The Game

The Mets took a 5-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates yesterday afternoon. The loss capped an otherwise successful road trip, in which the Mets went 6-1.

Though the Mets bullpen wasn’t good yesterday, this game’s loss can be blamed upon blown opportunities from the Mets offense. In a game in which Damion Easley started in place of Jose Reyes, the Mets stranded 16 baserunners. In the 6th inning, the Mets were unable to score despite a leadoff Nick Evans double. In the 8th inning, Carlos Delgado popped out with the bases loaded. The Mets simply had no answers for Paul Maholm, who would go on to throw seven strong innings.

John Maine got the start for the Mets, and had a typical John Maine outing. He threw 96 pitches through five innings of two hit baseball. Had it not been for the four walks, Maine may have been able to hang around in yesterday’s game for another couple of innings. However, the high pitch count combined with the fact that Maine just recently came off the DL brought a relatively early end to his day.

The Pittsburgh Pirates took advantage of the opportunity at hand (Maine’s early exit), and pounced upon new pitcher Brian Stokes for two quick runs. After a Ryan Doumit single, Adam LaRoche hit a two run bomb to knot the game up at two. From this point forward, it was a battle of the bullpens (A battle the Mets lose for too often). After Scott Schoeneweis came on to record two outs, Pedro Feliciano and Duaner Sanchez would combine to give up three earned runs over 1/3 of an inning. It would be Feliciano who would receive the loss.

Kind of hard to complain after a 6-1 road trip. The Mets did something they haven’t done all season; consistently defeat a bad team. Say what you will about the Mets having an easy schedule from here on out, but all teams that make the post-season beat bad teams. The Mets taking six of seven from the Nats and Bucs shows me that this is a better team than the one we’ve been watching to this point.

By the way, how is it that Damion Easley’s grounded into 13 double plays this season? That’s a pretty startling number for a part time player. I know he’s having a great year and all, but jeez, take it easy Damion.

The Mets begin an important three game set with the Atlanta Braves at Shea tonight. Oliver Perez will try to best Jo-Jo Reyes.

The Haiku

Maine struggles through five
Mets strand runners all game long
But Duaner doesn’t!

The Boxscore

The Win Probability Added Graph

The Credits

Recap by Milo Taibi
Haiku by Howard Megdal