Of course the offense looks lively in this game, of all games, with one of the worst lineups that the team can put out there. When the lineup was initially posted, both VEB and Twitter alike expressed disbelief, which was quickly followed by snark of the "oh I bet we'll score a bunch of runs with THIS team" variety.
Well, we did.
The scoring started in the bottom of the 2nd inning, when Yadier Molina hit a home run out to left field. I was listening to Mike Shannon, who deked me out twice on the call: First, when he started his "get up baby"'s, I thought to myself "Hey Rui, don't let Mike do this to you again! He always miscalls home runs!" Then, he yelled that the ball hit off the wall, so I thought it wasn't a home run. Then, finally, it was.
The Mets would equalize in the 4th inning on a David Wright solo shot, but that really Michael Wacha's only mistake on the night. His changeup was reliably on point throughout the night, frequently getting hitters to chase with two strikes in dangerous situations.
In the 5th inning, Daniel Descalso led off with a HBP and was promptly sacrificed over to 2nd base. After a Peter Bourjos strikeout, Jon Jay would triple down the right field line to an immobile Bobby Abreu to score Descalso, and then Holliday would rip a double to almost the same spot to score Jon Jay.
In the 6th, Jhonny Peralta hit a ground rule double with one out, and then Descalso reached on an error by Daniel Murphy, who bobbled the ball but still made a decent throw to first, but Duda wasn't covering the bag. Kolten Wong would single to center to score Peralta. Then, in what was the most interesting part of the game to me, Kolten Wong tried to steal second, but the throw beat him handedly. Daniel Murphy, however, was focused on Descalso, and without applying a tag to Wong, threw to 3rd to try and get the out there, but failed. This was catcher Anthony Recker's face after the play
via pbs.twimg.com
Peter Bourjos would hit a ground ball deep into the hole to score Descalso.
Jason Motte came on in the 9th to try and finish off the game, but after a Lucas Duda home run and Anthony Recker ground-rule double, he was lifted for Pat Neshek, who threw 4 pitches to get 3 outs. Winner winner chicken dinner
Three Stars of the Game (by WPA)
- Michael Wacha (.197) - 6 IP, 7 SO, 1 ER. That'll do, pig
- Jon Jay (.165) - 2 for 5 with a run scoring triple in a tie game
- Matt Holliday (.082) 2 for 4 with a run scoring double in 1 run game
Three ...not Stars of the Game (by WPA)
- Allen Craig (-.074) 0 for 4 with two strikeouts
- Mark Ellis (-.060) - 0 for 4. Hitting just .188/.282/.218 this season
- Jason Motte (-.057) - Gave up a home run and a double without recording an out
MIKE MATHENY DOUBLE SWITCH WATCH
None! Wong pinch hit for Wacha, and then Adams pinch hit for Freeman, but no double switches involved!
Source: FanGraphs