Game 1: Mets 4 Marlins 3
Tricky Dickey Vs. Anibal Sanchez
After 6 straight losses to the Marlins this season the Metsies tonight finally clicked the heels of their ruby red cleats and won! The Metropolitans are now 20-9 at home and they are in fact the first team to reach 20 wins at home this season! BTW Keith was back in the booth, YAY!
But I can't get into today's game yet we must look at what happened before the game. There were a lot of changes made with the look of our squad:
Castillo was placed on the 15 day DL due to his foot woes. He has a bruise on the bottom of both of his feet. This led Ron to say "No 'Twister' for Luis Castillo for a while." And then classy Cohen remarked, "Left foot red."
Because Castillo is now on the DL Ruben Tejada was recalled from AAA Buffalo to be the Amazins everyday 2nd baseman.
Gary Matthews Jr. was designated for assignment which is fine by me but the booth made a great point. The Mets now have no backup center fielder if god forbid something happens to Pagan. But no fear folks Jay Bay played CF early on in his career and he would take over if something happened to Angel and Carter would then play left field.
With Blanco hurting Omir Santos was recalled from AA Binghamton. Once Blanco is back on the un-banged up track the Mets are likely to call up Jesus Feliciano, yay!
Now let's get to the highlights, the nerve-wracking moments and the booth shenanigans!
Top of the 1st:
Dickey retired the side (Coghlan, Gaby Sanchez, and Ramirez) in order!
Top of the 2nd:
With 2 outs and nobody on Cody Ross tripled. Maybe he won't maybe he will get a hit Maybin singled, Ross scored and the Marlins had a 1-0 lead over the Metsies.
Top of the 3rd:
The pitcher Anibal Sanchez led off this inning with a single. During his at bat Keith noticed that Anibal has shed some poundage and even remarked that he no longer has that "puffy face." With Sanchez on at first and nobody out Coghlan singled. The other Sanchez, Gaby Sanchez was up to bat, and he bunt singled, how rude. The bases were now loaded for Ramirez, ugh. And still there were no outs. Hanley grounded the ball, Tejada got the force out at second but the throw to first was mishandled by Ike. Anibal scored on the force out and Coghlan scored on Davis' error, BOO. The Marlins now had a 3-0 lead over the Mets.
Bottom of the 3rd:
Tejada led this inning off with double, yay Ruben sandwich! Dickey proved he's oh so tricky and too hot to handle and he singled, Tejada scored and the Mets were only down 3-1. Dickey got his 2nd rib eye steak of the season! Now let's move forward to Bay's at bat. There were 2 outs with Dickey on at 3rd and Bay doubled, R.A. scored and the Mets were down by just one run, 3-2. This at bat led Keith to say, "I guess it's safe to say Jason Bay is out of his slump." Ron then added, "Jason Bay and Citi Field have become very good friends early on this season." Davis grounded out to end the inning but the Mets proved they had spunk tonight and they were in this game to win it! But before we truck along with this recap I must make note of what happened during Davis' at bat.
The camera man got a great shot of Wright in the on base circle holding his weighted bat and then the booth got carried away:
Keith: OMG look at that.
Ron: I picked up this weighted bat today because I wanted to see how much it weighed, about 15 pounds.
Keith: Too heavy. I never liked grabbing that cast iron whatever you want to call it.
Ron: It looks macho though doesn't it?
Keith: It's just too heavy.
Gary: Bunyan-esque!
Keith then confused me, he was talking about a lumber company and then he eventually mentioned SLEDGEHAMMER, the name of this lumber company yada yada. Gary then talked about Sister Sledge, Sledgehammer and then he proved he knows his music and he mentioned Mr. Sledgehammer himself Peter Gabriel.
Top of the 4th:
Another 1,2,3 (Ross, Maybin and Hayes) inning for Dickey!
Bottom of the 4th:
Frenchy got a 2 out single and he extended his hitting streak to 8 games!
Top of the 6th:
Dickey retired those pesky fish (Uggla, Ross, Maybin) in order again!
Bottom of the 6th:
With one out Wright was walked. Barajas then doubled and with 2nd and 3rd and 1 out Francouer singled! Wright scored and the ballgame was tied! That rib eye steak of Jeff's, his 29th rbi of the season! As Keith said, "He has just turned it on!" Tejada was up next and with 1st and 3rd and 1 out Tejada hit a ground ball, the force out was made at 2nd but Barajas was able to score and the Mets had their first lead of the night, 4-3! Tejada got his first major league rib eye steak! With 2 outs and Tejada on at first Dickey just continued to amaze, he singled (he's batting .385). By the way interesting to note, Dickey does not have his own bat yet, he's been using Niese's this whole time. Kevin Burkhardt made a funny and said, "Maybe if he goes to 3-0 he can get his own bat!" Reyes was then walked and the bases were loaded for Pagan. Mr. Gonzalez made a pitching change, Anibal Sanchez was booted and Taylor Tankersley was in to face Angel. By the way before this start Sanchez had won his last 4 starts and well sorry Anibal that streak was now OVER, yay! Back to Tankersley vs. Pagan. So I wanted to be able to say it's back back back it's Pa-GONE but nope Angel grounded out to end the inning. Pagan is not looking so hot batting 2nd in the lineup at all.
After Dickey walked the pinch hitter Lamb in the top of the 7th he was taken out of the game and during his exit he received an amazing round of applause from the Citi Field crowd!
Dickey's stats: 6.1 IP, 7H, 3R, 3ER, 2BB, 4K's, 104 total pitches thrown
With this call to the bullpen it was now time for Perpetual Pedro to help preserve the win for Dickey. This appearance tonight by Feliciano was his 32nd so of course he's leading the league in appearances, gotta stay true to the nickname! In the 7th and 8th innings, Feliciano and Dessens (Elmer pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings!) kept the Marlins scoreless and in the top of the 9th it was time for KRod to slam the door shut on a Florida comeback.
Top of the 9th:
Wes Helms was the pinch hitter for Hayes and he led this inning off by being K'd YAY! Paulino came in to pinch hit in the pitcher's spot and he grounded out to Reyes. So with 2 outs and and a 1-2 count Coghlan unfortunately got an infield hit and this ball game was not over at all. Sanchez was now up to bat with Coghlan on at first and 2 outs. At this exact moment the camera man got a great shot of Dickey looking quite nervous in the dugout. As Ron said, "R.A. can't even watch, he can only watch with one eye."
The count was now full on Gaby and then Frankie threw ball 4, Sanchez was walked. Now Gary added his Dickey comment, "Now no eyes."
With 1st and 2nd and 2 outs the dangerous Ramirez was up to bat. KRod threw a wild pitch and the runners advanced to 2nd and 3rd, AHHHHH. BUT Ramirez grounded out to Wright, Davey made a great one hopper of a throw to Ike and the ball game was over. The Mets won and Dickey got his 3rd win of the season!
OH I must now include my favorite Keithism of the night. During the top of the 5th Anibal Sanchez was running into second base trying to avoid the force out and Keith said, "Anibal Sanchez did not slide he almost got his coconut ripped off!"
All I can say after this game is that I am just in love with R.A. Dickey and every start he has made thus far has just been fun to watch. He's great entertainment and a real tough dude who just gives it 110% on the mound. And he gives it about 150% every time it's his turn to swing the bat.
I cannot end this without saying that I am very upset Burkhardt did not mention what book Dickey read before today's game. Kevin you gotta keep up with this stuff for us fans.
Tomorrow Niese is back, so Jonathan do your thang!
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