CHAT ROOM
Tim Redding, stopper, pitches today for the Mets in an effort to snap their losing streak at six games. Whether he does or doesn’t, it really doesn’t matter anymore. Kind of sad, actually. I would rather have them lose it the last week than go through the motions.
Here’s the line-up:
Angel Pagan, CF
Luis Castillo, 2B
David Wright, 3B
Jeff Francoeur, RF
Fernando Tatis, LF
Daniel Murphy, 1B
Wilson Valdez, SS
Josh Thole, C
Tim Redding (2-6, 5.52 ERA), RP
METS CHAT ROOM
Tonight’s starter, Pat Misch, Nelson Figueroa, Tim Redding and Bobby Parnell have all flashed positive signs that gives one pause to think, “maybe, must maybe, we have something here.”
Then it all goes a way in a flurry or walks and home runs, a reminder why these pitchers are journeymen to begin with. Of the four, Parnell has the best stuff and is the youngest. He has the best chance. He also needs experience. This year the Mets kept him to work out of the bullpen, then turned to him out of necessity. Next spring they should make a decision and stick with it, and that decision should be as a starter.
MISCH: Starts tonight vs.Fish
Misch, Figueroa and Redding have shown enough positives to where they should be invited to spring training to compete for a long man role. Misch (1-1, 3.25) earned his first major league win Thursday at Colorado, giving up two runs (two solo homers) on four hits in seven innings of an 8-3 victory.
“The key was I minimized the traffic on the bases,” Misch said. “There wasn’t any one on when they got the home runs.”
The Mets will have Carlos Beltran in the line-up again tonight. Beltran was activated from the disabled list Wednesday and went 1-for-4 in his first game since June 21.
“It will probably take him a few games to really find his rhythm at the plate,” manager Jerry Manuel said of Beltran. “I think once that starts he will get on track, so to speak. He looked pretty good.”
The Mets (62-75) begin a three-game series with the Marlins (72-65) tonight at Citi Field, with Tim Redding taking on Rick VandenHurk.
Tonight’s line-up:
Angel Pagan, LF
Luis Castillo, 2B
David Wright, 3B
Carlos Beltran, CF
Daniel Murphy, 1B
Jeff Francoeur, RF
Josh Thole, C
Anderson Hernandez, SS
Tim Redding, RP
NOTES: VandenHurk (2-2, 4.91 ERA) is 0-1 with an 11.25 ERA in three career starts against the Mets. … Redding (2-4, 5.70 ERA) is 1-0 with a 2.45 ERA in his last three starts.
CHAT ROOM
The Mets have David Wright back, but he’s not in the line-up tonight. Jerry Manuel said he would rest him after his return. First, he said Wright would sit tonight. Then he said Wright would sit the first two games and sit tomorrow. Pick a plan, any plan.
Gary Sheffield is also out of the line-up, and with each game he misses it becomes more apparent the Mets missed their chance to unload him when they pulled him off waivers earlier this month. They might not have gotten much, but what are they getting now? Especially since the odds are long he’ll be back next year.
REDDING: Another stop-gap start.
The Mets have lost 22 of their last 33 games to fall completely out of contention. They’ve been in a slide since before the All-Star break when John Maine, Carlos Delgado and Jose Reyes went down with injuries. The pitchers fell apart in the second half when Johan Santana and Oliver Perez were disabled.
In all fairness, the season was gone before Santana and Perez. Their departures simply opened the way for guys like Nelson Figueroa, Bobby Parnell and Redding (2-4, 5.94) to join the rotation.
Redding pitched well in his last start, giving up three runs in 6 2/3 innings in a victory at Florida. He is 1-2 with a 4.40 ERA in five career starts against the Rockies.
CHAT ROOM
It has proven a timeless quote, as the same question must be asked this season. Sure, there have been injuries that crippled this year, but even so, the Mets should be better. As much as they miss David Wright, John Maine, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Jose Reyes, and now Johan Santana, they are also missing something else. They are missing the intangibles possessed by all winning teams.
The Mets have given up on the season and you can see it in their faces. You can also see it in their efforts and attention to details and fundamentals. Part of this responsibility must be assumed by Jerry Manuel, who has not always cracked the whip. He treats his players like men, assuming they will focus, not like the minor leaguers they often resemble.
The Mets don’t consistently do what winners do. They don’t take the extra base. They don’t advance runners. Manuel said it himself, they habitually leave runners on third with less than two outs. They give away far too many at-bats.
Defensively, and we saw this last night, they don’t consistently execute the double play and often give the opposition extra outs. Some of this is due to players, such as Daniel Murphy, learning new positions. But, Luis Castillo has played second for a long time.
And, the pitching. Injured as it is, walks far too many batters and doesn’t finish them off when they are ahead in the count. Staggering are the number of two-strike and two-out hits, and pitches left over the plate.
And, it isn’t all Oliver Perez, either. Mike Pelfrey, a supposed rotation stalwart of the future, has taken a step back.
STENGEL: Would he be mystified?
They are in Florida today, the site where Murphy dropped the fly ball that beat Santana. … There was blowing the five-run lead to the Pirates. … The Ryan Church game in LA. … The Castillo pop-up. … The triple-play game. … The wild-pitch loss in Philly.
As Stengel once said, and we can repeat it this year: “Been in this game one-hundred years, but I see new ways to lose ‘em I never knew existed before.”
They have lost five straight and are on the verge of being swept today by the Marlins. Standing in their way is, gasp, Tim Redding, and this line-up:
Angel Pagan, CF
Wilson Valdez, SS
Daniel Murphy, 1B
Jeff Francoeur, RF
Cory Sullivan, LF
Fernando Tatis, 3B
Omir Santos, C
Anderson Hernandez, 2B
Tim Redding, RP
