The New York Mets are aces when it comes to toying with their fans' emotions. Chris Capuano didn't have it on the mound Saturday afternoon against the Milwaukee Brewers. By the time his final line was in the books, it was 7-1 Milwaukee.
But an inning later the Mets put together a monumental rally -- scoring five in the seventh, then added three in the eighth of off former Met, Francisco Rodriguez. The game couldn't have ended any better. It had an unlikely fairy tale twist to it, one that nobody could have conceived.
Yet, Jason Isringhausen did his best to erase any of the good memories, allowing four runs in the ninth inning on one hit and three walks. And that was all she wrote: Milwaukee won, 11-9.
It's becoming quite apparent that if Capuano is not going to hit corners with his average fastball and slow breaking stuff, he's going to get shelled, whether it's at Citi Field or not. Today, he was roughed up for five earned runs (seven altogether), with three longballs doing him in. Prince Fielder had the second home run, smashing a pitch into the right-field upper deck.
It looked like the game was over when Capuano left. The Mets were doing nothing at the plate, and with a 7-1 deficit, it would be easy to see them packing it in.
But they touched up Randy Wolf, who was cruising up to the seventh inning, for four runs in the inning, and got one off of reliever Saito as well. After seven, it was 7-6 Milwaukee and the Mets had new life.
Bobby Parnell pitched a quiet eighth inning, and the Mets' bats came alive again in the eighth inning. After two outs, Ruben Tejada walked, Josh Thole doubled him home and Angel Pagan smacked a home run to right field and the Mets had a two-run advantage.
But Izzy couldn't throw strikes, and Terry Collins was a bit late with the hook. Manny Acosta came on in relief and got Ryan Braun to to fly to right field, but Fielder singled on a curveball heading into the dirty, and brought home too. Casey McGehee hit a cue shot just past a diving Justin Turner at second base and the Brewers had an 11-9 lead they wouldn't give up.
The Mets have now only one two times in their past 10 games.