Eight innings, four hits, four strikeouts, no walks. This may look like a fairly pedestrian pitching line for the Zack Grienkes or Adam Wainwrights of the world, but this might have been Matt Harvey’s best game of the season. Keeping the Colorado offense off balance all night, Harvey used every weapon in his arsenal without relying on any one in particular and his Mets mates generated just enough firepower to take home their ninth victory in their last eleven games.
Rockies’ starter Chris Rusin nearly matched Harvey pitch-for-pitch. The only blemish on his record was a Ruben Tejada RBI single in the sixth, following a small clutch of base hits and walks. Ex-Rockie Michael Cuddyer found himself in the middle of all the Mets’ scoring on this night, singling and scoring in that sixth inning. His one-out safety in the last of the eighth started the Mets’ three-run insurance rally. Coming off a DL stint with a balky knee, he was even able to contribute a stolen base in that inning, eventually coming home on Curtis Granderson’s bases-loaded pinch-hit walk. Juan Lagares then smoked his second double of the evening for the final two nails in the Rockies’ defeat.
That rally was a lot of fun, but this night belonged to the Dark Knight. Now let’s see what’s going on in Los Angeles, where the Nationals are taking on the Dodgers…
Harvey now has a 1.45 ERA in his last 10 games. Another terrific outing for him tonight.
The Mets are becoming quite a scary team in the eyes of other ball clubs if you ask me!
Because many people on this site are saber savvy, y’all may like this:
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-evolution-of-thors-hammers/
* I felt a pang of sadness for Jose Reyes after that interview yesterday. His beautiful career died on the day he signed that huge contract. I’m not sure what else he could have done, short of insisting on a three-year deal and a no-trade clause. Weird & unfortunate how things have turned out for Jose and David.
* With September call-ups so near (and for the record, I dislike the bloated, polluted rosters), I can’t get too excited about anyone getting sent down on August 11th. Probably a good idea to give Plawecki some regular time. Also, the return of Recker seems like a possible attempt to help revive Bartolo Colon.
* Great to see Lagares hit. He’s been so unproductive this season. Sometimes you wonder about the contract, and the focus, and the desire. Maybe this has been the wake-up call he’s needed. Not saying he’ll turn it around completely. It has always been a possibility that he’s only a platoon guy. But the tools are there; I always feel that he should hit better than this.
* Glad to see Cuddyer contribute. The stolen base was crazy — and it worked out beautifully — but he’s out by two steps if it’s a decent throw. Inning over, Travis d’Arnaud still standing there bat in hand. A huge risk, but a credit to him for rolling the dice. I guess.
* Good use of O’Flaherty last night. Mets need to figure out what they’ve got and maybe give this guy a chance to right himself.
* I often get the feeling that Cespedes has lost track of how many outs there are.
+1 JP
Is there a link to that Reyes interview?
It was a SNY piece, but it was probably quoted somewhere. He just looked depressed to me. Sluggish, lacking in animation, old.
Here is something…
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2015/08/11/jose-reyes-reflects-traded-rockies-mets-blue-jays/31511275/
about the same content
I believe Lagares’ arm injury has cut into his hitting more than it commonly admitted.
I also believe, and I may be a minority of one in this, that Lagares has the ability to be a much more productive offensive performer than we have seen so far. Or rather, than we have seen on a sustained basis; we have seen him heat up with the stick, only not for any lengthy stretches.
Lagares is a guy who I think could really benefit from some serious one-on-one coaching. There’s too much movement in his preparation to swing; he is way too busy. He should talk to Travis, who had to adjust when he returned but seemed to have his plan down from the outset.
One last thing. Jon Niese got a lot of love yesterday on the Metsblogosphere, deservedly. But one thing that was not mentioned was that he was the pitcher who was most hurt by Flores at SS. A contact pitcher, it was Jon’s bad luck to have the most routine outs go awry behind him. That’s anecdotal, of course, but I distinctly remember feeling sorry for him on the mound during that tough month of May. Remember Wilmer’s meltdown vs. the Braves? Jon was on the mound, etc. More than any other Mets pitcher, he needs solid groundball defense, and I think I opined when his name was floated in trade talks that a smart team with tight defense would do well to pick him up.
I also thought, pre-injury, that Zack Wheeler was the one who was going to be made to look bad by that (horrid, horrid) defense.
Regarding Reyes: when he first came up, catching that smile of his was usually the highlight of a Mets game for me. The League ridiculed him out of showing that, the League plus age I suppose; but why, exactly, did he opt to become just another fool with a beard?
It was sort of fun and funny when Brian Wilson first went hairy; Wilson was supposed to be odd. But why so many major leaguers want to emulate the Oak Ridge Boys is beyond me.
Oak Ridge Boys, nothin’: more like ZZ Top…or the House of David…
ZZ Top occurred to me, but I was concerned that my intent would not be clear, i.e., that I was delivering an insult.
House of David — har!
Thank you DED!
While the press is sending its XOXO to the Mets, another interesting link:
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/brandon-nimmo-mets-prospect-on-hitting/
Thanks for the link, Texas. You know, when you look at all Sandy’s first-round picks, he’s done very well: Nimmo, Cecchini, Smith, Conforto.
With Nimmo, yes, I’d still like to see the power develop. I suspect that his hitting approach, the extreme selectivity — “not being afraid to have two strikes” — undercuts the power department. My understanding is that big swings and big power come early in the count.
Cecchini has surprised me with his hitting. He’s truly tearing it up in AA. I know that he’s made a lot of errors, that the arm is only average, but there’s reasonable that this kid can make it.
And it’s remarkable what Smith has done in the face of a truly horrid start to his season. His power seems to be coming along.
Cecchini is doing fine, and I want to see what he can do with the Greater Challenge.
But then, here’s Cecchini’s numbers in Bing this year:
.320/.377/.448
and another set of numbers:
.355/.430/.422
…which is what Matt Reynolds did at Bing last year. The Eastern League was a slightly better hitter’s league last year, and Matt was two years older in his time at Bing. I’m not sure those details are enough to explain the excitement over Cecchini, and the (mostly) dismissive tone most take with Reynolds.
I suppose excitement is in the eyes of the beholder…
I still hear people asking why Reynolds hasn’t been promoted even after his .760 OPS season in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, very few people are asking why Cecchini wasn’t promoted despite his success.
One number you left out was BABIP. Reynolds needed a .433 BABIP to put up his slash line. Cecchini’s BABIP is nearly 100 points fewer than that.
.433?? I cant believe that’s possible over a full year. All I can say is wow. To realize how wild that number is, I looked up the BABIP for some great years:
Rod Carew – 1977: BA: .388 BABIP: .416
Ted Williams – 1941: BA: .406 BABIP: .378 (huh?) ISO: .329
Tony Gwyn – 1994: BA: .394 BABIP: .389
Rogers Hornsby -1924: BA: .424 BABIP: .422
Matt Reynolds next year will have Ruben Tejada’s position. His time will come.
It wasn’t over a full year – Reynolds had 242 PA in Double-A last year.
Also, there’s a difference between minor league BABIPs and major league ones. Last year in a full season in the Eastern League, Michael Taylor had a .421 BABIP. In the Southern League, Kyle Kubitza had a .401 mark in a full season. Domingo Santana had a .408 mark in the Pacific Coast League. No one’s making plaques for these guys in Cooperstown.
Brian, I just wrote that the guy would be a backup and you think I have him going to Cooperstown?
You compared his BABIPs to 4 HOFers