While the pitching has carried the Mets at times recently, it wasn’t quite there on Saturday. Outside of Billy Wagner and Aaron Heilman stepping up to fill the void of available players, it was on the bats of the Mets lineup. The team showed the kind of fight they did in 2006, not willing to go down quietly.

Even so, 14 innings was unnecessary. This game shouldn’t have even went into extra innings, and it certainly shouldn’t have went 14.

This is mostly Tony La Russa’s fault. In the top of the sixth inning, La Russa made one of the most ignorant, pointless decisions of the 2008 baseball season. He chose to bat Jason Isringhausen with two outs and runners on second and third. Keep in mind, this is already a bad decision. Isringhausen should not have batted here. Saying La Russa wanted to save his bullpen is an incredibly weak argument when runs are at stake like this, especially considering the Cardinals carry eight relievers.

After Isringhausen was quickly dispatched, he, amazingly, did not take the mound for the next half-inning. Instead, it was Ron Villone. Unbelievable. So not only did La Russa choose to flush a key, run-scoring opportunity down the drain, but it served no purpose because Isringhausen didn’t even continue. It is conceivable that if one of the pinch-hitters still on La Russa’s bench at the time, such as Brendan Ryan, got a basehit, the game wouldn’t have entered into extra innings.

Starting Robinson Cancel at least had a little logic behind it. He had caught some of Brandon Knight’s starts, so maybe Cancel catching would make things go smoother. Even if Knight pitched six scoreless, this still isn’t a good move. I usually think these familiarity moves are just dubious coddling that doesn’t amount to much on the field. The bottom line is that Cancel proceeded to go 0-for-5 and left four men on base in his first start since 1999. It was not a good move and amounted to just another reason why the game went to extras.

Obviously, the game also wouldn’t have gone to extras if the Mets offense wasn’t so potent, powered by the likes of Carlos Delgado, Jose Reyes, and Fernando Tatis. Unfortunately, the Mets really struggled with runners in scoring position, especially in extra innings. The Mets had golden opportunities in the 10th, 11th, and 12th innings and managed not to score. What really makes one pull his or her hair out is the fact that Kelvin Jimenez, who pitched the 11th and 12th innings, pitched so abysmal. He walked five batters in two innings of relief work. It could be argued that the Mets only didn’t win here because they didn’t let him finish the job of walking everybody. It happens, but this is a tough one to lose.

Don’t mean to sound too gloomy after one of the Mets’ rare July losses. After all, as Metstradamus wrote today, this is a game that would have probably been a blowout in April or May. The game was also fun to watch, even if the Mets lost. There were just some frustrating things about it.

I just thought I’d begin by saying Angel Pagan rules.

Single: In his column Rumblings and Grumblings for ESPN, Jayson Stark goes through the five biggest injuries in the MLB this year. As the fifth biggest, he places Pedro Martinez/El Duque.

Sometimes I look at things and say, why do two of our starters have to get hurt? Why us, why now? Sometimes it’s nice to remember that the Angels are missing their top two starters and the Mariners are missing their closer, just as a reminder that we’re not the only team getting screwed via injury.

Double: Throughout this week, the Mets have been trying out new sing-a-long tunes during the 8th inning, in an attempt to replace Sweet Caroline.

I was there Wednesday night, and they played Livin’ on a Prayer. It was fantastic. I’m not sure about the rest of the stadium, but my whole section was singing the whole thing, and I think that’s what supposed to be happening during a sing-a-long.

Also, one more note about the music at Shea: there’s too much of it. They played the techno song Sandstorm in the 3rd inning, which is all too early for it. Last night they played three different techno songs, only one of them at an appropriate time, that might have called for some pump up music.

One more note about last nights game: too early to bring out rally towels? It turned out to be an intense, extra-inning game, but I thought it was too early in the year to bring out the rally towels.

Triple: For AOL Sports, Jim Armstrong wrote an article criticizing fans for our obsession with statistics and numbers. He writes:

Have you seen some of the quote, unquote stats out there? When I was a kid hustling autographs at Wrigley Field, the game was all about W’s and L’s. Now it’s about WHIP and VORP and OPS and BABIP

Yes, we understand that in the end all that counts is whether or not we get the win. Yet, we’re trying to analyze how to get the win, and which players are most likely to give us that win.

For Fire Joe Morgan, Ken Tremendous went to town in a rant criticizing Jim Armstrong’s article.

In response to Armstrong writing, “Have you seen some of the quote, unquote stats out there?” Ken writes:

My man: when you are talking you say “quote-unquote” to indicate sarcasm. When you are writing you can just put things in quotes. As in: Jim Armstrong is a “journalist.” He is also “funny” and “smart” and I “want to hang out with him” because he seems to have a lot of “good” “points.”

Too funny. You must read the whole thing, I guarantee that you will not stop laughing the whole post.

Hat tip to Vines on FJM link

Home Run: As has become routine for the Cardinals, Tony La Russa had the pitcher bat 8th for the Cardinals last night.

I was thinking about it, and it makes loads of sense to me. Frankly, I think Luis Castillo should bat last. He brings no pop in the 2-hole. There are two main reasons to me that the SP should bat 8th. The first being, when you have a catalyst like Jose Reyes batting 1st, its rare that guys are on base for Reyes. Since Reyes can be such a great hitter, having someone with a high OBP like Castillo would allow for Reyes to produce more runs.

The second reason is that in a given game, we’ll pinch hit in the pitcher’s slot once or twice. Usually that pinch hitter is a better hitter then whomever the 8th hitter is (like how Marlon Anderson is a better hitter than Brian Schneider). So, it would allow for more production for Reyes and the pitcher only bats in that 8th hole a couple times, before a better hitter takes his place.

Jupiter police released the March 22nd video of St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa’s DUI arrest.

According to the Associated Press, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa pleaded guilty to DUI today. This is happening eight months after he was caught asleep by the wheel by police smelling like alcohol.

According to the report, La Russa will have to pay a fine of $678.50, face six months of probation, attend DUI school and complete 50 hours of community service.

Nice going

Here’s whats brewing on the Hot Stove this Thursday morning…

• Yorvit Torrealba’s agent told the Denver Post that he expects his client to make a decision regarding the Mets contract offer today. Tracy Ringolsby in the Rocky Mountain News reports that the Mets have offered Torrealba a two-year deal worth $9 million. The Denver Post is reporting it to be a three-year, $15 million deal.
• Omar Minaya tells Ben Shpigel of the New York Times he has an idea of how much money it will take to sign his desired free-agent targets and knows which prospects and how many he would have to surrender to upgrade the Mets pitching staff.“Ideally, you’d always like a guy with 200-plus innings, you know what I’m saying?” Minaya said. “If for whatever reason Glavine does not come back, we have to look for a starting pitcher.”
• Speaking of Tom Glavine, Mets.com reports that Tom is getting some advice on his future from the most famous Tom in Mets history, Mr. Tom Seaver.
• Dan Graziano at the Star Ledger reports that the Yankees plan on continuing to pursue Mike Lowell even if they re-sign Alex Rodriguez. The Yankees plan on putting Lowell at first base.
• Jon Heyman on SI.com reports that the Yankees and Rodriguez are discussing a 10 year, $280 million contract.
• Buster Olney said on ESPN last night that he believes that Alex Rodriguez is taking a deeply discounted offer from the Yankees, 10-years for $220 million. I’ll believe this when I see it.
• The San Diego Union Tribune reports that the Padres expect Geoff Blum to sign with the Astros, and will likely let Milton Bradley walk as well. The Padres are looking at Geoff Jenkins and Andruw Jones as their top free agent targets.
• The St Louis Post Dispatch reports that Scott Rolen seems all but gone from St. Louis. The third baseman was reportedly unhappy with the letter he received from Tony La Russa that was an attempt to reconcile with Rolen.
• The St Louis Post Dispatch also reports that the Cardinals have interest in Carlos Silva and Kyle Lohse.
• 7Sports, a local Boston news television station, is reporting that the Braves, Angels, Cardinals and Yankees have all offered Mike Lowell four-year contracts worth between $55 million and $60 million.