Results tagged ‘ New York Mets ’
Piñeiro… Enough Said
Last night, June 23, of 2009, Joel Piñeiro took the mound and completely dominated the Mets with 100 pitches for a 3-0 victory. Piñeiro (6-8, E.R.A. 3.40) pitched a two hit shutout keeping New York’s guys hitting ground balls all night. Piñeiro is not a strikeout pitcher, but he sure knows what to throw. Out of the 27 outs, 22 where ground balls which shows if he keeps pounding the strike zone and just let the infield take care of the game he will get the right results. He had two hits, walked a guy, and struck out a guy. He held his shutout throughout nine innings. His most dominant pitch of the night was his sinking fastball. Out of the 100 pitches he threw last night, 77 where fastballs. After the game Tony La Russa showed concern on people categorizing Piñeiro as a one pitch-pitcher adding that he has a good curveball, sinker and changeup.
The Puerto Rican native (nice!) had already proven his control of the Mets April 22, 2009 when he pitched eight innings for two runs and eight hits on a 5-2 win. His pitching against the Tigers last thursday was over shadowed by the fact that he gave up four runs in the first inning and had to be carried off the field with a leg cramp; however, he did retire sixteen in a row after the first inning and before he suffered the cramp. He has also lost some close games when the Cards could not come to produce enough runs, commenting on his loosing streak he said: “It was frustrating at first, but you can’t control what our offense does. They’re trying out there just the same way I’m trying to get outs.”
On the offensive side of the game, Piñeiro hit a double and a single, scoring the first run of the Cards on a mistake from the Mets. Pujols came up to the plate in the seventh inning with bases loaded and hit the first pitch thrown to him resulting in a two RBI single that brought in Brendan Ryan and Skip Schumaker. Albert Pujols has the right touch at the plate leading the Majors with 26 home runs and 70 RBIs. The Cards now 40-32 lead the National League Central Division by 2.0 games the Brewers and by 3.5 games the Cubs.
Pujols hits RBI # 70
Tonight we face the Mets at 6:10 p.m. CT in the the third game of the four game series. Brad Thompson (2-2, E.R.A. 3.89) is pitching for the Redbirds against Fernando Nieves (2-0, E.R.A. 1.84). Nieves has a hot arm this season and it won’t surprise me to see a tough game between the two teams. Piñeiro’s incredible pitching last night, and Pujols constant domination of the league, you know what I’m going to say, that’s why,
With these Cards, I’ll go all in.
- Andy
Cardinals Could Not Keep Up With The Mets
The Cards started tonight’s game down by two, a deficit they were not able to surpass. The Redbirds had already swept the Mets earlier in the year, but could not get the job done tonight. They did some damage along the game but could not tie the game. Skip Schumaker hit an RBI single in the third inning that brought in Khalil Greene. That kept our chances of taking the lead alive until the fourth inning when the Mets brought home another run. Later on, Ryan Ludwick hit a two run homer in the six inning that kept the Cardinals down by one run. As close as we got, in the bottom of the six inning, the Mets scored another run and regained the two run lead. The lost was given to pitcher Todd Wellemeyer (6-7, E.R.A. 5.53) who defended the mound for 5 2/3 innings in an attempt to keep the Mets lineup off the bases. An unsuccessful attempt that ended up with Wellemeyer giving up ten hits for five runs. The Mets played an amazing game. Carlos Beltran (.336) was placed in the disabled list today. Carlos Delgado (.298) and José Reyes (279) are not playing either. I had thought that it would be an easy win since New York did not have any of its big players. I was proven wrong.
The second game of the series is tomorrow at . On the mound for the Cardinals Puerto Rican native Joel Piñeiro (5-8, E.R.A. 3.76) against Cuban native Livan Hernandez (5-1, E.R.A. 4.18). Piñeiro is coming off a tough lost against the Tigers when he was carried off the field in the seventh inning suffering a cramp on the right leg. Tomorrow is another day and hopefully he has his act together and can keep the Mets with zero or almost no runs. We already swept the Mets, and I know we have the talent to turn this series again and win it, that’s why,
With these Cards, I’ll go all in.
- Andy
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