Brad, I have to put my faith in our pitching since our team isn't hitting all that well, either. Half our line-up is second stringers on any given night and 2 of the regular starters are hitting under .250. The only hitters we can count on are Harper, Escobar, and sometimes Espinoza. Too many holes in the line-up for us to be consistent. Your pitching can do what the Dodgers did without too much trouble. I don't see the Nats being able to score well until we get Zimmerman, Werth, Span, and Rendon back off the DL, and even then it will take a while to play them into game shape. -- Al
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Peter Reuss
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The Brewers just swept the Pirates and seem to be on a bit of a roll of late. Only 11 games under .500 (we were 20 game under not that long ago).
The playoff push starts today
The playoff push starts today
Panzer ace
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Al:
There is no shame in getting beat by Greinke and Kershaw. Besides, I get the feeling that this past weekend's Nats and Dodgers series was a playoff and/or NLDS preview.
My only question is how has Greinke lost? Must be a bunch of 1-0's?
-Jason
Interesting you say that, Jason. I just looked it up. His last loss (and the last time he gave up runs), was on June 13 when he lost 2-1. He went 8 innings. His other loss, on May 16, he left the game after 6 innings, trailing 1-0. The LA bullpen then imploded and lost the game 7-1. So even in his 2 losses he has only given up 3 runs in 14 innings. Further, he has 8 ND's. In 5 of them he yielded 1 run, 2 of them 0 runs, and only 1 where he gave up multi-runs, 5. Those 7 ND's with the 5 yielded runs encompass 46.1 innings. He has pitched well enough to be 18-1. He is having a year to remember. -- Al
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Panzer ace
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Al:
Some other interesting info:
In the 2015 season has has given up 19 runs in 19 starts;
And he almost quit baseball all together in 2006 due to depression and anxiety;
He will make $23 million in 2015, and can become a free agent after the season if he so chooses;
And my personal favorite about his dislike for Yasiel Puig from Fox Sports:
"In 2014, during the Dodgers' annual trip to Chicago, the team bus stopped downtown to allow rookies undergoing hazing to walk into a pizza place…When the bus was ready to leave, Puig was outside, looking for his luggage inside of the bay underneath the bus. After Puig ignored multiple requests to close the luggage bay, Greinke hopped off the bus, grabbed the suitcase in front of Puig and chucked it onto Michigan Avenue."
Wow.
-Jason
jazzeum
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What did I tell you Al? Mets management is just wasting the pitching talent they have on this team. They also have a pretty good pen now, with Parnell as the 7 inning man, Mejia in the 8th and Familia in the 9th. All going to waste however.
I don't understand the thinking. What's the point of all the brilliant pitching if they don't intend to support it? Even the worst ownership/management knows that scoring runs is crucial. Is it a matter of money or is there still some ownership issues left over or is it just bad planning? The Mets don't need much offense with that pitching but they do need to find another run per game or they're going to waste the arms. -- Al
jazzeum
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I think it's money; Madoff really hurt them and I don't believe they've recovered. They weren't shy about spending in the past, although not necessarily wisely.
On top of that, Alderson did a poor job of building a bench so that when the crunch came, they had no answer. Alderson has proven to be a great seller but a poor buyer. The players that are there now are trying their hardest but many of them are not major league caliber or shouldn't be starters.
On top of that, Alderson did a poor job of building a bench so that when the crunch came, they had no answer. Alderson has proven to be a great seller but a poor buyer. The players that are there now are trying their hardest but many of them are not major league caliber or shouldn't be starters.
It's a shame, Brad. That is a stacked rotation, even subtracting Colon and possibly Niese. -- Al
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I think you can use Greinke as the example.
The guy has only given up 19 runs all year but is still 9-2. The bottom line is that you have to score runs even if you have the best pitcher in baseball going for you.
The good news for the Mets is that the arms they have are young, therefore the team has some time to add hitting to its payroll. And once they do, they will be a contender.
jazzeum
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If they don't spend money, then this will be a recurring problem.
There was a rumor they would bring up on of their top prospects, Michael Conforto, who is supposed to be ready, but that is apparently not going to happen.
Fans hope the Wilpons will sell the team but that's not going to happen either; Fred wants to give it to his son Jeff, who is worthless.
There was a rumor they would bring up on of their top prospects, Michael Conforto, who is supposed to be ready, but that is apparently not going to happen.
Fans hope the Wilpons will sell the team but that's not going to happen either; Fred wants to give it to his son Jeff, who is worthless.
Mets got us tonight. Actually, they got to our rather mediocre bullpen and definitly got the better of Williams and his handling of the bullpen. Williams allowed a 1-run 9th inning deficit to get out of hand. The Nats relief pitcher brought in to start the 9th allowed the first 2 Mets to reach base. Williams should have yanked him right there and tried to save the situation with another arm. For some reason Williams allowed the pitcher to hang around long enough to throw 23 pitches, recording 1 out and allowing 4 hits, a walk, and 4 runs before the second relief pitcher of the inning closed it out. Game over. Williams has his strengths but handling pitchers, especially the bullpen, isn't one of them. -- Al
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Al:
Great observations on Williams. Not to compare the 2 but I think that Bochy's bullpen management skills set him apart from many other managers. It may be subtle but those kinds of decisions can win games or, in the long run, even impact pennants.
-Jason
Jason, have to agree about Bochy after watching him befuddle the Nats last year. I don't mean to seem overly harsh towards Williams (some of it is leftover angst from him removing Zimmerman last playoffs) but he has blown a few moves this season. There is also the fact that he doesn't have the bullpen to work with that he had last season. The Nats blew up the bullpen in the off-season and the result has been real hit-or-miss. Our closer is fine but the 7-8 inning bridge is not very good and Williams has had to work with what he was given. If we could get Clippard back... :wink2: -- Al
maddadicus
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As of today, with games in hand and the loss column differences, the Yanks have a 6 game advantage over Baltimore, 10 over Toronto, 12 over TB, and 14 over Red Sox...Nice place to be right now..Michael
Well, they sure have hurt the O's the last 2 games with the pair of 1-run wins. O's really need to win the game today because a 7 game deficit is going to be a struggle for a team that just hasn't been able to put winning streaks together. Gotta hand it to the NYY's and their version of the Bash Brothers. I sure didn't expect them to put this kind of year together. -- Al
jazzeum
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Mets go from the fat to the fire; they face Kershaw and Greinke the next couple of days.
They played well yesterday except for one inning and it cost them. It was a game they had to have but Collins didn't play it that way. Give the Nats credit; they know how to win those kind of games.
They played well yesterday except for one inning and it cost them. It was a game they had to have but Collins didn't play it that way. Give the Nats credit; they know how to win those kind of games.
Brad, I know the Mets and Nats are division rivals, but I wish you all better luck than we had against those two. They are the best one-two punch in the game. -- Al