John Maine worked around the trouble spot, only allowing a run to score, and proceeded to throw no hit ball in innings two through five. Sounding a little vintage Maine? Not only did he appear to be a throwback to his old self last night, but the Mets did as well by putting up a six spot on the board in the first inning with a grand salami by Omir Santos. They only backed that up with one more run the rest of the game. Vintage.There were a lot of positives to take from this game, but we shouldn't get too excited on two. First, as nice as it was to see our third string catcher blast a grand slam, there is no need to crown him king yet. Sanchez threw him a pitch that bled over the middle of the plate and he took advantage. So before you start calling for the heads of Brian Schneider and Ramon Castro, let Jerry continue to see what he has in him and lets watch what he has.
John Maine was effective. Okay so he was a little more than effective (5 no hit innings). However he has always been so against the Fish. Including last night's start, John Maine is 4 - 0 in 7 starts (41 IP) against the Marlins with a 2.20 ERA and 53K's since 2007. This is just a free-swinging, fastball hitting team that he can dominate with a pitch that rises up and outside the zone when offset with a decent slider. He did that again last night. Let's see how he carries it over into Sunday against a lefty heavy Philadelphia team, though he had mild success against them last year too (3 GS / 18.2 IP / 1-0 / 11 K / 3.38 ERA).
I think the one positive we don't need to be weary of from last night was an RBI single to the opposite field by David Wright. He also hit a triple to center field in the 8th that he wound up scoring on. Most importantly he didn't strike out once. These are the games that get him going. I think David may be back.
Photo by Bob Sabo NY Daily News
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