The Haiku

Putz drops Santana
In the ninth, bases loaded
GIVE RAMON A CHANCE!!!!

The Game

Hats off to the New York Mets who, after all these years, somehow still manage to find new and even more frustrating ways to lose ballgames. The latest coming on Wednesday afternoon at Citi Field as the Not So Amazins dropped a 4-3 decision to the first place Florida Marlins.

In a rematch of the most well pitched game of this young baseball season, Johan Santana squared off against Josh Johnson of the Marlins. While both pitchers weren’t as sharp as they were back in Miami on Easter Sunday, their numbers on the day were nothing to sneeze at. After giving up two first inning runs (including yet another Jorge Cantu home run), Santana settled down and held the Marlins scoreless over the next six frames. Meanwhile, the Mets got one off Johnson right out of the gate as Jose Reyes lead off with a triple and was bunted home by Alex Cora. The Mets tied the game in the fourth on a Ramon Castro RBI single and took the lead in the sixth on Fernando Tatis’s first homer of the year.

So the new and improved bullpen only needed to record six outs to close out the game and finish the job for the New York ace. After one of their off-season acquisitions blew Tuesday night’s game by giving up a four spot in the seventh after entering with a one run lead, JJ Putz came on to start the eighth. Well JJ wasn’t so dyn-o-mite on this day as he walked the first two hitters he faced. After a sac bunt p ut the runners on first and second with one out, Cody Ross singled home both runners to give the Marlins a 4-3 lead. At this point the game was delayed for ten minutes as the smoke coming from Johan Santana’s ears interfered with the players’ visibility.

Facing the prospect of losing yet another series in ‘09, the Mets actually drew two straight walks to open the bottom of the ninth to put runners on first and second with nobody out for David Wright. This was the pivotal at bat of the game. The slumping Wright, who has had runners on base in virtually every at bat this season, versus the hard throwing former Met Matt Lindstrom. Was this going to be the at bat where the golden boy breaks out of his slump before going on to carry the Mets back to the playoffs? Or would he strike out looking on three pitches? If you chose the latter, you are correct and the proud winner of some Rolaids antacid. So, Wright (1 for 4, 5 men LOB for the day) sulked back to the dugout and the runners remained on first and second. Ryan Church (0 for 5, 5 men LOB for the day) followed with a ground out to first that advanced the runners to second and third with two out. Tatis was then hit by a Lindstrom curveball to load the bases and set the stage for Ramon Castro to come up with a chance to play the role of hero. On his way to the batter’s box, Castro was called back by manager Jerry Manuel as he and=2 0his two hits on the day were being pinch hit for by Omir Santos, who was warming up pitchers in the bullpen. After Santos got to the plate, he celebrated his 28th birthday by blowing out the Mets’ chances for a comeback by popping up to shortstop to end the game. A questionable move by Jerry to say the least, but this wouldn’t have been a Met game if you weren’t left scratching your head when all was said and done. So the 9-12 Mets will hit the road to try and build on the negative momentum they’ve built up thus far as they visit the defending World Champion Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on Friday night.

The Boxscore

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Florida 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 4 7 1 NY Mets 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 3 11 1

Florida AVG AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO PO A Bonifacio, 2B .281 5 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 1 3 2 Maybin, CF .190 5 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 Helms, 3B .231 4 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 3 Cantu, 1B .362 2 2 1 0 0 1 1 2 0 12 2 Hermida, LF .246 3 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 4 0   Nunez, P .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   Lindstrom, P .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Paulino, C .308 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 0 Ross, C, RF .231 4 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 2 1 0 Amezaga, SS .226 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 3 Johnson, P .091 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 1   Pinto, P .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0   Carroll, LF .077 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals .244 32 4 7 2 1 1 4 5 7 27 11 BATTING 2B: Hermida (2, Santana), Bonifacio (2, Rodriguez, F). 3B: Maybin (1, Santana). HR: Cantu (6, 1st inning off Santana, 0 on, 2 out). RBI: Helms (4), Cantu (18), Ross, C 2 (14). S: Paulino (off Putz). SF: Helms (off Santana). Team RISP: 1-for-8. Team LOB: 8. BASERUNNING CS: Ross, C (1). FIELDING E: Helms (2). DP: (Helms-Bonifacio-Cantu).

NY Mets AVG AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO PO A Reyes, J, SS .284 3 1 1 0 1 0 0 2 0 5 1 Cora, 2B .238 4 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 Murphy, LF .324 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0   Putz, P .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1   Rodriguez, F, P .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   a-Sheffield, PH .167 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Beltran, CF .388 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 Wright, 3B .280 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 2 Church, RF .313 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 Tatis, 1B .348 4 2 3 0 0 1 1 0 0 9 1 Castro, R, C .233 4 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 7 1   b-Santos, O, PH .269 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Santana, P .000 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1   Reed, LF .273 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 Totals .282 34 3 11 0 2 1 3 5 4 27 7 a-Walked for Rodriguez, F in the 9th. b-Popped out for Castro, R in the 9th. BATTING 3B: Reyes, J (2, Johnson), Reed (1, Nunez). HR: Tatis (1, 6th inning off Johnson, 0 on, 0 out). RBI: Cora (4), Castro, R (4), Tatis (2). S: Cora (off Johnson), Santana (off Johnson), Santana (off Johnson), Murphy (off Pinto). GIDP: Wright. Team RISP: 1-for-11. Team LOB: 14. BASERUNNING SB: Wright (3), Murphy (1), Tatis (2). FIELDING E: Wright (4).

Florida ERA IP H R ER BB SO HR BF Johnson 2.60 6.0 9 3 3 1 3 1 28 Pinto (W, 1-0) 2.16 1.0 1 0 0 1 0 0 5 Nunez 3.48 1.0 1 0 0 1 0 0 5 Lindstrom (S, 5) 8.31 1.0 0 0 0 2 1 0 6 Totals 4.52 9.0 11 3 3 5 4 1 44

NY Mets ERA IP H R ER BB SO HR BF Santana 1.10 7.0 5 2 2 3 7 1 30 Putz (BS, 1)(L, 1-2) 4.09 1.0 1 2 2 2 0 0 5 Rodriguez, F 2.08 1.0 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 Totals 4.41 9.0 7 4 4 5 7 1 39

Team ER: off Florida 3, off NY Mets 4. BB: off Johnson 1 (Reyes, J), Pinto 1 (Wright), Nunez 1 (Reyes, J), Lindstrom 2 (Sheffield, Beltran), off Santana 3 (Cantu, Amezaga, Amezaga), Putz 2 (Cantu, Hermida). IBB: off Pinto 1 (Wright), off Santana 2 (Amezaga, Amezaga). SO: by Johnson 3 (Wright, Cora, Castro, R), Lindstrom 1 (Wright), by Santana 7 (Bonifacio, Ross, C, Johnson, Maybin, Ross, C, Paulino, Johnson). HB: Tatis (by Lindstrom). Pitches-strikes: Johnson 102-66, Pinto 22-10, Nunez 16-7, Lindstrom 21-10, Santana 109-71, Putz 24-13, Rodriguez, F 15-9. Umpires: HP: Scott Barry. 1B: Mike DiMuro. 2B: Dale Scott. 3B: Jerry Meals. Official Scorer: Howie Karpin. Weather: 62 degrees, partly cloudy. Wind: 13 mph, In from CF. T: 3:11. Att: 39,339.

The Win Probability Added Graph

The Credits

Recap by Chuck Buono
Haiku by Howard Megdal