The Game

Fresh off a stinging loss to the rival Atlanta Braves that had cut their division lead to a paltry 1.5 games, the New York Mets headed to the last stop of their road trip, Miami, for a three game series against the young bashers of the Florida Marlins. The surprising Marlins entered the game with the second most runs scored in the National League. On the hill for the Mets was Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez, making his first start since spinning seven shutout innings against the Colorado Rockies on April 24th. Hernandez was making his first start since going on the DL with shoulder bursitis after the game.

In the interim, the Mets tried a handful of starters with mixed results. Rookie Mike Pelfrey kept his job in the rotation, as he probably would have been demoted if El Duque hadn’t been injured after the emergence of Jorge Sosa. The Mets had to suffer through starts by Chan Ho Park and Jason Vargas that may have been averted if not for the unfortunate timing of Hernandez’s injury.

On the hill for the Marlins was sinkerballer Sergio Mitre, who looked to be exemplifying the potential he once showed when he was a Cubs prospect. But while he had pitched well this season, he had garnered poor run support from the usual high-scoring Marlins as his 2.25 ERA only translated to a 2-2 record.

After Mitre set the Mets down in order in the first, Hernandez took the mound and Alfredo Amezaga congratulated his return with a single through the hole between Carlos Delgado and Damion Easley. That would be the last baserunner for the Marlins for several innings as Hernandez would retire a mind boggling seventeen batters in a row, before Amezaga singled again with two outs in the bottom of the sixth.

In the 7th, the Mets seemed to lose their focus, as David Wright led off and failed to run to first base immediately after chipping a ball down the first base line, assuming that the ball would roll foul. But the ball spun fair and Wright was tagged out before reaching first base. If Wright had hustled out of the box, the ball would probably have been picked up in foul territory, but instead he was tagged out. In the next at-bat, Carlos Delgado hit a booming opposite field drive that hit the scoreboard in play, and casually jogged to second base assuming that it would be a home run. Instead he was tagged out trying to stretch it to second because of his lack of focus and lack of hustle. This was costly as Paul Lo Duca followed with a single that likely would have scored the game’s first run. The inning ended with an odd play resulting in a Shawn Green strikeout. It appeared that Green was attempting to avoid the inside pitch, but home plate umpire Joe West ruled that Green went around.

While his pitch count was under 100, Hernandez came out of the game after throwing 87 pitches, since it was his first start back from injury. Joe Smith replaced Hernandez in the bottom of the seventh and threw a quick 1-2-3 inning.

In the top of the 8th, the Mets finally broke through with the game’s first run. Damion Easley led off with a single, but Willie Randolph made a poor decision to have David Newhan pinch-hit, and bunt Easley to second. The bunt attempt was poor and Easley was thrown out at second for the force out. This was a poor decision because Newhan is a poor bunter, and the decision would be wasting a pitcher, when a pitcher such as Glavine would be perfect in the spot to put down a bunt. Then Jose Reyes came to the plate, and walked to put Newhan in scoring position, but Endy Chavez grounded into a force out at second base. Then former Mets farmhand Matt Lindstrom entered the game, replacing Mitre on the mound, and would get Carlos Beltran to hit a groundball to Dan Uggla, but Uggla booted it, allowing Newhan to score from third base with the game’s first run.

To face the Marlins in the bottom of the eighth, Randolph elected to bring in Aaron Heilman to face the 6-7-8 hitters. Heilman struck out leadoff hitter Jeremy Hermida but Miguel Olivo hit a ball into the gap in left-center that looked to be a long single, but after Carlos Beltran cut off the ball, he fell down and Olivo decided to test Beltran and try for third. An inexcusably lackadaisical lob from Beltran let Olivo take third base. Rattled, Heilman plunked Aaron Boone, the next batter, and then walked pinch-hitter Todd Linden to load the bases. Amezaga continued to be a thorn in the Mets side, tying the game with a flyball that was deep enough to score Olivo from third, but Heilman was able to limit the damage by striking Uggla out looking.

In the top of the ninth, the Mets would battle back from the disappointment of giving up the lead and take back the lead. Carlos Delgado led off and earned a walk from new Marlins pitcher Renyel Pinto, and Carlos Gomez pinch ran for Delgado and promptly stole second base. Lo Duca fisted off a pitch to left for his fourth hit of the game, to put runners on the corners with no outs. In this situation, one would expect the infield to be in to prevent the runner on third from scoring on a groundball. But Carlos Tosca, acting manager for the Marlins (Fredi Gonzalez was serving a suspension for returning to the field during Thursday’s melee with the Phillies) for unknown reasons kept the infielders at double play depth, actually conceding the run for a double play, an unexpected tactic. It backfired when Shawn Green hit a groundball to Hanley Ramirez who went home with the throw but Miguel Olivo failed to catch the ball and Gomez scored to give the Mets a 2-1 lead. The scorer gave the error to Hanley Ramirez, but I believe the error belonged to Olivo, who anticipated contact from Carlos Gomez and watched the ball bounce off of his glove. Easley followed with a walk to load the bases, and Tosca replaced Pinto with Justin Miller. Julio Franco entered the game, pinch-hitting for Heilman, and grounded into a fielder’s choice, as Ramirez recovered from a bobble and got the force out at home to leave the bases loaded. Reyes and Chavez hit back to back RBI singles to make the score 4-1, and then Beltran blasted the first pitch he saw to deep center, for a ground rule double that scored Franco and Reyes to make the score 6-1.

In the bottom of the ninth, Billy Wagner entered the game even though it was a non-save situation, as he had already warmed up. Wagner struck out Ramirez to lead off, but gave up a long home run to Miguel Cabrera after a lengthy at-bat to make the score 6-2. Then Wagner walked Josh Willingham, but struck out pinch-hitter Jason Wood swinging. With two outs, Olivo kept the inning alive with a slow roller to second base that Easley lazily flipped to first with an underhanded throw that Olivo beat out. But Wagner was able to get Aaron Boone to pop out to first base to end the game.

The Haiku

Hitting in a funk?
Marlins’ ‘pen will make you right
Like a spa for slumps!

The Boxscore

The Credits

Recap by Kalyan Pokala
Haiku by Howard Megdal