The Haiku

An early five-spot
Powers Livan revival
Led by Sunday Church

The Game

Livan Hernandez and the New York Mets were able to salvage a 2-4 record on the dreaded Pittsburgh/Washington road trip, coming away with a 7-0 victory over the Washington Nationals at ‘Nobody Wants To Sponsor Our Park Stadium’ on Sunday afternoon.

Coming off Saturday night’s ridiculous performance, the Mets could have used a laugher on Sunday. And thanks to the ineptitude of Nats’ starter Craig Stammen in the first inning, that’s exactly what they got. New York scored five times before the Nationals came to bat (including two runs on wild pitches). Fernando Martinez plated the first run of the game with a double off the base of the wall that scored Alex Cora. Daniel Murphy and Brian Schneider also chipped in with RBIs in the opening frame. Per the Mets’ M.O., of course the didn’t score another run off Stammen the rest of the day and allowed him to make it through five innings while throwing only 87 pitches. But thanks in equal parts to Livan Hernandez and the bumbling Nationals, this game was never in doubt. Hernandez, who has already far exceeded any expectations I may have had for him this year, pitched seven scoreless innings while allowing just four hits and walking four to go along with four strikeouts. In a season that has thus far been filled with many unexpected negatives (looking at you training staff), Livan Hernandez can be viewed as possibly the biggest unexpected positive.

The Met offense t acked on two more runs against the Washington bullpen with one in the seventh (on an RBI single by the suddenly red hot David Wright) and one in the ninth (on a Carlos Beltran RBI double). Pedro Feliciano, Bobby Parnell, and Frankie Rodriguez came on to pitch the final two scoreless frames and close out the 7-0 victory.

So with the easy part of the June schedule behind them, the Mets now face the daunting task of consecutive series with the division leading Phillies and cross town rival Yankees this week. The only person you would want to kick off a week like this, Johan Santana, will take the hill on Tuesday night at Citi Field to try and get the Amazins off on the right foot.

The Boxscore

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

NY Mets AVG AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO PO A Cora, 2B .297 4 2 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 4 Martinez, F, LF .200 5 2 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 Beltran, CF .342 5 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 5 0 Wright, 3B .345 3 1 2 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 Murphy, 1B .247 4 1 2 0 0 0 1 1 0 8 2 Church, RF .277 5 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 Schneider, C .219 3 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 6 0 Valdez, SS .200 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 Hernandez, P .130 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2   a-Reed, PH .311 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   Feliciano, P, P .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   Parnell, P .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   Rodriguez, F, P .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals .277 37 7 11 5 0 0 5 4 3 27 10 a-Flied out for Hernandez in the 8th. BATTING 2B: Martinez, F (4, Stammen), Church (8, Stammen), Wright (16, Stammen), Schneider (3, Tavarez, J), Beltran (18, MacDougal). RBI: Martinez, F (5), Murphy (19), Schneider (5), Wright (34), Beltran (33). SF: Schneider (off Stammen). GIDP: Murphy. Team RISP: 3-for-13. Team LOB: 8. BASERUNNING SB: Wright (14), Cora (4). FIELDING DP: 2 (Murphy-Valdez-Murphy, Valdez-Cora-Murphy).

Washington AVG AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO PO A Guzman, C, SS .326 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 2 Johnson, 1B .325 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 10 2 Zimmerman, R, 3B .320 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 Dunn, LF .264 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 6 0 Dukes, CF .269 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 Kearns, RF .214 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 0 Bard, J, C .211 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 3 0 Hernandez, A, 2B .262 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 7 Stammen, P .167 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   a-Gonzalez, A, PH .295 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   Colome, P .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   b-Harris, PH .256 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   Tavarez, J, P .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0   MacDougal, P .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0   c-Belliard, PH .173 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals .263 30 0 5 0 0 0 0 6 6 27 12 a-Singled for Stammen in the 5th. b-Flied out for Colome in the 7th. c-Popped out for MacDougal in the 9th. BATTING GIDP: Guzman, C, Kearns. Team RISP: 0-for-5. Team LOB: 9. FIELDING E: MacDougal (1). DP: (Johnson-Guzman, C-MacDougal).

NY Mets ERA IP H R ER BB SO HR BF Hernandez (W, 5-1) 3.88 7.0 4 0 0 4 4 0 27 Feliciano, P 2.35 0.2 1 0 0 1 1 0 4 Parnell 1.96 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Rodriguez, F 0.68 1.0 0 0 0 1 1 0 4 Totals 3.93 9.0 5 0 0 6 6 0 36

Washington ERA IP H R ER BB SO HR BF Stammen (L, 0-2) 6.45 5.0 6 5 5 2 2 0 23 Colome 7.71 2.0 3 1 1 1 1 0 10 Tavarez, J 5.06 1.0 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 MacDougal 6.75 1.0 1 1 0 1 0 0 5 Totals 5.51 9.0 11 7 6 4 3 0 42

Team ER: off NY Mets 0, off Washington 6. BB: off Hernandez 4 (Kearns, Bard, J, Bard, J, Dunn), Feliciano, P 1 (Zimmerman, R), Rodriguez, F 1 (Bard, J), off Stammen 2 (Cora, Wright), Colome 1 (Murphy), MacDougal 1 (Wright). SO: by Hernandez 4 (Johnson, Hernandez, A, Kearns, Johnson), Feliciano, P 1 (Guzman, C), Rodriguez, F 1 (Kearns), by Stammen 2 (Valdez, Cora), Colome 1 (Valdez). WP: Stammen 2, Colome 2. Pitches-strikes: Hernandez 116-70, Feliciano, P 21-11, Parnell 4-2, Rodriguez, F 16-7, Stammen 87-49, Colome 36-20, Tavarez, J 7-5, MacDougal 11-7. Umpires: HP: Derryl Cousins. 1B: D.J. Reyburn. 2B: Jim Joyce. 3B: Brian Runge. Official Scorer: Todd Jacobson. Weather: 76 degrees, sunny. Wind: 7 mph, In from RF. T: 2:48. Att: 31,841.

The Win Probability Added Graph

The Credits

Recap by Chuck Buono
Haiku by Howard Megdal