A weekend at PETCO Park (Mets vs Padres) 6-7-08 & 6-8-08

After losing Thursday and Friday's games by a score of 2-1 to the Padres, the Mets offense desperately needed to come through.

Saturday night pitted erratic Mets lefty Oliver Perez against 5th starter Cha Seung Baek. Oliver Perez rebounded very well from his implosion against San Francisco on June 2, going 5.1 IP, giving up 4 H, 2 BB, 5 K, 1 ER which was a solo HR from Padre catcher Michael Barrett in the 5th inning.

The Mets were able to score their lone run in the 2nd after Endy Chavez hit a sac fly to leftfield with bases loaded. Beltran scored on the play, and the runners advanced on the throwing error courtesy of Padres leftfielder Justin Huber which was wayyyyyy up the 1st base line.

And the problem is, that's the only run the Mets scored. Three nights in a row, they scored 1 run. Is it any surprise they don't win these games?

The Mets had many other chances to take advantage of Padres pitching, but failed to deliver.

2nd inning: After Chavez's sac fly, catcher Brian Schneider was intentionally walked since 1st base was empty in order to get to pitcher Oliver Perez. He fouled out to 3B Kevin Kooooooozmanoff, and Jose Reyes grounded out. Only 1 run scored in the inning.

The team also had runners in scoring position during the 3rd and 5th innings, though both times with 2 out. They could not convert the runs.

On the pitching side of things, the Mets bullpen kept them in the ballgame, as did San Diego's. Manager Willie Randolph used his bullpen as effectively as possible, making the right decisions every time. He removed Perez in the 6th inning after Perez had put two runners by hitting them with a pitch. With 1 out in the inning, Joe Smith came in to undo the damage, but even he ended up hitting SS Khalil Greene with a pitch to load the bases.

Smith got pinch-hitter Tony Clark to ground to Carlos Delgado, who threw home to Brian Schneider for the forceout. Smith then got Michael Barrett to strike out swinging to end the inning.

Met relievers Scott Schoeneweis and Duaner Sanchez combined to pitch 3 scoreless innings before Pedro Feliciano threw 1 pitch to Scott Hairston in the 10th inning which ended up landing in the left-centerfield bleachers to win the game.

The part of the game where the Mets COMPLETELY blew it, was in the 10th inning.

With Padres reliever Mike Adams on the mound, Luis Castillo took a leadoff walk. Those usually come back to get a lot of pitchers.

David Wright had the chance to move Castillo over, or even in. But David struck out.

Castillo got himself to 2nd base by stealing it himself.

Carlos Beltran struck out.

Carlos Delgado was given an intentional pass, and pinch-hitting was the "threat to no one with a bat," Raul Casanova. It was at this stage that lefty Ryan Church would've been a perfect pinch-hitter, but the fact that he wasn't, spoke volumes about his current medical condition.

Casanova of course, grounded out to shortstop to end the inning.

What Pedro Feliciano did afterwards, was practically inconsequential. When you're the home team in extra innings, you have the advantage. And at least in this game, unlike Thursday night when Scott Schoeneweis gave the ballgame away by hitting a batter, Feliciano got beat by a Hairston HR swing. And in that situation, you tip your cap to Hairston.

But the Mets should have scored more than once.

Even more frustrating, was that not only did I get to "witness history" in that the Padres became the first team in MLB history to win 4 consecutive games by a 2-1 score (one against the Cubs, 3 against the Mets), but they got solid starting pitching performances from Mike Pelfrey, Johan Santana, and Oliver Perez.

Jose Reyes was 0-for-5. Carlos Beltran and David Wright each had a single, but both struck out once, in the aforementioned 10th inning with go-ahead runner Luis Castillo on base.

The only bright spot in the game? Carlos Delgado continues to hit, as he went 3-for-4 with 2 singles, a double, a K and an IBB. If only he can find that power swing that made him a force to be reckoned with.

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Sunday's game had to be better. After all, Pedro Martinez would be pitching! It was funny how a few people at the hotel kept saying, "Well we'll win tomorrow cause Pedro will save us." And I responded, "Have you seen the games lately? Starting pitching isn't exactly the issue right now."

As long as the team didn't lose another 2-1 game, things had to look up. They just had to.

And for a while, they did.

Pedro Martinez was staked to a 3-0 lead in the 1st. While Jose Reyes couldn't get on base, Padres starter Wil Ledezma walked Luis Castillo and David Wright. What did Carlos Beltran do in this situation? Oh he flied out for the second out.

Damion Easley singled to centerfield to score Luis Castillo. And then Carlos Delgado roped a TRIPLE to rightfield which scored Wright and Easley. Yes, Carlos Delgado, triple. You read that right.

But then the Padres struck back with 3 of their own. One of those runs came off a bases loaded BALK from Pedro, which I think all the umpires simultaneously called. A nearby fan told us they saw Pedro's hands go together and then come apart without him stepping off. Why Pedro flinched in this situation, who knows.

I should mention that Endy Chavez nailed Edgar Gonzalez with a perfect throw to David Wright, as Gonzalez tried to take third base after Brian Giles' single. The damage could've been even worse for Pedro if not for that play.

In the 2nd inning, the Mets showed some aggressiveness on the basepaths when Endy Chavez and Jose Reyes did the double steal of destiny, taking 3rd and 2nd respectively with 1 out. Luis Castillo's sac fly scored Chavez. David Wright failed in the clutch again as he flied to centerfield for the 3rd out.

Pedro didn't pitch too well today, going 5 IP, giving up 10 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 4 K. Not a Pedro-like outing. But despite his pitching, the offense was doing something they hadn't been doing the last 3 games. They were scoring runs.

Claudio Vargas and Scott Schoeneweis each pitched an inning of scoreless relief.

The Mets scored their 6th run when Carlos Delgado scored from 3rd base on an Endy Chavez bunt single with 2 out. The Mets were doing everything right. Bullpen? Check. Aggressive on the basepaths? Check. Delgado a homerun short of the cycle? Check!

But then the 8th inning came... and everything changed for the worse. A lot worse.

Met Reliever Duaner Sanchez gave up a leadoff double to rookie callup Craig Stansberry. He then struck out righty Khalil Greene, walked switch-hitting backup backup catcher Luke Carlin (who was hitting lefty in the AB), and struck out righty Scott Hairston, denying Hairston the opportunity to be a hero two games in a row.

Willie Randolph went to the bullpen to closer Billy Wagner, to face lefty Jody Gerut. Wagner has been great this season, only giving up 1 ER so far. Surely with 2 out, and Wagner on the hill, this 6-4 lead was safe.

Except Jody Gerut singled to right-center to score Craig Stansberry. The score was now 6-5.

Padre manager then went to his bench, using switch-hitter Tony Clark. Over the past 3 seasons, Clark has been absolutely terrible when hitting from the right side. His power comes from his left side, so Wagner was clearly going to dominate this matchup and hold onto the 1-run lead.

Ex-Met, Ex-Yankee, Ex-Diamondback, Ex-Tiger, Ex-Red Sox... Tony Clark. Even Padre fans around us didn't care for him, as he's been pretty bad for them all season so far.

Except on Sunday, Tony Clark was the hero. He took Wagner's 96 MPH fastball and belted a 414-ft blast to straight-away centerfield, putting the Padres ahead 8-6.

And what can you do but shake your head and scream in anger? The normally dominant-closer lost a battle to someone he shouldn't have. Tony Clark is not Albert Pujols. He's not even Adrian Gonzalez.

But on Sunday, Tony Clark was the man. Billy Wagner was not.

I'm sure as angry as I was, Willie Randolph was probably even more pissed off. The team was finally hitting, the bullpen was doing a decent job, and the Mets looked like they were going to at least leave San Diego with one win before the trip home.

It didn't happen. "Hells Bells" closer Trevor Hoffman came in for the 1-2-3 9th and recorded his 14th save of the year.

The Mets got swept. They lost 2-1, 2-1, 2-1, and 8-6. And strangely, the 8-6 loss hurt the most, because it occurred in the most improbable fashion to a team that had no business winning the series, nevermind sweeping it.

This team clearly has problems:

• Ryan Church is a complete unknown at this point.
  
• Endy Chavez is great on defense, not so great on offense, although he did hit well in the San Diego series, going 5-for-14 with 2 RBIs.
  
• Fernando Tatis had a couple of clutch hits during the Marlins series weeks back. But he's been terrible since.
• David Wright and Carlos Beltran are supposed to be the power of the team, and they're not providing it. Especially Beltran, who struck out three fucking times on Sunday. Both went hitless, but at least Wright drew two walks.
• On a more macro scale, when they pitch well, they don't hit. When they hit, they don't pitch well. And that was the exact story of the Padres series. Now spread that over the season, and you have a team that is now two games under .500.
  

This was my third trip in 5 seasons to see the Mets play the Padres at PETCO Park. Though this is the first time we stayed overnight. For most people in Los Angeles, it's about a 2.5-hour trip down when you factor in traffic.

Unlike other places (ahem, Dodger Stadium), the fans are by and large very friendly. Lots of families, lots of older people, and even some younger ones too. It's a good crowd, perhaps in some ways uninterested and apathetic, but I've never had a bad experience there as a fan of the opposition.

And what's more, there were plenty of Met fans around to support their team. A lot of people we spoke with over the weekend said that PETCO and AT&T Park (San Francisco) are the nicest ballparks in the bigs. While I have yet to go to places like Camden Yards, Nationals Park, Turner Field, (it's a long list now that so many older parks I've been to are gone), the Padres organization and the city of San Diego really put together an excellent stadium. The prices are right, the atmosphere is good, and they've even put a competitive team on the field the last couple of seasons.

Although I did have a pretzel there with the most awful mustard ever known to mankind.

I'll always hold a fondness for Wrigley Field, but PETCO and AT&T Parks are excellent places to catch a baseball game, no matter who is playing.