This is the other side of Oliver Perez, the side the Mets paid 36 million over 3 years for.
When he's on, the power lefty slings a side-armed low 90s fastball with a sharp slider that can go back door on right-handed batters.
When he's off, his fastball tops out at 88 mph, the curve isn't falling for strikes and he has little to no control.
That wasn't the case for the Mets' first win at Citi Field. It helps that the Fathers let the good guys load the bases twice and score six runs with just one hit. Carlos Beltran's RBI single was it.
They got a sac fly from Daniel Murphy, a run scored on a Sheffield double play and the other three runs came home when Chase Headley, the Fathers' converted catcher couldn't corral a changeup.
Say that five times fast.
The Mets still aren't hitting with runners in scoring position, something that was their downfall last year despite scoring 799 runs, eighth best in the league. They scored all those runs and still were 13th in the NL with runners in scoring position...
Or something like that.
Either way, the bigger thing was Jackie Robinson Day. I actually heard Skip Carey talking about how he didn't like the fact that every one wore #42. That it could be hard for someone to keep track of the game...
Skip Carey can take a long walk and just keep going.
The bigger point behind the day was the numbers. Searching online, a 2007 ESPN article stats that the 8.4 percent of black ball players in 2006 was the lowest in two decades. The fact of the matter is blacks (and whites for that matter) are not playing baseball as much anymore.
It's as simple as that.
John Maine tomorrow against Jake Peavy, who hopefully will get comfortable and add Queens to the list of teams he'd be willing to be traded to. When the season began, I figured Omar didn't go after Manny because he figured Matt Holliday would be available if the A's were out of the mix. But with the Fathers' Fire Sale in full effect, I would rather empty the rest of the minor league stable for a Santana/Peavy top two.
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