The Game

The Mets broke a two game skid yesterday afternoon with a 4-3 victory over Mark Teixeira and the Atlanta Braves. Following the game, the Mets improved to 3rd place in the NL East division with a 12-11 record. The victory in this game went to John Maine, with the save going to Billy Wagner.

Maine gave the Mets a solid performance yesterday. Through five innings, he allowed just two earned runs with three hits with seven punchouts. He would have gone deeper into this game had he not thrown 100 pitches through those five innings.

The Atlanta Braves offense couldn’t put together a solid string of hits today against any Mets pitcher. John Maine surrendered just two runs, one in the 1st inning and one in the 3rd. The Mets’ bullpen was a strong suit, going a total of four innings, surrendering just one run. One great part of yesterday’s game was how Mets pitchers were able to stob the Braves right in their tracks when they had men on base. In the 1st inning, when Mark Texeira doubled in Kelly Johnson, I think all Mets fans collectively thought, “well, here we go again.” But Maine was able to retire the next batter, Brian McCann. In the 8th inning, with a man on first base and one out, Duaner Sanchez got Jeff Francouer to hit into a double play. I wish Aaron Heilman could just go an inning without giving up any runs already (he allowed a run to score in the 6th), but today the Mets bullpen showed the fans many encouraging signs.

The Mets did all of their offensive damage in the bottom of the third inning. The inning started out with a Jose Reyes popout (he’d go 0-4 on the day), which Endy Chavez countered with a line drive single into right field. With a runner on first and one man gone, David Wright would punch a Tim Hudson delivery into right field for a single. This would set the scene for Carlos Beltran, who hit a bomb over the head of center fielder Mark Kotsay, scoring both Chavez and Wright. With Beltran now on 2nd base, the number five hitter in the Mets lineup, Ryan Church, would hit a triple into right field, scoring Beltran easily, putting Hudson and the Braves at a 3-0 disadvantage. Carlos Delgado would be the next to take his swings, in a good spot to earn credibility with the fans if he could knock Church in. Delgado would knock Church in, but it would be via a slow roller to first baseman Mark Teixeira, who could only retire Delgado for the putout.

There were some notable, “firsts,” in this game. The Atlanta Braves gave talented prospect Brent Lillibridge a start at shortstop, the first appearance of his Major League career. Also, recent New Orleans call-up Gustavo Molina got the start behind the dish, and went 1-3. It was very cool seeing a catcher behind the plate who’s younger than Raul Casanova (Molina’s 26 years old), and who could become a catching prospect for this organization. True, he’s not in a prospect’s age range, but if Brian Schneider or Ramon Castro miss time this year due to injury, he could get some playing time with the big club.

Billy Wagner shut out the Braves in the 9th inning with a strikeout, a ground out and a fly out. This perfect frame gave Billy nine scoreless innings to begin his 2008 campaign. Its such a luxury as a Mets fan to have a reliable, stable closer at the back end of the bullpen who can consistently get outs. Hopefully he’ll keep up his great performance this season.

Today the Mets and Braves will do battle with two of the best pitchers of this century, when Atlanta Braves starter John Smoltz will face Nelson Figueroa (well, he does have 1.20 WHIP this season).

The Haiku

Wright breaks out of slump
Mets get to Hudson early
Bullpen holds the lead

The Boxscore

The Win Probability Added Graph

The Credits

Recap by Milo Taibi
Haiku by Howard Megdal