Opportunities Are Wasted as Mets Let a Sweep Slip Away
Published on: 20th April, 2009
Opportunities Are Wasted as Mets Let a Sweep Slip Away | Related News
Asked how many runs the Mets should have scored Sunday, Manager Jerry Manuel did not reply with a number. “Enough runs to win,” he said. Five, then, would have sufficed, considering the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Mets, 4-2, to avert a three-game sweep at Citi Field. But he could have said 28, and no one would have looked askance at him.
Not with the Mets hitting into three rally-killing double plays, going 2 for 13 with runners in scoring position and stranding 10 more runners on base, bringing their series total to 31.
They plotted all winter and practiced all spring to improve their situational hitting skills — and had the blisters from hitting 80 consecutive curveballs to prove it — but the weekend’s display harked back to the end of last season, when clutch hits were scarce.
“I can’t say that at this point, this early in the season, that I would be upset at anybody’s approach with runners in scoring position,” Manuel said. “I think it’s more due to anxiety than anything else. That’s not all that bad at all.”
But it is not all that good, either. Despite scoring one run Saturday, the Mets were able to squeak out a victory because Johan Santana resolved not to give up any.
On Sunday, Nelson Figueroa, starting in place of Mike Pelfrey (forearm tendinitis), supplied what Manuel was hoping for — he pitched six innings and left with the score tight (3-1) — but it was wasted by the Mets’ offensive woes.
Facing Jeff Suppan, who toted a 12.91 earned run average into his start, the Mets managed two runs and let him escape a few jams. In all, they hit .179 in 28 at-bats with runners in scoring position against Milwaukee; they are batting .236 (25 for 106) in that situation this season.
John Dunn for The New York Times
“The tendency is to look at the numbers, and I don’t want to get caught up in that,” the hitting coach Howard Johnson said. “Some of those at-bats, we’ve hit the ball well and done some things that don’t show up as hits. Our job is making sure the guys are prepared when they get up there, and then it’s up to them. But I know the guys are prepared and know what to expect in those at-bats.”
Those at-bats were plentiful, particularly in the later innings. The Mets put pressure on Milwaukee all afternoon, rapping 12 hits and drawing three walks, but they squandered their best opportunities over the final three innings. In pinpointing the critical moments Sunday, Manuel and Johnson mentioned the same two at-bats.
The Mets had drawn to 3-2 in the seventh, forcing Milwaukee Manager Ken Macha to use his fourth pitcher of the inning, when Carlos Delgado came to the plate to face Todd Coffey with the bases loaded and one out.
Coffey pitched Friday night, and some Mets had noticed that he liked to start at-bats with a sinker down and away. Expecting it, Delgado watched the pitch zip outside, but it was called a strike by the umpire Bill Miller. Behind in the count, Delgado swung at a pitch that Johnson thought was a little farther outside, and he got a bit out in front. He grounded the ball — sharply — to Coffey, who threw home to start a 1-2-3 double play.
“I didn’t expand the zone or anything,” Delgado said when asked if he changed his approach after the first pitch. “If anything, the second pitch was a better one than the first. I would have swung at that one regardless of the circumstances.”
Winning the first two games afforded Manuel some flexibility as he filled out his lineup card Sunday, and he loaded up on power, starting Gary Sheffield in right field and, for the first time at second base, Fernando Tatis. Tatis had only six at-bats to his credit this season when he walked to the plate in the eighth inning, with the Mets trailing, 3-2, and runners on first and second and no outs. He said he felt a little rusty.
“It’s my first start,” Tatis said. “What can you expect?”
With the infield playing in, Tatis said he just wanted to make solid contact. He shortened his swing and thought he checked on a first-pitch fastball. He did not. Strike one. Coffey fired another fastball that Tatis thought was inside. It was not. Strike two. Coffey snapped off a hard slider, bouncing in the dirt, and Tatis swung and missed.
The next hitter, Omir Santos, lined sharply to third baseman Bill Hall, who tagged out Carlos Beltran to squelch the rally.
“It just seemed like we were a hit away or maybe a few feet away to getting a ball through the infield,” Delgado said. “It didn’t happen.”
INSIDE PITCH
After the game, the Mets designated Nelson Figueroa for assignment and recalled the left-hander Casey Fossum from Class AAA Buffalo. Fossum was working as a starter, but he will pitch out of the bullpen.
nytimes.com
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