A Game of Inches
By Mike Silva ~ June 11th, 2009. Filed under: Mike Silva.
- In Fenway, the Yankees fought back from an early deficit to bring the winning run to the plate. Jorge Posada’s fly ball, which appeared headed for the monster, instead grazed the wall and fell into Jason Bay’s glove. The Red Sox go on to win their seventh straight against the Yankees. In New York, the Mets were tied with the Phillies in extra innings. David Wright hits a line drive the seemingly had won the game. Jayson Werth dives to save the run and the game. Chase Utley smacks a homer the very next inning and all is history. It’s a game of inches. Just a few inches more and we would be talking about a great Yankees comeback and another Mets defeat of the World Champs.
- I said during Sunday’s WGBB show that the Mets could survive shorthanded if they played good defense, pitched well, and executed fundamentals on both sides of the ball. The mistakes by Wright and Beltran in the seventh are the kind of miscues that just can’t happen if they want to win ballgames. Giving any team, especially the Phillies, five outs is a death sentence. They were lucky to get out of that inning tied.
- Pedro Feliz’s diving play will certainly go unnoticed in the box score. Omir Santos two out ground ball in the fifth that was knocked down saved a run. That ball was ticketed for left field and Feliz did everything to keep it on the infield. With the pitcher up next it might have very well saves the ball game.
- Chien Ming Wang has a sinker that is straight and is constantly behind hitters. No chance that you could think this story would end well. The bigger issue is that Wang is keeping the rotation in complete limbo. Is Hughes a starter or an answer to the bullpen? Would Wang be better served coming out of the pen this year? Why pull him out of the rotation now? You took Hughes out to just give him one start? I say you have to give Wang 3 to 5 starts before you make a move. Of course, AJ Burnett doing a Wang impression makes that a difficult pill to swallow.
- Mark Teixeira is going to punish the Red Sox for not signing him. Interesting how it was ownership, not management that turned him off about Boston.
- Mets fans are going to get on Sean Green today. They really shouldn’t. Green, outside of the single by Feliz, did exactly what he should have done in the seventh. All the other batters hit grounders. The big play of the inning, Beltran’s dropped fly ball, came before Green’s entrance. After the Wright error you should be thankful he got out of the inning with a tie game.
- You paid $160 million dollars for an ace. Tonight CC Sabathia needs to earn his dough. This is one of the situations that call for an ace. The Yankees need to stop the bleeding, get a win, get out of here tied for first, and move on.
- As for Tim Redding winning the series for the Mets – I don’t know what to say. He has horrible splits against left handed batters. How is he going to navigate Utley, Howard, and Ibanez? Perhaps both teams can get their bats out, although Jamie Moyer has pitched well since the back to back shellacking’s the Mets and Dodgers gave him a month ago.
- I will be recapping the amateur draft tonight with Lane Meyer of Nomaas and NYBD contributor Joe Demayo. Click here at 6pm to listen live or download the replay.
