The Game

Claudio Vargas was tremendous in his Mets debut, but his effort was all for naught as Aaron Heilman and the Mets offense gave away this game to the Washington Nationals by a score of 5-3.

Tuesday afternoon, the Mets had announced that Angel Pagan was going on the DL, and Jorge Sosa and Nelson Figueroa were going to pack their bags and head to waivers. Three players were brought up to the big club; Matt Wise (who had been on the 15 day DL), pinch hitter Fernando Tatis and insurance policy Claudio Vargas. Mets fans can be sure that the less they see of Vargas this year the better; as the more time he spends with the Mets, the more time Pedro Martinez and Orlando Hernandez aren’t going to be healthy and ready to pitch. But tonight he stood out from the crowd of replacement starting pitchers (Jose Lima and Jeremi Gonzalez unfortunately come to mind), and pitched a gem. Vargas went 6 1/3 innings, allowing merely three hits, two earned runs and four walks. Claudio also struck out six batters, remaining consistent with his career strike out per nine innings ratio (six k’s per nine innings). In the 6th inning Vargas allowed a mammoth home run off the bat of Ryan Zimmerman, but he kept the Mets in the game throughout the night. He’d leave the game in the 7th inning with one out, and one man on base.

Unfortunately, the entrance of Aaron Heilman in this situation turned into an all too familiar course of events. After a Wily Mo Pena groundout, Heilman was set to face catching prospect Jesus Flores. Heilman quickly blew two fastballs right by Flores, putting Heilman in the driver’s seat. Heilman then proceeded to throw three off-speed pitches off the plate, drawing the count full. With his 3-2 delivery, Flores lined a single into left field to put the Nats ahead. This would hardly be the worst Heilman would endure last night. Speedy pinch hitter Willie Harris came to the plate, and mind-numbingly drew a walk. Later on in that frame Felipe Lopez and Christian Guzman would get RBI singles, but the walk to Harris was the turning point of the inning by far. I don’t mind Flores beating Heilman when Aaron was in the strike zone and giving the at-bat all he had. But to walk a light hitting pinch hitter in that spot was simply unforgivable. My philosophy remains that the Mets should ride Heilman until he gets on a hot streak and then sell him high, but its really difficult to keep watching him implode in key spots.

The Mets offense was nothing to write home about last night. They didn’t score until the 5th inning off of Tim Redding, when Brian Schneider hit a line drive home run. Schneider would be accountable for the Mets next run as well, when he hit a frozen rope to first baseman Aaron Boone to knock in Endy Chavez (who entered the game after Moises Alou was ejected for arguing balls and strikes). In the start of the 8th inning, the Mets were down 5-2. Their momentum got started immediately when pinch hitting extraordinaire Marlon Anderson hit a single into left field. Joser Reyes would then fly out, and Ryan Church would draw a free pass. After Luis Ayala entered the game, David Wright was set to hit in a situation that could have not only tied the game, but completely change the momentum in the ballgame. Unfortunately he’d shatter his bat in a fly out to center field. Carlos Beltran would single in a run, but Endy Chavez would prove to be no match for Jon Rauch, and he’d fly out to end the threat.

This a very tough loss for the Mets, simply because the Nationals are a team that contending teams must beat. We now have to rely on Mike Pelfrey tomorrow for a split in this series against a team that had scored just seven runs in their last three games prior to their series in New York. I’m sick of pitchers like Tim Redding, Bronson Arroyo and Odalis Perez having great games at out expense. I understand that no team’s perfect, but to watch a clearly talented ballclub continue such a poor level of play against such mediocre teams is frustrating. The Mets will have to rely on a victory this afternoon at 1:10 when Pelfrey takes on recently recalled Jason Bergmann.

The Haiku

Vargas is superb
Heilman digs the Mets a hole
Too steep to climb out

The Boxscore

The Win Probability Added Graph

The Credits

Recap by Milo Taibi
Haiku by Howard Megdal