Santana the Stopper cuts Phils NL East lead to 1.5
With five games remaining in the 2008 MLB season, Johan Santana proved to everyone the reason why the Mets gave him $137.5 million this past off-season. He turned an entire stadium of boos into cheers both on the mound and at the plate.
Santana’s magical broken-bat single in the middle innings sent the crowd into a state of excitement. The Mets went on to take a 6-2 lead by means of a clutch David Wright two-RBI bloop single, and a Jose Reyes triple down the first base line. Reyes was so pumped following his triple that he began to clap and jump all over the place. Johan, on the other hand, threw 125 pitches, the most of his career, and was still popping his fastball in the glove at 93 miles per hour. He was so fired up during this game that, following his release of a pitch, he would jump up and down.
In the ninth inning, everyone held their breath from the very first pitch by Pedro Feliciano. He was able to get an out, but allowed two base runners. Here we go again. Jerry Manuel and pitching coach Dan Warthen began to work furiously in the dugout, then Manuel went to the bullpen to bring out the reliever Luis Ayala. Ayala got his first man to ground out to Delgado, who could have turned a double play, but took the safe route and touched first base for the second out. Ayala got the next batter to pop out to Jose Reyes, who caught the ball and immediately did a fist pump similar to the one Carlos Delgado does in the final out of a big game.
The Philadelphia Phillies lost to the Atlanta Braves, 3-2 to trim the Mets deficit in the NL East to only a game and a half. If the Phillies lose today, and the Mets win today and tomorrow, the Mets and Phillies will have a tie for the NL East. This is because the Phillies have a day off, meaning the Mets can gain another half game on them.
The Brewers lost, but that may be a good thing. This means the Mets won’t just settle for a Wild-Card spot, they instead know they need to keep fighting and get that Division Title wrapped up. If they are able to wrap the division title up, I see this team going deep in the postseason.
Who knows, maybe Santana is the only pitcher that can get this team a win because he is able to go so far and prevent the bullpen from blowing a game. With Carlos Zambrano pitching for Chicago tonight, Oliver Perez needs to be at his best when game-time approaches at 7:10 pm tonight at Shea Stadium.
Do or die time at Shea
The Mets are beginning to slip, but still have the lead in the NL Wild Card race by a game and a half. However, the Mets were greeted following their loss to the Braves by a Brewers win and a Phillies win. This increased the Mets deficit in the NL East race to two and a half games.
At this point, the Mets have to be ecstatic that the NL-leading Cubs are coming into town. Why? The Cubbies have already clinched their division, meaning they can basically lay back for the next week. The four-game series at Shea begins tonight at 7:10 pm.
Tonight is rally towel night at Shea, and the playoff atmosphere should be alive and well as if it was 2006 again. The Mets should be in a comfortable position now, with their final seven games of the season being at home.
Writers easily find flaws in this team in every which way. I know the bullpen remains in a state of emergency, but that’s why the Mets give guys like Carlos Beltran $119 million.
In June, I didn’t think I’d be saying on September 22nd that the Mets control their own playoff destiny. The Mets don’t even need to win all of their remaining games to get into October. If they win five of their final seven games, they are guaranteed a playoff spot.
Mets gain lead in playoff race, but still trail Phils
The Mets gained a game on the Brewers for the Wild Card Race in the National League, while only trailing the Phillies for the division lead by an easy half game. Taking the final two of a four-game series, the Mets put the Nationals away by means of their ace, Johan Santana’s arm, and an offense that finally backed him up.
Santana, who has not lost in the second half of the season, gave up only one run in his seven innings, as his ERA stands at 2.65. He also helped himself at the plate by knocking a double into the right center field gap.
David Wright’s swing isn’t so pretty right now, especially with his 0-5 night that put his batting average at .293. Delgado and Reyes had doubles, while Beltran had a triple, but the best feeling coming out of this game has to be Brian Schneider’s power numbers as of late. Schneider smashed two homers tonight, along with gunning out a runner at second.
After allowing two hits in a 7-2 game in the ninth, Jerry Manuel took the ball from Scott Schoeneweis and handed it to Pedro Feliciano, who scared us by nearly walking the batter, but got him to ground into a game-ending double play that kept the Mets on the Phillies’ tail.
Tomorrow, the Mets head to Atlanta to play Chipper Jones and Co. in a four-game series before flying home for the last regular season homestand at Shea Stadium. The Cubs have a pretty good chance of clinching their division in their four-game series with the Mets at Shea next week, but could also do it here in the next few days.
Mets slip, but Brewers DIP
The Mets have dropped like lead in the past week, and they are dropping in the exact same way they dropped last season. Losing to the teams that are already long eliminated is happening too often yet again. The Mets are unable to put these teams away like they have all season or like they had all season until September last year.
The closer situation is just about as scary as the amount of wins the Washington Nationals have. That will continue to be the most obvious and glaring weakness of this team heading into the next two weeks leading up to the playoffs.
The good news, however, is that a playoff berth shouldn’t be too much of a problem because the Brewers fired their manager, Ned Yost, yesterday in a surprise move that shocked the baseball world. It was the first time a manager has been fired who had that record and whose team was lined up to make the playoffs this late in the season. With the Brewers essentially manager-less, I can’t see them wrapping up the NL Wild Card spot.
As for the rest of the NL Wild Card Race, I can clearly remember listening to a Mets broadcast on WFAN on August 15 when How Rose stated that the Houston Astros have been in so deep of a hole all season that it would be very unlikely that they would climb back up. Rose also stated that they were on a big winning streak as of late at the time, and that every year they often come back to life just a tad bit too late or just in time. This year, they are right back in the hunt, as they are only 2.5 games out of the wild card.
As far as baseball goes tonight, the Mets will resume their series with the Nationals by sending Mike Pelfrey to the mound to face Odalis Pereze, who is really struggling. Just last week, he gave up six earned runs against the Mets. We’ll see if the Mets can do the same thing again.
Review of Week 1
While several other teams in the NFL are just opening their season today, the New York Giants and Washington Redskins are happy to get three extra days of rest (the Redskins not as happy, of course). At this time, let’s review this week’s turnout against the Washington Redskins.
FINAL: GIANTS 16, REDSKINS 7
Positives:
- Among the positives in the win over the Redskins included the Giants success of moving the ball down the field and picking up points on most of their drives. Jeff Feagles didn’t see much action until the end, and when he did, his punts were fabulous.
- Lawrence Tynes can take his time returning from an injury, because no matter what the age, John Carney has not lost a spring in his kick at all. He launched three field goals, including his longest being a 48-yarder.
- The defense was able to stop the out-of-sync Redskins offense without much difficulty throughout the game. Justin Tuck’s sack on the Redskin offense’s first snap was very impressive. Since it was only week one and the Redskins still did not have a no-huddle offense, the clock burned faster that ever, thankfully for the Giants.
- Eli Manning looked calm and showed no signs of hurrying passes into bad areas. Don’t get me wrong, he did have some erratic throws that should have been intercepted, but if you compare him to last year at this time, you are looking at an entirely new player.
Negatives:
- The first thing on the negatives list has to be that the offense should have been able to turn those field goals into touchdowns. The offense acted much too conservative as soon as they hit field goal range. Luckily for them, their absolutely dominating defense helped them out whenever needed.
- The extra emotion and anger out of linebacker Antonio Pierce and running back Brandon Jacobs needs to take a backseat. Pierce likely will receive a fine not only for his part in a fight that resulted in helmets flying, but a late hit soon after. On the other hand, whenever Jacobs breaks a long run or plows over a running back, he’ll get into the defender’s face after the play to say a few words. Sometimes words turns into pushes, and we all know what’s next. I’m afraid he will cost the Giants a few too many 15-yarders this season.