The best thing about Thursday afternoon’s game was that the Mets never seemed to be out of the game, even when Bad Ollie took the mound in the third (after Good Ollie pitched the first two innings) and got charged with eight earned runs.
Along with the offense putting up six runs, the non-headliners in the bullpen kept the Mets in the game by allowing no runs in 3 2/3. Two inherited runners did score, and the pen gave up four hits, but allowed no walks and struck out five.
Gary Sheffield made his Met debut and struck out looking, but Jeremy Reed, Fernando Tatis and Marlon Anderson also failed as pinch-hitters.
Now Jerry Manuel is talking about playing Tatis at second to keep him in the lineup when Sheffield plays the field. I guess we’ll find out which pitchers rate when Manuel trots out that alignment. You think Johan Santana would stand for that?
Maybe that’s another way to get Perez to keep focus. Keep walking people and you get Tatis at second and Sheffield in right.
Poor Carlos Beltran is already going to have to cover a lot of ground left to right when he’s flanking Sheffield and Daniel Murphy. Now he’s going to have to deal with Tatis in front of him at second? Unbelievable.
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Squawker Lisa, did you see that Carl Pavano made his Cleveland debut this afternoon? Pavano was charged with NINE RUNS in only one inning of work. (Pavano was knocked out in the second, after facing four batters and getting none of them out.) That’s what the Indians get for making Pavano their number three starter.
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Condolences to the family of Nick Adenhart and everyone associated with the Los Angeles Angels. What a terrible tragedy.
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