It wasn’t all smiles and laughs Wednesday afternoon in San Diego as the Mets thanks to a Frankie Rodriguez blown save in the 9th and a mismanaging of the bullpen by Jerry cost the Mets the last game of their road trip 5 to 1 to the Pads.
Johan Santana certainly wasn’t at his best as he was uncharacteristically wild but still fought through it and pitched 7 shutout innings. In a 1-0 game in the 8th, Jerry put in KRod with 2 outs and runner on 2nd. K-Rod got out of the situation but you knew we were in trouble the second he came walking out for the 9th.
Mike Scioscia is often referred to as the best skipper in baseball and he never used K-Rod in two inning situations, however Jerry must have missed that 8 years of baseball history. Frankie promptly gave up a knock, a stolen base and after 2 k’s, David Eckstein delievered to tie the game. The Mets were bailed out as Eckstein was thrown out after Gonzalez got yet another hit.
Jerry then put in Valdez in the 11th and he promptly gave up a knock, they then decided to get Mejia up. If you had a clue you would figure he would have been up in case the lead runner got on. However, that was not the case, without a righty ready the Padres then loaded the bases for Adrian Gonzalez who eats up slow pitching lefties and ripped a game winning grand slam.
More head scratching for us Met fans, we cannot live this up and down roller coaster that is Frankie, and we certainly can not put him in tougher situations in the 8th. I cannot tell you how many times a reliever pitches two innings and screws up. Also, I am sick and tired of Jerry mismanaging game over and over. The Mets are talented and at home can often make up for Jerry’s mistakes by batting last, but it is clear to see Jerry’s managing mistakes cannot be made up on the road, look at the home/road splits. It makes sense to me, this team is not going anywhere until they cut ties with Jerry Manuel.
One last vent….Why send up Matthews in the 9th????? I’d rather see Ollie pinch hit and at least then he’d earn some of that 12 mill.
