Impossible
| Game 43: May 23, 2009 | |||
 Mets | 3 | W: Pedro Feliciano (1-1) S: J.J. Putz (2) | 23-19, 2 game winning streak |
| Red Sox | 2 | BS, L: Jonathan Papelbon (1, 0-1) | 25-18, 2 game losing streak |
| Highlights: Alex Cora was interviewed by Heidi Watney in her “Opposite Field” segment. He misses Boston, you can tell. When asked about how he likes playing for the Mets, there was a long pause. Then he went for the standard “this is a great team, we’re contenders” soundbite before mentioning that in New York the fans and media get on you quicker than in Boston. Cora characterized his time with the Red Sox as “my best three years I ever had in baseball” and that he missed Dustin Pedroia’s smack talk. In preparation for the knuckleballer today, Cora said the strategy is to go out tonight and have some drinks. Probably with some of his former AL teammates. | |||
If it had been J.J. Putz or Francisco Rodriguez who blew the game for the Mets, the back page of the Gotham tabloid would have been worse than what it was for Jonathan Papelbon. The Boston Herald only screeched “Gone Baby Gone” in 200-point font. “K-Fraud,” “J.J.=Just Junk,” and “Just a Putz” are some of the possibilities.
Josh Beckett was a bit too keyed up in the first inning. He got two quick outs but then allowed a single to Carlos Beltran that Nick Green stopped from slipping into the outfield. Beckett’s second pickoff throw was off the mark and allowed Beltran to take second base.
The Red Sox starter then tried too hard to right his wrong and compounded the situation. Beckett got into Mike Lowell’s way attempting to chase down Gary Sheffield’s pop-up in foul territory. Sheffield singled to left to plate the first run of the evening.
Boston answered right back with two runs in the bottom of the first. Jacoby Ellsbury extended his hitting streak to 18 games with a single and Dustin Pedroia singled through the hole. With the skittish Mike Pelfrey on the mound and Kevin Youkilis in the box the baserunners perfectly executed a double steal. Youkilis nailed Ellsbury with a sharply batted ball right before he straightened out his line to drop a liner into left for two runs.
Shockingly those would be the only runs the Red Sox would plate. Pelfrey does not have nerves of steel and yet he matched Beckett’s goose eggs frame by frame.
Green’s defensive prowess ended the fifth inning threat. With runners on second and first Green chased down Daniel Murphy’s pop out behind second and twisted just in time to glove the ball. In the bottom of the inning Green jumped on the first pitch and shattered his bat to single up the middle. “That bat died a good death,” said Dennis Eckersley. Murphy was robbed by Green again in the eighth; the Mets outfielder’s broken-bat bloop found Green’s glove for the first out of the inning.
“Who is Omir Santos?” Jonathan Papelbon should be asking himself. A rookie back-up backstop that shouldn’t be hitting cheese for a game-winning two-run homer with two outs, that’s for sure. The home run, which was so improbable it required Joe West to fire up the replay machine (the first time it was used at Fenway), was the second four-bagger in Santos’s career. His only other quadrangular came against Anibal Sanchez, a former Red Sox prospect who was traded to the Marlins to acquire Beckett.
