Call-up Nieve stymies Yanks, evens series
BRONX, NY – Baseball’s old adage is that momentum is your next days starting pitcher.
You would have thought the heartbreaking loss suffered by the Mets after the dropped popup by Luis Castillo could possibly carry over into the rest of this weekend.
Enter Fernando Nieve.
Having been not good enough to pitch for a putrid Houston Astros team and pitching in the minor leagues all season, he was called up for an injured John Maine as an emergency. Had he simply held the team in the game, it would have been good enough for them.
Nieve provided much more than that.
He was the star of this show, putting the Yankees bats on ice one night after the Mets worst loss of the season, in their 6-2 victory at Yankee Stadium.
Pumping in fastballs reaching 93 to 95 MPH and showing superb control, the Yankees offense were unable to get a handle on the right-hander. It follows a pattern of struggles the team has when facing relatively unknown pitchers.
The same cannot be said for Andy Pettitte who had his fourth consecutive sub par performance. He claims he is not having any physical issues, but he is clearly not pitching the same way since his back began to flare three weeks ago in Cleveland.
Since then, we have seen his start with a familiar theme. High pitch innings with walks and excessive base runners have lead to problems.
Today was no exception.
After a scoreless first inning when he threw 23 pitches, Pettitte found trouble in the second inning. After getting Gary Sheffield to fly out to begin the inning, he walked Fernando Tatis. Ryan Church sacrificed the runner over to third with two out. With catcher Omir Santos up and ahead in the count 1-2, Santos was able to loft a pitch that landed in the first row of the left center field seats to give the Mets a 2-0 lead.
Pettitte has never made any outward statements about the ballpark playing like a pinball machine with home runs being hit on even good pitches at an alarming rate, but he showed a look of frustration and amazement of how the ball got out of the park. He would get out of the inning, but not before allowing two more singles and driving his pitch count to 54 after two innings.
The ballpark gave the Yankees good luck in the bottom half when Alex Rodriguez hit a similar homerun to left center to tie the game. Nieve though would get the next three hitters to end the frame.
It would remain 2-1 until the fifth when Pettitte would see him night come to an end. Carlos Beltran singled to lead off and David Wright doubled. Sheffield would drive home Beltran with a single to right to give the Mets a 3-1 lead. Tatis grounded into a force play at third to score Wright with the fourth run, which later in the inning became 5-1 when Santos came through again, doubling off the wall in center.
104 pitches is what it took to get Pettitte (6-3) through five innings, putting the already overworked bullpen (five inning pitched on Friday) back to work again. He gave up a season high 12 hits along with the five runs while striking out three. After starting out the season strong, the last month his seen balloon his ERA up to 4.52 as his cutter has become much more hittable and his mistakes (particularly at home) have been magnified.
Alfredo Aceves came into the game in relief and pitched a scoreless sixth. In the seventh, Sheffield (2 for 5, HR) extended the Mets lead by hammering a fastball to left field, making it 6-1. It was his second homer of the series. On Friday night, he hit a three-run shot off Brett Tomko.
Backed by the run support, Nieve continued to mow down Yankee hitters for the first six innings. In the seventh, he finally ran into trouble after the got the first two outs.
Melky Cabrera and Brett Gardner both singled. Mets Manager Jerry Manuel came to the mound to take the ball from Nieve and gave him admiration for a job well done and received a standing ovation for the Mets partisans in the crowd.
Nieve’s two run, four hit effort over 6 2/3 innings was more than the Mets could have ever asked for in 108 pitches. Though reliever Sean Green would give up an infield single to Jeter to cut the lead to 6-2 with two men on, Johnny Damon at the plate and Mark Teixeira on deck with an eye on potentially tying the game.
Unfortunately, Damon grounded out to first baseman Daniel Murphy to end the threat.
One night after being the goat an on play that will go down in Subway Series lore (and infamy), Castillo was in the leadoff spot and rebounded to go 2 for 3, spearheading a Mets offensive attack that totaled 17 hits. Seven players had at least two hits and saw rookie Fernando Martinez lead the team with three hits.
Green was able to get the ball back to Francisco Rodriguez, who the night before was credited with a blown save not of his own doing. He pitched a perfect ninth to lower his season ERA to a miniscule 0.57.
The series is now even at one game apiece with the finally on Sunday afternoon. AJ Burnett will start for the Yankees and Johan Santana pitches for the Mets.
What a difference a day makes.
BRONX, NY – Baseball’s old adage is that momentum is your next days starting pitcher.
You would have thought the heartbreaking loss suffered by the Mets after the dropped popup by Luis Castillo could possibly carry over into the rest of this weekend.
Enter Fernando Nieve.
Having been not good enough to pitch for a putrid Houston Astros team and pitching in the minor leagues all season, he was called up for an injured John Maine as an emergency. Had he simply held the team in the game, it would have been good enough for them.
Nieve provided much more than that.
He was the star of this show, putting the Yankees bats on ice one night after the Mets worst loss of the season, in their 6-2 victory at Yankee Stadium.
Pumping in fastballs reaching 93 to 95 MPH and showing superb control, the Yankees offense were unable to get a handle on the right-hander. It follows a pattern of struggles the team has when facing relatively unknown pitchers.
The same cannot be said for Andy Pettitte who had his fourth consecutive sub par performance. He claims he is not having any physical issues, but he is clearly not pitching the same way since his back began to flare three weeks ago in Cleveland.
Since then, we have seen his start with a familiar theme. High pitch innings with walks and excessive base runners have lead to problems.
Today was no exception.
After a scoreless first inning when he threw 23 pitches, Pettitte found trouble in the second inning. After getting Gary Sheffield to fly out to begin the inning, he walked Fernando Tatis. Ryan Church sacrificed the runner over to third with two out. With catcher Omir Santos up and ahead in the count 1-2, Santos was able to loft a pitch that landed in the first row of the left center field seats to give the Mets a 2-0 lead.
Pettitte has never made any outward statements about the ballpark playing like a pinball machine with home runs being hit on even good pitches at an alarming rate, but he showed a look of frustration and amazement of how the ball got out of the park. He would get out of the inning, but not before allowing two more singles and driving his pitch count to 54 after two innings.
The ballpark gave the Yankees good luck in the bottom half when Alex Rodriguez hit a similar homerun to left center to tie the game. Nieve though would get the next three hitters to end the frame.
It would remain 2-1 until the fifth when Pettitte would see him night come to an end. Carlos Beltran singled to lead off and David Wright doubled. Sheffield would drive home Beltran with a single to right to give the Mets a 3-1 lead. Tatis grounded into a force play at third to score Wright with the fourth run, which later in the inning became 5-1 when Santos came through again, doubling off the wall in center.
104 pitches is what it took to get Pettitte (6-3) through five innings, putting the already overworked bullpen (five inning pitched on Friday) back to work again. He gave up a season high 12 hits along with the five runs while striking out three. After starting out the season strong, the last month his seen balloon his ERA up to 4.52 as his cutter has become much more hittable and his mistakes (particularly at home) have been magnified.
Alfredo Aceves came into the game in relief and pitched a scoreless sixth. In the seventh, Sheffield (2 for 5, HR) extended the Mets lead by hammering a fastball to left field, making it 6-1. It was his second homer of the series. On Friday night, he hit a three-run shot off Brett Tomko.
Backed by the run support, Nieve continued to mow down Yankee hitters for the first six innings. In the seventh, he finally ran into trouble after the got the first two outs.
Melky Cabrera and Brett Gardner both singled. Mets Manager Jerry Manuel came to the mound to take the ball from Nieve and gave him admiration for a job well done and received a standing ovation for the Mets partisans in the crowd.
Nieve’s two run, four hit effort over 6 2/3 innings was more than the Mets could have ever asked for in 108 pitches. Though reliever Sean Green would give up an infield single to Jeter to cut the lead to 6-2 with two men on, Johnny Damon at the plate and Mark Teixeira on deck with an eye on potentially tying the game.
Unfortunately, Damon grounded out to first baseman Daniel Murphy to end the threat.
One night after being the goat an on play that will go down in Subway Series lore (and infamy), Castillo was in the leadoff spot and rebounded to go 2 for 3, spearheading a Mets offensive attack that totaled 17 hits. Seven players had at least two hits and saw rookie Fernando Martinez lead the team with three hits.
Green was able to get the ball back to Francisco Rodriguez, who the night before was credited with a blown save not of his own doing. He pitched a perfect ninth to lower his season ERA to a miniscule 0.57.
The series is now even at one game apiece with the finally on Sunday afternoon. AJ Burnett will start for the Yankees and Johan Santana pitches for the Mets.
What a difference a day makes.
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