The Game

Last night the Mets lost a game to the Chicago Cubs that unraveled in a hurry. The gane’s final score was 7-1, the loss being taken by Mets starter John Maine, and the victory going to talented Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano.

John Maine didn’t pitch a bad game at all; the Mets offense just never let him stand a chance. Maine went six innings strong, allowing hits with two earned runs. Maine really brought the heat tonight, being clocked as high as 96 MPH on a few of his six strikeouts on the game.
The two runs Maine would give up would come from a home run off the bat of Aramis Ramirez, which would score Ramirez and Derrick Lee.

The Mets offense really didn’t stand a chance tonight, facing Carlos Zambrano, future closer Carlos Marmol and can’t miss prospect Kerry Wood (note the sarcasm). Zambrano was dominant tonight, going seven innings, and allowing just one earned run on five hits. This game wasn’t very flashy for Zambrano’s standard (only four K’s), but he changed speeds frequently and only dished out two free passes. The only run he’d give up would come from a double play groundout, very telling of how his night went.

The only truly concerning note of this game for me is Aaron Heilman’s performance out of the bullpen. He came on in the 8th inning, and got Derrick Lee to hit an easy groundball to shortstop which Jose Reyes promptly booted. Now I know none of the damage which later occured would have happened if Reyes had not comitted the error, but Heilman simply couldn’t finish the inning from here on out. Heilman would hit Aramis Ramirez on the left elbow with a pitch, then he allowed a line drive single from Kosuke Fukudome into left field to load up the bases. With the game on the line, Heilman struck out Mark DeRosa swinging with a 96 MPH heater. Things appeared to be going the Mets’ way when Heilman got catching prospect Geovany Soto to pop up for the 2nd out of the inning. However, Heilman’s next opponent, light hitting shortstop Ronny Cedeno, would lace a single into center field, knocking in two more runs. That would be all for Heilman, as manager Willie Randolph brough in heavily used long man Jorge Sosa. Sosa would face center fielder Felix Pie, who would promptly knock Sosa’s delivery into next week, putting the Mets at a six run disadvantage.

Ahead by six runs, closer Kerry Wood had an easy 1-2-3 9th inning to put away the Mets in the first game of this series.

I’m not too concerned with the outcome of this game; any team facing Carlos Zambrano is instantly put at a disadvantage. A couple of Randolph’s decisions tonight made me scratch my head; where was Angel Pagan in the batting order? Why does Randolph continue to hit Castillo number two in the order when he’s not productive there? Why would he bring in Jorge Sosa to the ballgame when he just pitched yesterday?

Tuesday the Mets will take on the Cubbies again, and send pitcher Nelson Figueroa to the mound to take on left handed Ted Lilly.

The Haiku

Zambrano too tough
Mets waste Maine’s return to form
Lefties love Sosa!

The Boxscore

The Win Probability Added Graph

The Credits

Recap by Milo Taibi
Haiku by Howard Megdal