Rays at Metropolitans - 6/19/09

Stuff you should know about last night's game

• We lost.
• Rays pitching failed to keep the baseball in the field of play again. This time, It was Sonnenstine giving up a 3-run HR to Brian Schneider in the 3rd inning. It was also a bomb. Schneider now has a grand total of 1 HR on the year.
• By the 4th inning the Rays trailed 4-0. They were able to stage a late rally and get within one, but couldn't finish the job. Wait, I just had déjà vu, Where have we seen that before? (see: Thursday game vs. Colorado)
• B.J. Upton continued to swing that bat better than he had the beginning of the season, as if that would be hard to do. His 2 run double in the 8th got the Rays within a run but Crawford was unable to get Upton home, grounding out to the pitcher to end the rally.
• Upton also stole his 26th base of the year. With all the attention being given to Carl Crawford, Upton has quietly stolen 26 of 31 bases and is 3rd in the American League.
• The Mets were able to steal 3 bags in 3 attempts against Navarro. It was the 32nd, 33rd, and 34th basses stolen off Navi this year. His percentage of base runners thrown out is .227. For those not great at math, this is not a very large number. We would like to see Navi throw out at least 30% or higher.
• Andy Sonnenstine collected another hit and is batting .300 on the year.
• Pat Burrell came in as a pinch hitter for Sonnenstine in the 7th. With runners on the corners, he represented the tying run. I'm sure I am not the only person who thought to themselves "Burrell is due for another long ball". He struck out. FML
• The 2 through 5 hitters (C.C., Longo, Pena, and Zorilla) went a combined 0-13. If we want to win, that cannot happen.
• I'm pretty sure not many people know anyone in the Mets rotation after Johan Santana, especially Fernando Nieve. But somehow, he held the Rays to just 3 hits in 6 innings pitched while striking out 4. He is 2-0 in his first 2 starts with a 1.84 ERA.
• After a 6 game winning streak, the Rays have now lost 3 in a row. However, thanks to the all-mighty Nationals beating the Yankees 2 out of 3 in New York, The Rays have only lost 1 game in the standing to the Yanks and trail the Wild Card by 4 games. It could be worse. A LOT worse.
• Today's game will be the Fox national broadcast. Johan Santana will be starting for the Mets against Big Game James Shields. Santana is coming off his worst start in his entire career, going just 3 innings and giving up 9 earned runs. There are 2 ways to look at this: 1) He is struggling in his last few games and messing with his mechanics due to a blister on his finger. Or 2) He had a bad game, is pissed as hell, and wants to take it out on the Rays hitters. Let us pray it is numero uno.
• Mets players are very affectionate.....