Those Mets

WRIGHT 0 FOR 4, METS FAIL TO BACK UP JOHAN

Had Jerry Manuel made a different decision or two on Thursday night, had he summoned different players at different times, the Mets still might have lost. And Manuel still might have absorbed much of the blame. But the Mets' manager made the decisions he made for specific reasons, and he spent time Thursday evening standing behind every last one of them. No matter that his Mets dropped a 2-1 game at Nationals Park, their second walk-off loss in three games. Manuel made his choices, took his chances and came up short. His players had to respect that. "Jerry's the manager," said starter Johan Santana, the key player in perhaps the most significant decision of all. "He's the skipper. He makes the decisions." It was Santana who departed Thursday's game after seven innings -- despite the fact that he had thrown merely 97 pitches, despite the fact that he was featuring a low-90s fastball and one of his best changeups of the season, despite the fact that he felt strong and wanted to continue. There was no dialogue regarding that decision. With the Mets and Nats stuck in a 1-1 tie after seven, Manuel told his ace that his day was complete after seven innings, one run, six hits, two walks and seven whiffs. "I didn't want him to go back through the middle of the order again," Manuel said. "Their guys had hit some pretty decent balls hard on him, and I wanted to get him out of there with a positive. I had no problem with that at all." So rather than save his entire bullpen arsenal for the ninth, Manuel used Elmer Dessens in the eighth. And after Dessens notched a shaky-but-scoreless inning, Pedro Feliciano entered and loaded the bases on two hits and a walk. Decision time again. Rather than summon his closer in a tied game on the road (but with the game in the balance), Manuel turned to Ryota Igarashi, who served up a hard-hit, walk-off sacrifice fly to Ryan Zimmerman. And just like that, with their best reliever sitting on the bullpen bench, the Mets lost for the fifth time in eight games. "That's not what a closer does," Manuel said, defending his decision to use Igarashi over Francisco Rodriguez. "That's not his role." Execution, of course, is more important than anything, and the Mets were wholly unable to execute in Washington. Against Nationals starter Livan Hernandez, they could not do much. With a collection of nagging injuries and tired bodies arriving direct from Puerto Rico, the Mets fielded a different sort of lineup against Hernandez: Jesus Feliciano started in center field, Ruben Tejada at shortstop, Chris Carter in left field, Alex Cora at second base and Henry Blanco behind the plate. And Hernandez, who has a 1.33 ERA in three starts against his former team this year, exploited the setup. After serving up the RBI single to Ike Davis in the first inning, Hernandez proceeded to blank the Mets through the seventh, striking out seven and walking no one. For a time, that lone Mets run appeared to be enough. But Santana, who retired the side in order just once all evening, lost his shutout bid when Nyjer Morgan singled home Ian Desmond in the seventh. Also striking out seven over seven innings, Santana pitched well enough to win, but earned a no-decision. "That was huge," Nationals manager Jim Riggleman said of Morgan's hit. "Santana had gotten him a couple of times and Nyjer kept plugging and kept battling." Because of it, the Mets lost their edge. And around that time, Manuel's decisions began dictating the game. In the sixth, for example, Manuel asked regular center fielder Angel Pagan to pinch-run for Carter, despite the fact that he had held Pagan out of the starting lineup with right oblique pain. Three innings later, Pagan could muster only a feeble swing against reliever Matt Capps, grounding out to second base. Later in the ninth, Manuel pinch-hit Jason Bay for Blanco with two outs. Though Bay singled, the inning ended one batter later and Manuel replaced Bay with catcher Rod Barajas, thereby burning two bench players in one fell swoop. Had Manuel simply used Barajas -- who has 11 home runs compared to Bay's six -- to pinch-hit, he could have saved Bay for a potential extra-inning at-bat. But Manuel is the manager for a reason, and the Mets must live and die with his decisions. Thursday, they died. Many other times this season, they have lived. Thrived, even. Plus, as Manuel noted, his arsenal is limited. The Mets, for example, have yet to find an eighth-inning setup man they can truly trust. When Feliciano and others struggle, they have only so many alternative options. "It was definitely a tough day," Manuel said. At night's end, he and the Mets could harp on this loss. Instead, exhausted from their early-morning flight from Puerto Rico, they trudged back to their hotel, crashed in their respective beds and pined for better results on Friday. Perhaps that was the smartest decision of the day. (Mets.com)