This was the Mets’ starting lineup tonight:
- Luis Castillo, 2B
- Fernando Martinez, LF
- Daniel Murphy, 1B
- Gary Sheffield, RF
- David Wright, 3B
- Jeremy Reed, CF
- Wilson Valdez, SS
- Brian Schneider, C
- Livian Hernandez, P
This is not a good lineup. Actually, it’s a pretty poor one. Gary Sheffield batting cleanup? Daniel Murphy batting third and playing first base? Jeremy Reed and Wilson Valdez? This is a shadow of the lineup that beat the piss out of us in Citi Field last month.
And they went out and proceeded to go out and beat the crap out of Ian Snell for the first three innings tonight, tossing five runs up on the board before I even really got settled in front of the TV. He looked exasperated, Bob Walk and Greg Brown were taking him to task, and it looked like there was a rather unfriendly run-in between he and Jack Wilson in the dugout (there was nothing physical, it just looked like Jack said something that Ian didn’t particularly like). I haven’t been able to sit down and really watch a Pirate game in almost a week, and by the bottom of the second, I was already looking for other things to do. Not a great start.
Still, the Pirates kept things interesting with Andy LaRoche’s two-run “triple” (in quotes because it was a double misplayed by Reed in center), bringing the game to withing 5-3 in the fourth. That allowed the stage to be set for the five-run rally in the bottom of the eighth that featured another big hit from Andy LaRoche, more bad defense from guys that wouldn’t normally be playing for the Mets (an error by Valdez and a stupid throw that allowed runners to advance by Reed), and we get our final score.
I’m not trying to undermine what the Pirates did tonight; a comeback from a five-run deficit is always a good thing. Ian Snell got through three scoreless innings after his bad start and the bullpen (lead by Steven Jackson’s first big league apperance) allowed just two base runners in the next three innings. It was certainly a good win. It just wouldn’t have been possible with Reyes and Beltran and Delgado in the lineup.
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