending a disaster, Billy Wagner will be activated before tomorrow's game. Presumably Elmer Dessens or Andy Green would be demoted to make room for Wagner.

8/14/09 Mets 3, Giants 0 Postgame Review

The Mets defeated the San Francisco Giants by a score of 3-0 this evening.

Win- Bobby Parnell (3-4)
Loss- Barry Zito (8-11)
Save- Francisco Rodriguez (26)

Full boxscore and recap here, courtesy of MLB.com.

Game Notes

-Bobby Parnell was absolutely brilliant tonight. He threw 6 shutout innings in a winning effort, only gave up 3 hits, and struck out 7 Giants batters.

-Frankie "Don't Call Me K-Rod" Rodriguez pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his 26th save of the season.

-Angel Pagan led off the game with his 3rd home run of the year. It was the first leadoff homer hit by a Met since last September.

-Giants starter Barry Zito went 5+ innings, gave up 3 runs on 5 hits, walked 2, struck out 5. Zito received the loss today.

-The Mets absolutely stymied the Giants tonight.

The Mets now have a 54-61 record.

Mets Player of the Game: Bobby Parnell

8/14/09 Giants at Mets Lineups

At 7:10 PM, the Mets take on the San Francisco Giants at Citi Field for the opening game of a 4-game series. The game can be seen on SNY.

The numbers in parentheses are that player's stats against the opposing starter.

Mets Lineup
Angel Pagan CF .287/.331/.459 (1-for-3)
Luis Castillo 2B .299/.393/.352 (0-for-3)
David Wright 3B .325/.415/.468 (3-for-8)
Gary Sheffield LF .288/.385/.476 (8-for-20, 2 HR)
Jeff Francoeur RF .263/.297/.386 (1-for-3, 2B)
Fernando Tatis 1B .252/.314/.419 (3-for-5, 3 2B)
Omir Santos C .258/.296/.402 (never faced Zito)
Anderson Hernandez SS .258/.322/.329 (never faced Zito)
Bobby Parnell RHP 2-4, 3.94 ERA


Giants Lineup
Eugenio Velez LF .317/.349/.462 (never faced Parnell)
Freddy Sanchez 2B .299/.337/.442 (never faced Parnell)
Pablo Sandoval 3B .329/.378/.549 (0-for-1)
Bengie Molina C .262/.275/.433 (never faced Parnell)
Ryan Garko 1B .276/.358/.437 (never faced Parnell)
Nate Schierholtz RF .296/.325/.434 (never faced Parnell)
Aaron Rowand CF .271/.327/.435 (0-for-1)
Edgar Renteria SS .253/.308/.317 (1-for-1)
Barry Zito LHP 8-10, 4.40 ERA


Notes:
-No Daniel Murphy in the lineup for the 2nd straight game.

-Bobby Parnell is making his 2nd Major League start tonight, and is on an 85-pitch limit.

-Let's go Mets!

Mike's Pregame Prediction: Mets win 8-5, get home runs from Sheffield and Santos. Parnell goes 4 1/3, gives up 3 runs. Zito gets knocked out early.