A totally lost weekend for the Mets in the Lone Star State, with the bullpen blowing leads both Friday and Saturday and the offense failing to show up today when it was needed the most, being shut out 4-0.
Aaron Heilman had the roughest weekend, being charged with the first two losses. On Friday, he gave up a one-out grand slam to Mark Loretta in the bottom of the eighth inning, and the losing runsin the tenth inning on Saturday after closer Billy Wagner blew another save opportunity with the Mets leading 4-2 heading toward the bottom of the ninth.
The Mets offense disappeared after the first three innings on Saturday, making it 16 straight scoreless innings against a Houston staff that has more questions than the Mets do. They did manage a fair number of hits, but typically for the road trip was the fact that they loaded the bases in consecutive innings but failed to capitalize on those chances.
There were some positive things to recall about the Houston series, with Johan Santana pitching very well on Saturday (but failing to get a win for his work yet again) and Pedro Martinez doing reasonably well on Friday in five innings before he got the hook. There were also a couple of major league debuts for the Mets, the first coming on Saturday with outfielder Daniel Murphy doing his best to save the Mets lead in the eighth with a tremendous leaping catch. Murphy caught a blast from Ty Wigginton in front of the left field fence by timing his catch just right, and then doubling off Hunter Pence at second, who was caught in no-man's land between bases trying to judge if Murphy was going to make the catch or not.
Kunz made his debut today in the seventh inning, taking over after a mediocre Oliver Perez performance, with the Mets trailing 4-0. After getting a called strike on his first pitch, Darin Erstad laid a perfect bunt down between the mound and first base, catching Kunz off guard after he'd made the pitch, and Erstad was safe at first. The next batter, Humberto Quintero, put another bunt down the first base line and Kunz, who fielded the ball, lofted the ball over the outstretched arms of first baseman Carlos Delgado. However, Erstad got greedy on the play and tried to make it to third base, where he was thrown out as the Mets quickly composed themselves after the error from the rookie. After falling behind 3-0 to Dave Newhan, Kunz then steadied himself by getting the ex-Met to ground into a double play and end his inning. Wish I had a picture of Kunz walking around earlier in the day with a bubblegum bubble atop his cap, walking around unaware of its presence. Nice little bit of rookie hazing I'd say.
With the news coming out today of injuries to both Wagner and John Maine, the "sooner" aspect of the prospective call up for Kunz was forced upon the team. No doubt the "off" aspect of the Mets erratic bullpen was another issue to consider as well. At any rate, here's to the ex-Oregon State star helping to patch things together in the Mets bullpen until the injuries are healed. In the parity-driven National League East, where all of the contending teams have picked up the habit of imploding at inopportune times, first place is still within reach.
SUNDAY RECAP
KUNZ CALL UP
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