Game 1 in 11 innings: Mets 2 Padres 1
Pelfrey vs. Richard
So the talk in all of baseball today was Stephen Strasburg this, Stephen Strasburg that blah blah blah, Stephen Strasburg's major league pitching debut in Washington yada yada yada, sold out crowd, blah blah blah. As much as I just blah-ed a lot I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited all day long to see how Stephen was going to do tonight. And boy is that kiddo an overachiever and well he didn't disappoint. Even Tony Gwynn Sr. chose going to DC to see his boy Strasburg pitch over watching his own son play at Citi Field. Can you blame him really? NAH. But the one man I don't understand is ESPN's Mike Wilpon. At around 5:40 PM or so on Pardon The Interruption Mike Wilpon said he'd choose an Earth Wind And Fire concert over Stephen Strasburg's debut. What's up with that Mike??!! I really don't know how I feel about Wilpon now. Granted his love of American Idol has also made me doubt him. But that's for another day.
So now let's get to Stephen's outing against the Pirates and the Metsies extra innings win over the Padres!
To start out tonight's game my Jetsies coach Rex Ryan threw out the first pitch and he was wearing Nolan Ryan's #30 jersey because all Ryans stick together right??!! Unfortunately Rex is no Nolan. He's not even an Ollie Perez. Sorry Rex!
Top of the 1st:
With one out Chase Headley again killed the Mets and he singled. The other Met assassin Adrian Gonzalez then doubled and the Padres were up 1-0 over the Metsies, ugh.
After one inning in Nationals land Strasburg had retired the Pirates in order and he got his first major league K. Who did he strike out? Lastings Milledge.
Top of the 2nd:
Pelf bounced back from that rocky first inning and he retired the Padres in order. Adios Venable, Hairston Jr. and Gwynn!
And Papa Tony Gwynn got to see Strasburg in the second inning pitch another scoreless inning. I think father knows best when it comes to which ball games to attend.
Bottom of the 2nd:
Jeff Francouer got a 2 out single. Now it's an 11 game hitting streak for Frenchy, YAY!
Let's skip ahead to the 5th inning. After this top of the 5th Mike Pelfrey had given up 1 run, he had walked none and he had struck out 1 dude. That dude, Scott Hairston, way back in the 1st inning. And Mikey's pitch count at this point was just 53. GO Pelf!
In Washington DC after 5, Strasburg had given up 4 hits, 2 runs, he had struck out 8 Pirates, and walked none. But the Nats like the Mets were losing. They were down 2-1. In the top of the 4th Stephen had given up a 2 run homer to Delwyn Young. On the bright side his pitch count was 70 and out of those 70 pitches he had thrown 45 strikes.
After a game break with Chris Carlin during the top of the 6th at Citi Field, Chris revealed that after 6 innings in Washington Strasburg now had struck out 11 Pirates and his pitch count was 81. And the Nats were still down 2-1. Ron referred to Stephen as being very Doc Gooden-esque. Not too shabby of a comparison!
Bottom of the 7th:
With 2 outs Jose Reyes solo homered. Yet this running of the bases by Jose was delayed. After Jose Jose Jose hit what was clearly a long ball above the orange line one annoying umpire said the ball was in fact in play and not a homer, wtf! So Reyes waited around 2nd base as the umpires went inside to review the play.
And this took a long time but it was worth it because oh yeah it was ruled a homer and with Jose's 2nd HR of the season the Metsies were tied with the Padres, it was a 1-1 ball game YAY!
In Washington Strasburg was taken out of the game after 7 innings but he left with career win #1 in his future. Dunn and Willingham, those Metsies killers also hate the Pirates and they both homered and the Nats now had a 4-2 lead. But back to Stephen's stats:
7IP 2R 14K's 0BB and 94 total pitches thrown!
Did I mention he struck out every Pirate? Well now I did, oh he's awesome all right, whoa. And the Nats won 5-2. Congrats Stephen you overachiever you on your first of I'm sure a gazillion wins!
Top of the 9th:
The game was still tied at 1 after 8 innings and Pelf stayed on to pitch the 9th. After 1 pitch to the lead off batter Gonzalez, Pelf had a pitch count of 90 and out of those 90 pitches 69 were strikes! Gonzalez grounded out, yay 1 out! Next up Scott Hairston grounded a ball to Wright, Davey threw wide, Ike could do nothing to get that ball, Tejada got to it, he threw to Reyes at 2nd but Hairston was safe, BOO. So with Hairston on at 2nd, 1 out and a 1-2 count on Hundley, Pelfrey struck "no relation to Todd or Randy" Nick Hundley out! That was huge! Then Pelf got Venable to tap a ball right back to him, the throw to Ike at first was right on target and this game was going to the bottom of the 9th still tied at 1. And Mike was done for the night. His stats tonight:
9IP 5H 1R 1ER 0BB 6K
Bottom of the 9th:
The relief pitcher Luke Gregerson who supposedly rides a skateboard to Petco Park struck out the side. Barajas, Frenchy and the pinch hitter Chris Carter were all down on strikes, BOO. Time for extra innings and a no decision for Mikey, BOO.
Top of the 10th:
KRod was on fire! He struck out Hairston Jr. and Tony Gwynn for the first 2 outs. Again Papa Gwynn in Washington DC nodded his head and said "Yeah I came to watch the right kid tonight. You are disowned son." And then the pinch hitter Oscar Salazar flew out to Bay, yay! Side retired!
Bottom of the 10th:
Edward Mejica was now pitching for the Padres. And he got Cora to pop up and Reyes to go down on strikes. But then Angel went back back back it's not Pa-GONE, he only tripled, a 2 out triple. This play needed to be reviewed though due to fan interference. Bud Black felt Pagan should only have a double and Manuel even though it was obviously not a homer was arguing that it was. Hey I don't blame him at all. The major issue at hand for Bud Black was whether or not the fan's hand that touched the ball truly effected Venable's ability to get to the ball and if Pagan should truly have a double and not a triple. After a discussion by the umpires they stuck to their guns and Pagan had his 2 out triple. Unfortunately Jason Bay doesn't like to be a hero and he grounded out to end the inning.
Top of the 11th:
Perpetual Pedro started this inning off and evil Eckstein led off with a single. Headley then sac bunted and the Eck was now on at 2nd with 1 out for Adrian Gonzalez, oh no. Gonzalez lined one right to Wright and that was out number 2 and Eckstein got himself back to 2nd base. Jerry Manuel now made a pitching change and he brought in Elmer Dessens to face Scott Hairston with 2 outs and the Eck still at 2nd. And Elmer is no dud, he struck Scotty out! YAY.
Bottom of the 11th:
Mejica stayed in this ball game to face the lead off man Ike Davis. The last time these men squared off against each other last week Davis got a home run. What did he do tonight? Isaac Benjamin Davis hit a walk off home run! YAY IKE!
The Mets WIN, the Mets win! With Ike's 7th hr of the season the Metsies have now won 9 in a row at home, whoa. Seriously Bud Selig let the Mets play every game at Citi Field!
So MLB you did not disappoint tonight. Strasburg was amazing and the Metropolitans did us fans proud!
Tomorrow it's Santana, do your thang Johan!
And Keith I missed you man!
No comments:
Post a Comment