LiveBlogging: New York Mets vs Arizona Diamondbacks 5/4/08

Good news. The New York Rangers are down 2-0 after 2 periods in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semi-finals. Sean Avery is out of the hospital, which means I didn't pray hard enough. Fuck the Rangers. DIE RANGERS DIE! Especially that cunt Sean Avery.

Onto baseball, the New York Mets are playing the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field in Phoenix, AZ. And the amazing thing is that the game is national on TBS. This means I can actually SEE THE GAME!!! WOWIE ZOWIE!!!

Today's pitching matchup is a great one pitting Dan Haren vs Johan Santana. Combined with the strange 15-2 record the Mets have in Phoenix over the last 4 (?) years, the advantage has to go to New York, but the team isn't exactly hitting with any consistency either.

Onto the liveblogging of the game!

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Top of 1st Inning:
1:10pm: The opening shots of Chase Field show a fairly empty ballpark. Last Sunday, Arizona played before 18,000 people. It doesn't look to be any different of a crowd today as far as numbers go.

1:11pm: Jose Reyes fouls out to Eric Byrnes in LF. 1 out. The sound is off on TBS-HD. Lovely. It's like I'm watching YouTube.

1:13pm: Ryan Church flies out to Chris Young in deep centerfield. 2 out.

1:14pm: David Wright flies out to Chris Young in even deeper centerfield, hitting the ball about 404 feet. But that's the third out.

Bottom of 1st inning:
1:19pm: After falling behind 3-0 against leadoff hitter Chris Young, Santana throws 2 strikes and gets Young to fly out to centerfielder Carlos Beltran. 1 out.

1:20pm: Augie Ojeda lines a single into CF, Carlos Beltran bobbles the ball as Ojeda successfully takes 2nd on the error.

1:22pm: Eric Byrnes can't hold up his bat and strikes out. 2 out.

1:23pm: Conor Jackson is hitting a ridiculous .481 against lefties, best in the majors. That stat alone doesn't bode well for this AB.

1:24pm: Good thing Santana is the lefty Jackson had to face. He grounds out to Luis Castillo, 4-3. 3 out.

Top of the 2nd Inning:
1:27pm: TBS gives us a David Wright insert interview about last year's Mets collapse. Nothing new. When they hit, they didn't pitch. When they pitched, they didn't hit. Same ol, same ol.

1:28pm: Carlos Beltran is up, and his lack of hitting is super disturbing. He's hitting .208. At least he's drawing walks on occasion.

1:29pm: Not this time. Carlos Beltran goes down looking at strike 3. 1 out.

1:30pm: Moises Alou is up. TBS says he's 0 for 3, but I'm pretty sure he had a base hit on Friday. Everyone knows Alou is solid when he's healthy. Everyone also knows Alou isn't healthy often.

1:31pm: Haren strikes out Alou. 2 out.

1:32pm: Haren strikes out Carlos Delgado, striking out the side. 3 out.

Bottom of 2nd Inning:
1:35pm: Johan Santana makes Justin Upton look silly, striking him out. 1 out. TBS announcer Jim Kaat does an excellent job of explaining fastball/changeups.

1:38pm: Mark Reynolds reaches across the plate for ball 4 and hits it to leftfield for a single.

1:40pm: Brian Schneider can't handle a Santana inside pitch and Mark Reynolds takes 2nd on the Wild Pitch. Schneider throws down to Castillo but he can't handle the ball. It trickles into short center but not far enough for Reynolds to take 3rd.

1:41pm: Chris Snyder can't hold up on a changeup and goes down swinging. 2 out.

1:43pm: Chris Burke grounds out to Jose Reyes, 6-3. 3 out.

Top of 3rd Inning:
1:45pm: It's a Brian Schneider sighting! He's back in the lineup after sitting out for a couple of weeks with a staph infection in his thumb.

1:47pm: Brian Schneider draws a walk.

1:49pm: Luis Castillo hits a chopper up the middle fielded by SS Augie Ojeda who steps on 2nd but Luis Castillo beats the throw to 1st. 1 out.

1:51pm: Johan Santana lays down a nice sac bunt, score it 1-3. Castillo at 2nd. 2 out.

1:52pm: Jose Reyes scorches the first pitch from Dan Haren to rightfield for a single. Castillo scores from 2nd easily. 1-0 Mets.

1:54pm: Ryan Church flies out to leftfield. 3 out.

Bottom of 3rd Inning:
1:58pm: Dan Haren grounds out to David Wright, 5-3. 1 out.

1:59pm: Interview with Willie Randolph. This is the first time all season that the "real Mets starting lineup" has been together.

2:00pm: Chris Young walks. That's the 9th BB Santana has given up all season. Young is a huge threat on the basepaths.

2:01pm: Ojeda hits a grounder right at 1B Carlos Delgado. Delgado throws over to Reyes at SS but Santana doesn't make it to 1B in time for the double play. 1-6. 2 out.

2:03pm: The Rangers just lost. HALLE-FUCKING-LEUJAH!

2:05pm: Santana gets Eric Byrnes to strikeout. 3 out.

Top of 4th Inning:
2:08pm: David Wright launches a solo blast into the leftfield stands. 2-0 Mets.

2:10pm: Carlos Beltran hits a high pop fly into foul territory near the Arizona dugout but 3B Mark Reynolds overruns it. Will that be costly for the Dbacks? The way Beltran is hitting lately, probably not.

2:11pm: Of course not. Haren just racks up another K as Beltran watches another strike 3 go by. 1 out.

2:12pm: Moises Alou grounds to SS Augie Ojeda. 6-3. 2 out.

2:13pm: Carlos Delgado hits a rocket to deeeeep CF that just misses the yellow line by a couple of feet for a HR. So a 410-foot double for Delgado.

2:14pm: Brian Schneider hits a soft line drive at 1B Conor Jackson for the 3rd out.

Bottom of 4th Inning:
2:17pm: Conor Jackson grounds out to SS Jose Reyes on the first pitch. 6-3. 1 out.

2:19pm: Justin Upton hits a 2-2 pitch straight into CF for a single.

2:20pm: Santana throws his 2nd WP of the day which Schneider cannot handle. The ball gets away and Upton takes 2nd easily.

2:21pm: Mark Reynolds goes down swinging. 2 out.

2:22pm: Chris Snyder hits a laser that hits off the top of the leftfield fence and gets away from LF Moises Alou for Snyder's 1st career triple. Snyder just missed a linedrive HR by inches. Upton scores. 2-1 Mets.

2:23pm: With Dan Haren batting next, the Mets give an IBB to Chris Burke.

2:24pm: Santana throws another WP (his 3rd now) but it doesn't get far enough away from Brian Schneider for Chris Snyder to score. However, Burke takes 2nd easily and the force is gone. You still have to believe that Santana can get Haren out here.

2:26pm: Sure enough, Santana strikes Haren out. 3 out. If only Johan can stop with the wild pitches. 3 WP is his career-high in a game.

Top of 5th Inning:
2:28pm: Senator John McCain is shown on camera at the game. I'm still amazed that he's the best candidate the Republicans can come up with. It's almost pitiful, and yet people will vote for him.

2:30pm: Luis Castillo hits a chopper up the middle that SS Augie Ojeda gets to, spins and throws to 1st to get Castillo by a step. Nice play for Ojeda. 1 out.

2:32pm: Dan Haren strikes out Johan Santana. 2 out.

2:34pm: Jose Reyes strikes out. 3 out. That's 6 Ks for each pitcher now.

Bottom of 5th Inning:
2:38pm: Chris Young grounds to Jose Reyes. 6-3. 1 out.

2:40pm: Augie Ojeda singles to left-center.

2:42pm: The announcers note that Santana is about to throw his 85th pitch. He's pitching well, but not great. Those WPs aren't helping things.

2:43pm: Eric Byrnes hits a foul pop which Brian Schneider calls for but then looks at David Wright coming in on the ball and no one gets it. That was clearly Schneider's ball but maybe he lost it, which is why he looked at Wright for help.

2:45pm: Byrnes hits another pop fly but this time in fair territory to SS Jose Reyes, even though David Wright almost collided with Reyes trying to track it down.

2:47pm: Santana throws another ball in the dirt which almost gets by Schneider again, but this time he's able to stop it.

2:48pm: Johan Santana records his 90th pitch, and his 7th K of the game as Conor Jackson goes down looking. 3 out. Santana will probably go one more inning unless he gets in trouble. Joe Smith and Pedro Feliciano did not pitch yesterday, so I imagine they'll be first in the game before the likes of Heilman and Sosa. Sanchez was the one that got killed yesterday, but more often than not, he gets the job done in the 8th.

Top of 6th Inning:
2:52pm: Haren gets ahead of Ryan Church 0-2 before going full count. Church grounds softly to 2B Chris Burke, 4-3. 1 out.

2:53pm: Haren gets a little revenge on David Wright by striking him out. 2 out.

2:55pm: Carlos Beltran grounds out to Chris Burke. 4-3. 3 out. Beltran is now 0-for-3 today. At least he didn't strike out this time?

Bottom of 6th Inning:
2:59pm: Justin Upton goes down looking at a 2-2 pitch for strike 3.1 out.

3:00pm: Mark Reynolds grounds softly to Jose Reyes at SS. 6-3. 2 out.

3:02pm: No one is up in the Mets bullpen just yet, although this has to be Santana's last inning as his pitch count is over 100.

3:03pm: Chris Snyder scalds the ball into left-center field for a double.

3:04pm: Strategy time. The Mets give another IBB to Chris Burke, putting him on 1st, and forcing Bob Melvin to go to a PH for Dan Haren. Orlando Hudson is in to pinch-hit. I hope this isn't one of those instances where Johan gives up a longball.

3:05pm: 3-1 count to Orlando Hudson. This could be scary.

3:06pm: Santana walks Hudson, who cannot run. Pitcher Mac Scherzer is in to pinch-run. Rick Peterson goes to the mound for a conference. Joe Smith, mis-identified as Aaron Heilman by Jim Kaat, is warming up in the Mets pen. You have to figure Santana is still good enough to get Chris Young out. As long as he doesn't throw the ball away. 

3:08pm: After watching two 93-mph fastballs go by, on an 0-2 pitch, Young hits the ball to right-center but Ryan Church is able to run it down. Tragedy averted. 3 out. That'll be the end for Johan Santana. At least it's also the end for Dan Haren, although the Dbacks bullpen is tough in their own right.

Top of 7th Inning:
3:11pm: Lefty Doug Slaten is in to pitch for Arizona.Moises Alou hits a weak grounder to SS Augie Ojeda. 6-3. 1 out.

3:12pm: TBS announcers believe that Delgado may actually be coming around a bit, as he's 7 for his last 20. After that long double, I hope so.

3:13pm: Carlos Delgado goes the opposite way with a flyball to leftfield. 2 out.

3:14pm: Brian Schneider grounds the ball softly up the middle to SS Augie Ojeda who fields it easily, throwing out Schneider with plenty of time to spare. 6-3. 3 out.

Bottom of 7th Inning:
3:18pm: Jim Kaat notes that the Mets pen is 14-1 when the team has the lead. Chip Caray then notes that the team has been outscored 46-19 in the 7th and 8th innings. Interesting stats. Joe Smith is in to pitch the 7th.

3:20pm: Joe Smith throws a slider by Augie Ojeda for strike 3. 1 out.

3:22pm: Eric Byrnes can't hold up his swing and strikes out. 2 out.

3:23pm: Conor Jackson hits the ball hard past David Wright into leftfield for a single.

3:25pm: Smith is throwing all outside pitches to the dangerous Justin Upton, falling behind 3-0. He throws a questionable low strike called. Upton fouls off the next pitch. Full count.

3:26pm: Smith walks Upton. 1st and 2nd with 2 out.

3:27pm: Reynolds hits a broken bat single to leftfield scoring Conor Jackson. Alou unnecessarily throws to the plate, but the runners don't advance. Tie game 2-2. :-(

3:30pm: Smith is able to get the hot-hitting (today anyways) Chris Snyder out with a 1-2 slider. Strikeout. 3 out. Mets bullpen isn't able to preserve Santana's win.

Top of 8th Inning:
3:33pm: Luis Castillo foul pops out to 1B Conor Jackson. 1 out.

3:35pm: Switch-hitting Angel Pagan is in to face Doug Slaten. Arizona manager Bob Melvin goes to the bullpen to righty Juan Cruz, which merely turns Pagan around to the left side. Chip Caray notes that Pagan filled in for Alou a lot, but did not hit for any power.

3:38pm: Angel Pagan looks at strike 3 go by on the outside corner. 2 out.

3:40pm: Jose Reyes walks. For all of you who think Ryan Church is the 2-hole savior, here's his chance to be a hero.

3:42pm: Jose Reyes steals 2nd on ball 2.

3:44pm: Ryan Church takes an inside fastball for ball 4. 1st and 2nd with 2 out for David Wright who is hitting .177 with 2 out and RISP. Not good. But he did hit a solo HR earlier today so... we'll see. Plus, it's Chase Field...

3:47pm: Juan Cruz is visibly annoyed at not getting corner pitches, but the ump is making the right calls for the most part.

3:48pm: Cruz gets the next pitch by Wright, 2-2 count.

3:49pm: Full count on David Wright. Wright pops an inside pitch to shallow right, caught by 2B Chris Burke. 3 out. Wright fails to deliver in the clutch.

Bottom of 8th Inning:
3:52pm: Lefty Pedro Feliciano is in to pitch for the Mets. Chris Burke lays down a great bunt in front of the plate. Feliciano fields it, makes a terrible throw that goes into rightfield. Burke goes around 2nd to 3rd, Church makes a perfect throw to David Wright at 3B who tags out Burke. Bunt single, E1, 9-5 out. 1 out. I scream with delight.

3:54pm: Pitcher Micah Owings is in to pinch-hit for Juan Cruz. Owings' pinch-hit HR is replayed for your entertainment value.

3:56pm: Owings hits a soft grounder to Jose Reyes who throws to Carlos Delgado at first, but Owings is called safe, even though replays show he was out by a hair. Honestly way too close, so I can't fault the ump for that one. Willie comes out to argue but obviously doesn't win that argument. Robby Hammock pinch-running for Owings.

4:00pm: Jorge Sosa is now in to pitch to Chris Young with a man on 1st. *GULP*

4:03pm: Chris Young lines out to Moises Alou in LF. 2 out.

4:04pm: Augie Ojeda grounds out to Castillo, 4-3. 3 out. Sosa manages to do a good job, and Church may have saved the game with that throw to get an overexuberant Chris Burke. Still, the Mets only have 3 hits through 8 IP, and you can't win games like that. They're going to need to score in the top 9 or the advantage will strongly favor Arizona.

Top of 9th Inning:
4:08pm: Righty Chad Qualls is on to pitch the 9th against Beltran, Alou, Delgado. Normally that would be a threatening tandem, but not this year.

4:09pm: Holy cow! Carlos Beltran singles to rightfield, keeping his BA above .200. 

4:10pm: Alou singles the first pitch up the middle past Ojeda into centerfield. The Mets fans in Phoenix get noisy with a "Lets go Mets" chant.

4:11pm: Endy Chavez is in the game pinch-running for Moises Alou.

4:12pm: Carlos Delgado grounds to Conor Jackson in what should be a 3-6-3 DP, but throws the ball into leftfield. Carlos Beltran scores, and the Mets go up 3-2. Error 3. Still nobody out.

4:13pm: Brian Schneider lays down a bunt down the 3rd base line, sac bunt 5-3. Runners advanced to 2nd and 3rd. 1 out.

4:15pm: Qualls gives Castillo an IBB to load the bases.

4:16pm: Lefty Marlon Anderson is in to pinch-hit for Jorge Sosa. Billy Wagner will obviously pitch the bottom 9 unless the Mets break this wide open. Then they can use Heilman in a non-save situation.

4:17pm: Marlon Anderson lines the first pitch from Qualls into RF for a single. Endy Chavez scores. 4-2. Bases still loaded.

4:18pm: Jose Reyes lines the first pitch he sees to Eric Byrnes in LF. Carlos Delgado scores on the sac fly. 2 out. Mets now up 5-2.

4:19pm: Ryan Church strikes out. 3 out. If only Conor Jackson doesn't make that throwing error, the game is still probably tied 2-2. Good thing he blew it.

Bottom of 9th Inning:
4:21pm: Endy Chavez replaces Moises Alou in LF. Billy Wagner is in to close the game for the Mets. With a 3-run lead, things look good. Especially with Wagner's hot start this season. 0.00 ERA.

4:22pm: Eric Byrnes pops out to 2B Luis Castillo. 1 out.

4:24pm: Conor Jackson grounds out hard to 2B Luis Castillo. 4-3. 2 out.

4:25pm: Billy Wagner K's Justin Upton. Brian Schneider loses the ball for a second at the plate, but tags out Upton to end the game.

Mets win 5-2.

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So the Mets take 2 of 3 from the best team in baseball, although it is pointed out that the Dbacks are 17-5 against the NL West, and now 4-5 against the rest.

The Mets will now go into Dodger Stadium for a 3-game series against L.A., who just won 8 of their last 10 ballgames.

I will be at Monday night's game, rooting hard for the Mets in a sea of low-class scumbag Dodger losers. That will be fun, especially if the Mets win 15-0.