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Mets Get Back On Track

Unlike the Red Sox the Mets really did have something to worry about if they couldn't stop their losing streak. The second place team in the NL East is guaranteed nothing by way of the Wild Card so it's really the best bet to keep a tight grip on that brass ring. After a week of slipping the Mets finally did just that. And of all the bold-faced names on the roster they have Jorge Sosa to thank for their change in fortunes. Sosa relieved Mike Pelfrey in the sixth inning with runners on first and third and nobody out. The Mets had a 5-3 lead but it didn't seem all that secure given the recent bullpen performances. Sosa, however, put the past behind him by striking out the red-hot D'Angelo Jimenez and getting Nook Logan to ground into a double play. The Mets scored three runs in the top of the seventh and the 8-4 win was secure as Sosa, Aaron Heilman and Billy Wagner closed the door on the pesky Nationals. 

• Of all the Molinas in all the world, wouldn't it have to be Yadier who helped the Mets regain a game on their lead over the Phillies. In a tasty bit of symmetry, the Cardinals catcher drove home the winning run, on his very own bobblehead night no less, in a 2-1 game that had a lot of impact on the Mets. It's a weird way for the Phillies to lose. They got great pitching for most of 10 innings but their powerful bats couldn't do anything against Adam Wainwright or the St. Louis bullpen.
• Alfonso Soriano put the Cubs back into the lead in the Central division with a splendid all-around effort in the 3-2 win over the Reds. He kept the game tied at 2 in the top of the eighth with a peg to nab Norris Hopper at the plate. That came several innings after he led off the game with his 28th home run of the season. Throw some credit to Ted Lilly for seven strong innings and to Bobby Howry for two good innings of relief but it was Soriano that gets to wear the hero's cap.
• You can close the book on the Detroit Tigers after C.C. Sabathia struck out seven for his 18th win in yesterday's 4-2 Indian victory. The sweep knocked the Tigers five and a half games out of the Wild Card hunt and sliced the Tribe's magic number to three all of which means that Jim Leyland's October cigarettes will be smoked on the golf course or at the bingo parlour and not on national television.
• The Diamondbacks never thought they'd regret trading Scott Hairston to San Diego but for a moment last night they had to wonder if they made the right call. Hairston hit a two-out, three-run ninth inning home run to lift the Friars to a 5-3 win over the Pirates that keeps them just a game back of Arizona in the West. It will be down to a half-game if they can beat the Bucs again today and you have to wonder if Leo Rosales was worth all the trouble. 

(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Mets Lose Again

In an article on MLB.com yesterday Marty Noble quoted an unnamed Met as saying that "we play at the temperature of the manager. I know Willie cares a lot, but he's not showing it much." Mike and the Mad Dog talked about it with Paul Lo Duca yesterday and Lo Duca wouldn't say anything when they asked if the manager should have come out to join arguments the catcher and Marlon Anderson had about balls and strikes. That all led to a team meeting before last night's game with the Nats which David Lennon of Newsday astutely pointed out can have two results - Team wins and manager a genius or team loses and manager a desperate sap. I guess that makes Randolph a desperate sap.

The Mets lost 9-8 in Washington last night thanks to a terrible outing from their starter. The last time a Maine got shelled like that Teddy Roosevelt charged up a hill; John gave up 11 hits and eight runs before getting the hook one out into the fifth inning. By that point the Mets had blown three seperate four-run leads and whatever fire they might have generated with the meeting was snuffed out. Watching the Mets is watching a dead team right now. If they pitch well they don't hit. If they score eight runs, their staff gets lit up for nine. If they pitch ok and hit ok, they can't catch the ball. It doesn't add up to wins and that's obviously going to fall on Willie.

Michael Kay was pontificating during the Yankee game last night that he doesn't understand why people would criticize Randolph for having such an even keel since, after all, he studied at the Joe Torre school of serenity. What Kay didn't mention is that when the Yankees have a rough patch people always criticize Torre for not getting angry and not throwing bats because they expect to see their manager's passion to snap a losing streak boiling over. The difference between the two seems to be that back in the day when the Yankees needed to show some grit and fire they had a Paul O'Neill to personify it and in recent years they've lacked that kind of attitude on the team. That's the same problem the Mets have. Lo Duca is a fiery little guy but he doesn't seem like he's got the whole clubhouse in his corner but the rest of the team looks like they couldn't care less about what's going on. I'm sure it's not true but when Maine ran into trouble last night the team just deflated and even when they rallied in the ninth it didn't feel like the win was there for the taking.   

What snaps the losing spell? A great start would be, well, a great start. It's Mike Pelfrey tonight, though, and the Nats are definitely loving their spoiler role. Their fans aren't, there were about 750 people at the game last night and most seemed to be staffers from Charlie Rangel's office, but the Nats are playing like it's the World Series. Hats off to Manny Acta for that and the Mets should try to follow their lead. They could also use the old Jose Reyes and a dose of good luck but that good start would make everything so much easier.

It's Getting Tight In The Collar Out There

Tim Wakefield might want to consider throwing four wide ones the next time Frank Thomas lumbers to the plate. The Big Hurt had gone deep three times in one game before last night's game - September 15, 1996 with all three coming against the knuckleballer - and repeated the trick in last night's 8-1 Blue Jays win. Only the first two came off Wakefield this time, number three was off Kyle Snyder, and the prodigious night pushed Thomas into a tie with Ernie Banks and Eddie Matthews into 18th place on the career home run list. The Sox can't feel great about their lead over the Yankees right now but probably feel even worse about the way that Wakefield has been throwing of late. He missed a start with back problems and has been shelled in his subsequent outings leaving them a bit short on reliable starting for the rest of the month and beyond. It's all enough to send Sox fans to the bottom of a bottle for relief.

• Baseball's a simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball and you hit the ball. The Mets are making baseball harder than it should be right now. They committed four errors, got a terrible start from Brian Lawrence and got shut out after the fourth inning in a 12-4 loss to the Nationals. That means their lead is down to two and a half games and the pressure is really starting to show in Flushing.
• The Phillies aren't exactly having an easy time playing the role of dogged pursuers. They led the Cardinals 11-0 after six innings in St. Louis last night but thanks to their horrid bullpen needed to hold on for dear life. They finally eked out a 13-11 victory after Francisco Rosario struck out Russell Branyan with two on in the bottom of the ninth. That pitching is going to make the last push to the summitt difficult but oh those marvelous bats! Ryan Howard hit two homers, Aaron Rowand had a pair of his own and stealth MVP candidate Jimmy Rollins poled his 28th of the season.
• While the Phillies were doing their best to blow a lead the Cubs were furiously coming back to beat the Reds and stay in front of the Brewers. Mark DeRosa's fifth hit of the night scored the pinch-runner Sam Fuld and made the Cubs 7-6 winners. The win could technically be recalled as the Reds played it under protest after Lou Piniella made what they called an illegal double switch. Belichickian drama aside, the Cubs have won six of seven in their attempt to close out Milwaukee.
• The Cassel family isn't used to the spotlight. Barbara Cassel won an Emmy at the untelevised technical portion of the awards for her work as an art director and elder son Matt has backed up Matt Leinart and Tom Brady at USC and, currently, with the Patriots. But younger brother Jack finally put the family's name in lights by beating the Pirates 3-0, his first win in the bigs, and drawing the Friars within a game of the Diamondbacks out West.   

(AP PHOTO/Frank Gunn, The Canadian Press)

The Phillies Are Phanatical About Beating The Mets

I was conversating with a friend last week about the National League and opined that if I were a National League team I would be most scared of playing the Phillies in October. Yes their pitching is tee-ballish but the rest of the NL isn't exactly overflowing with Spahn and Sain. Everyone's praying for rain in the Senior Circuit and no one can flood the scoreboard quicker than the Phillies. That clearly worries the Mets. They lost to their division rivals for the 12th time in 18 meetings this season at Shea on Sunday and were so unnerved by their opponents that they made six errors in the 10-6 loss. That followed Saturday's 5-3 loss which was filled with baserunning errors by the division leaders who watched their lead drop to three and a half games during the sweep. There may not be much to worry about, the last Phillie sweep led to some of the best Mets play of the season and Philly isn't guaranteed anything more than 13 regular season games, but you don't want to find a team that has your number in a short series. Like, say, the NLCS.

• Jason Marquis is probably feeling like the smartest kid in town this morning. He threw six and a third innings of one-run ball and beat the team he left after last season, the Cardinals, 4-2 to keep the Cubs a game ahead of the Brewers in the NL Central. Matt Murton struck the big blow for the Cubbies, a three-run homer that made it 10 straight games with a longball for the Wrigleymen, and the rookie catcher Geovany Soto had four hits. Mark Mulder had his third poor start since coming off the disabled list for the Cards who are now seven games back and officially waiting for next year.
• Back in Chicago, Jim Thome joined the 500 home run club in dramatic fashion. He hit a two-run, walk-off homer to beat the Angels 9-7 and join the esteemed group with the fourth-fewest at-bats of any new member. That still doesn't make him a Hall of Famer in my mind but we celebrate his accomplishments nonetheless.
• Jake Peavy is going to be your National League Cy Young winner and if you had any doubt about that just check out his performance on Sunday. 10 strikeouts, one walk and one run over seven-plus innings of a 5-1 victory against the Giants that kept the Padres a game and a half up on the Phillies for the Wild Card. It completed a three game sweep of their former manager Bruce Bochy's club and dropped Peavy's ERA to 2.39. Peavy's 18 wins are the most in the National League while his ERA is the best in all of baseball as are his 255 strikeouts.
• The Texas Rangers and Oakland A's don't have many tangible things to play for over the next couple of weeks so they are fighting for pride. And I mean fighting! Nick Swisher got beaned by Vicente Padilla in the first inning and since he'd homered in the first three games of the series (and been hit by two other pitches) Swisher wasn't thinking coincidence. He charged the mound, the benches emptied and Padilla got the better of him in the scrap. After that it was the Michael Young show. The Ranger had a career-high seven RBI and the Rangers won the game 11-9.

(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Brewers Back On Top

The Brewers opened play on Sunday tied for the Central Division lead with the Cubs. By the fourth batter of the game they seemed a good bet to remain, at the least, in a deadlock for first place. Richie Weeks, J.J. Hardy and Ryan Braun each homered off Phil Dumatrait and the Brewers were off and running on a 10-5 win in Cincinnati. Milwaukee added three more homers in the game and the fireworks paid off in spades when the results from Pittsburgh revealed that the Cubs were losers by the same score.  That returned sole possession of the division lead to Milwaukee in advance of their own trip to PNC Park for three games this week. The biggest obstacle to staying there may not come from on-field opposition. With Yom Kippur looming the Brew Crew must wonder if their splendid rookie third baseman is going to play on September 21 and 22 in games that will go a long way toward determining their playoff status. Braun is clearly the Chosen One but will that outrank his membership in the Chosen People?

• We can't know for sure what role Dave Littlefield's long overdue firing had on the Pirates this weekend but the Brewers will probably send a Thank You note to Pirate ownership nonetheless. The overmatched GM was finally sent packing and the Bucs responded by taking two of three games from the Cubs including yesterday's 10-5 win. Steve Trachsel, the according to Hoyle definition of a last-ditch option, lost his second start since rejoining the northsiders and couldn't get past the second inning. Nyjer Morgan drove in two runs for the Bucs, thrilling his parents beyond belief. It would also thrill this guy if he was still updating his blog. 
• The Mets looked like a team on the brink of implosion after dropping four straight to the Phillies. They were in need of a spark to save their season from disaster and they found one in Pedro Martinez. He won for the second time this week, pitching better than he did in Cincinnati, and the Amazins have won eight of nine to solidify their hold on the NL East. Pedro struck out four in five shutout innings in the 4-1 win and the Mets maintain their comfortable six-game edge on Philadelphia.
• If Dave Littlefield's firing inspired the Bucs the Rick Ankiel revelations seem to have taken the life out of the Cardinal comeback. The Diamondbacks finished off a three-game sweep with Sunday's 6-5 win and dropped the Cards three games behind the Brewers in the Central. The D-Backs hold the same edge on the Padres after Jose Valverde escaped a bases loaded ninth inning jam for his 45th save of the season.
• The score was fitting for the first football Sunday of the year, 14-7, but time looks like it's run out on the Seattle Mariners and their improbable playoff quest all the same. The losing Tigers may be in the same boat after they couldn't get a good start out of Jeremy Bonderman.

(AP Photo/Tom Uhlman)

The Wild, Wild West

Hillary-Obama may be the only race hotter than the one in the NL West. The Diamondbacks moved back into a virtual tie with the Padres with a 9-1 win on Tuesday night. The Snakes beat up on Chris Young to get the win. It's the second time in a week that they've pounded the tall righty in less than a week and the latest in a string of poor performances by Young since he came off the disabled list in early August. Young has a 7.32 ERA and three losses against the D-Backs this year, compared to a 9-3 record and 1.88 ERA against the rest of baseball. You could probably pick a better team to struggle against than your closest competitors. Eric Byrnes hit a three-run homer to break open a 2-0 game and Doug Davis picked up his eighth win in nine decisions with a seven-inning stint. The only good news for the Friars came when they caught catcher Chris Snyder stealing. It snapped a streak of 32 straight successful steals against them.

• John Edwards could still make that Democratic race a three-horse affair and if he does he will be following in the footsteps of the Dodgers. After stumbling through most of the last month and falling into fourth place, Grady Little's bunch finds themselves just three games out after topping the Cubs 6-2. Since the Brewers actually found a way to win a game the Cubs lead has dwindled to a half-game after Brad Penny stifled their bats.
• Until last night the only headlines Paul Lo Duca made this season were because of his big mouth. He finally made some with his play, though, by driving in seven runs to help the Mets outlast the Reds 11-7 in Cincinnati. The catcher hadn't homered in more than two months but connected for two longballs on a night that the Mets needed their offense to pick up a dismal start by Oliver Perez.
• The Yankees wouldn't be anywhere near the playoff race without the contributions of Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Shelley Duncan. The Red Sox would probably be just where they are even if Clay Bucholz didn't throw a no-hitter or if Jacoby Ellsbury wasn't batting .452 since being recalled from Pawtucket. He had three hits, including a homer, and two RBI to support Josh Beckett's 17th win, a 5-3 victory against the Blue Jays. Those five names should probably make the rest of the American League quake with fear for the rich just keep getting richer.
• The Red Sox would probably make the Joel Piniero for Clay Bucholz trade every day of the week and twice on Sunday but the jettisoned righty is making all the difference for the Cardinals. He won for the fourth time in six starts, beating the Bucs 6-2, and brought the Redbirds within a game of the division lead. It's not quite so hot as the race in the West. What with the teams trying to suck less than their opposition it's more like the Republican primaries.

(AP Photo/Paul Connors)

Daddy's Home

While one New York team was watching their future Hall of Famer slough off to a MRI, the other one was welcoming back their jheri-curled master of the mound. Pedro was back in Cincinnati yesterday and he may be just what the doctor ordered for an Amazin bunch that's looking for a last push over the top. His numbers were average - five innings, three runs, 76 pitches - but it was the context that mattered. Coming off a wild seven-game stretch that saw the Mets play sweepee and sweeper, the team needed an anchor to help them weather the storms of September. That's exactly what Pedro gave them yesterday. Greg Prince at Faith and Fear in Flushing calls yesterday's 10-4 win the true Opening Day of the 2007 season and it's hard to argue with that. The Mets, subjects of much conjecture all season, look right with Pedro on the mound and feel right when you're never more than four days away from another Martinez appearance on the mound.

• Greg Maddux and Pedro will share time in Cooperstown one day and they share space on yesterday's big board of baseball winners. Maddux won for the first time in Arizona and extended his walkless streak to 49 and a third in a 10-2 win that pushed the Friars into sole possession of first place. The offense backed him up with five home runs and the Diamondbacks continued their spiral with a tenth loss in 15 games. It could get worse - Padre ace Jake Peavy wants to start on short rest Wednesday as San Diego tries to put Arizona's lights out once and for all.
• If they do knock out the D-Backs they will still have to worry about the Dodgers. Esteban Loaiza won his first start in Blue and L.A. stayed in striking distance, four back, of the Padres with an 11-3 win against the Cubs. Carlos Zambrano took the loss for Chicago, his fifth straight, and gave up eight runs for the first time in more than two years. Big Z got booed off the mound by the Wrigley faithful and struck back following the game. "You know, I thought these were the greatest fans in baseball. But they showed me today that they just care about them, and that's not fair, because when you're struggling, you want to feel the support of the fans."
• The feisty Northside rooters can reserve some of their vitriol, though, because the Brewers aren't proving themselves capable of reversing their slump. They blew a league-high 15th game that they led by three runs in a 9-7 loss to the Astros. The 'Stros, playing out the string under interim manager Cecil Cooper, rebounded from a 7-4 deficit against Derrick Turnbow and Greg Aquino to leave the Brewers a game and a half behind the Cubbies.
• Roger Federer has only lost 21 times since 2004 with eight of those losses coming against Rafael Nadal. Johan Santana has lost 11 times this season with five of them coming against the Indians. Sometimes you just run into someone you can't beat. Yesterday's 5-0 defeat was the most recent lowlight for Santana. The good news is that the Twins don't face the Tribe again this season. The bad news is that those five losses have contributed mightily to Minnesota's hopeless playoff chase.

(AFP/Thomas E. Witte)

How Will The Easts Be Won?

The two Eastern Division races were inflamed with a new fire this week thanks to sweeps of the Red Sox and Mets by their closest pursuers. The Yankees closed to within four games of Boston and the indefatigable Phillies closed the gap to two games by taking four thrillers at home. With September starting this weekend I thought I’d take a look at how the teams match up for a stretch drive.

Yankees

Jorge Posada - 371OBP/484SLG/846OPS in September vs. 379/477/856 Career

Jason Giambi - 407/556/963, 412/539/950

Robinson Cano - 387/656/1043, 345/491/836 – Cano is 415/612/1027 since the All-Star Break

Derek Jeter - 404/478/882, 389/462/851

Alex Rodriguez - 372/526/898, 388/577/964 – A-Rod has his worst totals in any month in September.

Hideki Matsui -395/491/887, 372/490/862 – Matsui’s 994 second-half OPS is 123 points higher than his career average

Johnny Damon – 338/419/757, 353/433/786

Bobby Abreu – 416/490/906, 409/501/910

Melky Cabrera has only played one September but was awful last season, posting a 661 OPS.

Red Sox

Jason Varitek – 310/384/695, 349/447/797 – Varitek’s career totals are better in the first half overall, he was injured last year in the second half and in 2005 slumped to a 514 OPS in September. He is on pace to play fewer games than in the past, however.

Kevin Youkilis – Last year was Youkilis’ only meaningful September action and, like Cabrera, his 646 OPS was dreadful. His second half OPS is 200 points below his first half output as well.

Julio Lugo – 360/427/787, 334/396/730 – Lugo’s recovered well from an awful June to post a 771 second-half OPS.

Mike Lowell – 327/463/790, 343/467/810

Manny Ramirez – 409/559/1008, 409/593/1002

Coco Crisp – 344/431/775, 329/410/739

J.D. Drew – 414/507/921, 389/498/887

David Ortiz – 368/542/910, 380/553/933

Dustin Pedroia is a rookie and only played as a call-up when rosters expanded last season.

Note To Mets: Don't Pitch To Burrell

How many times does Pat Burrell need to kill the Mets before they just accept that there is some cosmic barrier that forbids them from retiring him in a big spot. Pat the Bat hit his 40th and 41st career home runs against the Mets yesterday to help the Phillies win a wild game 11-10, sweep a four-game series and close within just two games of the front-running not-so-Amazins. His second bomb came off Billy Wagner, a double delight for Phillie fans, in the eighth. Wagner got the early call because the rest of the pen has lost Willie Randolph's favor but he was spent after 20 pitches and got ransacked in the ninth. Chase Utley got the winning hit for the fifth straight win of an unforgettable week in Philadelphia. Utley's hit capped a game that saw the Mets crawl out of 5-0 and 8-5 holes to take a 10-8 lead thanks to Philly's own shoddy relief work but they were unable to capitalize and stop the bleeding.  Perhaps some of the Met fans who made the trip down the turnpike were able to glean some coping tips from Phillie fans who remember 1964. Then again, it seems like they discussed other matters.

• The Seattle Mariners have been living a charmed life all season but if they were practicing some kind of voodoo or using some kind of mystical accompaniment to help them along it may be time to change the batteries. They lost their sixth straight, 6-5 to the Indians, on the always frustrating bases loaded walk and are now a game behind the Yankees for the Wild Card. Adding to the frustration, the walk was issued by Rick White, who relieved Eric O'Flaherty in the ninth. You might note that neither of those pitchers are J.J. Putz, better known as Seattle's best reliever. There are better lead-ins to ten game road trips but the Mariners will have to hope that sometime over the next nine their rabbits feet and horseshoes start clicking once more. Or maybe they should just cross their fingers and hope John McLaren remembers he has decent players on his team.
• The Diamondbacks ran out to an 8-0 lead in their attempt to avoid a four-game sweep by the Padres. They then gave up three runs in the seventh and three more in the eighth before turning to Jose Valverde for the save, something he called into doubt by allowing a Milton Bradley homer. But Valverde recovered and struck out the last two Padres to escape with an 8-7 win and a restored place alone atop the AL West. Chris Young struggled again for the Padres and he's probably happy to wave goodbye to a month that saw him go 0-3 and inflate his ERA by half a run.
• Chris Capuano lost his 12th straight decision, a new Brewer record, and the Cubs increased their lead to two and a half games thanks to his continued generosity. Matt Murton and Alfonso Soriano had the big strikes in the 5-4 win; two-out homers that broke a 3-3 tie in the sixth inning. Capuano didn't start the game but Manny Parra had to leave with injury after three innings allowing Capuano a chance to continue his miserable string.

(AP Photo/George Widman)

A Slide That Will Live In Infamy

In 1969 a black cat ran onto the field during a game between the Cubs and Mets and was seen as an omen for Chicago's collapse against the soon-to-be Amazin Mets. 38 years later Marlon Anderson might have played the feline role when he slid into Tadahito Iguchi a little too hard on the last play of the Phillies 3-2 win on Wednesday night. Shawn Green was safe at first on the relay, scoring Endy Chavez with the tying run, but the umps called interference and the Phillies held on for their third straight win against the Mets. It was a questionable call, Anderson's foot appeared to have touched the bag, but there was no doubt that he shoved Iguchi on the transition. Making it worse was that it was probably not going to be a double play even if the second baseman got a clean throw off. The Phillies are but three games out of first before today's game closes out the series and have the look of a team that's going to be hard to shake. That's unexpected given the brutal start in Philadelphia, the myriad injuries they've had to overcome and the nearly unanimous belief that the Mets couldn't be stopped in the NL East. If the Mets do blow it, their slide will be personified by Marlon Anderson's.

• The Cubs overtook the Brewers this month despite little production from Carlos Zambrano. If they hope to hold them off they'll need something more from their ace. He finished August 0-4 with a no-decision after giving up nine hits and all six runs in Milwaukee's 6-1 win on Wednesday. The winner was Ben Sheets, fresh from the DL, and the Brewers have to hope that the return of their ace will help them regain the division lead they owned for so much of the season. 
• The other Central division is looking less like a race than a drive to coronation for the Cleveland Indians. C.C. Sabathia beat Johan Santana, the third time Minnesota's ace has fallen to the Tribe this year, and the Wigwammers hold a four and a half game lead over the Tigers. The Twins, meanwhile, look finished at eight and a half back after the 4-3 loss. The win was Sabathia's first since August 3 and completed a three-game sweep that has the Sons of Geronimo firmly in control of their own destiny.
• The Angels are showing a similar grasp of things out West. They pounded Felix Hernandez to put an emphatic exclamation point on their sweep of the Mariners in Seattle and the 8-2 win leaves them with a five game lead. The loss halted a six-start unbeaten string for the King and dropped him to 0-3 with a 7.30 ERA against the Angels on the season.
• There's no such clarity in the NL West. The Padres are back on top after Greg Maddux allowed one run over seven innings to stop the Diamondbacks 3-1. That leaves the Friars a percentage point above the Snakes for the division lead and they try for a four-game sweep today.

(AP Photo/Rusty Kennedy)