Despite best efforts, Wagner and the Mets fail to blow 9-run lead

    This season Mets fans have come to realize that win or lose, life is excruciating.  For this team there is no such thing as a laugher--in either direction.  It seems that every Mets loss includes a blown lead, and every Mets win includes an attempt at the same.

    Monday night in Philadelphia was no different.  Timely hitting by Damion Easley, Endy Chavez and David Wright gave New York a commanding 8-0 third inning lead, and Pedro Martinez looked to be back on track, allowing just two solo home runs through 5 1/3 innings.  At first it seemed the two runs the Mets scored off R.J. Swindle (whose out pitch apparently is a 55-mph hanging curveball) to make it 10-1 in the sixth, were just gravy.  However, as the Mets' bullpen proceeded to methodically give the lead back, allowing seven runs over the final three innings, Pedro's RBI single off Swindle proved to be valuable insurance, and ultimately the difference in the game.  When it was all said and done New York held on by the skin of their teeth for the 10-9 victory, and took three out of four from the first-place Phillies over the weekend to move within 2.5 games of the division lead--but they certainly could have looked better in doing so.  That Billy Wagner was awarded a save in return for allowing two runs in the ninth and almost blowing the game calls into question whether three-run leads should qualify as save situations at all.  Wagner was downright awful, but still "saved" the Mets from yet another brutal collapse.

     As we have seen all season long, it is impossible to judge this Mets team game-by-game or series-by-series.  Winning three out of four on the road in Philadelphia is great, but time and time again the Mets have put together excellent stints like this, only to fall apart thereafter.  It is not wise to evaluate this team just yet, until we see how they fare in their six-game homestand against San Francisco and Colorado to close out the first half of the season.  This is their first winning streak of at least three games since May, and they will need to play much better for a much longer stretch in order to convince most fans that this team is ready to compete for a playoff spot.

     As for Mets representation on the All-Star team, Billy Wagner is a poor choice.  Despite his 20 saves and 2.50 ERA, his six blown saves are second only to Jason Isringhausen, who has since lost his job as closer in St. Louis, and anyone who watches Wagner pitch on a daily basis knows of the indigestion he routinely gives Mets fans.  But despite a lackluster first half, the Mets do need to have a representative on the National League team.  David Wright, who is outperforming Cubs third baseman Aramis Ramirez in every single offensive statistic, should be that player, instead of Ramirez, who is currently on the roster as a reserve.

Around The League

C.C. Sabathia makes his first start for his new team tonight as the Milwaukee Brewers host Colorado.  Since his dreadful start to the season (0-3, 13.50 ERA in his first four starts), Sabathia has turned it around, posting a 2.16 ERA in 14 starts since April 22.  He will benefit from Milwaukee's powerful lineup and the weak central division opponents, and paired with Ben Sheets, gives the Brewers an excellent 1-2 punch and a legitimate shot at making the playoffs and doing some damage once they are in.

The first place Rays head to Yankee Stadium for the front end of a two-game series tonight.  Andy Pettitte (9-6) will take the hill for New York against Scott Kazmir (7-3) for Tampa Bay, who lead the third place Yankees by 8.5 games in the AL East.  The Red Sox are in second place, four games back.

Since a major-league best 21-9 start, the Arizona Diamondbacks have floundered, falling to a first place tie with the Dodgers at 44-45.  Arizona needs to ride their starting pitching to get back on track and that starts with Brandon Webb, who will take the mound tonight in Washington against the Nationals, who hold the MLB's worst record at 34-56.  Los Angeles has won six of their last seven and faces Atlanta tonight, one day after starter Hiroki Kuroda  threw seven perfect innings in a dominant one-hit performance.

Baseball History Tidbit of the Week

Player Profile:  William Arthur "Candy" Cummings (1848-1924)

    Candy Cummings is a Hall of Fame starting pitcher who many people have not heard of, but he is as influential a figure in the development of baseball as anyone else in history.  He only played six major league seasons (1872-77), but retired with a career record of 145-94 and is widely credited with inventing the curveball.

    Cummings got the idea to try to make a ball curve in 1863, after he and some friends were throwing clam shells into the ocean in Brooklyn, New York.  By putting a certain pressure and arc on the flat shells, the boys were able to make them curve in the air.  Cummings subsequently tried different techniques to make a ball curve in the same way, and eventually his hard work paid off.  According to his memoirs, he accomplished the feat in 1867 and demonstrated the pitch in a game against Harvard College, while he was playing for the Brooklyn Excelsior Club.

    "I began to watch the flight of the ball through the air and distinctly saw it curve," wrote Cummings.  "A surge of joy flooded over me that I shall never forget...I wanted to tell everybody; it was too good to keep to myself."

    For a few years Cummings was hands down the most dominant pitcher in baseball.  Cummings played for several amateur teams over the next few years, until signing a hefty contract (for the time) with the New York Mutuals of the newly founded National Association in 1872.  He went 33-20 that year and 28-14 in 1873.  In his best season he had a record of 35-12 with a 1.60 ERA in 1875 with the Hartford Dark Blues.  In 1874 other pitchers around the league began to throw the curveball, most notably Bobby Mathews, who learned it from Cummings, and Alphonse Martin of the Troy Haymakers.

    By 1877 Cummings' pitching arm was worn out, and he played only at the amateur and semipro levels for the next few years, until his retirement in 1884.  There has since been controversy over whether Cummings was in fact the first to throw a curveball.  Alphonse Martin claimed to have thrown a curveball in 1866 before Cummings, but Cummings vehemently defended his invention until his death in 1924.  There is a consensus among most baseball historians that Candy Cummings did indeed invent the curveball, and he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York in 1939.

*Statistical information derived from baseballreference.com and mlb.com.

**Biographical information on Candy Cummings referenced from the Baseball Biography Project run by the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).  For further information on Cummings see http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=v&v=l&bid=1276&am

For those readers who don't know, this is my first entry to this blog.  I will be posting nearly every weekday, and some weekends as well.  Though my blog focuses on the Mets, I will also include daily notes on the rest of the league, and different weekly segments every day.  On Mondays I'll present my "Theory of the Week" which will be some sort of theory I have about baseball and my research to support it.  On Tuesdays, like today, I'll throw in a tidbit of baseball history.  Every Wednesday I'll give some fantasy baseball tips, every Thursday I'll post some links to interesting baseball articles I've come across over the past week, and every Friday I will recap the best game from the previous week and preview what I think will be the best game of the upcoming week.

I hope you enjoy my blog, and naturally I encourage comments, questions, debate, and feedback.  I encourage you to post on the comments on the blog, and you can contact me directly by email at mdeutschman@gmail.com as well if you'd like.