Mets Homers Beat Nationals
The Mets beat the Nationals 7-3 Friday night in D.C. for their seventh win in their last eight games, and it showed once again why the Mets must redesign the outfield at Citi Field.
Five of the seven Mets runs scored on three swings of the bat — home runs by David Wright (below), Nick Evans and Lucas Duda. Wright just crushed a three-run shot to center that may or may not have made it out of Citi Field (he smashed two doubles off the wall in Citi Field on Wednesday that would have been homers in most parks). Evans’s solo shot would not likely have cleared the left field wall. However Duda’s solo homer would have cleared Yellowstone Park.
If this game was in Citi Field, it would have been a much closer contest; perhaps the Mets would have lost. Who knows? What everybody does know is that Citi Field is just not fair. The Nationals announcers were going on about how great pains were taken to make Nationals Park a fair stadium, and it is. Such care was not taken with Citi Field, and it’s time to change that.
In any case, the Mets were winners Friday. R.A. Dickey lasted six innings, allowing three runs to move his record to 7-11.
Josh Stinson had an eventful major league debut. He pitched a perfect eighth inning, then was allowed to bat in the ninth, walking in his first-ever at bat. Then he went back out there and allowed a hit, got a double play but allowed another hit before Terry Collins pulled him. He looked good though — a mid-90s fastball and good off-speed stuff. There could be something there.
Daniel Herrera and his hair, both of whom just acquired Thursday as part of the K-Rod trade, came on to get the final out with his slow stuff.
The Mets are now 67-69 as they crawl their way back to .500.
*****
I recently wrote about how many things these out-of-town announcers get wrong as I am forced to listen to them. Here are two gems from Nationals play-by-play man Bob Carpenter on Friday:
Discussing the Mets financial woes, he said the deal with “Eddie Einhorn from Chicago” fell through. Eddie Einhorn is a long-time front office man with the White Sox. David Einhorn was the would-be investor. And that was no slip of the tongue. If it were, he wouldn’t have said “Chicago.” No, he thought Eddie Einhorn was investing with the Mets while working for the Sox.
On Jose Reyes: “I thought he’s been underrated defensively because of his great range. But he has a strong arm.” Yeah, no kidding. His defense is widely and openly regarded as excellent by everyone.