Mets Make It to Game 7 On Arm of Rookie Maine

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

Ten months ago John Maine was known, if he was known at all, as the lesser of the two pitchers the Mets picked up when the team decided Anna Benson had to go. He had a quadruple-A arm, neither especially impressive or unimpressive, with no one particular defining trait to set him apart from Brian Bannister, Jose Lima, or any of the rest of the cast of thousands who would cycle through the rotation this year. A control pitcher without great control, he was the kind of right-handed prospect who makes you think he just should have been born left-handed and old so that you can call him crafty.

Then came the unexpected: Maine proved, after all, to have a good fastball.Not a great one, not the sort a pitch he can just blow by any hitter he wants, but a perfectly good one that touched the mid-90s at times. He proved to be pretty smart, too; a high fastball that’s good but not too good can, in the right ballpark and with the right outfielders, be a pretty effective pitch. When Maine realized that he had that ballpark and those outfielders, he began working upstairs and started to look quite a lot like Kris Benson with less mileage and less baggage. He even started doing what Benson couldn’t or wouldn’t do, throwing lower in the strike zone often enough to rack up some strikeouts and keep batters honest.

By the time the Mets’ rotation completely disintegrated in the last week before the playoffs began, he’d proved himself just enough that the idea of a charge through October speared by Tom Glavine and John Maine didn’t seem like the most ridiculous idea in the sorry history of Queens baseball.

That’s a far way from Maine going nails on the Cardinals with the season on the line and pulling out a performance nearly worthy of White Bobby Jones, heroic hurler of the Mets’ only October one-hitter. Maine pitched his way into a bad jam in the first, left the bases loaded, watched Jose Reyes pelt a Chris Carpenter mistake pitch over the right field wall in the bottom of the first, and never got into real trouble again. He walked four, he hit another, but he gave up only two hits because, like his canny old softtossing teammates, he refused to put the ball where anyone could do anything with it. I don’t think he’ll never have to buy a drink in New York again, but if you’re a Mets fan, you should stand him one if you see him out and about.

Should Willie Randolph, who’s worked Chad Bradford and Guillermo Mota like apprentice dray horses, have pulled Maine with one out in the sixth? Yes, and it was an easy call. He looked cooked, struggling to follow through on his pitches properly, and he was at 98 pitches, having thrown more than 110 exactly twice all season. He didn’t have the gas for more than another batter, and more likely didn’t have enough for any at all.

Bradford and Mota are durable; all hands will be available tonight. Randolph has made some awfully odd moves, from letting Jose Valentin bat against lefties to letting some of his pitchers hit at all.This wasn’t one of them.

That question of the bullpen, though, is everything right now. At press time it still wasn’t quite clear who was going to start tonight’s game, but whether Oliver Perez, Darren Oliver, Olivier Roy, or Ron Darling gets the start, there is going to be a very short hook on whoever takes the mound at 8:19 p.m.The hitters have gone from looking bad to worse and barring some sort of early onslaught against Jeff Suppan, fresh off dominating the Mets over the weekend, this game is going to have to be managed with the expectation that it will remain tied at nil throughout. Expect steals, bunts, and hit and runs aplenty, and don’t be surprised to see late-inning regulars like Heilman pitching far earlier than they usually do. It will be something to see. From rainouts to reliever meltdowns to Steve Trachsel’s shelling and John Maine and Oliver Perez, of all people, saving the Mets’ season, we’ve seen everything thus far, and yet the Mets are still alive.

Thank Anna Benson.

tmarchman@nysun.com


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