The Game

There are some baseball games when you know after the first inning that your team will lose, regardless of what other events transpire throughout the game. Last night was one of those games. The Mets, who seemingly have a mental block about reaching .500, continued to prove last night that they’re not a playoff team. They lost 8-7 to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Joel Piniero set down the Mets without a run in the first inning. No matter how optimistic you were about Pedro Martinez’s start, you just knew that the Cardinals were going to have a big first inning. They’ve scored the first run of the game in each of the three games in this series, and last night was no exception. After a couple of singles from Skip Schumaker and Aaron Miles, Albert Pujols flew out and Rick Ankiel stepped up to the plate. Ankiel would hit a single to plate St. Louis their first run of the evening. Then Troy Glaus hit a three run home run to dead center, and just like that the Mets were down 3-0.

The Mets would wind up climbing uphill to knot the game up in the 4th inning, on a throwing error from Skip Schumaker. Jose Reyes slid across home plate, and just like that, the ballgame began anew.

This new ballgame wouldn’t last too long as Rick Ankiel hit a bomb to right field to put the Cardinals up in front in the fifth inning, Pedro’s final. Last night Pedro Martinez gave his team a very slim chance to win, simple as that. He went five innings, allowing seven hits and five earned runs. His velocity was fine, but his location stunk and now his ERA’s up to 7.39. I can foresee a trip to the phantom disabled list in his future, if the Mets want to pretend he’s injured instead of washed up.

The Mets rallied to come back in the 7th inning, and found themselves up 7-5 to begin the bottom of the 7th. After Aaron Heilman worked a quick frame, manager Jerry Manuel decided to trot him out to the mound once more to begin the eighth. After hitting Ryan Ludwick with a pitch, Pedro Feliciano came on to face the pinch hitter, Chris Duncan. As could have been expected, Duncan took Feliciano deep and in the blink of an eye, the game was tied at seven.

At that point, the game was officially over. The Mets had come back once from four runs, they didn’t have another fight in them. Carlos Muniz (Why the hell was he ever in this game?) gave up the walk-off to Troy Glaus in the bottom of the ninth, and the Mets fell another game behind the Phillies in the NL East.

This was a brutal game to watch. I spent much of the night flipping between this game, and the Rays-Red Sox match up on ESPN. The Rays really showed me what a playoff team looks like, and the Mets looked nothing like that last night. With the Rays down by three to begin the bottom of the 7th, Jason Bartlett doubled, and an air of electricity was born. David Wright hits a one out triple in the top of the eighth, and Mets fans have significant doubts about whether he’ll score or not (Spoiler alert: he didn’t). Its true that the Mets offense could have done nothing about Feliciano’s un-clutch performance, but 17 runners left on base certainly hurt their chances to come away with a win in this game.

Tonight Mitchell Boggs faces off against Mike Pelfrey, in what could wind up being a very important game for the Mets over the long haul.

The Haiku

Pedro’s early hole
Avenged; but Duncan’s, Glaus’s
Long balls cannot be

The Boxscore

The Win Probability Added Graph

The Credits

Recap by Milo Taibi
Haiku by Howard Megdal