Fernando Tatis

I swear other than the grand-slams from Omir Santos and Fernando Tatis it seems like the Mets never get more than a run from these situations. Can I see a bases clearing double please? I miss the days of Robin Ventura hitting a grand salami in each game of a double header.

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e Mets still have a few holes to fill.

Left Field: The plan for 2009 is to have Daniel Murphy and Fernando Tatis platoon the position. Murphy hit .313 in 131 ABs, while Tatis hit .297 in 273 ABs. Tatis was out of baseball for two years before 2008. While Murphy has a lot of promise, and  Tatis might continue to be a competent bat, there are just too many question marks to not even explore other options.

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right field -- who was re-signed this past week -- and a lefty/righty platoon of Daniel Murphy and Fernando Tatis. Where's the pop? We're going to leave all the pressure on the shoulders of Carlos Beltran and David Wright? It wouldn't be logical to expect Carlos Delgado to hit 38 homers and be a contender in the MVP race this upcoming year. Plain and simply, he's old, and the holes in his swing are undeniable. He's still incredibly strong, just not as mechanically sound as he once was, and understandably so.

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ose Valentin, Duaner Sanchez, John Maine, Oliver Perez, Endy Chavez, Ryan Church, Damion Easley and Fernando Tatis.

           But it hasn’t been all peaches and cream for Minaya, who also took chances on Luis Castillo, Moises Alou, Orlando Hernandez, Shawn Green, Scott Schoenweis, Jorge Sosa, Aaron Sele and Matt Wise—none of whom were very impressive as Mets, and many of whom had massive difficulties staying healthy.

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ity and confidence.  Surely it didn’t hurt that Carlos Delgado suddenly found his swing, Fernando Tatis batted just under .400 for the month of July, and Johan Santana didn’t lose a game after June 28, but the Mets undoubtedly played with an entirely new style and swagger under Manuel.

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erry Manuel took over as manager (or more accurately, once Carlos Delgado remembered how to hit and Fernando Tatis forgot it wasn’t 1999), the Mets began playing much looser, and started overcoming adversity to win games despite a terrible bullpen and sub-par performance in the clutch—rather than losing because of those things.  Saturday the 27th was no different:  the offense still only pushed two runs across, and as far as the bullpen woes went, Johan Santana took matters into his own hands.  Carlos Delgado hit a sacrifice fly in the first inning to give the Mets a 1-0 lead, and that’s all they would need on that day.  They tacked on another run in the fourth, but it didn’t matter—Johan Santana was on a mission.  All the questions, doubts, misgivings, and uncertainties that surrounded Santana’s exorbitant contract were sent by the wayside after that start, a complete game three-hitter in the biggest game of the season, and the biggest game of Santana’s Mets career.  This game conjured memories of John Maine’s performance in the second-to-last game of 2007, when he allowed just one hit and struck out 14 Marlins through 7.2 innings of a 13-0 Mets win in the same exact must-win scenario.  But as Tony Paige had said, we’d seen this movie before.  We just hoped this time it would end differently.

Continue reading "In The Aftermath Of The Collapse"

ay grounder.  With two outs and nobody on, Odalis Perez slapped a sinking liner to left.  Fernando Tatis dove forward but missed the ball, allowing it to bounce past him for a double.  Tatis landed awkwardly on his left shoulder, separating it.  He'll miss the remainder of the season.

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eventh.  He allowed hits to both batters he faced, but was credited with recording an out when Fernando Tatis gunned Geoff Blum out at the plate in the seventh.  The homers Feliciano allowed in the 10th came from two players who had combined for a total of three taters all season until their extra-inning blasts.  You know you don't have your best stuff on a particular day when you give up a go-ahead home run to a defensive replacement (Brad Ausmus).

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situations.  The left field platoon of Murphy and Nick Evans has been working well lately, and Fernando Tatis has remained productive in right.  The outfield will only get deeper going forward, as Manuel said before the game that Ryan Church is on schedule to return to the big leagues this weekend.

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three hits in their last 42 at-bats with the bases loaded.  Then, after an intentional walk to Fernando Tatis, Damion Easley came up with a bases-loaded hit of his own, singling into left center to score two more runs.  Ramon Castro topped the five-run inning off with an RBI double down the line in left, and the Mets completed the comeback from a 3-2 eighth inning deficit.

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season.  The offense scored 12 runs to complement the stellar pitching, and Daniel Murphy and Fernando Tatis each homered to lead the onslaught.  Jose and Argenis Reyes had two hits apiece, and Carlos Beltran drove in two, as New York scored eight runs in the third inning to put it away early.  Things are looking pretty good for the time being, but the real test will come the next time the Mets have a slim lead late in a game.

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Ryan Church's absence for the time being, Murphy has stepped up and looks like a good complement to Fernando Tatis as a fellow super-back-up who is currently playing in the Mets' starting lineup.

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    Just when you think Fernando Tatis might be coming down to Earth and snapping his unbelievably hot hitting, he proves you dead wrong.  Tatis' two home runs last night powered the Mets toward their 6-5 triumph over the Padres, and his knack for coming through in the clutch continued.  His first homer tied the game at one, and his second put the Mets ahead 4-2.  Six of Tatis' nine home runs this year have either tied the game or given the Mets the lead.

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Only Fernando Tatis, he of the precipitous career path that has suddenly bounced back up as sharply as it once dove down, has hit two grand slams in the same inning, a feat he achieved with the Cardinals in 1999. 

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faced and then allowing the game-ending sacrifice fly on a weakly hit liner by Darin Erstad.  Fernando Tatis made an excellent catch on Erstad’s sinking flare, but was unable to throw Lance Berkman out at the plate.

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d play everyday, so a corner outfielder is certainly a priority.  On Monday Jerry Manuel named Fernando Tatis the everyday left fielder, but his red-hot month may not, and probably will not, last.  Even if Tatis remains decent as a starter, the uncertainty surrounding Church's health calls for a stronger bench.  Endy Chavez is an excellent defensive replacement outfielder, but when he plays everyday he eventually gets exposed offensively, so he is really more suited to a role as a fourth outfielder.  Casey Blake would have been a good fit because he can play both corner outfield positions as well as first base, but he has already been traded to the Dodgers.

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right to scamper from first to third on a Delgado grounder.  He then score the go-ahead run on Fernando Tatis' grounder to short, which may have been an inning-ending double play had Hanley Ramirez not thrown errantly to first.  In the bottom of the eighth, after the Marlins scored two to go ahead 4-3, Scott Schoenweis threw a wild pitch with the bases loaded, scoring one, and then to add insult to injury, gave up a two-run double on the next pitch to put the game out of reach.

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bsp; Carlos Delgado continued his unbelievable resurgence, homering twice and driving in three, and Fernando Tatis continued his bid for Comeback Player of the Year, with his game-tying homer in the ninth inning.  The battle of the bullpens ensued, continuing toe for toe into the 14th inning, before Pujols put the Cardinals in front with a two-run home run off Heilman, who was in his third inning of work.  The loss itself wasn't as hard to swallow as it could have been because of the two big comebacks, but New York certainly had plenty of chances.  In all they left 16 runners on base and only had one hit in 16 at-bats with runners in scoring position.  The bullpen pitched a total of nine innings in relief of Brandon Knight, who lasted just five innings in his first start as a Met.

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well.  The "irregulars," (as Mets television broadcaster Gary Cohen puts it) such as Fernando Tatis, Endy Chavez, Damion Easley and Ramon Castro, have been igniting the Mets' offense for the past three weeks.  But two new players with anything but household names were just as instrumental to the Mets' success in Cincy as anyone getting paid upwards of $12 million per year:  Argenis Reyes and Robinson Cancel.

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ses clearing double by Javier Valentin.  But the offense continued to roll, as Carlos Delgado, Fernando Tatis and David Wright each hit two-run homers, and the Mets pounded out 10 runs, including four in the ninth off closer Francisco Cordero.  Wright's bomb tied the game with one out, and Delgado followed three batters later with the go-ahead RBI single.  The victory moves the Mets into a first place tie with the Phillies at 52-44.

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in for the Mets this afternoon, as they ran their season-high winning streak to six straight.  Fernando Tatis snapped a 3-3 tie in the seventh inning with his fourth home run of the year, and his second go-ahead shot in the last five days.  The bullpen was lights out for the third straight day and hasn't allowed a run since almost giving back a 10-1 lead on Monday in Philadelphia.  The sweep of the Giants was the Mets' first such feat since they took three straight from Washington from April 15-17, unless you count the three-game series at Yankee Stadium that was started in May and finished in June.  The Phillies rebounded from a 2-0 loss in St. Louis on Tuesday to beat the Cardinals in two straight, so the Mets are currently 1.5 games out of first place heading into a three-game series against Colorado this weekend.

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belted a three-run home run off Giants ace Tim Lincecum in the first inning and Carlos Delagado and Fernando Tatis each homered later in the game to lead the Mets to their fourth straight win.

Continue reading "Pelfrey and the Mets Finally Make It Easy"