The Haiku

Beltran, Church homer
But blasts are just brief pauses
In Cards’ hit parade

The Game

Yesterday the Mets successfully completed their embarrassing three game sweep at the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals by losing 12-8. Poor starting pitching and a worse relief effort proved to be the Mets undoing in this one.

Getting the start Thursday afternoon was Livan Hernandez, and boy did Livan ever come crashing down to earth in this effort. Hernandez would only last 4 1/3 innings, surrendering nine hits, and seven earned runs. The Mets offense appeared to be quite lethargic while Livan was in the game, but ultimately Hernandez’s performance never gave the Mets a shot to win this game. Livan’s record fell to 1-1 on the season, while his ERA rose to an astronomical 7.31. Frighteningly enough, Johan Santana is now the only Mets starting pitcher with an ERA under seven.

You know, for all the talking Livan Hernandez did after spring training (aka his “I’m a winner” quotes) you really would think that he’d perform like a transformed player this season. Rather, Hernandez looks exactly the same as he did in years past. His stuff is incredibly underwhelming, and he’s giving up far too many hits and walks. When you have a pitcher like Hernandez, no matter how many innings you receive, it’s always a debating point as to whether they deserve a spot on a major league roster. Yes, every fifth day you’ll likely have a pitcher to give your bullpen a rest, but when they fall apart the entire team will fall apart with them. Because of Livan’s awful outing Jerry Manuel had to burn 49 pitches on Sean Green (does nobody in team management care that Green fell apart last year due to over-usage?), and have Bobby Parnell pitch a completely pointless inning. This outing from Livan will hopefully force management to reflect on what direction they want to take this team’s starting rotation in.

Meanwhile, the Mets offense had nothing doing for the majority of the game yesterday. Kyle Lohse lasted five innings, giving up eight hits and only two earned runs before rookie P.J. Walters took over pitching duties. Walters got roughed up by a two run Ryan Church home run, and a three run Carlos Beltran home run, but that was the extent of the Mets offense. The back end of the Red Birds bullpen (Trever Miller, Chris Perez, Dennys Reyes, Jason Motte) shut down the Mets for 1 2/3 innings and that was all she wrote in this hideous series in St. Louis.

While reflecting on the Mets starting rotation woes, take a look at these stats: 65 IP, 3.88 ERA, 5-2 record. Sounds like a pitcher the Mets could use right about now, doesn’t it! Well, these are the stats of a pitcher we already have. These are Livan Hernandez’s stats through ten starts last season. As we all know, Livan finished his 2008 campaign with an ERA well above six. I think Mets fans were deceived quite a bit by Livan’s hot start in Spring Training this season. As a result of Mike Pelfrey, Oliver Perez, and John Maine’s ugly starts to the season, we as fans have been given no choice but to overrate Livan. I’d say if there was a time to bring in a new starting pitcher, it’s RIGHT NOW. If the Mets can’t rely upon Pelfrey, Perez, or Maine to keep the Mets in a ballgame, and Livan Hernandez is looking more and more like our number two starter, a change must be made.

Tonight the Mets will be taking on the mighty Washington Nationals at Citi Field. Johan Santana will take the hill against Scott Olsen.

The Boxscore

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E NY Mets 1 0 0 0 1 1 2 3 0 8 13 0 St. Louis 1 0 0 3 3 4 1 0 x 12 18 2

NY Mets AVG AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO PO A Reyes, J, SS .328 5 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 3 Cora, 2B .200 3 2 2 1 0 0 0 2 1 6 5 Beltran, CF .404 5 1 3 1 0 1 3 0 0 2 0 Delgado, 1B .276 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 10 1 Wright, 3B .310 5 1 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 2   Parnell, P .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Sheffield, LF .111 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 Church, RF .333 4 2 2 0 0 1 2 1 0 2 0 Santos, O, C .333 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1   c-Murphy, PH .309 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Hernandez, P .000 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   Stokes, P .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   a-Reed, PH .250 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0   Green, S, P .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   b-Tatis, PH-3B .111 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 Totals .285 41 8 13 2 0 2 7 4 5 24 12 a-Struck out for Stokes in the 6th. b-Singled for Green, S in the 8th. c-Grounded out for Santos, O in the 9th. BATTING 2B: Cora (1, Lohse), Beltran (4, Lohse). HR: Church (1, 7th inning off Walters, 1 on, 2 out), Beltran (2, 8th inning off Walters, 2 on, 1 out). RBI: Wright (6), Reyes, J (7), Church 2 (4), Beltran 3 (12). GIDP: Sheffield. Team RISP: 5-for-16. Team LOB: 10. BASERUNNING SB: Tatis (1). FIELDING DP: 2 (Wright-Cora-Delgado, Cora-Delgado).

St. Louis AVG AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO PO A Schumaker, 2B .292 5 1 2 2 0 0 2 0 0 3 3   1-Thurston, PR-2B .306 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Rasmus, LF .310 5 2 3 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 Pujols, 1B .345 4 4 3 0 0 2 3 1 1 8 1 Ludwick, RF .353 5 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 6 0 Ankiel, CF .250 4 2 3 2 0 1 2 1 0 3 0 Barden, 3B .357 5 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 Ryan, SS .304 4 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 LaRue, C .625 4 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 Lohse, P .222 2 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0   Walters, P .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1   Miller, P .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0   Perez, C, P .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   Reyes, P .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   Motte, P .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals .303 38 12 18 5 0 3 12 3 1 27 9 1-Ran for Schumaker in the 7th. BATTING 2B: Ankiel 2 (5, Hernandez, Parnell), Schumaker 2 (4, Green, S, Green, S), Rasmus (3, Green, S). HR: Pujols 2 (6, 1st inning off Hernandez, 0 on, 2 out; 5th inning off Hernandez, 1 on, 0 out), Ankiel (1, 5th inning off Hernandez, 0 on, 1 out). RBI: Pujols 3 (21), Ankiel 2 (5), Ryan (2), Lohse (1), Schumaker 2 (7), Rasmus (3), Ludwick 2 (18). S: Walters (off Green, S), Walters (off Green, S). GIDP: Barden, Ryan. Team RISP: 9-for-15. Team LOB: 7. BASERUNNING SB: Pujols (2). FIELDING E: Pujols (4), Ludwick (1). DP: (Ryan-Schumaker-Pujols).

NY Mets ERA IP H R ER BB SO HR BF Hernandez (L, 1-1) 7.31 4.1 9 7 7 1 0 3 23 Stokes 0.00 0.2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 Green, S 6.75 2.0 7 5 5 2 1 0 14 Parnell 2.25 1.0 2 0 0 0 0 0 4 Totals 4.65 8.0 18 12 12 3 1 3 43

St. Louis ERA IP H R ER BB SO HR BF Lohse (W, 3-0) 2.42 5.0 8 2 1 1 1 0 24 Walters 11.37 2.1 5 6 5 2 1 2 15 Miller 5.06 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Perez, C 3.86 0.2 0 0 0 1 2 0 3 Reyes 3.18 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Motte 6.43 0.1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 Totals 3.96 9.0 13 8 6 4 5 2 45

Team ER: off NY Mets 12, off St. Louis 6. BB: off Hernandez 1 (Ryan), Green, S 2 (Pujols, Ankiel), off Lohse 1 (Delgado), Walters 2 (Cora, Cora), Perez, C 1 (Church). IBB: off Green, S 2 (Pujols, Ankiel). SO: by Green, S 1 (Pujols), by Lohse 1 (Cora), Walters 1 (Reed), Perez, C 2 (Wright, Sheffield), Motte 1 (Tatis). WP: Green, S. Balk: Lohse, Reyes. Pitches-strikes: Hernandez 79-44, Stokes 7-4, Green, S 49-27, Parnell 14-8, Lohse 90-59, Walters 57-34, Miller 1-1, Perez, C 13-6, Reyes 3-2, Motte 5-4. Umpires: HP: Greg Gibson. 1B: Andy Fletcher. 2B: Tim McClelland. 3B: Ted Barrett. Official Scorer: Gary Mueller. Weather: 74 degrees, partly cloudy. Wind: 20 mph, R to L. T: 3:02. Att: 38,522.

The Win Probability Added Graph

The Credits

Recap by Milo Taibi
Haiku by Howard Megdal