A Couple of Rhetorical Questions About Tonight’s Mets/Cardinals Game

In case you’re relying on this website for all of your sports news and information, let me first inform you that the M ets found several new and excruciating ways to lose a baseball game tonight, losing to the Cardinals 12-7 in 10 innings.  For the record, according to Fangraphs, the Mets had a greater than 80% win expectancy from the bottom of the 5th until K-Rod blew it in the 9th, so this was a tough loss to take.  So, I’m not sure what exactly Mr. Met has to smile about.

I’m going to skip over Angel Pagan’s horrendous base running in the first inning, Johan Santana’s subpar performance, Luis Castillo injuring himself while walking into the dugout, and K-Rod’s terrible blown save in the ninth inning.  But, this is what I’m wondering:

First, how and why did Jerry Manuel decide to use his bullpen the way he did in the 10th inning?  Brian Stokes enters the game to start the inning to face Yadier Molina. Molina’s OPS is .739 vs. righties and .690 vs. lefties in 2009.  Stokes retires Molina on one pitch. Manuel then takes Stokes out and brings in Pedro Feliciano to face Rick Ankiel. Ankiel’s OPS is .727 vs. RHP and .612 vs. LHP, so a bit of an advantage to have a lefty face him, But, there was no body on base and Molina and Ankiel hit 6th and 7th in the Cardinals’ order and are both below average offensive players this season.  So why play lefty/righty with these guys up and waste one of your best relievers (Stokes) in the process?  This is a tie game in extra innings (which could go on for a while) and Manuel chooses to use a key cog in his bullpen for one batter to start an inning against the bottom of the order? Mindless.

Secondly, what was Daniel Murphy doing at the plate in the bottom of the ninth? He was up with 2 outs and a runner in scoring position and did this:

This is a guy who swings at pitches out of the zone 22.7% of the time (MLB average is 25%) and he chases two terrible pitches in a huge spot, including one that bounced? 

Thirdly, does Sean Green maybe want to consider trying to paint the corners  justa little bit against Albert Pujols?  Apparently not, because this is how Green pitched to Pujols down by 1 with the bases loaded in the 10th:

Really Sean? No interest in throwing a tough pitch to Pujols; not even on 0-2.  Nice work.  By the way, that pitch being labeled “in play” is not accurate, unless the left field stands are considered “in play.”