Skip to main content

Mets stun Braves in season opener, as Santana goes five strong

METS 1
BRAVES 0

Holy Cow, who would have thunk it, there was actual footage today of the Mets winning a baseball game. Even though victories will likely be a rare occurrence for New York this season, the Metropolitans found a way to hold off the equally putrid Atlanta Braves in a 1-0 pitchers duel to open the season.

The most important factor in today's game however was the status of ace Johan Santana. Santana missed all of 2011 with a leg injury, was solid in his first outing back on the mound. He went five innings of shutout baseball, holding Atlanta to hits, while striking out five, and at one point retired 12 striaght batters.

Santana did get into some trouble in the fifth inning, when he gave up a double to Matt Diaz, and walked Tyler Pastornicky and Tommy Hanson to load up the bases, but, he was able to get out if it by inducing a ground ball out by Michael Bourn to get out of the inning unscathed.

Offensively, it was an uneven day for the Mets. While David Wright and Daniel Murphy had big days at the plate, it was not the case for Jason Bay and Lucas Duda, who both inept. On the good side, Murphy had two hits on the afternoon, while Wright actually delivered a clutch hit, when his single drove in Andres Torres with the games only run in the sixth.

However in the seventh, Torres was injured in the outfield and had to leave the game; he will likely land on the disabled list. This is bad news for the Mets, who have a dreadful outfield to begin with, and an even more despicable bench. The Mets have absolutely no depth on the bench, and they will have to go out and shop for a center fielder, something they should have done a long time ago. Not that Torres was any loss, but now the Mets have to find someone to play center field and lead off.

As for Bay, what can you say? He was bad again, going 0-for-3 with a fly out, once again showing little pop in his bat. As for the over-hyped Duda, he was really bad going 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, including striking out with the bases loaded in the eighth inning.

The only bright spot for the Mets was the bullpen. The combination of Ramon Ramirez, Jon Rauch and Frank Francisco shut down a meek Braves lineup in four shut-out innings to preserve the victory.

So be happy Mets fans', your team is in first place at 1-0. Probably the only time this year the Mets will be in first place and over .500. Congrats!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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 ...
8 comments
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

Same Ol' Jets! Gang Green Dropped by Ravens

 RAVENS 24 - JETS 9  In short the opener to the 2022 season for the New York Jets was a complete and utter disaster.  A team that came into the season with the promise of better days ahead, a team that had taken on so many kudos in the off-season for what so many in the media had claimed was an impeccable off-season and draft, came out flat as a pancake when it mattered the most.  If this was a debut of what is to come for the Jets in 2022, you better start preparing your 2023 draft boards.  Sunday's 24-9 loss wasn't just a defeat at the hands of a better team, it was a total indictment of the Jets current predicament.  The Jets offensive line, which has been battered and beaten this summer with the losses of Meckhi Becton and Duane Brown looked like a sieve on Sunday. Joe Flacco, who is not exactly fleet of foot, was under siege all afternoon. The fact he came out of Sunday's game having been sacked only three times was a miracle in itself.  George Fa...
Post a Comment
Read more