Random Thoughts for a Rainy Monday!
It was supposed to be The New York Mets vs. The Los Angeles Dodgers of Brooklyn at 7pm this evening, but alas, Mother Nature intervened. So a treat for a Tuesday afternoon instead. An old-fashioned, honest-to-goodness, and most importantly, single-admission DOUBLEHEADER! It’ll be Ollie P. (0-2, 3.71) v. Hiroki Kuroda (2-0, 2.18) preceded by The Johan (2-1, 2.59) v. Charlie Haeger (0-2, 6.46). Since I’m a faithful subscriber to MLB Extra Innings, I usually take in my fair share of late Dodger games featuring the Master, Vin Scully. However, this year, I’m slackin on my West Coast vibe so far and letting my East Coast Bias be slanted towards a good night sleep. Apparently the Dodgers have been having pitching issues, and one Manny Ramirez has been kept away from the New York circus by his Manager, Joe Torre (what does he know about the New York circus? Oh Yeah, I forgot…) Hopefully the Mets can keep their recent winning ways going before the weekend matchup in Philly v. the Phillies.
Mike Pelfrey has been lights out this year, fashioning a 4-0 record with a microscopic 0.69 ERA. However in last night’s rain shortened matchup, he showed something else… some gumption. One of the knocks on Pelfrey prior to this year has been an inability to be able to survive on nights when he doesn’t have his best stuff or command of his pitches. Well, last night was one of those nights and he was able to gut his way through 5 innings and 106 pitches. Of course it probably helped that the weekend’s opponent the Atlanta Braves couldn’t buy a clutch hit. Still maybe, just maybe, Big Pelf has turned a corner and can be that guy the Mets need to ride shotgun to Johan Santana in the rotation. Only time will tell, but the results so far are encouraging to say the least.
My new Facebook buddy is Jeff Mattingly. From my new Facebook buddy I’ve stolen, er, borrowed some very pertinent stats about the Mets pitching staff. Namely as of Saturday the Mets had the most strikeouts as a staff in the NL. and second most in the Majors. Unfortunately they’ve also surrendered the most walks as well which was supposed to be one of the things they were going to rectify as a staff in the spring. On the flipside, of course, is one Johan Santana, who has not surrendered a leadoff walk in nearly 70 innings since last year. What does this mean? Simple, Johan is great and I enjoy trying to sound like a stat guru! By the way Jeff’s website is www.thesportspy.com. Check it out! NOW!
See Ya!
Simply Amazin' 