Results tagged “billywagner”

Phillies 6, Mets 2: Well, at least watching the Mets lose to Philadelphia during the final six weeks of the season is a less painful this year with the team barely having any healthy legs to stand up on, let alone collapse onto. Ryan Howard smacked a three-run home run to left in the top of the first off of Bobby Parnell and the Phillies would never look back in this afternoon's finale of the four-game series at Citi Field. Today's loss puts the Mets 16 1/2 games behind the World Series champs and somehow the news just keeps getting worse. Johan Santana has been scratched from tomorrow's start in Florida with a sore elbow and might be shut down for the season. Billy Wagner made his second appearance today since returning from Tommy John surgery, pitching a scoreless 8th for the Mets. Word is that complications have arisen with the Red Sox' attempt to bring him to Boston off waivers—Wagner wants the Red Sox to agree that they will not pick up his option for next year nor offer him arbitration, leaving him the possibility to sign somewhere where he could end his career as a closer.

Livan Hernandez, who stopped masquerading as a Major League pitcher about seven weeks ago lost his roster spot to Billy Wagner. Then the Mets went out and lost, 3-2, to the Braves. Remember when Mets fans hung effigies of Chipper Jones from the stands at Shea Stadium, and everyone hated the rivals from Atlanta? Not so much anymore. Johan Santana struck out only two in seven innings, allowed nine hits and three runs and took the loss. Wagner got in the game and pitched a scoreless inning with two strikeouts. If he clears waivers, the Mets will likely trade him. Even if he doesn't, the Mets may be able to work something out.

The bad news: The Mets' closer Billy Wagner needs surgery to repair his torn MCL in his left elbow, which MLB.com writes will possibly end "his season and possibly his career," since recovery time is "approximately one year." The (sort of) good news: Mets fans won't be tortured by his inconsistent outings. General manager Omar Minaya said, "That was a scenario that I was not expecting," and Wagner had said yesterday that he felt a lot better. Wagner's contract runs through next year (which is worth $10.5 million), and there's also an option for 2010 ($8 million). The Daily News point outs that while Wagner will be missed, "they have played well without him for the past month, too."

   

• Jets 20, Dolphins 14: They didn't make it look easy, but the Jets took down the Dolphins to get the Brett Favre era off to a solid, if not resounding, start. Favre, came out of retirement and got traded to the Jets from Green Bay, threw two touchdown passes. The first, to Jerricho Cotchery, was a well-executed play on both ends. The second, to Chansi Stuckey, was not. On a fourth-down desperation play, Favre simply heaved the ball toward the end zone and was lucky that it was not picked off. Favre then had to watch from the sideline as Miami's Chad Pennington threw for more than 150 yards in the fourth quarter and almost led the game-winning drive throwing to stalwarts such as Anthony Fasano and Greg Camarillo. But then Darrelle Revis intercepted Pennington in the end zone, and the game was over. This week, the Jets play at home against the Patriots, who will be without Tom Brady, who is likely done for the year.
• Mets 6, Phillies 3: Averting the disaster of a three-game sweep, the Mets salvaged the nightcap of Sunday's doubleheader and the finale of a three-game series against the rival Phillies. Thanks in part to Johan Santana's 7 1/3 innings of two-run ball, the Mets now lead them by two games with 19 to play. Carlos Delgado had two homers -- again -- and also singled in two runs in the first. His resurgence has been noteworthy, but this rumblings of his earning consideration for the MVP award is a product over-excitement. How quickly Mets fans forget how much he stunk until June (and how much great Albert Pujols has been). The news was not all good; Billy Wagner could be done for the year.
• Across the way in Flushing, Serena Williams won her third U.S. Open title by defeating Jelena Jankovic in straight sets. She also took over the No. 1 ranking in the world with an impressive performance in a well-played match. That said, would it kill the women to play a deciding third set once in a while? It hasn't happened since 1995, when Steffi Graf was still roaming the courts.
• Mariners 5, Yankees 2: Fourth place? Get used to it. The Yankees fell to the lowly Mariners again Sunday, losing two of three in the Pacific Northwest. Mike Mussina stayed stuck on 17 wins after taking the loss. His bid for 20 is the only thing worth following these days.
Continue reading "Last Night's Action: Favre Wins Debut"

The win gives the Yankees a split of the series with LA and sends them off on a eleven-game road trip on a high note.

• Yankees 8 Angels 2: How appropriate that on Old-Timers’ Day it was the Yankees oldest player who continued his season-long renaissance. Mike Mussina had a rocky second inning, but he settled down and pitched seven innings of two-hit ball for his 14th win of the year. Mussina would have pitched a shutout if Wilson Betemit could field, but the Yankees have no complaints after finally beating the Angels. Betemit redeemed himself with a homer to tie the game at 2 and three other Yankees went deep.
  Continue reading "Last Night's Action: Old-Timers' Day"

So now the Mets sit all by their lonesome in first place. They still have their problems. Nick Evans and Marlon Anderson (!) are still playing left field. Pedro Martinez hasn't looked good at all. The Phillies and the Marlins don't appear to be going anywhere for now. But the Mets probably have the best team in the division, and, for the first time since April, it is theirs to lose.

• Yankees 5 Minnesota 1: New York completed the sweep thanks to another great start from Mike Mussina. Mussina won his 13th game of the year by pitching eight innings while allowing only six base runners and zero runs. He also struck out seven batters. With probably 12 more starts left this season, Mussina has a shot at winning 20 games for the first time in his career.
  Continue reading "Last Night's Action: Another Sweep"

The Yankees sweep the Athletics and the Mets managed to salvage a split of their series against Cleveland.

The Mets win their 10th game in a row, thanks to a ninth inning two-run home run from David Wright.

Well, it's the ultimate accessory if you're Mets reliever Joe Smith. Because he missed out on rookie hazing last year, Smith must wear a pink Hello Kitty backpack every time he walks from the dugout to the bullpen. Mets closer Billy Wagner presented him with the bag on June 19 and proclaimed, "It's not Hello Kitty, it's Hello Smitty -- mee-oww!"

Mets 10, Phillies 9: Leave it to the Mets to stake Pedro Martinez to a 10-1 lead and then make him sweat it out. Martinez was charged with two runs in 5 1/3 innings, striking out six. He gave up two home runs, but this time they came with no one on base. Things looked rosy when he left thanks to David Wright's 2-for-5 night that included a home run. Then the Mets handed things over to the bullpen. Even Martinez had an RBI -- he also had a run score when third baseman Greg Dobbs committed an error on a ball scalded down the line.

• Yankees 5, Red Sox 4 (10 innings): Brett Gardner's seeing-eye single in the 10th inning helped the Yankees salvage a split. And, in history-making news, Alex Rodriguez tied Mickey Mantle on the all-time home run list (they both have 536 home runs) with a solo shot.
  Continue reading "Last Night's Action: Extra-Inning Heroics"

Another Met who will be sorry to see the Subway Series end is Carlos Delgado. Delgado hit his third home run of the series, a shot that put the Mets up 2-0. The Mets added a run in the sixth thanks to a wild pitch, but the Yankees cut it to 3-1 when Wilson Betemit hit a bomb to left. The Yankees threatened in the ninth when Jeter got on base and A-Rod hit a deep fly to left, but it stayed in the park and Billy Wagner took care of business after that, setting down the Yankees for his 18th save.

• Yankees 8 Padres 5: Is it a coincidence that the Yankees have gone 19-9 since A-Rod returned to the lineup? You certainly have to give Posada some credit too, but the lineup is scoring again and the Yankees have been able to overcome some rough pitching, especially from their bullpen.
  Continue reading "Last Night's Action: Twice The Fun"

Losing Wang for an extended period of time would be a devastating blow to the Yankees who have already lost two starting pitchers to injury. They will keep their fingers crossed that Wang’s injury is only a sprain and not a dreaded lisfranc fracture.

• Diamondbacks 5, Mets 4: This one's on Billy Wagner, whose summation above says it all. Johan Santana pitched seven scoreless innings. Ramon Castro went deep and scored another run. David Wright had an RBI double. Joe Smith gave up two runs in the eighth, but Wagner entered the ninth with his team leading, 4-2. He loaded the bases with no one out and was fortunate to get out of the inning with the game still tied. The Mets threatened in the bottom of the ninth, but turning it over to Aaron Heilman in the 10th spelled doom.
  Continue reading "Last Night's Action: 'I Stink Right Now'"

• Mets 5 Arizona 3 (13 innings): They simply couldn’t afford to blow this one. Up 3-0, thanks to a brilliant start from Mike Pelfrey, the Mets lost their lead when Billy Wagner served up a three-run dinger in the ninth to Mark Reynolds. Reynolds’ home run came on a full count, with two outs and right after he appeared to get hit by a ball in the foot. But, he was not awarded first and instead he hit a home run that could have absolutely destroyed the Mets if they had lost the game.
  Continue reading "Last Night's Action: Thank You Carlos!"

Johnny Damon continued his hot hitting with two more hits and scored two runs. Bobby Abreu and Jason Giambi both hit home runs and Alex Rodriguez doubled home two runs in the 7th to give the Yankees a comfortable lead. Dan Giese earned his first career win with 2-2/3 innings of shutout relief and Mariano needed only seven pitches to nail down his 16th save of the season.

Down 2-0, David Wright got things going with a double. Carlos Beltran followed with his fifth home run of the year, tying the game and energizing the crowd. And, the Mets weren’t done, Carlos Delgado followed with a single and was lifted for a pinch runner, Nick Evans. Easley sacrificed Evans to second and after an intentional walk to Brian Schneider, Fernando Tatis provided the game-winning single.

All signs point to this being a critical weekend for Willie Randolph if he wants to keep his job. Ownership is clearly peeved at him, refusing to return his apology phone call and having Omar Minaya do it. The fans are filling the talk radio airwaves with anti-Willie diatribes and the team is not playing well. In fact, they have essentially played .500 ball for over a season. If you go back to May 19th, 2007, the Mets were 28-14, since then they are 82-83. Clearly, this is a team that needs something to change because they are too talented to play at that mediocre level.

The Mets and Yankees are in the middle of their first subway series game of the season right now (last night's game was rained out--it may be rescheduled later this summer), but the real news is what's happening off the field.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only baserunning gaffe for the Mets. Carlos Beltran got doubled off of third on a line drive to end the game. Some people will make excuses for Beltran, but he wasn’t running on contact and should have been closer to third with only one out.

But, the blame shouldn’t go on the pitching staff, they only allowed two runs over eleven innings, it was the hitting that was awful. The Yankees managed to only get six hits and draw three walks and would have lost 1-0 if not for Hideki Matsui’s solo homer in the ninth. A-Rod isn’t due back until next Tuesday, but will he be enough to wake up the Yankees’ offense?

Even so, he couldn't match Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley, who walked four and struck out four Mets, including David Wright twice. A Moises Alou single accounted for the Mets' only run. Perez, whose struggles have earned the wrath of closer Billy Wagner, may just be a headcase. Manager Willie Randolph said Perez, "kept us relatively in the ballgame after a shaky start, but the gopher balls hurt him." That's a fair assessment, though what does "relatively in the ballgame mean"? After a slow start, Joe Torre's Dodgers are 18-14 and look like they will be a factor all season. Nelson Figueroa takes on Hiroki Koruda on Tuesday night before a day game Wednesday.

For a team used to making miracles, conjuring up a disaster had an especially bitter taste. With a sloppily played 8-1 loss to Florida and the Phillies' 6-1 win against the Nationals, the Mets' season ended about a month too early. The loss capped an agonizing stretch of two and a half weeks in which the Mets played some of the worst teams in the National League and still played their worst baseball of the season.

Marlins 8, Mets 7 (10 innings): Taking a three-run lead into the bottom of the ninth against the Marlins should be no problem right? Not when Billy Wagner is mysteriously absent -- the Mets later said he was having back spasms -- and his replacements are the not-so-capable Pedro Feliciano and the highly inflammable Jorge Sosa. They combined to cough up the lead in the bottom of the ninth, ruining a dramatic comeback posted by the Mets in the top of the inning. Then Sosa gave up the winning run all by himself in the 10th. Why is Sosa in there? Because everyone else stinks or had been used, frankly. After seeing the right-hander struggle so frequently of late, Manager Willie Randolph still didn't look for another option.