Mike Attack: August 27, 2008

By Mike McGann
Posted Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Yup, still cranky old me. In between rebuilding my blog from scratch and designing an entirely new site — I’m managing to keep up with this in the short term. It looks like Mack and Michael Strahan are going to stay retired, so we’re ready to start moving on here at FU. Look in this space for announcements about some interesting new stuff coming here in the next few weeks.

Losses:

Cubs 50
Brewers 55
Phillies 59
Mets 60
Cardinals 60

There are bad losses and there awful, gut-wrenching losses. If you’re a Mets’ fan, you put last night’s late night affair into the latter category. The offense went to sleep, Pedro couldn’t hang onto a big lead, crashing and burning in the fifth inning. The pen wasn’t awful (kudos to Aaron Heilman for pitching out of jams in his three innings of hair-rasing work last night) but you have to wonder whether with a healthy Billy Wagner, the Mets go home with a one-run win.

That puts a lot more pressure on the Mets to come through tonight, with Johan Santana facing...well, I don't know. Tonight's projected starter is Kyle Kendrick, but he had to warm up in the 13th inning, so it's unclear whether he'll be able to make the start tonight. Santana has been great of late — and with tired pen, needs not only to pitch well, but deep into the game tonight.

A note from our pal Bill Metsiac: "This is sure to create some buzz: It seems likely that Fernando Martinez, Mike Carp, Carlos Muniz and Eddie Kunz all will be snubbed for September call-ups. The Mets don’t want to clutter the clubhouse with too many extra bodies in the heat of a pennant race. The good news: Look for Jon Niese to make his major-league debut against the Brewers on Sept. 2 in John Maine’s spot. And look for fellow prospect Bobby Parnell to be called up as well for bullpen duty. Other call-ups/activations from the DL: former Rays reliever Al Reyes and Marlon Anderson. Trot Nixon, technically on a major-league rehab assignment with New Orleans following hernia surgery, looks like he’ll be passed over. Toss-ups: Nelson Figueroa and Brandon Knight. Claudio Vargas’ elbow remains injured, though he’s still floating around with the Zephyrs."

I'm not sure what Bill's source is on this, but i thought it was worth passing on. From what I've heard, Muniz and Kunz will be on the roster and Martinez remains likely — and Niese and Parnell are pretty much givens, along with Al Reyes (he may get shuffled up before Sept. 1 to be postseason eligible) and Marlon Anderson, who is just now starting rehab action with the St. Lucie Rainouts. Obviously, we'll know in a day or two how it's going to go, but it seems pretty likely that extra pen arms will be airlifted in here, in part to find someone who can get people out regularly (Reyes is the big hope) and to rest some ofthe overworked guys out there. The Martinez thing is a bit trickier: he hasn't played well since coming back and while they all but promised him a cup of coffee this year, I wouldn't be surprised if he got shut down for a bit and then sent off to winter ball.

New Orleans
The Zephyrs pounded out a season best 19 hits and defeated the Omaha Royals 14-4 in front of 3,227 fans at Rosenblatt Stadium. The Z’s snapped a streak of eight consecutive Omaha wins over New Orleans. The Zephyrs were led by Valentino Pascucci’s three RBI and three hit games by Ramon Martinez and Anderson Machado. New Orleans took advantage of ten Omaha walks in the game, a new season high for the Zephyrs. Neal Musser started the game and walked three in the first inning but escaped with no damage. Josh Newman walked four batters in four innings allowed two runs. The Royals committed two errors in the game leading to the Zephyrs scoring seven unearned runs. The Z’s scored three runs in the sixth inning and erupted for seven runs in the seventh. New Orleans starter Bobby Parnell pitched impressive working six innings and allowed two runs on five hits. He improved his record to 2-2 on the season.

Game Notes: The Z’s improve to 2-5 on the trip. Omaha leads the season series 10-4. New Orleans outscored Omaha 12- 2 in the final four innings.

Coming Up: The Zephyrs continue the final road trip of the season on Wednesday evening at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha. The Z’s will start LH Willie Collazo against Omaha LH Dusty Hughes (3-2) at 7:05. RADIO: AM 690 WIST.

Binghamton
The Binghamton Mets rallied from a two-run deficit to tie but the New Hampshire Fisher Cats pulled out a 4-3 win at MerchantsAuto.com Stadium Tuesday. The B-Mets have dropped four of five.

The B-Mets (70-66) took a 1-0 lead in the fourth, when Fernando Martinez singled and scored on Caleb Stewart’s double to left-center.

After New Hampshire (59-77) tied the score on Brian Dopirak’s run-scoring single in the fifth, Jacob Butler’s two-run homer in the sixth put the Fisher Cats ahead 3-1.

Binghamton rallied to tie thanks to two bases-loaded walks. Salvador Paniagua began the seventh by reaching on an error. Jonathan Malo followed with a walk before Emmanuel Garcia singled to load the bases. Two batters later, Fernando Martinez drew a walk, forcing in Paniagua.

In the ninth, Paniagua was hit by a pitch before Josh Petersen pinch-ran for him. Malo got on thanks to a bunt single and Garcia reached on an error to load the bases again. Coronado followed with a free pass to bring in Petersen and tie the score 3-3.

Scott Campbell began the bottom of the ninth with a single off Tim Lavigne (2-6) before taking second on a wild pitch and advancing to third on J.P. Arencibia’s single. Brian Dopirak then hit a ground ball that was fielded by third-baseman Shawn Bowman. Bowman threw home, but Salomon Manriquez’s tag was late, allowing Campbell to score the winning run.

Jo Matumoto (2-6) got three outs for the win.

Wednesday, the Binghamton Mets play the second of three against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. Lefty Mike Antonini (0-2, 3.74) will start for Binghamton against Robert Ray (7-5, 3.01) of New Hampshire. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. at Merchantsauto.com Stadium with the radio broadcast beginning at 6:50 on Newsradio 1290 WNBF.

Notes: Lavigne has been on the mound at the end of each of Binghamton’s five walk-off losses this season…Emmanuel Garcia was playing his first game for the B-Mets since rejoining the team after playing for Canada in the Olympics. He last played for the B-Mets on 7/27.

St. Lucie
St. Lucie managed to avoid rain and get a game — but someone forget to tell the offense, which was limited to a total of two hits and no runs. Tyler Herron was a buzz-saw for the Palm Beach Cardinals, tossing 7 innings, allowing just the two hits.

Gnats
Richard Pena's two-out double scored two in the eighth to give Savannah its first lead of the night while Carlos Guzman's two-out double in the ninth scored the two that would secure the win for Savannah as the Gnats won 4-2 in Charleston.

After trailing 1-0 for a majority of the contest, the Sand Gnats came alive in the eighth. Nick Giarraputo singled to break up a streak of 13 straight Sand Gnats retired by RiverDogs pitching. He was then forced out on a double play by Darren Clark to put two outs on the scoreboard in the eighth. A single by B.J. Hubbert ate up ‘Dogs first baseman Brandon Laird put Hubbert on first for Luis Nieves

Nieves hit a double over the bag at first and down the right field line and set the stage for Pena's two-out double. The RiverDogs went to their closer Jonathan Ortiz, who had converted on 32 of 36 save opportunities this season but Pena had other plans.

In the ninth, Guzman's pinch-hit double drove in Jefferies Tatford and Giarraputo to make it 4-1 Savannah. Brandon Laird homered to start the ninth off reliever Jason LaVorgna (1-2) to cut the lead to two. After LaVorgna hit Carmen Angelini with one away, Manny Olivares was summoned from the bullpen to close it out.

Olivares induced a groundout by Dave Williams but walked Taylor Holiday to put the tying run on first. Austin Krum would ground out to second to end the game.

Lost in the late inning heroics was the start by Phillips Orta. Orta went six innings, allowing just one run on three hits while striking out a pair. It marks the sixth straight start that a Savannah pitcher has gone at least 4.1 innings pitched. Over that stretch, Savannah is 5-1.

With the win, the Sand Gnats pick up their 60th victory of the season; a first since the 2005 squad won 62 games. They have now won 19 more games than the ’07 unit.

Savannah will go for the sweep tomorrow when they send LHP Mark Cohoon (1-2, 5.09) to the hill. Charleston counters with RHP Lance Pendleton (7-8, 3.50) in its last home game of 2008. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m. from The Joe.

Clones
After losing a lead in the 10th ining, the Cyclones were able to redeem themselves in 11th, topping Tri-City 5-4. Brooklyn has won two in a row and secured the series win against the Valley Cats, inching closer to the Wild Card spot and also to the first place Yankees.

The Cyclones rallied in the 8th inning to tie the game, as Sean Ratliff led off with his eighth double of the year and later scored on a two-run RBI single by Seth Williams, who also drove in Josh Satin to tie the game at three apiece. Things got wild in the 10th when Juan Lagrares started the inning with a lead-off single and later scored the go-ahead run on wild pitch by the opposing pitcher. But in the bottom half of the inning, Brooklyn was not able to shut the door as Tri-city was able to tie the game at 4-4.

After a power outage cloaked the stadium in darkness and stopped play, the Cyclones bounced back in the 11th as they went ahead for good, thanks to an RBI double by Jordan Abruzzo (pictured, by George Napolitano). The Cyclones combined for nine hits. Williams and Abruzzo each had a pair, while Jose Jimenez, Eric Campbell, Ike Davis, Ratliff and Lagares also each had hits.

RHP Chris Schwinden made his 6th start of the season, pitching 3.2 innings, and allowing two runs. Jeff Kaplan, Yury Santana, and Jimmy Johnson all followed Schwinden and combined for 5.2 scoreless innings. RHP Stephen Clyne blew the save in the 10th, but RHP Erik Turgeon came on in the 11th to secure the win for the Cyclones as he picked up his first save of the year.

The Cyclones conclude their series against Tri-City on Tuesday. They return home on Wednesday, August 27 to play the Oneonta Tigers at 7:00 pm when it will be Nut-Free Night.

K-Port
Kingsport was rained out.

This day in Mets History:

1964: Signed P Jerry Koosman.
1992: Mets deal P David Cone to Toronto for Jeff Kent and Ryan Thompson.