Mets Staying Alive...For Now

METS 6

CUBS 2

It's the understatement of the year, but the Mets needed to win this one ... badly. The Mets who were two and a half behind the Phillies for first in the NL East, and clinging to a one game lead over Milwaukee in the wild card, needed Johan Santana to be the ace they paid for in early Feburary.

Santana did not disappoint. He threw his highest pitch count of his career, 125 pitches and each one of them was filled with oxygen for a Met team that appears ready to die at any moment.

After a rough start, Santana settled down, as he usually does, and painted a Picasso. He went eight innings, surrendered only seven hits, two runs and struck out ten Cubs to earn his 15 win of the season.

Offensively, it took the Mets a while to get going. In fact, Chicago had a 2-0 lead going into the bottom of the fifth, and it appeared that the Mets would choke with their ace on the hill. But that was not the case.

Santana singled to center to get things going in the fifth. Two batters later, David Wright drove in Santana and Nick Evans to tie the game at two.

In the sixth, the Mets exploded. Carlos Delgado led off with a double. Ramon Castro grounded to the pitcher Chad Gaudin, but Gaudin threw the ball away on the relay to first allowing Delgado to score from third. 3-2 Metropolitans. Ryan Chruch and Dan Murphy followed with back-to-back singles to load the bases. Santana came up and battled in a 10 pitch at-bat. He grounded into a force play, as Castro was tagged out at home, and Santana was ruled safe at first.

Jose Reyes tripled to right to clear the bases, giving the Mets a 6-2 lead.

That was all Santana needed as he cruised for the rest of the night. Luis Ayala got the save.

Meantime, the Phillies lost to Atlanta 3-2, so the Phillies lead over the Mets is now down to a game and a half with five to play. Milwaukee is losing to Pittsburgh 3-2 in the seventh inning. If Milwaukee loses, the Mets lead in the wild card is up to two games, all but clinching it with five to play.

Comments

Jets, Dolphins and Patriots Playoff Breakdown

Here are the formuli that could get the Jets into and out of the playoff party this season: 1) If the Jets win against Seattle and Miami, they win the AFC East based on a better conference record (8-4) than the New England Patriots, even if New England wins out as well. 2) If the Patriots win out and the Dolphins win out and finish at 11-5, the Jets would be 10-6, or 9-7, and probably out of the playoffs. Both New England and Miami would make the playoffs, with the Dolphins as a divison winner and the Patriots as a wild card. The Patriots make the postseason if Baltimore loses one of its final two games. 3) If the Patriots win out and the Dolphins and Jets split, then the Patriots win the AFC East. The Jets will have to hope that they beat Miami to win that tie-breaker and, further, hope that they have a better conference record than the Baltimore Ravens in order to clinch the sixth seed. 4) If the Patriots and Ravens win out and the Dolphins and Jets split their final two games, then ...

Francisco Lindor Remains Red Hot as Mets Top Phillies

Francisco Lindor remains the hottest player in Queens right now. The Mets shortstop blasted two more home runs, including a three-run blast in the bottom of the eighth inning, Monday night to help propel the Mets to a 5-4 win over Philadelphia. Lindor who typically struggles in the month of April is putting together a heck of a month. Monday's two hit effort was the 10th game in the last 11 where Lindor has recorded a hit. In fact in the month of April alone this year, Lindor was hitting at .311 coming into Monday's action. On the year, Lindor is batting .284 with five homers and 13 RBI. Lindor's efforts proved to be prophetic, as the Phillies Alec Bohm crushed a three-run bomb off Edwin Diaz in the top of the ninth to cut the Mets lead to a single run. Fortunately for New York, Diaz was able to shut the door with strikeouts of Trea Turner and Bryce Harper. New York (16-7) has now won five in a row.

Is Aaron Glenn in Danger of Getting Fired?

According to Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio there is a "chance" that Jets head coach Aaron Glenn could be fired at seasons end. While Florio doesn't site any sources, the rumor has caught fire the last two days. The question is would it make sense? Let's examine this for a second? Why it Makes Sense: Glenn has not been great in his first year as Head Coach of this team. The talent has taken a major step backwards, granted two of those talented players were traded away in Sauce Gardner to Indianapolis and Quinnen Williams to Dallas. The decision he and GM Darren Mougey made to give Justin Fields a two year deal proved to be a horrible mistake, and Glenn stuck with Fields for far too long before pulling the plug following the Jets loss to the Patriots on a Thursday night in mid November. Glenn gave now former Defensive Coordinator Steve Wilks too much power to run the defense, and the players couldn't stand Wilks. Reports indicated this week af...

COHEN'S CORNER SPORTS

Search This Blog