Grand Slam Is Too Much As Mets Lose Another

Oliver Perez was locked into a pitchers duel with Chris Carpenter of the St. Louis Cardinals until the Mets bullpen finally failed them when Felipe Lopez hit a grand slam off of Raul Valdes that gave the Cards a 4-3 victory.

Notes

• It was a nice bounce back start for Oliver Perez. His line: 6.1IP, 4H, 1ER, 3BB, 4K.
• Here’s how the bottom of the 7th went for the Mets: single, sac hit, Fernando Nieve came in for relief, HBP, BB, Valdes comes in for relief, grand slam, K, pop-out (the Cardinals scored all of their runs this inning).
• The bullpen’s line (Nieve, Valdes, and Jenrry Mejia): 1.2IP, 2 H, 3ER, 1BB, 3K, 1HR.
• Jose Reyes went 0-for-5 with an RBI.
• Luis Castillo and Jason Bay both went 1-for-4, Castillo walked.
• David Wright and Mike Jacobs both went 1-for-3, Wright walked once.
• Jeff Francoeur was the Mets offense again scoring two runs and went 2-for-3 with a walk. He has hit safely in every game.

Thoughts

• You can’t fault the Mets for not hitting against Carpenter, but sooner or later this offense has to come around. Some people are hitting a bit, but aside from Francoeur nobody has been consistent. The bottom of the lineup isn’t hitting at all, but until some more of the guys at the top start turning it around the Mets will continue to lose games like this.
• Nieve has been pitching well so far this season, but it is disappointing to see him lose his aggressiveness yesterday and that directly led the Mets to lose this game.
• David Wright is probably hitting better than most people realize right now. He’s got 14 walks, I love that patience. Hopefully he doesn’t try to do too much with the offense struggling.
• It was great to see the good Ollie last night. The more we see him the better off the Mets are going to be. In order to compete for the Wild Card this season the Mets need at least three good starters, hopefully he can be one of them.

Line of the Night

• The Mets had three walks and 12 strikeouts offensively. Those numbers need to come closer together. Baserunners are very important and the Mets aren’t getting enough of them.

Up Next

• The Mets really need to start winning some series. Dropping the opener means they have to win the next two and since they’ve got Adam Wainwright coming up, today is a big game.
• Sat, April 17: LHP Johan Santana (1-1, 4.91 ERA) vs. LHP Jaime Garcia (1-0, 1.50 ERA).
• Sun, April 18: RHP John Maine (0-1, 13.50 ERA) vs. RHP Adam Wainwright (2-0, 1.20 ERA).

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