NewsBattling bug, Maine stellar in Mets' win
Righty exits after six scoreless innings; Pagan injures groin
By Anthony DiComo / MLB.com
05/31/09 6:44 PM ET
NEW YORK -- So depleted by injuries and illnesses throughout the course of May, the Mets spent the final day of the month realizing the absurdity of their misfortune. At various points this month, they have played without a first baseman, two shortstops, two relievers and four outfielders.Their latest trouble is a stomach bug that has danced its way around the home clubhouse at Citi Field, affecting first Carlos Beltran and then John Maine, and prompting the most prominent Mets player to take his proper precautions.
"I need one of those masks," third baseman David Wright said, laughing.
But not a paper bag. Through it all, the Mets have been winning, capping their homestand Sunday with a 3-2 victory over the Marlins. With the win, the Mets finished May with a 19-9 record -- good under normal circumstances, and downright impressive considering those currently surrounding the team.
Entering Sunday's game without Beltran, who was battling a stomach virus, the Mets lost his backup, Angel Pagan, in the third inning due to injury. The final three hitters in their lineup were Fernando Martinez, Omir Santos and Wilson Valdez -- hardly what they drew up back in Port St. Lucie, Fla., during Spring Training. And the glue -- Maine -- weakened somewhat after Beltran's stomach virus made its way up the pitcher's mound.
So successful over the first six innings, mixing more changeups than usual into his typical fastball-slider game plan, Maine (5-3) struck out as many batters -- five -- as he allowed to reach base. But unbeknownst to manager Jerry Manuel, he was pitching with more than a measure of discomfort, which later became clear.
"I think in the sixth inning, what he had -- left," Manuel said, selecting his euphemism wisely. "I didn't want him to go out there with nothing in him, so we went in a different direction."
Preparing to warm up in the seventh inning, Maine instead handed the game over to J.J. Putz, Bobby Parnell and Francisco Rodriguez, who pitched with increasing levels of success.
Putz retired one batter, but allowed three straight to reach base -- prompting Manuel to remove his heralded setup man in favor of a rookie. Parnell allowed a hit to the first batter he faced, but retired the next two, including a strikeout of Jorge Cantu on a wicked slider with the tying run on third base. And Rodriguez struck out the side in the ninth, converting his 14th consecutive save.
Through two months as the new Mets closer, Rodriguez has produced a 0.73 ERA. He has not blown a save.
"Unfortunately, every single person on the planet knows what the situation has been the past two years," Rodriguez said. "Hopefully we're here to change that, and that's my goal."
Not that K-Rod has been immune to the injury bug that has gripped this team. In perhaps the scariest injury of a head-scratching May, Rodriguez collapsed outside the clubhouse in Boston last weekend after falling victim to severe back spasms.
He saved his 12th game less than two days later.
"If back spasms couldn't keep me out of a game, I don't think a stomach virus could keep me out of a game," Rodriguez said.
That's a philosophy that Maine -- if he had his way -- would have followed. Instead, Manuel removed his suddenly hot starting pitcher after six innings, casting at least a modicum of doubt on Maine's second consecutive win.
It was unwarranted. The Mets -- after taking a quick lead on Pagan's run-scoring double in the third -- tacked on two more when Martinez and Santos doubled home runs in the seventh. Putz gave those two back to the Marlins (23-28), but the Mets (28-21) allowed nothing more. And that allowed them to wrap up May on an appropriately high note.
Throughout this month, the only Opening Day starters immune to injury have been Wright, Daniel Murphy and Luis Castillo -- and Wright and Murphy have both spent the latter half of the month mired in slumps. Murphy's current funk is so bad that, nursing a one-run lead in the seventh, Manuel elected to have him sacrifice and allow Martinez -- with 15 big league at-bats to his credit -- to hit in a crucial spot.
In retrospect, the move worked. But it was indicative of the makeshift strategy the Mets have had to endure throughout a month that has evolved from curious to unfortunate to unbelievable.
Every team has injuries. Few have epidemics.
Yet the Mets have churned along, taking both games of a two-game set from the Phillies and sweeping the Pirates earlier in May, winning three straight in San Francisco, taking two of three from the Red Sox and tying it all together with five wins in six tries at Citi Field to end the month. They are hurting, worse than they have in years. But they are winning, sitting just a half-game out of first place.
Sooner or later -- and they all hope sooner -- their health will improve. And if the Mets are to make the playoffs for the first time in three years, they will look back on this stretch as a significant reason why.
"We've had some bumps in the road," Rodriguez said, discounting the difficulty of what his team has accomplished. "We've had some injuries. We've had guys around here that are a little banged up. And we're just going through it."
Anthony DiComo is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
