Last night was ugly for the New York Mets and now everyone is going nuts about the bullpen. Of course, the bullpen is dreadful, but there’s not much that can be done about it right now. Bringing up Jenrry Mejia (who has been really bad in Buffalo) or Manny Acosta (who has been good in triple-A but not as good in the majors this season) would likely amount to “rearranging the chairs on the Titanic.”
As for outside help, with so many teams still in contention (and thus, so few sellers), the price is going to be driven up on even minor acquisitions. With still two weeks to go until the trade deadline, the sellers are going to hold off on simply giving assets away just in case a buyer gets desperate at the deadline and decides to give up something besides financial relief. There’s little incentive for sellers to give up their assets just yet, and because of that, the Mets front office probably won’t get any help to the bullpen until the deadline draws closer.
In case you missed it last night, Jon Niese threw his best seven innings of the season, but the Mets trailed 2-0 heading into the ninth. In the final frame, Jordanny Valdespin entered as a pinch-hitter for Jason Bay and launched a three-run home run to right field that gave the Mets the lead. However, that was short-lived as Bobby Parnell surrendered a game-tying RBI single to Danny Espinosa in the bottom of the ninth.
The 10th saw the Mets take the lead once again when Josh Thole drove an RBI double to left, over the heads of a drawn-in outfield. That Nationals, though, would overcome that deficit as well. Bryce Harper ripped an RBI triple off of Tim Byrdak and later scored the winning run on a two-out Pedro Beato wild pitch.
Tonight, the Mets get back in the saddle. Here’s the lineup:
#Mets Wednesday lineup at Washington: Tejada-6; Murphy-4; Wright-5; Davis-3; Duda-9; Bay-7; Torres-8; Thole-2; Young-1
— New York Mets (@Mets) July 18, 2012
Even against the right-handed Zimmermann, Jason Bay is in the lineup again tonight. I’m not sure if he should be starting against righties right now, but on the other hand, he probably deserves at least a week of solid playing time before being shoved into a platoon with the volatile Valdespin.
Nationals lineup:
#Nats 7/18 Lineup: Lombardozzi 2B, Harper CF, Zimmerman 3B, LaRoche 1B, Morse RF, Moore LF, Espinosa SS, Flores C, Zimmermann RHP
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) July 18, 2012
Pitching Match-up
NYM — Chris Young (4.28 ERA, 23 SO, 11 BB)
Before last week’s debacle in Atlanta, Young had only allowed either two or three runs in all of his outings this season. That sort of remarkable consistency is all the Mets can hope for out of Young, who doesn’t miss a lot of bats and relies mostly on fly balls not leaving the ballpark. Young allowed three runs in five innings in his last start against Washington, so asking for one more inning and one less run doesn’t feel like too much to ask for tonight.
WAS — Jordan Zimmermann (2.48 ERA, 80 SO, 23 BB)
It’s pretty scary that Zimmermann is Washington’s third best pitcher, but it’s been quite a special season for this pitching staff. Zimmermann is working on a streak of eight straight quality starts, and in his last one, he shut out the Marlins for six innings. The young right-hander averages around 94 miles per hour with his fastball, and likes to mix in a slider (86 MPH) and curveball (78 MPH).
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