Posts tagged ‘Carlos Delgado’

Scott and I were fortunate enough to be in attendance for this see-saw game…and the Carloses did not disappoint. 

Carlos Delgado is putting a cap on his incredible season.  I said it a few weeks ago that he needed 40 homers and 120 RBI to clinch the MVP award.  At that time, those numbers looked improbable at best.  Now he needs just 5 more dingers and 17 more RBI to reach both plateaus.  The MVP is well within Delgado’s reach.

Carlos Beltran has also been red hot lately.  He’s up to 100 RBI…the Mets are the first team in the Big Leagues to have three guys with 100 RBI.  A few weeks ago, people were killing Beltran and rightfully so.  But he’s been almost as huge as Delgado. 

David Wright had an OK game.  He still had some terrible cuts as he’s finding his way out of a major slump.  If Wright can turn it around, man this offense would be unstoppable. 

Ollie Perez did not look sharp at all.  Scott called it early on and I agreed that it’s one of those games where Ollie could lose focus.  They just finished off playing the Phillies and had an off day Monday, the crowd was pretty dead early on.  But it was Ollie’s worst start in a few months, so you can’t be too upset.

Finally, the bullpen was very good tonight, especially at the end of the game.  Joe Smith, Scott Schoenewis, Brian Stokes and Luis Ayala were awesome tonight.  Kudos to them.  Let’s take Game 2 tomorrow night and finish off the sweep.

Well that was a stunner in the opposite way.  I’m shocked the Mets actually came back on the road and beat the Phillies late in a game.

I really though the only way the Mets were winning tonight was if Johan Santana threw a ridiculous game.  But actually Santana wasn’t very good tonight.  He gave up three runs in the first two innings, but he did settle down after that to pitch very four very strong innings.

Carlos Delgado gets the golden star for this game.  How clutch was the big guy!?  He got a two-out run scoring single in the first and then hit two solo bombs to tie the game.  He now has 30 homers and 93 RBI for the season.  He’s going to surpass his numbers in 2006 if he keeps his pace.

Big surprise that Daniel Murphy gets the game-winning RBI.  This guy has been awesome all year long, and he came through tonight in a big way.  That double to the opposite field off Brad Lidge was one of the biggest hits all season.

The bullpen has to credit for tonight’s win.  Brian Stokes, Pedro Feliciano, Joe Smith and Luis Ayala got the job done tonight.  These guys failed last night, but they were able to rebound and help give the Mets a win tonight.

I was pissed after last night’s loss and deservedly so.  This team gets off to good starts and then folds at the end of games.  But I have to give this team credit on one thing…they seem to bounce back from tough losses really well.  It seems like every time I go on a long rant about this team is so mentally fragile, they win the next night.  While they did score another run in the first tonight, they actually came back and outscored the Phillies from the 7th inning on, which is rare.  All in all, a split isn’t terrible but they really should have swept this team.

The Phillies go to Chicago for four games, which means the Mets should probably have a 2.5 game lead by the end of the weekend.  The Mets have a much-needed off day tomorrow and then travel to Florida for three.  The Marlins are basically baked so I’m expecting at worst, a two-out-of-three series win.

These are the types of games where you find out what your team is made of.  And frankly, the Mets are made of sh*t!  This is the worst regular season loss I’ve ever seen…and I’ve seen many.

You’ve got a 7-0 lead with first place on the line…how do you lose!?  Someone needs to explain how in the world you lose this game.  It just boggles my mind.

Pedro Martinez…you have a seven-run lead.  You can’t give up 80% of it.  I mean didn’t you win two Cy Young Awards!?

The bullpen is just the worst.  The Mets have lost five games to the Phillies this season and in four of them, they had at least a two-run lead.  Aaron Heilman, I tip my cap to you.  You were awesome and so was Brian Stokes.  The rest of you were absolute garbage.

I know Pedro stunk up the joint tonight, but I think all of us would take a two-run lead heading into the 8th and a one-run lead in the 9th.  The bullpen has to finish it off, and it’s too often that they can’t.

Jayson Werth should have been out at the plate to end the game too.  Ryan Church’s throw was not good, but Damion Easley made a solid throw.  Brian Schneider…I kept hearing before this season how you were such an amazing defensive catcher.  How about catching the ball and ending the game!?  I mean come on!!!  Are you kidding me!?  If you’re going to be as terrible of a hitter as Schneider is, then you better be like Rey Ordonez with the glove behind the plate, and he’s not!  Say what you want about his throwing deficiencies, but Mike Piazza makes that play without a doubt.

And then finally, the offense.  It’s tough to get too angry when your team scores seven runs.  But how many times are we going to see this!?  They light up the scoreboard early on, but then they do nothing for the rest of the game.  They didn’t score a single run the last nine innings of the game.  And Carlos Delgado and David Wright both grounded into huge double plays that could have scored more runs.

The season isn’t over…the Mets are only a half-game back.  But I keep saying this when the Mets lose games like this, there comes a time when all of these terrible losses are going to come back and bite you in the ass.  I hope this one doesn’t, but I wouldn’t be shocked if it does.

I really see this season going one of two ways…they use it as a wake-up call and someone steps it up…or they fall out of this thing altogether because of this loss.  Gary Cohen talked about how this game could determine the rest of the season, and I completely agree.  The Mets are so talented, much more so than the Phillies.  But the Phillies have so much more confidence.  Tomorrow is just a huge game and I’m so happy to have Johan Santana on the mound for it.

And that is a nice away to erase the bad memories of the previous two losses.  Tonight the Mets smacked the Astros around badly.

Mike Pelfrey was absolutely awesome.  He became the first Met since 1995 to throw back-to-back complete game wins.  Pelfrey was just unhittable tonight, throwing strikes and getting double plays.  He makes me feel really confident about this rotation even with the loss of John Maine.

Carlos Delgado had another monster game, smacking two long three-run bombs.  Delgado is up to 28 homers and 93 RBI already.  If you told me he’d have that for the season a few months ago, I would have told you that you were crazy.  Now he can get 35 homers and 115 RBI easily.  He’s going to finish in the top 15 of the MVP vote too…his turnaround has been simply amazing.

The Mets defense had another very solid outing.  They’ve only made four errors over the past 33 games, which is a team record over that time span.

Everyone says you win with pitching and defense.  Well right now the Mets starting pitching and defense is the best in baseball.  If they can get any sort of consistency from their bullpen and some offense late in games, this team is going to run away with the division.  If not, it’s going to be a fight to the end with the Phillies.

I’m excited for the next two games in Philadelphia.  The Mets have played the Phillies great all year…in fact they’ve lost three games against them this year and the bullpen had a huge say in all of those losses.  Come on ‘pen…if they get the job done, the Mets are going to get themselves a two-game sweep.

Well that was some win!  Thanks to some generous scoring by the official scorer, Carlos Delgado gets five hits and is the hero tonight.  BTW, the Mets scored one run in every odd-numbered which I wonder if it’s ever been done before.

Pedro Martinez looked good, despite giving up four runs.  He had one bad pitch in the first and then a bad inning in the sixth but was very solid besides that.

David Wright and Carlos Delgado were awesome tonight.  There wasn’t much offense besides those two and luckily that was enough for the win.

Atlanta really handed the Mets this sweep…and the umps helped a bit too in the top of the ninth.  That was a bad call at first base.  Even despite that, Luis Ayala has looked very solid in his first two outings.  This is a guy who could make a difference in the bullpen for the rest of the season.

An awesome night for the Mets as they got their game to go in their favor and the Phillies narrowly lost.  It’s now a 2.5 game cushion for the boys in blue and orange…which gives them a nice little lead with about six weeks to play.  Man, this season is the definition of a roller coaster.

Quick note: the Mets need to go 19-14 to win 90 games, which is obviously very doable.  When Willie Randolph get fired, I figured there’s no way this team is winning 90 games and now it’s seems like they have a better than 50/50 shot at it.  Just amazing how well this team has played since Jerry Manuel took over.  Let’s hope it continues…btw if the Mets won Monday’s game, they would have 10 in a row right now.

Well just when you thought the Mets were going to pile up two terrible losses in a row, the offense comes alive and pulls it out in the eighth. 

I really thought the Braves were going to win their first one-run game on the road in 27 tries…the Mets are bound to end that streak.  When you think about it, how amazing is that!?  The Braves have lost 26 straight one-run games on the road.  It’s a combination of terrible luck and no clutchness from the offense or pitching at all.

Oliver Perez looked good tonight except for one bad inning.  You’ll take 6+ and 3 runs from him though.

The offense scored again in the first and then disappeared until the eighth inning.  I don’t get why they keep doing this.  Do pitchers just get much better as the game goes on or does the offense lose the focus?  Is it a combination of both?  They need to figure that out.

The eighth inning was awesome.  When Delgado came up and the score was 3-2 with bases loaded and one out, I was convinced he was striking out or grounding into a double play.  That’s how the offense had been going tonight and pretty much all season when the team is losing a close game.  But Carlos came through with a big two-run double.

Damion Double play Easley also delivered a clutch hit to open things up as did Ramon Castro…another thing the Mets have failed to do a lot of times, score some tack-on runs.

The bullpen was awesome tonight, from Luis Ayala to Aaron Heilman to Scott Schoeneweis.  I can’t believe Heilman walked the reliever in the eighth…although at this point I shouldnt be surprised.  But they actually got the clutch outs for once so I can’t complain too much.

Big win tonight as they kept the lead at 1.5.  Let’s see if they can take the series tomorrow night.

What a difference three days makes!  After that Pirates loss on Monday, I was resigned to the Mets having a lost season.  They were 2.5 games out of first and the bullpen was a complete nightmare.  Well the bullpen might still be a nightmare, but after a three-game sweep in DC, the Mets are now a half-game ahead of the Phillies.

The offense got it going again tonight thanks to some bad Nationals defense.  Carlos Delgado and Brian Schneider, yes Schneider, hit home runs tonight.  That gave the Mets a five-run lead and before you knew it, the Nats scored three runs and we had ourselves a game.

That ninth inning for the Mets was enormous.  I was nervous as hell they were going to blow this one after they gave up three runs, so those four runs in the ninth were huge.  The Nats defense gave the Mets two runs, but they put themselves in position to win after scoring two without the help of any lousy defense.

Another sign of a winning team…the Mets scored their first two runs on a ground out and a sac fly.  Winners take advantage of every opportunity and that’s what the Mets did tonight.  At one point, they had scored five runs and only had four hits, and they finished the game with nine runs on eight hits.  I love it!

Onto Pittsburgh tomorrow night to keep this train rolling.  The Phillies play tonight in LA and then in San Diego where the Mets got swept in four games.  Could be a nice weekend to be a Mets fan.

Well the Mets took a rare close game tonight as the bullpen actually got six outs in a row to finish the game.  Really it shouldn’t be a story when the bullpen goes two scoreless innings against the worst team in baseball, but it is tonight.

The Mets got off to a great start thanks to some early clutch runs by the Carloses.  Beltran has been getting a little better lately, pushing his average over .275.  If only he can get the power going a little bit.

Then the offense basically took the rest of the night off.  Sure they got a run in the 8th but that was due more to the Nationals’ lousy pitching than the Mets’ hitting.  Damion Easley got hit in the head with a pitch with bases loaded and a 1-2 count for the game winner.  The lack of tack-on runs is really killing this team.

Johan Santana wasn’t great tonight, but he was good enough to get his 10th win of the year.  Even when he doesn’t have his terrific stuff going, he manages to give his team a chance to win just about every single game…which is what an ace is supposed to do.

And finally, Joe Smith and Pedro Feliciano were very good tonight, striking out four during their two innings of duty.  About time this ‘pen got the job done.

John Maine makes his return off the DL tomorrow against Mets killer Jason Bergmann.  Don’t be shocked if Bergmann has another ridiculous game.  I hope I’m wrong.