Mets 7 Indians 6: Defense Does Them In

Nights like this show why the Indians are a last place team. With such a small margin for error, the Wahoos must play smart baseball if they are going to hang with the big boys. That always starts with pitching and defense. Now consider that they were facing one of the best pitchers in the game, Johan Santana, and you can imagine how important playing crisp baseball was.

Justin Masterson was cruising into the fifth inning with a 4-1 lead, and then his defense flat out failed him. The first man to bat, Jeff Francoeur, singled to right field. No big deal. Then the Mets started to play NL small ball. Alex Cora laid down a sacrifice bunt attempt (yes, in the fifth inning). Somewhere, Eric Wedge was cringing. Cora’s bunt was fielded by Masterson, except nobody was covering first. Russ Branyan should have been covering the bag, but he charged the ball for some odd reason. Luis Valbuena didn’t get to the bag in time. “The ball wasn’t hit that hard,” Manny Acta said. “Russell should have stayed at first base.” Jose Reyes then attempted a sac bunt of his own, which Masterson proceeded to throw into right field, scoring Francouer.

After an Angel Pagan groundout, David Wright hit a grounder to Jason Donald fielded and threw to first. Wright allegedly beat it out, according to the worst umpire in the game, CB Bucknor. The speedy Reyes came barrelling around third and Branyan’s throw home wasn’t even close. Yes, you read this correctly, the Mets got two runs on an infield single where the batter was out, but ruled otherwise. Things got worse from there. Ike Davis crushed a two run homer to deep center and in the blink of an eye, the Indians were down 6-4.

“We just ended up beating ourselves by not making the plays in that inning,” said Acta. “You have to play defense. That inning basically cost us the game.”

It was a rough night for Donald, who was charged with two errors (which could have been three).  The defense up the middle between Donald and Valbuena is certainly not going to make anyone forget Omar Vizquel and Robbie Alomar. “I take a lot of pride in my defense,” said Donald. “We gave them extra outs tonight, and you can’t do that with the hitters they have in that lineup. If I make a few plays, it’s a different ballgame. This one’s on me”

JD wasn’t kidding. When you score four runs against Johan Santana, you have to win that game. Instead, the Indians kicked it away with defense that only Don Nelson or Mike D’Antoni could love.

The extra outs came back to bite them in the end. Trailing 7-4 in the ninth, the Tribe mounted a rally against closer Francisco Rodriguez. A Russell Branyan single and a Shelley Duncan pinch hit home run brought the Tribe to within one. That is how it would end. If they catch the ball, the result could have been much different.

Meanwhile, the Indians got that early lead off of Santana thanks to some solid at bats. Travis Hafner crushed a Santana slider deep into the Mets bullpen to start a three-run second. It was Hafner’s fourth homer in six games. Over the past week, he has really been swinging the bat better, going 8-22 (.364) with eight RBIs. They loaded the bases with one out and after Donald’s strange bunt attempt hit him coming out of the batters box, Trevor Crowe came through with a big two-out, two-run single. Donald’s two-out RBI single, a Tribe staple this season, came in the fourth to extend the lead to 4-1.

That was when the wheels were just about to start falling off the wagon.

In another crazy development, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the manager. Manny Acta, for the first time this season, actually came out of the dugout to argue a call. Not once, but twice! As I tweeted, only the horrific umpiring of CB Bucknor could make the most passive manager in the game come out of the dugout.

In their past two games, the Indians have faced Stephen Strasburg and Johan Santana. Things may get a little easier tonight as they face rookie lefty Jon Niese (3-2, 3.61 ERA). ‘The Fury” Mitch Talbot (7-4, 3.59 ERA) will take the mound for the Wahoos.

photo via Thomas Ondrey/PD