Blogging Mets

For just the second time this season, the Mets dropped a one-run game, falling to the lowly Astros 4-3 Monday night.

R.A. Dickey was cruising along, holding the Astros hitless through five innings, but in the sixth two hits and a fielder’s choice scored the first run of the game. Then Matt Downs slammed a two-run home run to give the Astros a 3-0 lead.

The Mets answered right back in the top of the seventh. Andres Torres, in his first game back since going down on Opening Day, got an infield single to score David Wright for the Mets first run. Later in the inning Kirk Nieuwenhuis hit a bases loaded single to drive in two and even the score at three.

Despite his earlier statements to the contrary, Terry Collins left Nieuwenhuis in the leadoff position and batted Torres seventh. Collins said it was because Torres had only around 20 at-bats during his minor league rehab stint. Plus, Nieuwenhuis has thrived leading off, so why mess with success?

Manny Acosta, fresh off his disaster in Colorado Friday, came on for Dickey. He pitched a flawless seventh, but in the eighth he allowed an infield single to Jordan Schafer, who stole second and later scored on a single up the middle to give the Astros a 4-3 lead.

And that’s how it would end. Mets lose.

Remember Andres Torres? Of course you don’t — he went down on Opening Day with a calf injury, and since then Kirk Nieuwenhuis has filled in so well in center field that we forgot someone else was supposed to be playing there. Well, Torres is coming back on Monday, and will be re-installed in center and at the top of the lineup.

Listening to Terry Collins, it appears he is making this move in order to jump-start the Mets running game, which has been virtually non-existent thus far.

“The one thing we don’t do is we don’t steal bases. We’re last in the league,” Collins said. “There are not very many opportunities to run, because we don’t have that guy we know that can steal. He would bring that dimension for sure.”

Collins said Nieuwenhuis will still see time in left field, where he has never played before, and likely be moved down to the seventh or eighth spot in the lineup. However Scott Hairston is slated to start two games in Houston because of left handed starters.

This could turn out to be a huge mistake. Nieuwenhuis is thriving, batting .316, good for 12th in the NL. He does strike out a lot — 24 times, tied for sixth most in the league, so perhaps he is not suited for leadoff, but still, he was doing well there. Why change now?

Also, he has been playing an excellent center field, making several sensational catches. Torres is a natural center fielder as well, but I would think a veteran would have an easier time adjusting to a new position than a rookie.

I guess it is good to try Torres in center and at leadoff, since that was the plan since spring training. But if it doesn’t work, I would hope the Mets aren’t married to it and make the switch back to Nieuwenhuis. Clearly he is the future, not Andres Torres.

This Mets team is showing some fight. After that awful, potentially demoralizing loss to the Rockies Friday night, the Mets bounced back to win on Saturday. Then on Sunday the bullpen blew a couple of leads, but the Mets were still able to pull out the game.

The Mets made Jamie Moyer look every one of his 49 years early on. Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Ruben Tejada led off the game with singles, and after Daniel Murphy struck out, David Wright lashed a double down the left field line to give the Mets a 2-0 lead (left). He would score on a Scott Hairston single. The damage could have been far worse but the Mets left the bases loaded, with Josh Thole striking out and Johan Santana lining out to right.

Thole redeemed himself in the fifth when his first home run of the year made it 4-0. Moyer lasted five innings, allowing eleven hits but also striking out seven Mets.

Santana on the other hand was brilliant. He pitched six shutout innings, allowing just two hits. For the first time in his five starts, the Mets scored runs while he was still in the game. But he remains winless thanks to the Mets bullpen.

Jon Rauch had his first poor outing of the season. In his previous 11 games Rauch did not allow a run and walked just one batter; he walked two and allowed a hit in the eighth, leaving with two outs and the bases loaded. Tim Byrdak came on and promptly allowed a grand slam to Todd Helton to tie the game at four.

If any situation cried out for the closer, this was it. The game needed saving and Frank Francisco was sitting in the bullpen. This is not a knock on Terry Collins, rather the way the usage of closers has evolved — ninth inning only, no ifs, ands or buts.

In any case, it was off to extra innings — in the 10th Mike Baxter had a pinch-hit single and then it was Nieuwenhuis coming through again with a double to score Baxter to give the Mets the 5-4 lead.

But it was short-lived — Francisco was called on to nail down the save, but he just couldn’t do it; Carlos Gonzalez hit a laser to right to tie the game at five. It was Francisco’s first blown save of the year, surprising considering his 7.56 ERA coming into the game (it is now 7.71).

The Mets took another crack at it in the 11th — Wright and Lucas Duda led off with singles, with going to third on the hit. Hairston grounded out, but Ike Davis came through with a single to score Wright for the 6-5 lead. Davis had three hits and looked much better at the plate.

So it was Ramon Ramirez’s turn to try to save the game and he was able to do it, retiring the Rockies in order in the 11th to preserve the 6-5 win.

Elsewhere, Tejada had three more hits on the day, making him 10-for-14 for the series. He came into the series batting .239 — now his average stands at .310.

And Nieuwenhuis made yet another sensational catch in the fifth, laying full-out to snag what would have been a run-scoring extra-base hit.

So the Mets win the series, they have won five of their last six games and are now 13-9 on the season.  Now it’s on to Houston to face the pitiful Astros.

It’s just what the Mets needed after Friday’s debacle — a nice quiet win over the Rockies.

Both teams picked up where they left off the night before — the Rockies scored a run in the first inning with help from an error by the Mets, this one when Josh Thole threw a ball into center field trying to throw out a base stealer.

Lucas Duda made up for it in the top of the second when he smoked one to right field for a two-run homer and the 2-1 lead. Duda’s four homers leads the team.

The Mets made it 3-1 on a double by David Wright in the third inning.

But Dillon Gee (left) gave it all back in the fourth — the Rockies scored three runs, one on a Todd Helton double and one on the first major league hit by Rockies pitcher Guillermo Moscoso, as the Rockies took a 4-3 lead. Overall, Gee pitched relatively well, lasting seven innings and giving up four runs, three earned.

Wright struck again in the fifth, singling to right to tie the game at four. Wright was three-for-four in the game and is now hitting .385 on the season. Duda followed that with a two-run single to make it 6-4. Duda had four RBIs and leads the team with 13.

Fortunately the Mets picked up an insurance run in the ninth on a wild pitch because once again Frank Francisco was a bit shaky in relief. With two outs he allowed a solo home run and a triple before getting Jason Giambi to fly out to center to his fifth save.

Elsewhere, Daniel Murphy and Ruben Tejada each had three hits; Tejada also had four hits on Friday. And struggling Ike Davis was dropped to seventh in the lineup. He looked better, managing a hit and driving one ball to left-center that was tracked down on a pretty good catch.

The Mets win 7-5 as Gee evens his record at 2-2.

It was a crazy night at Coors Field on Friday. Scott Hairston hit for the cycle, but the Mets were done in by one of the worst innings you’ll ever see. Oh, and they committed six, count ‘em, six errors.

The Mets set the tone for the night by scoring on an odd play in the first inning. With Kirk Nieuwenhuis on third and David Wright on first with two outs, Wright got picked off. But the Rockies botched the rundown, and Nieuwenhuis sprinted home without even a throw.

But Chris Schwinden (left), making the start in place of Mike Pelfrey, gave it right back in the bottom of the first. Marco Scutaro led off with a triple and would score on a ground out. Then Troy Tulowitzki hit a solo home run to give the Rockies a 2-1 lead.

Hairston answered back in the fourth with a solo shot of his own to tie the score at two.

The Mets attempted to break the game open in the fifth. Hairston tripled to score Ruben Tejada to break the tie. Lucas Duda, Zach Lutz, Mike Nickeas and Schwinden each followed with singles as the Mets plated four runs to extend the lead to 6-2.

But then came the bottom of the fifth — the worst inning for the Mets in some time, maybe ever.

Eric Young, Jr. led off the inning with a tapper back to Schwinden. Instead of assuming an easy out, Young busted down the line. It paid off because Schwinden threw the ball high to first base. Lutz may or may not have tagged him, but Young was ruled safe. Young then stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error on Nickeas.

Schwinden walked the next batter, and the next one singled to make it 6-3. Carlos Gonzalez followed with an absolute bomb to center to tie the score at six.

That ended Schwinden’s night, but not the Rockies rally. Manny Acosta promptly allowed two hits and a walk, and then a fielder’s choice made it 7-6. But hey, at least the Rockies made an out. However that tiny victory was short-lived — Dexter Fowler smashed a three-run homer to right to make it 10-6.

But incredibly there was more to come. Acosta allowed a walk, a single, and then hit a batter to load the bases. Up stepped Gonzalez again, who singled to right to clear the bases, making it 13-6. The last run scored on a throwing error by Lutz.

Acosta was finally mercifully pulled and Miguel Batista came on to stop the carnage. In all the Rockies scored 11 runs and the Mets committed four errors in the hellish inning.

The Mets tried to come back. In the top of the sixth, Hairston completed his cycle with a two-run double to cut the lead to 13-8. Hairston came around to score on a Duda single to make it 13-9.

But in the seventh the Rockies added five runs, including a grand slam by Ramon Hernandez to make it 18-9.

That would be the final score — as horrendous a loss as you could imagine.

Is there a more important player on the Mets these days than Kirk Nieuwenhuis (well, other than David Wright)? Even aside from book-ending Thursday’s game with a lead-off triple and a game-winning hit in the ninth, Nieuwenhuis has been critical to the Mets success thus far this season.

Nieuwenhuis wasn’t even slated to be a part of the team this season, but after centerfielder Andres Torres went down in the opener, the Mets made the call to Buffalo. All he has done is emerge as the leading candidate for rookie of the year.

Nieuwenhuis’s .333 average leads all rookies, and is tied for eighth overall in the National League. He also leads NL rookies with two home runs. Nieuwenhuis has hit as many as 18 home runs in a season in the minors, so we can expect the homer total to rise.

It looks like he is the lead-off batter for which the Mets have been searching — his on-base percentage is .403, good for 11th in the league.

Defensively, he has made the simple as well as the spectacular plays, such as robbing Jose Reyes of a certain triple in his first at-bat back at Citi Field on Tuesday as well as the highlight-reel-for-years catch against the Giants last Friday (above).

The question of what to do with Nieuwenhuis when Torres comes back (likely in Houston next week) was answered when Jason Bay went on the disabled list. The only question now is who moves over to left. And then when Bay comes back, well, that remains to be seen.

If Nieuwenhuis is still hitting like this, it would be impossible and stupid to sit him. He is the Mets future, while Bay and Torres are obviously placeholders. Perhaps we are looking at a Bay-Torres platooning scenario, or maybe Torres moves to the bench.

Most scouts consider Torres nothing more than a fourth outfielder. Since he has played just one game with the Mets it is too early to make that determination. But one thing is clear — Nieuwenhuis looks like he is here to stay. We all better learn how to spell his name!

It is “99%” sure that Mike Pelfrey will have season-ending Tommy John surgery, which could also end his Mets career.

The  Mets confirmed Thursday that Pelfrey has a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. He will visit with Dr. James Andrews, who seems to perform all of these surgeries, “as soon as possible,” according to Pelfrey.

“They brought up my options and they brought up the PRP (platelet rich plasma injection) and they put it at 10%-20% that it works,” Pelfrey told the Daily News. “So there was an 80% chance I was still going to have surgery so I thought it was best case for me that we just go ahead and do it. I’m supposed to go down and see Andrews personally and we’ll go from there. But I think surgery is about 99% that it’s going to happen.”

Pelfrey was stunned to learn that the “grabbing” he felt in his elbow during Saturday’s game was anything serious.

“I’ve never been hurt,” Pelfrey said. “It’s weird. I went for a precautionary MRI so they could tell me I had tendinitis and he drops that I have a tear. It’s tough.”

It’s also sad. Pelfrey was pitching well thus far this season — in three starts he had a 2.29 ERA. Perhaps he was finally turning things around, but now his season is over, as well as possibly his Mets career; the Mets would have to pay him more than $4 million (80% of his current salary) if they want to retain him for 2013. It is unlikely they would take such a chance on a pitcher coming off major surgery.

For only the second time in their history and the first time since 1971, the Mets fielded an all-homegrown team in their matinee with the Marlins on Thursday, and the youngsters were able to come from behind in the ninth to win yet another pitcher’s duel, 3-2.

The Mets jumped out to a good start — Kirk Nieuwenhuis led off the bottom of the first with a triple off the glove of Giancarlo Stanton in right field (left). Ruben Tejada then drove him in with a sacrifice fly for the early lead.

But in the third the Marlins tied it up on a solo shot to left by Gaby Sanchez. With Chipper Jones retiring, Sanchez is likely to pick up the mantle as the top Mets killer.

Sanchez even contributed to the second run — he grounded into a double play in the fifth to score Omar Infante, who also does quite well against the Mets.

Heath Bell was called on in the ninth to protect a 2-1 lead, and he was unable to do so. He was also unable to throw strikes — the disgruntled former Met walked four batters to tie the game at two; the last one was Justin Turner, who had a remarkable 13-pitch at bat, fouling off pitch after pitch with a 3-2 count until he worked out his game-tying walk. Then with two outs Nieuwenhuis crushed a ball over Stanton’s head in right field for the dramatic comeback victory.

The starting pitching was stellar for the third straight game. Jonathon Niese had another solid outing — seven innings, four hits, six strikeouts and no walks. On the other side, Ricky Nolasco stymied the Mets, who also went seven innings, allowing five hits and striking out five. But once again, the bullpen proved to be the Marlins’ undoing.

So the Mets sweep the series, and now it’s off to Denver, where pitching duels are a rarity.

Terry Collins has made three very interesting moves recently that warrant analyzing. Two of them were definitely against-the-book types moves that you wouldn’t expect from by-the-book Collins.

The by-the-book move was Wednesday night, when Collins removed R.A. Dickey from the game after seven innings and that magical 100-pitch mark.  Zach Lutz pinch hit for him with two outs and none on in the bottom of the seventh with the Mets up 2-1, so there was no offensive reason to do it. And Dickey was cruising along; yes, he had just walked his first batter in the top of the seventh, and yes, the Marlins mounted something of a threat, but that was because of a poor throw by Dickey to second base on a sure double play and an error by David Wright, not because he was struggling.

Unless there is something that no one else knows, there is no reason why Dickey could not have remained in the game. One hundred pitches is nothing for a knuckleballer. I feared the Marlins would do to the Mets bullpen what the Mets did to the Marlins bullpen Monday night when a dominant Josh Johnson was removed — mainly, win the game.

The move worked out as four Mets relievers were able to nail down the game, but still, why remove a starter just because he reaches 100 pitches?

On Monday night, with the Mets down 1-0 in the seventh, two outs and a runner on first, Collins chose to pinch hit Justin Turner for Ike Davis. A lefty was in the hill, and Davis is struggling, but I still found this curious. The Mets needed a home run to take the lead. Even a slumping Davis has more of a chance to hit a home run than Turner.

Also, that had to play havoc with Davis’s confidence. Davis is an integral part of the Mets offense  – they need him to break out. It certainly couldn’t have helped being benched at a crucial point in the game.

The move did not backfire — Turner walked, and the Mets would tie the game after two subsequent walks.

The move for which Collins deserves kudos is removing his closer when he clearly was in trouble. In the ninth inning of Saturday’s near disaster against the Giants, Frank Francisco faced four batters, getting one out, but allowing two hits and a walk as the Giants cut the Mets lead to 4-2. Collins pulled Francisco from the game.

Managers never do this, and it is something I have railed about for years. If a closer just doesn’t have it, he should get the hook, yet managers consistently leave in their closers to blow the game. While I’m sure Francisco wasn’t too happy, Collins did the right thing and should be commended.

On this particular day, it didn’t matter who was on the mound — the rest of the bullpen blew the lead, but the Mets were able to pull out the game in the bottom of the ninth.

Even though I disagreed with a couple of these moves, it is nice to see Collins thinking outside the box. The Mets can use all the help they can get this season, so if their manager can win a few ballgames for them with some innovative strategy, so much the better.

The old baseball adage is “good pitching beats good hitting.” The adage for the Mets these days could be “good pitching makes up for struggling hitting” and for the second straight night, the Mets beat the Marlins.

Following Monday’s Johan Santana-Josh Johnson pitching duel, Tuesday night we had one between R.A. Dickey and Mark Buehrle. Dickey (left) had the knuckleball dancing, striking out seven Marlins and allowing just three hits in seven innings. The only run he allowed was on a mammoth homer by Omar Infante off the facing of the second deck in left field in the fifth inning.

Buehrle was just as good in his seven innings, but David Wright took him deep in the sixth with a man on to give the Mets the 2-1 lead. The two RBIs made Wright the all-time RBI leader for the Mets, topping Darryl Strawberry’s 733.

The offense was scuffling along until the Mets broke the game open in the eighth with three runs, including a pinch-hit two-run double by Mike Baxter, leading the Mets to a 5-1 win.

After scoring just four runs in their previous three games, let’s hope this five-run performance is a sign of things to come. The Mets bats need to heat up if they have any hope to keep pace with the rest of the NL East.

They Mets go for the sweep of the Marlins in a Thursday matinee, then it is off to the rarefied air of Denver for a three-game set against the Rockies. That’s always a good cure for slumping bats.