The Game

Last night the Mets fell to the Washington Nationals by a score of 10-5. Oliver Perez took the loss in this one, downgrading his season record to 2-1. The win would be picked up by Nats southpaw Mike O’Connor.

Last night Perez tamed the seemingly mild Nationals offense through his first four frames. Through four, the Nats could only muster a single hit. This wouldn’t last into the fifth however, as Perez wouldn’t be able to hold a three run lead the Mets’ offense had collected. Perez walked Willie Harris to start off the 5th, followed by a single off the bat of Wil Nieves. The Nationals would then use Ronnie Belliard as a pinch hitter, who would draw a walk to load the bases with nobody out. The next hitter would be Felipe Lopez, who lined a single to plate both Harris and Nieves, putting the Nats at a 3-2 disadvantage. Five batters into the inning, Perez would record his first out when getting Christian Guzman to fly out to Carlos Beltran. The next hitter, Ryan Zimmerman, hit a sharp grounder to Luis Castillo which undoubtedly would have been an inning ending double play had Felipe Lopez not been running on the pitch. Instead, Castillo could only record an out at first, allowing Ronnie Belliard to score, knotting up the game. On the night, Perez would pitch 5.2 total innings, allowing five earned runs with four free passes. We continue to see more of the same from Perez in 2008; dominant some innings, completely erratic in others.

As mediocre as Perez was on the night, the Mets’ bullpen was even worse. Much, much worse. To start out the 6th inning, Perez put runners on 1st and 2nd, then getting ground ball outs from the next two hitters to give the Nats runners on 2nd and 3rd with two outs. However, with Lastings Milledge making a pinch hitting appearance, manager Willie Randolph decided to end Perez’s night and begin Aaron Heilman’s. Milledge worked a long at-bat, earning a walk for his perseverance. With the bases now loaded with two men down, Aaron Heilman faced Nationals’ second baseman Felipe Lopez. Its simply too painful to describe what happened next, so I’ll let these pictures do the talking: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/photo?slug=ce88c5876633dcdb79d44e9182354da5-getty-80324455gf012_mets_wash&prov=getty , http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/photo?slug=1160367557a44a50a95672751fa6f0cb.mets_nationals_baseball_dchg117&prov=ap. The score was now 7-3, the Mets’ effectively demoralized.

Jorge Sosa assumed mop-up duties for the remainder of this one, he looked just as rusty last night as he did in the Chicago series. He went an inning, allowing three runs (just one of which earned) on three hits. Though Sosa and Heilman have been skidding of late, I’d give more of a break to Sosa for his performance. Willie Randolph had used him in each of the last four games, and he’s the only guy of of the Mets’ bullpen who can go for more than three innings, if need be. Heilman won’t be pitching out of the eighth inning too often anymore if Duaner Sanchez keeps up his above average performance, he’ll have to get used to working in the 6th or 7th inning. Hopefully Heilman can adjust to this role without making ballparks look about half as big as they are.

The Mets’ offense was inconsistent tonight, scoring five runs but stranding 17 baserunners. Their five runs were all scored in five different innings, off of different bats. Luis Castillo got the ball rolling with an RBI single, which Oliver Perez followed with an RBI single of his own, an inning later. Ryan Church singled in a run in the 5th, giving him his 14th RBI on the season. The Mets received a little bit of power in the later innings, as a result of home runs from birthday boy Carlos Beltran, and pinch hitting machine Marlon Anderson.

Okay, positives on last night’s game; Luis Castillo somehow stole his 6th base of the season! The way he played last season, Mets fans forgot all about his running game. He did swipe 25 bags just two years ago with the Minnesota Twins. Raul Casanova had two hits last night, with Brian Schneider possibly being out of the lineup for a prolonged period of time, he’ll have to be an adequate offensive force; be it starting or backing up 26 year old Gustavo Molina.

There were negatives-a-plenty last night. Carlos Delgado simply can’t buy a hit: he was 0-4, and saw his average dip to .198, below the Mendoz line. I think all Mets fans are on Delgado’s side, we just don’t want to see someone in the lineup who can’t be productive. I hope Delgado picks up his play, the Mets really miss his power bat in the middle of the batting order. Also, David Wright went hitless, making him 0 for his last 14 at-bats.

Today the Mets will return to sunny Flushing, sending Mike Pelfrey to the mound to square off against talented righty Jair Jurrjens.

The Haiku

Early two-out runs
Give way to Heilman’s struggles
Mets need: first baseman

The Boxscore

The Win Probability Added Graph

The Credits

Recap by Milo Taibi
Haiku by Howard Megdal