Daydream Believer

Because I insist on finding the silver lining in Mets losses:

On the bright side, the bullpen was brilliant for the Mets. Bobby Parnell pitched a scoreless seventh, J.J. Putz worked around Martinez’s second error and a James Loney single to pitch a scoreless eighth. Sean Green was shaky, but managed to overcome his own error and general wildness to pitch a scoreless ninth.

And then what can you say about Brian Stokes? He was fantastic on Monday night. He pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the tenth, and did his best to work through adversity in the eleventh. He made one mistake. The leadoff walk, but after that was perfect. Forcing a fly ball that should’ve been caught. Then, one batter later, getting Rafael Furcal to hit a short fly to left, too short to score the run, with the bases loaded and none out. Then, getting a grounder to Jeremy Reed, what should’ve been a double play ball. Should’ve, would’ve, could’ve. (via redwhiteorangeandblue)

Stokes was unbelievably poised during the debacle of the 11th inning. You would think that in that situation another pitcher (ahem, Perez) would melt down having just walked the lead-off hitter. Stokes took a deep breath and kept going. So far, discussions on this game are casting blame elsewhere and that’s a relief. It’s so easy to pin it on the last pitcher (as the official scorer did). But if you want to see how a good pitcher deals with a jam, watch that last inning. Watch how Stokes directed his fastball like a whip to get the hits he needed. Too bad the field dropped the ball.