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August 24, 2008

Daily Mets Recap: August 24th, 2008

Scribbled by: Milo Taibi, Howard Megdal and Eric Simon @ 9:59 am | Filed under: Game Recaps

The Game

John Maine and the Mets got rocked by the Houston Astros last night. The ‘Stros scored five runs through the first three innings en route to an 8-3 victory. The loss would drop the Mets lead over the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East division to 1.5 games.

There really wasn’t much to say about John Maine’s outing last night, other than he flat out stunk. Yes he had some rising velocity, which was nice to see, but his location was abysmal and he got absolutely lit up. He gave up a run in the 2nd inning when Geoff Blum singled in Lance Berkman, who had hit a ground rule double. In the 3rd, Maine let the pitcher Brandon Backe (Who could honestly hit third on the Washington Nationals) reach first on a single. Then, super-gritty/ex-punter/extraordinary character guy Darin Erstad drew a walk. After a Michael Bourne sacrifice bunt, Miguel Tejada singled in Brandon Backe. Lance Berkman than strolled to the plate, and withdrew the interest of everyone in attendance by hitting a three run home run to left field. Just to rub salt in the wound, David Newhan homered later in the game. If that isn’t kicking a man when he’s down, I have no clue what is. The loss was John’s 8th of the season.

The Mets never had much doing against opposing starter Brandon Backe. Backe allowed an RBI double to Ryan Church, and a two run jack to Brian Schneider (What’s the deal with that guy? Does he suck, or is he a good hitter? These are serious questions that need answering), but Backe was quite impressive. He went seven innings, walking just one and striking out four. After Backe, Tim Byrdak and Geoff Geary threw scoreless innings to seal the deal.

Every team will lose these types of games over the course of a season; its just a shame that the Mets happened to get blown out on the same day that the Phillies beat the Dodgers. Hopefully John Maine can successfully rebound from this terrible outing, but he hasn’t impressed since his return from the DL.

This afternoon Randy Wolf will take on Oliver Perez in the third game of this four game set.

The Haiku

Maine: time to worry?
Schneider’s homer goes for naught
And Duaner struggles

The Boxscore

Houston	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Erstad, RF	4	2	2	0	1	2	0	.298
Bourn, CF	4	1	1	0	0	2	1	.226
Tejada, SS	5	1	3	2	0	0	0	.288
Berkman, 1B	5	2	3	4	0	0	1	.331
Blum, 3B	4	0	1	1	1	0	3	.234
Wigginton, LF	4	0	0	0	0	0	3	.300
Abercrombie, LF	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.240
Newhan, 2B	4	1	1	1	0	0	2	.204
Quintero, C	4	0	0	0	0	2	1	.234
Backe, P	4	1	1	0	0	1	0	.302
Byrdak, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.167
Geary, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	38	8	12	8	2	7	11
BATTING 2B: Berkman (39, Maine). HR: Berkman (26, 3rd inning off Maine, 2 on, 1 out), Newhan (1, 6th inning off Maine, 0 on, 0 out). TB: Erstad 2; Bourn; Tejada 3; Berkman 7; Blum; Newhan 4; Backe. RBI: Blum (41), Tejada 2 (55), Berkman 4 (93), Newhan (3). 2-out RBI: Tejada; Berkman. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Blum. S: Bourn. Team LOB: 6. FIELDING DP: 2 (Newhan-Tejada-Berkman 2).

NY Mets	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Reyes, J, SS	4	0	2	0	0	0	0	.301
Reyes, A, 2B	4	0	0	0	0	0	2	.253
Wright, 3B	3	0	0	0	0	2	0	.293
Delgado, 1B	4	0	1	0	0	1	2	.260
Beltran, CF	3	0	0	0	0	1	1	.268
Stokes, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.667
b-Easley, PH	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.261
Murphy, LF	2	1	0	0	2	0	1	.365
Church, RF	4	1	2	1	0	0	1	.311
Schneider, C	3	1	1	2	0	0	1	.257
Maine, P	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.109
Sanchez, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
a-Evans, PH	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.268
Smith, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Chavez, CF	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	.271
Totals	31	3	6	3	2	5	8
a-Grounded out for Sanchez in the 6th. b-Grounded out for Stokes in the 9th.
BATTING 2B: Church (11, Backe), Reyes, J (32, Byrdak). HR: Schneider (6, 8th inning off Backe, 1 on, 0 out). TB: Reyes, J 3; Delgado; Church 3; Schneider 4. RBI: Church (37), Schneider 2 (29). 2-out RBI: Church. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Schneider; Delgado. GIDP: Reyes, A; Church. Team LOB: 4.

Houston	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Backe (W, 8-12)	7.0	5	3	3	1	4	1	5.54
Byrdak	1.0	1	0	0	0	1	0	3.72
Geary	1.0	0	0	0	1	0	0	2.37

NY Mets	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Maine (L, 10-8)	5.2	10	8	8	2	4	2	4.18
Sanchez	0.1	2	0	0	0	0	0	4.09
Smith	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	0	4.11
Stokes	2.0	0	0	0	0	2	0	3.86

Backe pitched to 2 batters in the 8th.

HBP: Wright (by Byrdak).
Pitches-strikes: Backe 102-65, Byrdak 22-14, Geary 12-8, Maine 105-74, Sanchez 14-9, Smith 12-7, Stokes 22-15.
Ground outs-fly outs: Backe 12-5, Byrdak 1-1, Geary 3-0, Maine 7-6, Sanchez 0-1, Smith 2-0, Stokes 3-1.
Batters faced: Backe 26, Byrdak 5, Geary 3, Maine 29, Sanchez 3, Smith 3, Stokes 6.
Inherited runners-scored: Sanchez 2-2.
Umpires: HP: Wally Bell. 1B: Sam Holbrook. 2B: Chad Fairchild. 3B: Mark Wegner.
Weather: 73 degrees, partly cloudy.
Wind: 7 mph, In from RF.
T: 2:36.
Att: 51,766.
August 23, 2008

Box score official statistics approved by Major League Baseball Office of the Commissioner