May 18: 2009: Ugliest inning in Met history?
From The Met Wiki
| Date: Monday May 18, 2009 |
| Mets starter: Tim Redding |
| Mets: 2 |
| Dodgers: 3 |
| Winning pitcher: Troncoso (1,0) |
| Key player(s): Angel Pagan |
| Key play: Ugly 11th |
The day started with the Mets announcing that Carlos Delgado would need surgery, that Alex Cora would join him on the DL, and that Jose Reyes was still out. Then things got worse.
Tim Redding pitched pretty well in his first Met start. Angel Pagan had a four hit night, scored the tying run in the eighth, and appeared to drive in the go-ahead run in the eleventh. Ryan Church came off the bench for hits in each of his two at-bats. And the Met bullpen delivered what should have been five innings, without an earned run.
But probably the ugliest eleventh in Met history led to another painful loss. The top of the inning ended right after Angel Pagan's apparent tie-breaking RBI double. The Dodgers appealed, and Ryan Church was called out for missing third. The tie-breaking run was taken back off the scoreboard.
The bottom of the inning was no better. Brian Stokes walked the leadoff hitter on four pitches, the last one nowhere near the strike zone. Then a routine fly ball where Angel Pagan and Carlos Beltran converged, called for it, and then each backed off letting it land safely and bounce to the wall. And yet -- the Mets almost survived. They brought Beltran in to play behind second base. A soft fly to Pagan failed to score the run. And then a hard grounder right at Jeremy Reed at first base should have started a relatively easy inning-ending 3-2-4 double play, with Luis Castillo covering first. But Reed's throw home was nowhere near catcher Ramon Castro, ending the game appropriately on an embarrassing miscue. It was the Mets' fifth error of the night. Two by Ramon Martinez who was playing his first inning at shortstop since 2007. Then Pagan (though Beltran got charged with the error) making his first start since last May. And finally Reed, who totaled one inning at first base in his career before his fifteen innings there with the Mets. The first fourteen were good. The fifteenth ended badly.
Oh -- the Dodgers other two runs scored in the first. Fernando Tatis, who has already played six positions this year, got a routine grounder but chose to throw home where he failed to stop the first run. Because he didn't get any outs on the play, the Dodgers scored run two on a sacrifice fly that should have been the third out.
After the game Tim Redding said "I feel like I’m back in the flow with my teammates." That can't be good.
On the bright side, the Mets had three fewer balks than the day before, so part of their game is improving.
Here's a scary thought -- if the Mets had brought in Daniel Murphy for defense in the eleventh, or kept Fernando Tatis in the game at first, they would have survived the inning. If Murph had come in as a pinch runner for Church, they'd have won.
Of course, Murph had come in earlier to fail as a pinch hitter. Murph is 1 for his last 18. Tatis 0 for his last 11, dropping his OPS from .945 to .799.
The banged-up and out of position Mets dropped to a first place tie with the idle Phillies.
