Print

Mail

wiki links

Met's sweep may provide false hope

Starter Kazuhisa Ishii of the Mets pitches against the Padres during the first inning at Shea Stadium in New York on Thursday. PHOTO: AP

If the New York Mets and their fans let themselves, they could begin to get very excited right about now. They would be making a mistake, but how often can they get excited?

The mediocre Mets completed a three-game sweep of the San Diego Padres on Thursday. It was probably as perfect a series as the Mets could play. It was only the third time this season that a National League team had won all three games of a series against a first-place team, and the other two times occurred when first place did not mean as much as it does at this stage of the season.

Keeping the feat in perspective, the Padres play in what is probably the league's weakest division. They are the only team in the West with a winning record. All of the teams in the East have winning records, and three teams in the Central have winning records.

But even if the Padres are the best of the worst in the West, there's something to be said for the Mets beating them all three times they played this week, especially Thursday's game, when the Padres' best starter, Jake Peavy, was pitching against the Mets' wildest, Kazuhisa Ishii.

Rickie Weeks of the Brewers slides into third after he hit a triple during the first inning against the Cardinals at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri on Thursday. PHOTO: AP

"The pitching matchup that was supposed to be in their favor ended up in our favor," said Tom Glavine, the senior man on the staff, who was the winning pitcher in the middle game of the series.

Think of that for a moment. The Mets won the first game of the series, started by Kris Benson, in extra innings, the second behind Glavine and the third with Ishii. Pedro Martinez did not even make a cameo appearance in the series. The Mets did not need their magic man to pull off the sweep.

"Coming into the series, we felt like it would be a really good time to make a nice little run here. Just play good baseball. Everyone on the team knows we have to make a statement in this division."

Mets manager Willie Randolph

They had abundant contributions, on the other hand, from many of their hitters, from Chris Woodward, whose 11th-inning home run won the opener, to Mike Piazza, Carlos Beltran and Cliff Floyd in the second game, to Jose Reyes, Doug Mientkiewicz, David Wright, Mike Cameron and Ramon Castro on Thursday.

The Mets did what they have not always been able to do this season. They had won the first two games of a series six times, but the third game only twice.

"It's like we felt sorry for them after we'd win the first two games of the series; we seem to let up," manager Willie Randolph said after a 12-0 victory in which the Mets showed the Padres no mercy.

Randolph made a point of pointing out that history to his players before the Padres series.

"We meet at the beginning of every series," he said. "We have little skull sessions and talk about the challenges in front of us and what we need to do as a team. We talked briefly about that."

The Mets weren't so bold or brash as to talk about sweeping the Padres, but Randolph said:

"Coming into the series, we felt like it would be a really good time to make a nice little run here. Just play good baseball. Everyone on the team knows we have to make a statement in this division. We can't afford to wait any longer. The Phillies are playing better, the Marlins are a team you can't count out, Atlanta's always going to be tough, the Nationals have come back to us a little bit, and we have to make sure we meet them."

A week before the All-Star Game, the Mets, in fifth place, had fallen 10 games behind the first-place Nationals. Their victory on Thursday moved them into third place, 4 1/2 games behind Atlanta and the Nationals, who lost to Houston on Thursday night.

That the Mets are as close as they are to first place in the division and only 4 1/2 games behind in the wild-card chase is more a function of other teams playing down to the Mets' level rather than their playing up to the level of other teams. This is not to disparage the Mets. They simply don't have enough talent to be in first place in any race.

They should be behind the Marlins and maybe the Phillies, too, in the East, maybe behind the Cubs and the Astros in the wild-card race. But they have played at least as well as those teams and given themselves reason to believe they have a chance as long as those teams continue to dawdle.

Summing up the Padres series, Glavine said: "We didn't do anything to beat ourselves, which I think is our biggest thing. We pitched well, we hit pretty well. The first night was tough for both teams. We have the talent to match the other teams. We just tend to beat ourselves a little too often, and this series we didn't do that."

As a cautionary note to themselves, the Mets should recall their status a month and a half ago, when they reached a season-high four games over .500 (31-27) and were only a game out of first in the division. Instead of continuing to climb, they stumbled badly, losing two games to Houston and seven of nine interleague games to American League West teams.

But if they want to look for positive omens, the Mets could note that Glavine lost three of those games and Ishii lost two, but they won their starts against the Padres.

It's a confusing world the Mets inhabit.

METS 12, PADRES 0

David Wright singled and doubled during a seven-run sixth inning, and the New York Mets roughed up All-Star Jake Peavy in a 12-0 victory on Thursday that gave them a three-game sweep of the San Diego Padres.

Wright became the first Met this season to have two hits in an inning, and Kazuhisa Ishii (3-8) won at home for the first time since the Mets acquired him from Los Angeles during spring training.

Jose Reyes hit three singles, scored twice, drove in two runs and stole his 31st base to tie Atlanta's Rafael Furcal for the league lead. Doug Mientkiewicz homered and drove in two runs, and Ramon Castro hit a two-run homer for New York.

Peavy (8-4) allowed seven runs on seven hits in five innings, and the Padres lost their fourth straight game.

Ishii allowed four hits in six innings, waked five and struck out three.

Dodgers 1, Phillies 0

At Philadelphia, Odalis Perez took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, and Jeff Kent drove in the run for Los Angeles.

Left-hander Perez (5-5) allowed just three hits in seven innings, walked none and matched his season high with seven strikeouts.

Jon Lieber (9-9) gave up just five hits, struck out seven and walked one in eight innings. But it wasn't enough in only the second 1-0 game in Citizens Bank Park's two-year history.

Oscar Robles doubled down the right-field line to open the game and scored on Kent's double down the left-field line.

Brewers 12, Cardinals 7

At St. Louis, Geoff Jenkins had three hits and three RBIs to extend his batting streak to a career-best 14 games, and Milwaukee capitalized on shoddy defense.

The Brewers' 14-hit attack featured RBI singles from starter Chris Capuano and reliever Matt Wise.

Albert Pujols had three hits and an RBI for the Cardinals, although his run of homering in three straight games ended.

Capuano (11-6) gave up four runs in 5 1-3 innings.

Jason Marquis (9-7) gave up seven runs on nine hits in four innings, but was hurt by poor fielding. Errors by third baseman Scott Rolen and shortstop Abraham Nunez resulted in four unearned runs.

Reds 9, Cubs 6

At Cincinnati, Roberto Novoa balked home the tying run in the eighth inning, and Austin Kearns followed with a decisive two-run single to rally the Reds.

Javier Valentin homered twice and Rich Aurilia had a solo shot. They drove in three runs apiece as the Reds gained a split of the four-game series.

Greg Maddux lasted only five innings on a steamy afternoon, turning a 5-3 lead over to the bullpen. But Novoa (2-3) and three other Chicago relievers cost him the victory.

Maddux struck out four, leaving him two shy of becoming the 13th pitcher to reach the 3,000 mark. Todd Walker's three-run homer off left-hander Eric Milton put the Cubs up 5-1 in the fourth.

Reliever Brian Shackelford (1-0) got for his first major league win.

Astros 3, Nationals 2

In Washington, Roy Oswalt pitched eight shutout innings and delivered his first RBI of the year, helping Houston to a season-high fifth straight road victory.

Oswalt (13-8) gave up six hits and hit two batters, but struck out six without giving up a walk. He induced three double plays.

Brad Lidge allowed a two-run homer to Preston Wilson in the ninth, but got his 22nd save. Mike Lamb homered for Houston.

Esteban Loaiza (6-6) went seven innings, allowing three runs -- two earned -- and 11 hits for Washington, which lost for the 11th time in 15 games to drop into a first-place tie with idle Atlanta in the NL East.

Pirates 8, Rockies 1

In Pittsburgh, Rookie Zach Duke won his third consecutive start, and Jason Bay went 3-for-4 with a homer as the Pirates snapped a five-game losing streak.

Duke (3-0) allowed eight hits, struck out five and walked four in seven innings.

Bay followed Matt Lawton's one-out single in the second inning with a homer. Bay also singled and scored in a five-run first for Pittsburgh.

Colorado's starter Jeff Francis (8-7) allowed eight hits and seven runs in the first 1 1-3 innings and lasted just five.

Josh Towers won for just the second time in his last 12 starts, and Shea Hillenbrand hit a three-run homer as the Toronto Blue Jays completed a three-game sweep of the Seattle Mariners with a 6-3 victory on Thursday.

"This is pretty big for me personally, and for us to get a sweep after catching a beat down against Tampa Bay is big," Towers said.

Towers (7-8) allowed three runs and five hits while striking out one and walking none in seven-plus innings, improving to 2-7 in his last 12 starts. Miguel Batista pitched 1 1-3 innings for his 17th save in 20 chances.

"He was outstanding," Toronto manager John Gibbons said. "He gets into his ruts where he struggles with his command and then he gets hit around a little bit, but when he's on, he's on."

Reed Johnson hit a solo shot off Joel Pineiro (3-6) in the second.

Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki went 2-for-4, raising his career average against Toronto to .394 (71-for-180), the highest in the majors against Toronto among players with 150 or more plate appearances.

Indians 10, Royals 1

At Cleveland, Jake Westbrook dodged danger for seven innings and got his first win in July, and Jhonny Peralta and Victor Martinez each hit three-run homers for Cleveland to salvage a four-game series split against one of the American League's worst teams.

Westbrook (7-12) didn't allow an earned run, scattered nine hits and worked out of several jams, only once retiring Kansas City in order. He walked none and struck out five after entering 0-3 with a 6.57 ERA this month.

Peralta homered in the fourth off J.P. Howell (1-4) and Martinez capped Cleveland's seven-run seventh -- the club's biggest inning since June 25 -- with a shot off Leo Nunez.

Twins 10, Tigers 5

At Detroit, Bret Boone and Michael Cuddyer drove in two runs each and Joe Mauer scored three in Minnesota's victory over the sloppy Detroit.

Detroit committed four errors, and had three wild pitches and a balk to help the Twins win their third straight game.

Johan Santana (9-5) gave up three runs and nine hits in five innings. Jason Johnson (6-8) lost at home for just the second time in 11 starts, allowing eight runs -- six earned -- on 10 hits and a wild pitch in four-plus innings.

Red Sox 6, White Sox 5

At Chicago, Boston's Manny Ramirez homered in the top of the ninth inning on the first pitch after Chicago third baseman Joe Crede dropped his foul popup for an error.

Crede, whose RBI double with two outs off Curt Schilling (2-3) tied the game in the eighth, couldn't hang on to the popup near the stands and Ramirez got another chance.

Then he reached Luis Vizcaino (4-4) for his 26th homer.

The White Sox tied it in the eighth when Aaron Rowand doubled and eventually scored on Crede's two-out double.

Schilling pitched the final two innings in his fifth relief appearance and got his first win since April 18, a game he started.

Athletics 6, Rangers 4

At Arlington, Texas Oakland's Nick Swisher drove in three runs and scored another, and Jay Payton hit a slow chopper through the left side of the infield for the go-ahead run in the eighth inning as Oakland beat Texas.

Oakland overcame an early 3-0 deficit against Kenny Rogers -- who might have been making his last start for a while -- to win for the 19th time in 24 games. Rogers will go before Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig on Friday to appeal his 20-game suspension for shoving two cameramen.

Jay Witasick (1-0) pitched one scoreless inning for his first win since 2003.

Payton's decisive hit came off Kameron Loe (4-3).

Angels 6, Yankees 5

At Anaheim, California, Vladimir Guerrero broke out of his slump with a grand slam, rallying Los Angeles past New York after Randy Johnson left the game.

Guerrero's towering shot greeted reliever Tom Gordon (3-4) in the seventh and brought the Angels back from a 5-2 deficit.

The homer, only the fifth hit in 45 at-bats for last year's AL most valuable player, came after Johnson had held the Angels to two runs on four hits before leaving after the sixth inning.

Jason Giambi homered twice off Bartolo Colon (12-6), the second game in a row the Yankees' first baseman hit a pair. It was his third multihomer game of the season and 26th of his career.

Giambi has hit 15 home runs this season, 10 this month.

Francisco Rodriguez got his 22nd save in 24 chances.

Kansas City pitcher Runelvys Hernandez was suspended for 10 games and manager Buddy Bell will have to sit out one following a benches-clearing brawl in a game at Detroit, the Royals announced on Thursday.

Tigers reliever Kyle Farnsworth was suspended for six games and Detroit starter Jeremy Bonderman was penalized for five. Both pitchers were fined, as was Tigers shortstop Carlos Guillen.

Hernandez and Bell also were fined. The penalties were imposed by Bob Watson, Major League Baseball's head disciplinarian.

Hernandez, whose beaning of Guillen touched off the brawl, will appeal the ruling and said he plans to start on Friday against the Toronto Blue Jays. Farnsworth and Bonderman also plan to appeal.

Hernandez insisted that he wasn't aiming at Guillen's head and felt the penalty was severe.

"That's too much," the Dominican said. "I didn't do it on purpose. I never hit anybody in the head."

Hernandez and Bell were ejected following the fracas along with Kansas City outfielder Emil Brown and catcher Alberto Castillo. Neither Brown nor Castillo was further disciplined.

Guillen, Farnsworth and Bonderman were ejected. During the brawl, Farnsworth picked up and body slammed Kansas City pitcher Jeremy Affeldt.

After drilling Guillen, Hernandez -- who had hit two Detroit batters earlier in the game -- threw down his glove as he and Guillen exchanged words. Guillen then charged the mound and soon both benches and bullpens emptied.

The scuffle appeared to be over before more pushing and shoving led to Farnsworth's hard tackle of Affeldt.

Bell has to turn over his managerial duties for one game on Friday. It's a mandatory punishment when pitchers and managers have been warned before a brawl.

Kansas City first baseman Mike Sweeney said he called Guillen earlier this week to try and patch things up between the teams.
This story has been viewed 1623 times.