Results tagged “kazuomatsui”

Oooh. The Mets have unloaded Kazuo Matsui to the Colorado Rockies for a bucket of balls. Actually, no. In return, the Mets get utilityman Eli Marrero. Marrero has played at catcher, first base, and in the outfield this season. Matsui, who started the season in extended spring training, joined the team after Anderson Hernandez was injured. While with the Mets this season, Matsui's shoddy defense improved, but his bat was still as dead as ever. In 130 at-bats, Matsui is right at the Mendoza line, hitting .200 with one home run and seven RBI. The homer came on his first at-bat of the season, something he's done for three straight years. When Matsui joined the Mets in 2004, he proclaimed "I love New York." We wonder if he's saying "I love Colorado Springs" right now. And he was clearly expendable to the Mets when Jose Valentin showed that he was much more useful offensively.

Saturday’s loss must have stung more than Sunday’s. Neither Pedro Martinez nor Mark Mulder was dominant, and the Mets rallied to take a one-run lead into the 8th. Even struggling Kazuo Matsui pitched in with a three-run triple. But Roberto Hernandez, perhaps the most consistent Mets’ reliever this season, gave up two runs in the eighth, and the Mets lost 7-6. On Sunday, the Mets’ line-up ran into Matt Morris, managing just two runs on 6 hits in a 4-2 loss.

More photos of Hello Kitty Day at Shea from WireImage. And the game in question was the one where Diamondbacks pitcher Randy "Big Unit" Johnson and Mets player Todd Zeile had a staredown.

Looks like it's just that kind of season for the Mets. Jose Reyes gets injured in spring training, Matsui comes in and stinks it up at short, the Mets make trades at the deadline only to fall several games back, and now Glavine gets injured while not even playing. Glavine lost his two upper front teeth and received stitches to his lower lip. He is scheduled to miss his start on Wednesday due to the injury.

At least the Mets can say they were swept by the best team in baseball over the weekend. In yesterday's 6-2 loss (box score), there was little that went the right way of the Metropolitans. Kazuo Matsui experienced back spasms that might send him to the DL, David Wright played poorly in the field, and Vance Wilson left the game after being hit in the head with a bat. But wait, there's more. The Mets are now a whopping 11 games out of first and they can say they are in a race for last place in the NL East. After all, they are only 8 games in front of the last place Expos.

After 87 games, the Mets are at 44-43, barely over .500, but in a position few expected. They are in fourth place (that was expected), but are only 2 games out of first place in the NL East. Sure, their division isn't playing that well, but with the Phillies, Braves, Marlins and Mets all in the hunt for the pennant, it looks like the rest of the season will be exciting.

Wigginton's home run gives the Mets another chance to get their record to .500, an elusive mark thus far. They look to sweep the 3-game series against the Rockies behind Tom Glavine who will face former Met Shawn Estes.

Down in Florida, the Yankees didn't do so well, losing 9-4 (box score). Mike Mussina picked up his second loss against the Devil Rays in two games, the last one in Japan. In their three games against the lowly F-Rays, the Yankees have dropped two - it's time to panic! Quick, trade for some more pitching! Alex Rodriguez hit a home run in the game, but it wasn't enough to defeat the Rays, who as a team make less than $19 million, while A-Rod will make $22 million this year.

Is there only one rivalry left in baseball? George Vecsey thinks so (for the record, Gothamist thinks there are at least two rivalries in baseball). Vecsey contends that the only rivalry that is worth watching is the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry and to an extent, parts of his article are true. There is tremendous buzz around the two teams this year, with each team making off-season moves. Then there are the Mets, who Vecsey says are serving "leftovers" and have "no buzz" (has he been reading Whatevs?). Gothamist wonders if the addition of Kazuo Matsui and the play of Jose Reyes can cause excitement in Vecsey. Even we weren't so down on the Mets in our baseball preview.

Gothamist remembers its first home run in Little League. A young Gothamist ran around the bases as the fielders continuously made errors. Hmm, maybe it was more of a single with three errors and some quality base-running than an actual home run. We can only hope that our little league team does a little better than our childhood opponent.

In two unrelated incidents over the weekend, Mets phenom José Reyes and Yankees pitcher Jon Lieber both injured muscles in their legs. Reyes injured his right hamstring while stealing second base in yesterday's spring training game. Lieber felt tightness in his groin while warming up for a start on Saturday.

Plus our super scientific rules for what not to do when you blog. And the week in full.

It also helps that he's ridiculously good–looking, seems like a nice family man (wife: Mio; 3 year–old daughter Haruna), and is going to try his "best to bring another [World Series ring] to the city for the New York Mets." He wore minority owner Saul Katz's 1986 ring, reportedly "enamoured" of it; relatedly, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King opens next Wednesday (buy tickets at Fandango). With Andy Pettite leaving the Yankees for Houston and Derek Jeter dangerously close to being a punchline, maybe it's time for a little Kaz.