Minor League Gamer

Who would have thought that the New York Mets Pitching Staff would be the strongest part of the team, while the Hitting Staff would be the weakest? Saturday, April 17th against the Saint Louis Cardinals, the Mets Hitting Staff was shut-down until the top of the 19th inning when Jose Reyes scored a run on a sacrifice fly against a position player converted to pitcher during the game. All regular relievers were already used up in the Cardinals bullpen, and the only pitchers available were starters.

Cardinals coach Tony La Russa decided not to bring in any of his starting pitchers to continue the game; so, he elected therefore to use position players to do the pitching. This decision eventually cost him the game, considering the fact that the Mets hitters could not hit a ball outside the Saint Louis infield if their lives depended on it.

The Mets Hitting Staff could not even score a run against Felipe Lopez, Cardinals third-base man who took over the pitching duties, temporarily relinquishing his third-base position in the top of the 18th inning; this is how dreadful the Mets batters were. Even Jason Bay could not buy a hit to save his life. He went something like 0-for- 7 and was only afforded the chance to reach first base when he was struck on the hand by Joseph Mather (infielder and outfielder), another position player converted to pitcher in the middle of the game.

With his teammates standing on top of the dugout watching every pitch hurled by the shortstop, who won the 3-game series opener with a grand slam the night before, Felipe Lopez pitched a scoreless 18th inning. His Cardinals teammates, jumping up and down, smacking high fives all over the dugout, roared when he entered the dugout allowing no runs and one hit to the hapless Mets hitting staff.

Every Mets fan in the stadium and at home must have been thinking that this could be the worst loss ever in the history of the Mets franchise if the team happens to lose this game. Luckily however, the worst did not happen, and the Mets came away with a 2-1 win over the Cardinals in the 20th inning.

When the season started, every Mets fan was saying that the front office did not do much to make the pitching staff better. Indeed, Mets fans are correct in their claim because the team really did not sign any big-name pitchers. They only added Minor League pitchers from their farm system in Jonathan Niese, Jenrry Mejia, and Fernando Nieve and borrowed Raul Valdes from the Mexican League. The team also signed two Japanese pitchers (Ryota Igarashi and Hisanori Takahashi) who are currently in the bullpen along with Mejia and Nieve while Niese is in the starting rotation at the number five spot.