Results tagged “nationals”

A Historic Collapse: The Mets held a seven-game lead with 17 to play and were caught looking ahead to the playoffs. What followed was among the worst collapses in history and one that revealed the weaknesses of the players, the manager and the general manager. Jose Reyes and his questionable -- and downright poor -- play summed up the the performance on the field. Manager Willie Randolph's mismanagement of the bullpen came to light more down the stretch. So did Omar Minaya's complete neglect of the roster's periphery. The Mets trotted out inexperienced and ineffective pitchers down the stretch, and the bullpen that Randolph had to deal with wasn't that good to begin with thanks to some questionable trades. What this means for the 2008 season remains to be seen, but it cost the Mets fans Lastings Milledge, another symbol of the collapse. He was dumped dealt to the Nationals for Ryan Church and Brian Schneider.

After two seasons of constant trade speculation, the Mets finally have moved Lastings Milledge in a deal this afternoon to the division rival Washington Nationals. In return, the Mets receive Outfielder Ryan Church and Catcher Brian Schneider. Milledge was not always a model citizen as a Met, either on the field or of the field, but nonetheless had been long touted by the organization and the media by a top tier outfield prospect. While he...

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.

A few months ago, a more unlikely scenario could not be imagined. The Yankees are barreling into the playoffs after recovering from one of the team's worst season starts in franchise history. The Mets, on the other hand, are staggering towards the end of the season having lost five straight and 11 of their last 15 games. A seemingly insurmountable lead in their division has been whittled to second place behind the Phillies, and the Mets have let a playoffs appearance escape from their control. Last night's game was almost emblematic of the horror show that has aired early before Halloween. Superstar David Wright couldn't locate third base for a force out. Faced with loaded bases, pitcher Oliver Perez hit two batters with errant throws.

It took the Mets a little more than two weeks, but they've somehow managed to squander a seven-game lead in the National League East. Since September 12th, the lead has slowly gotten smaller and is now zero, zilch, zip, nadda, nil. With three games left in the regular season, the Mets are tied with the Phillies for first in the NL East. The last time the Mets weren't in sole possession of first place - May 15th! How did they get to where they are now? Starting on Sept. 14th, the Mets went 4-10, including a 5-game losing streak and a 4-game losing streak. It didn't help that the Phillies went on a tear during the same stretch of games, including a three-game sweep of the Mets.

From last place to the playoffs, the Yankees have taken their fans on a trip, but they will play October baseball once again. The same cannot yet be said about the Mets.

You probably won't catch any Mets fans or anyone associated with the club purchasing these yet, but MLB.com already has the New York Mets 2007 NL East Division Champions Roster T-Shirt up for sale on its website. Talk about counting your eggs way before they're hatched. The shirts aren't even available for pre-sale only, but are "in stock and ready to leave the warehouse" in 4-6 business days! Hmm...in 4-6 days, the NL East will have been decided. Does this mean MLB.com can cancel your order if the Mets fail to win their division?

• Toronto 4 Yankees 1: You would have thought that the news that AJ Burnett was scratched from his start in favor of Jesse Litsch would have been good for the Yankees, it wasn’t. Litsch did a great imitation of Burnett, dominating the Yankees for almost eight innings and when Andy Pettitte struggled in the second, Toronto had all the offense they needed.
  Continue reading "Last Night's Action: No Wins Here"

Moises Alou shook off an injury and provided three hits and a RBI. David Wright had 3 RBI’s and Jorge Sosa pitched two solid innings of relief. The only down note was that Paul LoDuca got hit by a pitch and had to leave the game. His status is listed as day-to day.

While Matt Murphy claimed that he was going to keep it if possible, does it surprise anyone that the ball from Barry Bonds' 756th home run is going on sale? The 21 year-old Murphy, a Queens resident and Mets fan, caught the record-breaking ball earlier this month in San Francisco (while on the way to Australia), says that he's selling the ball for tax purposes. "It wasn't hard. It was simple math. I'm upset by the decision I had to make. I wanted to keep it. I'm young. I don't have the bank account. ... It would have cost me a lot more to keep it."

• Red Bulls 5, Galaxy 4: Giants Stadium fills up for plenty of events, but Red Bulls games don't usually rank among those. Saturday's did, if only because David Beckham's Los Angeles Galaxy was in town. Those fans, who were there for Beckham and not the Galaxy, found another rare treat: goals in a Major League Soccer game. Soccer doesn't need frequent scores to be exciting, but the rare 5-4 game never hurt anyone. Not only did Beckham play, but he stayed on the artificial pitch the whole game, setting up three goals in his team's loss. The nine total goals fell two short of the league record, which came nine years ago. Jozy Altidore had two of them for the Red Bulls, who are now 10-7-3.
• Yankees 5, Tigers 2: Control can do wonders for a pitcher. Roger Clemens didn't have his best stuff, but he did well in two departments: strikeouts and walks. He K'd eight and walked none through six innings while allowing two runs, and Bobby Abreu's two-run homer off the left-field fair foul pole helped make him a winner. So did the bullpen, which in Kyle Farnsworth, Luis Vizcaino and Mariano Rivera provided three innings of scoreless relief. The Yankees can take three of four in the series if they win when Chien-Ming Wang takes on Jeremy Bonderman, the man who eliminated the Yankees from the playoffs last year.
• Mets 7, Nationals 4: The good news: Luis Castillo homered and the Mets won. The bad news: Damion Easley sprained his ankle, and, with Ramon Castro moved to the disabled list, the Mets' catching corps now consists of Mike DiFelice and Sandy Alomar Jr. Their short-handed lineup -- Carlos Delgado was also out nursing an injury -- still had David Wright, who doubled home two runs to give his team the lead for good against John Lannan, a Long Beach, N.Y., native.

• Yankees 6 Tigers 1: In desperate need of starting pitching the Yankees turned to a reliable source. Andy Pettitte threw eight innings of five-hit ball shutting down the Tigers’ offense and giving his team a chance to win.
  Continue reading "Last Night's Action: Back On Track "

What are the chances? Matt Murphy, a Queens-native and Mets fan, was on his way to Australia when he bought a ticket to last night's Giants-Nationals game at AT&T Park in San Francisco for a chance to watch history. He didn't just watch history, he happened to catch it. Or grab it, at least. Murphy, wearing a Mets jersey and t-shirt, and a buddy (wearing Yankees gear) bought a pair of tickets from a scalper before yesterday's game while on their one-day layover to Australia. As an aside: we've never understood the allure of attending a game wearing apparel of a team that isn't actually playing in that game.

• Yankees 8, Orioles 7: Way back on June 28th, the game between the Yankees and Orioles was suspended in the 8th inning with New York up 8-6. Last night, the two teams continued the June game with Mariano Rivera allowing one Baltimore run to make things exciting in the 9th before picking up what is officially his 10th save of the season.
• Orioles 4, Yankees 2: In the regularly scheduled game last night, the Yankees were unable to drive in the key runs to beat the Orioles. The Yankees had 5 runners at 3rd base over the course of the game, but were unable to plate any of them. Andy Pettitte had a solid game that consisted of one bad inning, which was all Baltimore needed. Pettitte allowed three runs in the 3rd inning when he allowed three hits and two walks. On the positive side, he did retire the last 12 batters he faced.
• Nationals 6, Mets 2: It's the games against the bad teams that the Mets need to win if they want to keep their minuscule lead in the NL East. Unfortunately, they couldn't muster up much offense last night against Washington. Moises Alou went 1-4 including a double and a run scored in his return to the team, but that wasn't nearly enough to bail out Jorge Sosa. Sosa allowed 5 runs over 6 innings and had the Mets in a hole from the 2nd inning. The Mets and Nationals play a day-night doubleheader Saturday with Mike Pelfrey pitching in one game and Orlando Hernandez in the other.

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on.

Their starting pitching is completely broken and Mariano Rivera can’t get an out. The offense is now slumping and the bullpen imploding from overuse. Steinbrenner is reportedly ready to fire Joe if they are swept by Boston. Jeff Karstens takes the hill today, gulp.

What does a Stuyvesant High grad who won the Siemens Competition prize for outstanding high school science project do these days? Study worms of course. Yin Li won the $100,000 scholarship in 2003 for his study of how certain proteins in the brain "might control the capacity of nerve cells to undergo local protein synthesis". Such a mechanism might be related to memory and learning.

The NYPD and FBI shut down a $3.3 billion Internet gambling ring, arresting 27 people and seizing $7 million in cash and assets worth $500 million, including four Manhattan condos. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly called shutting down website Playwithal.com "the largest illegal gambling operation this department has ever encountered." Here's how it worked, according to the Daily News:

Traditional bookies would give bettors a secret code to use the Internet gambling site, authorities said. Bets were taken on all kinds of sports, including football, baseball, basketball, hockey, auto racing and golf - and at the end of each week, the bookies would pay off or collect from each client.

Continue reading "Billion Dollar Internet Gambling Ring Busted"

-Mets 6, Nationals 2: From the Mets' persepctive, the only notable part of this game was Cliff Floyd's return to the lineup. Bothered by a left achilles tendon injury, Floyd hit leadoff to get extra plate appearances. He'll know Monday if he'll play in Game 1 of the playoffs on Wednesday, but the Mets know they'll welcome the Dodgers, the wild card winner. San Diego's win clinched them the NL West; they'll play the Cardinals.

-Devil Rays 11, Yankees 4: Manager Joe Torre's history makes clear that he doesn't care too much about home-field advantage in the playoffs. Last year, he started a second-class lineup against Boston when a win would have given the Yankees the edge in their first-round series against the Angels. This year, his team will go down to the wire battling the Tigers for the American League's best record, but Torre's lineups won't reflect it. Mike Mussina hurt his glove hand in the loss, but it shouldn't be serious.

- Mets 12, Nationals 6: What's left for the Mets this season? All they have to do is rest their regulars, fine tune their starting pitching (no crying in baseball, right?), and figure out who their first round opponent. Last night, potential fourth starter, John Maine took the mound and didn't look all that impressive - not the best way to earn a spot in the starting rotation. Maine allowed four runs over five innings, but still picked up the win thanks to a six run 5th inning when the Mets batted around the lineup. Jose Reyes and David Wright both had 3 RBI in the win. Unfortunately for the Nationals, Nick Johnson broke his femur in the 8th inning when he collided with Austin Kearns.

-Yankees 4 Tampa Bay 1: While New York spent most of September marching toward another division championship, there was one thought in the back of their minds. When will Mariano come back? Rivera had been sidelined since the end of August with a forearm strain and everyone knows that he is truly the indispensable Yankee come October. While we won’t know for sure until tomorrow, his return seems on track. Rivera struck out the side with a broken-bat single and a hit batter wedged in between.