Not to pick on Scott Schoeneweis, who was just one of the many culprits in last year’s bullpen, but Schoeneweis made his debut for Arizona and gave up a home run to the first batter he faced.
Schoeneweis also gave up a homer to the last batter he faced as a Met, Wes Helms, who hit what would turn out to be the game-winning shot off of the lefty in the eighth inning of the last game of the 2008 season.
What made it that much worse was that the batter, Seth Smith, is a lefthanded hitter who had never even gotten a hit off of a lefthanded pitcher, much less a home run. Before this at-bat, Smith was 0-11 lifetime against lefties. Smith hit four homers in 108 at bats last year, including one off of John Maine.
The next batter Schoeneweis faced was another lefty, Todd Helton, and lefty specialist Schoeneweis gave up a hit to Helton as well. Schoeneweis did go on to retire cleanup hitter Garrett Atkins and No. 5 hitter Brad Hawpe before being taken out.
In fairness to Schoeneweis, there were eight homers hit yesterday in the Arizona-Colorado game (which was played in Arizona) and Arizona starter and perennial Cy Young candidate Brandon Webb gave up six earned runs in four innings.
Other ex-Met relievers had better debuts with their new teams. Luis Ayala pitched a scoreless inning for Minnesota against Seattle and Aaron Heilman pitched a scoreless 2/3 inning in the seventh aand earned a hold for the Cubs.
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