7/28/07 The Flat-Brimmed Closer? Does He Stay Or Does He Go? C'Mon You Got To Let Me Know?...

GAME 1 of 2...

660 AM for the first game of today’s Day/ Night double header with Tim Redding on the mound for the visiting Washington Nationals and Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez on the hill for the home team New York Mets ...No score after two innings of play...Shawn Green singles to start the third, Redding strikes out the opposing pitcher for his fifth K in three innings. Reyes takes Redding deep to center, but it gets hung up on the humid air and falls short of the fence...Ruben Gotay grounds out to end the third scoreless for Redding. Ramon Castro singles Carlos Delgado over to third in the fourth inning. Marlon “He’s a Met Again?” Anderson flies to right, but Delgado returns to third when he sees Austin Kearns throw in from right... Lastings Milledge comes up next and scores Delgado with a line drive to left, 1-0 Mets after five... Felipe Lopez blasts a solo shot off El Duque to start the sixth. 1-1 ballgame...Tim Redding is out after six...Jose Reyes doubles with one out in the seventh off Nationals reliever Saul Rivera. Gotay up again, and he lines to right, Reyes scores, 2-1 Mets...Rivera walks David Wright...2-1, 1 out for Delgado...Delgado lines to right, Gotay scores. 3-1 Mets... Heilman on to hold it in the eigth, retires the side in order, and BIlly Wagner comes on to close it in the ninth. Mets win Game 1. 3-1 Final.

Nationals now 44-59.

   Game 2 of 2

   The “night” half of this day/ night doubleheader features two rookies on the hill, New York’s Mike Pelfrey and Washington’s Joel Hanrahan. Pelfrey looks for his first win of the season, (0-7, 6.12 ERA) as Hanrahan makes his MLB debut. Pelfrey, in spite of his struggles, remains the Mets number one prospect, while Hanrahan is yet another prospect from the Dodgers organization who never quite caught on and has now found a home in DC.
   Both Pelfrey and Hanrahan feature mid-90’s fastball’s though Hanrahan’s seems to have a bit more movement. One thing’s for sure, Hanrahan’s more dangerous with the bat. After pitching his second scoreless Hanrahan triples to lead off the third on a line drive that gets by Lastings Milledge in center. Hanrahan scores on D’Angelo Jimenez’s bloop hit over first. Ryan Zimmerman comes up with D’Angelo Jimenez at second, and singles him home for a 2-0 Nationals lead. DY singles to score Zimmerman from second. Kearns singles. 3-0 Nationals.
   Hanrahan throws three and a third hitless before David Wright singles on a line drive to center that Ryan Langerhans knocks it down, but can’t make the catch in spite of a diving effort. Hanrahan blows Carlos Delgado away with a live ninety-five mph fastball outside. Moises Alou pops up for the last out of the fourth. Still 3-0 Nationals after four.
   D’Angelo Jimenez singles again to start the fifth, but gets nailed trying to take third on Ronnie Belliard’s single up the middle when Milledge fields and throws in time for David Wright to apply the tag. Zimmerman flies out to left. DY gets the two-out shot at an RBI... but Pelfrey gets DY swinging with the heater. 3-0 after five.
   Hanrahan’s really starting to locate a nice curve as the game progresses. Five innings of one hit ball end when Lastings Milledge chases a few breaking balls into the dirt and then pops out to center where Langerhans closes the glove on it. Mike Pelfrey issues his first free pass to Fick with two out in the fifth. Langerhans takes a fastball off the knee, which caroms off Mets catcher Paul LoDuca’s knee in a way which makes the “Magic Bullet” JFK theory seem plausible. Pelfrey bounces back and gets Hanrahan to ground out to end the top of the sixth. 3-0 Nationals.
   Hanrahan gets Jose Reyes swinging at a brutal change for the second out of the sixth, but tries the same pitch again and Ruben Gotay slaps it for a single. David Wright blasts a line drive to the left center gap, Gotay’s on his horse, and scores easily as the throw’s off line. 3-1 Nationals. Carlos Delgado gets a hold of an outside fastball and drives it the opposite way, Fick tracks it to the wall, but turns back as it sails into the stands. 3-3 after six innings of play.
   Guillermo “Scarlet S” Mota retires the first two batters of the seventh before walking Ryan Zimmerman on a full count ball inside. DY flies out to center. Stand up and stretch... Back to back singles off Ray King from LoDuca and Milledge with one out in the seventh, and the Mets use up their bench in the seventh when LoDuca pulls up lame, pitcher Orlando Hernandez comes on to run at second, and Marlon Anderson pinch hits while Ramon Castro puts on the catching gear. Anderson pops out to Fick in left for the second out of the inning. Jose Reyes will face the Tallest Pitcher in MLB History as Manny Acta, Nationals Manager, goes to the pen. Jon Rauch gets a pop off third that Ronnie Belliard snaps the glove on. 3-3 after seven.
   Austin Kearns strokes a single to center off Jose Feliciano to start the eigth, and moves to second on a wild pitch with Brian Schneider at the plate. Schneider grounds out to the pitcher allowing AK to advance to third. Tony Batista is issued the intentionals. Langerhans SINGLES through short. Kearns scores easily from third. 4-3 Nationals. Feliciano loads the bases with two out walk, and Aaron Heilman comes on to end the eigth. Ronnie Belliard drives in two runs with a line drive to left...D’Angelo Jimenez rounds third and gets nailed trying for home. 6-3 Nationals.
   Ruben Gotay singles off Rauch to start the Met eigth. David Wright smokes a hanging slider to center. Gotay stops at second. Carlos “Longball” Delgado grounds a skipper up the middle. Gotay scores. Wright to third. 6-4 Nationals. Alou grounds to Felipe Lopez at short to Belliard at second to Batista at first, double play. Wright scores. 6-5 Nationals. Shawn Green singles to left. Ramon Castro up next. Green steals second, and moves to third when Schneider’s throw sails into center. Castro grounds to first. 6-5 after eight.
   Aaron Heilman retires the Nationals in order in the ninth. Wait for it...
   Chad Cordero enters the game in the humid night air of Shea Stadium in July wearing the gray away Nationals uniforms, navy blue Nationals cap with the white cursive “W” stitched above a brim as flat as the line on Vice President Cheney’s heart monitor when they induced a cartiac infarction in order to replace his pacemaker(Sorry this was a write in anology...Cheney/Jeb ‘08!!!). Cordero faces Milledge. Milledge grounds to third. Tom Glavine will have to pinch hit. (Torre teach you this, Mr Randolph?) Glavine grounds out to short. Reyes grounds out to short. The Flat-Brimmed Closer shuts the door. 1,2,3 Nationals win. 6-5 final.