The Mets took full advantage of some horrible bullpen work in the eighth inning to claim Friday night's game, 6-1. The Dodgers are back to six games out in the NL West.
The game featured a good pitching matchup between Vicente Padilla and Johan Santana. We all know how good Santana is, as he's one of the best lefties of all time. But Padilla has been on fire since returning from injury. Runs would probably be at a premium.
Desperate for any sort of win, the Mets struck in their first at-bat. Jose Reyes led off with a double and went to third on Luis Castillo's bunt single. Angel Pagan struck out swinging for the first out.
The Dodgers should have easily gotten out of the inning on the next play. David Wright stuck out swinging, and Russell Martin made a perfect throw to nail Castillo stealing second. The only problem was that Blake DeWitt dropped the ball, allowing Reyes to score for the 1-0 lead. I'm not sure how DeWitt managed to do that, but he did.
Ike Davis led off the second with a solo homer to give the Mets a 2-0 lead. Castillo was called out at first on a very close play to end the inning. Replays showed he was probably safe, and Jerry Manuel got ejected for arguing. Seems like every game there's someone getting tossed. At least it keeps things interesting.
It took until the fifth, but the Dodgers finally got a run against Santana. Martin doubled leading off. DeWitt grounded one back to the mound, but Martin advanced to third on the play. Jamey Carroll lifted a sac-fly RBI to right, though Ramon Castro dropped the ball at home, so Martin should have easily been out. So I guess it all evened out in the end.
After getting out the second, Padilla went on a roll, retiring 17 straight. He finished with seven innings for six hits, two runs (one earned), no walks, and six strikeouts. Even though he took the loss, he still lowered his ERA to 3.41.
Unfortunately, Padilla was pinch-hit for in the bottom of the seventh, and it didn't work out. It was still only a one-run game at the time (2-1 Mets), and when Carroll singled with two down, Joe Torre went with Ronnie Belliard. Belliard grounded out to short.
Everything that happened from there was a disaster. Jeff Weaver walked Reyes and Castillo, and Pagan sacrificed them to scoring position. Out went Weaver, in came James McDonald, who gave up Wright's sac-fly RBI and an intentional walk to Carlos Beltran.
Exit McDonald, enter Jack Taschner, making his first appearance with the Dodgers. Hopefully it will be his last, as he had a wild pitch and walked Davis to load the bases. Travis Schlichting came in with the bases loaded in a tough spot, and Jason Bay cranked a bases clearing double, blowing the game open at 6-1.
Even with the top of the order up, the Dodgers went down in order over the final two innings.
A lot of credit needs to be given to the Mets' defense. It seemed like the whole night they were making diving, sliding catches. Bay smacked himself into the fence in left catching a long fly from Carroll. Pagan had a couple nice ones as well. They definitely wanted this win, as they played hard from the start.
Beating a guy like Santana is never an easy task, and the Dodgers just couldn't get much going. They only had six baserunners the whole night on five hits and a walk. Rafael Furcal and Andre Ethier hit 1-2, and they went 0-for-8. Matt Kemp and Casey Blake each got on twice, but that was about it.
With Santana out of the way, the Dodgers will look to take a couple this weekend. It starts with Carlos Monasterios making his seventh spot start of the year. He's done pretty well in those starts. Mike Pelfrey goes for the Mets, and he's been getting rocked lately.
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