Friday, August 17, 2007By Mike Steffanos
Pirates 10 - Mets 7
Played Thursday, August 16, 2007
The less-than-stellar aspects of the Mets last 3 wins came back to bite our lads last night in Pittsburgh. First they staked Brian Lawrence to a 5-0 lead, but the pitcher who has made a career of throwing strikes wasn't doing a lot of it last night. The Mets missed some opportunities to tack on, and then the bullpen imploded again. By the time the dust cleared leads of 5-0 and 7-3 had evaporated, and the Mets lost what should have been a sure win.
I was disappointed in Lawrence last night. While I hardly blame him for the loss, I thought he was lucky to "only" allow 4 earned runs in his 5 innings of work. With a big lead you would have loved to see the veteran challenge the Pirates and make them beat him with hits. Instead, he struggled with his control all night. While some seem to question why Randolph pinch hit for him in the sixth, he was at 88 pitches and had allowed runs in the previous 2 innings. I didn't have a problem with that.
| Brian Lawrence (1-0) | |||||||||||
| Date | Opp. | IP | R | ER | H | K | BB | HR | ERA | WHIP | Team Result |
| 8/2 | @MIL | 5 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 5.40 | 1.60 | W |
| 8/10 | FLA | 6 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3.00 | 1.83 | L |
| 8/16 | @PIT | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 7.20 | 1.60 | L |
| Season (3 Games) | 16 | 9 | 9 | 20 | 12 | 7 | 2 | 5.06 | 1.69 | 1-1 | |
I'm not really interested in finding scapegoats for disappointing losses, and there were plenty of candidates for the job, anyway. Now the Mets head into Washington to play a team that has more than held their own against them in 2007, and that admittedly has me somewhat worried. Then again, this is not a season to take anything for granted, anyway.
I don't feel any strong sense of regret from last night, because I've come to the point where I expect them to drop a few like that. Hopefully they will put it behind them and come out strong tonight. Again, the mission is simply to win. Nothing else really matters.
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Comments (4)
I think part of the pitching problem last night came after the warning came from the umpire not to throw at anybody, and if they did they and the manager were thrown out of the game. It seemed from that point on the Met pitchers threw everything outside and missed. We really could use another arm in the pen or a strong 5th man in the rotation. It would be great if we got both.
Posted by REV AL | August 17, 2007 4:43 PM
mike...physical errors are one thing - mental mistakes are a whole different issue and intolerable from veterans at this point in the season (ie - heilman's brain cramp)...this is the kind of ball that is making me so crazy...one other thing - if i hear one more met saying "we're still in first place" or "you have to tip your hat to those guys" after a giving away a game in that fashion, i'm going to lose it altogether. as far as i'm concerned, they should be ashamed and embarassed by that loss last nite...i guess if i were a manager i'd be more of a lou pinella-type than a willie randolph-type temperament-wise. you're right that all they have to do is win, but watching them try and accomplish that is torture at this point in time...i'm not having fun - remember when baseball used to be fun? thanks for letting me vent joyce
Posted by joyce mandelkern | August 17, 2007 5:43 PM
Joyce..dito..Amen
Posted by REV AL | August 17, 2007 6:01 PM
In the should-be immortal words of George Brett: We stunk up the place tonight. We'll get 'em tomorrow.
Posted by dd | August 19, 2007 8:01 AM