Results tagged “floridamarlins”

If Barry Melrose ever goes to Newark, he probably won't be getting a warm reception. Melrose, a hockey analyst for ESPN and a former player and manager, said some disparaging words about the city of Newark when talking about the new Devils arena on his webcast last week. Melrose said, "It looks great on the inside but don't go outside, especially if you got a wallet or anything else because the area around the building...

The Wall Street Journal has an absolutely hysterical/mortifying column today about what happens when one's boss wants to be your "friend" on an online site like MySpace or Facebook. Normally reserved for friends or total strangers, members feel free to share compromising photos or statements on the site.

-Reds 6 Mets 5: Jose Reyes recorded the first cycle in the majors this year, but Billy Wagner blew the save and the Mets lost. Wagner got the first two outs of the ninth, but then walked Austin Kearns and David Ross and gave up back-to-back singles to Rich Aurilia and Brandon Phillips. Carlos Beltran led off the bottom of the ninth with a walk, but Carlos Delgado flied out and David Wright grounded into a double play to end the game. The Mets finish their homestand tomorrow before heading to Toronto.

Victor Zambrano stuggled at times, loading the bases twice, yet only allowed one run in the situations. Mike Piazza, never known for his ability to throw runners out, bounced a ball off the pitcher's mound into the outfield. Yikes. Fortunately for the Mets, John Franco was no better. Franco, who has quickly become the whipping boy for this series, allowed one run and one hit in only 1/3 of an inning. He picked up the blown save, the loss, and had a little tripping incident.

Mientkiewicz has a career .272 batting average, hit .238 in 2004, and a Mendoza-threatening .215 in with the Red Sox. Clearly, his bat isn't the reason the Mets signed him. His defense, however, will certainly help the Mets, who committed 137 errors in 2004, enough for the 3rd most in baseball. Mientkiewicz has 21 career errors and a .996 career fielding percentage (the Mets had a .978 team percentage last year). This is even more useful, considering the infield of Kaz Matsui (2nd base, .956), Jose Reyes (SS, .980), and David Wright (3rd base, .942) isn't exactly error free. We'll see how the position swap between Matsui and Reyes works out and we're totally ignoring the fact that Delgado had a better fielding percentage last year.

The Mets finished 12 games behind the Marlins last year, has made several off season moves, and is still considered less of a contender than the Marlins? Ouch. The Mets also were reported to have offered usage of a luxury box, a hotel suite on the road, and a better bonus package. But looking at money alone, Delgado stands to take home much more in Florida since there is no state income tax. Then again, the Marlins win the World Series in 2003, so maybe Delgado has a valid reason.

Last season, Leiter was 10-8 with a 3.21 ERA, 10th best in the National League. Leiter was a class act with roots in the community and Gothamist will miss him, despite his lack of rhythm or skills in playing the tambourine (we saw him on stage at a Springstein concert).

Johan Santana, who has not lost since the All-Star break, gave up nine hits in seven innings, but had plenty of defense behind him. Three of the double plays were your "standard" GIDP, one was a strike em out, throw em out, and another came on a fly ball to center with a play at the plate. Squandered opportunities by the Yankees as they left seven on base; the Twins only left four runners on base. Mike Mussina picked up his fourth loss in his fourth game one start, leading Gothamist to wonder why they bother starting him in game one of any series - oh, right, he's their best pitcher. While Mussina only allowed seven hits, the Twins were able to score with some small ball in the 3rd and a home run by Jacque Jones in the 6th inning.

Tonight, the Mets take on the Florida Marlins, who have won seven consecutive, in Miami. With any luck on the part of the Mets, the game will be rained out by the remnants of Hurricane Frances. Better yet, maybe they can finally scrape out a win.

The only bright spot for the Mets was Wilson Degado, who had an impressive game offensively. Batting 8th and playing shortstop, Delgado went 3 for 4, knocking in four runs and hitting a home run in the 4th. Without Delgado, the Mets wouldn't have scored. Delgado was one of the players that the Mets acquired in the Roger Cedeno trade. Is anyone missing Kaz Matsui now?

Entering the bottom of the ninth, the Mets turned to Braden Looper, the Former Marlin to close the game. Three singles in a row by the Marlins and an error by Mike Cameron led to a tie game. Lenny Harris, a former Met hit a single to take a one-run lead. In the bottom of the inning, Armando Benitez, also a former Met, closed out the game, dropping the Mets back to .500 and into a tie with the Marlins for 3rd. Benitez's performance was something the Mets never saw consistently when he was in Flushing, which was clear when fans booed him when he came onto the field.

Now, the Mets are two games out of first place and tied for second place with the hated Atlanta Braves. The Mets take on the Florida Marlins this weekend in Miami before the break. The Phillies play the aforementioned Braves, with first place at steak. The best the Mets can hope for before the break is a tie for first with the Braves. After the All Star break, the Mets return home to play four against the Phillies. With games against the top teams in the NL East, there is a chance the Amazins could be in first very soon. Of course, there is also a chance they could be in fourth, a few games out of first.

Derek Jeter sums up the Series succinctly, "Yes, it's great for the city. No, it's not like it was during (the World Series) in 2000. No, it's not that much different than any other game. Does that cover it?" As much as Gothamist loves the games, we're also kind of tired of them. It's not much of a rivalry if one team is getting smoked every year, if the teams aren't fighting against each other for anything, if the players view the games as ordinary, or if the players are all chummy. While both fans on both sides may hate each other, these games have little meaning in the AL and NL East.

Al Leiter pitched 5 2/3 shutout innings in yesterday's game to improve to 2-2. Despite his record, Leiter has been pitching exceptionally well. In nine starts, his ERA is a miniscule 1.98, but with little run support, his record does not reflect his pitching. Lucky for Leiter, the Mets' bats came thorough yesterday. Mike Piazza's two-run double and and Karim Garcia's RBI single in the first inning gave the Mets all the runs they would need. Piazza also hit his third home run in two days in the fifth inning to add to the run tally.

Yankees lose the World Series to the Florida Marlins.