Skip to main content

Road Worriers

You can't win by walk-off when you're playing on the road, and that's one reason that you get more one-run wins at home than you do away from home.

By my quick count at this late hour, the 2008 Mets were 6-14 in road games decided by one run.

The 2009 Mets are 1-0.

What you witnessed on Monday was not just the first one-run Opening Day road win in Mets history, but also arguably the best performance by a Mets bullpen in an Opening Day game in a long time, if not all-time (maybe I'll check into that later in the day).

3 1/3 innings of no-run, no-hit baseball, capped by a 10-pitch, eight-strike. angst-free effort from the new closer. Not too shabby.

Someone who knows the game well told me last year that the reason he really liked Francisco Rodriguez was because Rodriguez was a great road pitcher. The numbers bore that out. In 2008, Rodriguez was 36-for-39 in save chances that came on the road. That's a 92 percent closeout rate. Of those saves, 17 came in instances like that which you saw yesterday- an inning pitched without his allowing a run. Seventeen is a big improvement from six, wouldn't you say?

It's cool when you win by walk-off, but perhaps by the end of this season, we'll be making as big a deal of all the walk-off denials we witnessed, starting with the one on day one.

True Metpeners know...One good nugget left out when the day's trivia question came up. Not only did Todd Hundley hit four Opening Day homers (tied with Darryl Strawberry for most in team history)...he hit them in four consecutive seasons (1994-1997)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Walk-Offs in Movies, TV, and Other Places

Note: I'm leaving this post up through the end of the week, a) because I don't have time to pump out something new and b)because I was hoping to build a really good list of entertainment industry walk-offs...so if you're looking for something new, check back on Monday or so... Of course, if there's a major trade or move, I'll adjust and try to post something... In the meantime, click on the "Table of Contents" link as well. It has been updated. SPOILER ALERT: Read at your own risk Caught the ending of "A League of Their Own" on one of the movie channels the other day and it got me to thinking that it would be fun to compile a list of walk-offs from movies, television, and other forms of entertainment. Here's the start, and only the start, as I spent about 30 minutes or so thinking it over Help me fill in the blanks by filling out the comments section. "A League of Their Own"-- Racine beats Rockford for the All-American Girls Profess

The best Mets ejections I know

When you think of the Mets and famous ejections, I'm guessing you first think of the famous Bobby Valentine mustache game, when after Valentine got tossed, he returned to the dugout in disguise. You know it. You love it. I remember being amused when I asked Bobby V about it while we were working on Baseball Tonight, how he simply said "It worked. We won the game." (true) But the Bobby V mustache game of June 9, 1999 is one of many, many memorable Mets ejection stories. And now thanks to Retrosheet and the magic of Newspapers.com , we have a convenient means for being able to share them. Ever since Retrosheet's David Smith recently announced that the Retrosheet ejection database was posted online , I've been a kid in a candy store. I've organized the data and done some lookups of media coverage around the games that interested me post. Those newspaper accounts fill in a lot of blanks. Without further ado (and with more work to do), here are some of my findings

The 'Duca of Earl (and walk-offs)

If I told you that the Mets had just obtained a guy who is a career .316 hitter with runners in scoring position? How about if I told you that the Mets just traded for a hitter who has consistently ranked among the toughest in baseball to strike out? Or if I mentioned that the Mets just dealt for a player who was selected to the NL All-Star team the last three seasons, with the last honor coming via a vote by his peers? So, although he's on the down side age wise, his throwing arm isn't as good as it used to be, and he doesn't provide much power, there are a lot of good things that Paul Lo Duca brings to the New York Mets. For example: He'll sacrifice his body for the good of the team The Dodgers and Braves squared off on August 23, 2002 and Lo Duca made an impact both on the start and finish of this game. Three pitches after being dusted by Greg Maddux, Lo Duca made him pay with a first-inning home run. The Braves rallied to tie the game, 3-3 in the ninth, but their bu