Remembering Mets History: (2013) In His Debut Zack Wheeler & Matt Harvey Sweep the Braves in Twin Bill

-
Tuesday June 18th, 2013: It was a much anticipated day for the New York Mets & a day that showed hope for the future. It was here in this twi-night double header in Atlanta where the Mets young star pitcher; Matt Harvey, continued to impress sealing his start for the NL in that years All Star Game held at Citi Field. 

 It also marked the debut of another young Mets pitcher, one who came with big expectations, as the highly touted Zack Wheeler made his first start in his native home of Georgia. Wheeler had come over in the Carlos Beltran trade.

 Mets manager Terry Collins said it all “I think it’s going to be a day for the organization and our fans to get excited about". 21,857 came to see Terry Collins fourth place Mets (26-40) take on Fredi Gonzalez first place Braves (42-29) at Turner Field in Atlanta Georgia.

Starting Lineups



In the first game, the exciting young Matt Harvey continued to impress & have another outstanding performance on the mound. Harvey would take a no hitter into the 7th inning, not allowing the Braves their first hit until Jason Heyward led off the 7th, with a cheap base hit, weakly hit in front of Harvey on the mound.

Harvey would strike out a career high 13 batters on this day, a total he never matched again to date. He went seven innings, walked three & ended up being charged with three late runs. Two of them were 7th inning runners that had singled off him & then scored when Mets relievers Scott Rice & Letroy Hawkins gave up hits. The win was Harvey's sixth of the year, as he went to 6-1 on the year with one of the leagues best ERA's at 2.16.

The Mets supported him with four runs,  in the 3rd Daniel Murphy singled & David Wright walked. A balk got Murph to second & Marlon Byrd brought him in with a base hit. In the 4th, Mets catcher John Buck hit a solo HR to make it 2-0.

In the 8th Byrd doubled, Lucas Duda was walked intentionally & Buck was hit by a pitch to load them up. Brave pitcher David Carpenter walked Jordany Valdespin bringing in the third run & Omar Quintanilla's sac fly brought in the fourth Met run.

Quotes: Terry Collins on Matt Harvey- "He loves to face huge challenges.Now with Zack here and all the publicity — let’s face it, (Harvey) is the guy. He’s the guy here. And with all the attention to Zack, he might have said, ‘I’m still the guy here.’"

In the night cap, it was the much anticipated debut of Georgia native Zack Wheeler, who had grown up less than an hour away. Needless to say may Wheeler family members & friends were on hand. Wheeler was the next in line of young highly touted Mets pitching prospects to get to the big leagues. A rotation starting with Harvey / Wheeler was something Mets fans were hoping to see for a long time in the future, in winning days.

Starting Lineups


Quotes: Dan Wheeler- "I went into it knowing that I’m good enough to be here."

Wheeler started out the game walking Andrelton Simmons, and allowing him to steal second. He then got Jason Heyward to strike out for his first career K. He also would walk Freddie Freeman but a double play erased any damage.

In the 2nd, Dan Uggla would double but Wheeler struck out everybody else ending that inning as well. Wheeler would go on to walk five batters in six innings, but he didn't allow any runs. He struck out seven & scattered four hits. It was an impressive debut as he also earned his first career win.

The game was scoreless until Anthony Recker hit a two run HR in the 7th inning, finally supporting Wheelers fine effort. The Mets broke it open in the 8th with RBI base hits from Omar Quintanilla & Juan Lagares. Two Brave errors on an attempted pick off of Marlon Byrd also led to a run. The Mets went on to a 6-1 victory.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Remembering Bobby Ojeda's Tragic Boating Accident (1993)

-
Image
Steve Olin, Tim Crews & Bob Ojeda March 22 nd 1993: was an off day from Spring Training, for three Cleveland Indians pitchers; Former Mets 1986 World Champion pitcher; Bobby Ojeda, Tim Crews & Steve Olin. The three friends, took out an 18-foot open-air bass boat & went out fishing & gator hunting in the darkness of the evening on Lake Nellie in Clermont, Florida. Tragedy struck, when the boat rammed into a private dock that jutted out some 250 feet into the still waters. Two other Cleveland Indians personnel had arrived to meet the fishing party just as the horror took place. They heard Bob Ojeda saying they needed help. The two men jumped into the water and called out for someone to call 911. 27 year old pitcher; Steve Olin was killed instantly. 31 year old pitcher; Tim Crews was alive but was struggling to breathe suffering from massive head wounds. Bobby Ojeda was in & out of shock, he was suffering from head lace...
Read more

The History of Yogi Berra & the Yoo-Hoo Chocolate Drink

-
Image
Yogi Berra & Yoo-Hoo's  history go back to the 1950's. Yogi had met the Oliveri Family, the owners of the Yoo-Hoo company at a Country Club function near his home in New Jersey. Natale Olivieri started bottling the chocolate drink in 1928 in Garfield, w Jersey. By the late 1950's he Yoo-Hoo product wasn't selling all that well. Mr. Olivieri asked for Yogi's opinion at the new Jersey function. Berra said he actually liked the soft drink & started promoting it along with his teammates. Soon Yogi put Yoo-Hoo on the map, appearing in commercials, advertisements and supermarkets promotions.  Berra would show up at the factory in Carlstadt, New Jersey & became a hero to the factory workers. He soon became a Vice President of the company owning a large amount of Yoo-Hoo stock. In his auto biography Yogi wrote "One time I was in the office and the phone rang, I always answer a ringing phone, the woman on the other end asked if Yoo-Hoo was hyphenate...
Read more

Remembering Vixen Founder / Guitarist; Jan Kuehnemund (1961-2013)

-
Image
centerfieldmaz was shocked to learn of the sudden passing of Jan Kuehnemund, the founding member of the all female metal band Vixen. Jan was a fantastic guitarist, song writer & women pioneer in Heavy Metal. I am a huge fan of hard rock all girl bands & Vixen were one my long time favorites. Janice Lynn Kuehnemund was born November 18th, 1961 in St. Paul Minnesota. The female guitarist formed one of the first all female Metal bands in Minnesota with singer Janet Gardner while in high school in 1980. By 1985 they moved the band to Los Angles California, to be part of the Heavy Metal scene. In 1987 the classic Vixen line up of Jan Kuehnemund (lead guitar) Janet Gardner (vocals/ guitar) Share Pederson (bass) & Roxy Petrucci (drums) formed & released their debut album the following year. Vixen 1988 In a world of all male Heavy Metal bands during its heyday, Vixen were groundbreaking in being an all female metal band. The Runaways, with Joan Jett & Lita Ford...
Read more

Remembering Mets History (1979) SNL's Chico Escuela Visits Mets Spring Training & Attempts a Career Comeback

-
Image
Bill Murray interviews (Garrett Morris) Chico Escuela In March 1979, original Saturday Night Live cast member; Garrett Morris joined the Mets at Miller Huggins Field for Spring Training. At the time the Mets were still holding Spring Training in St. Petersburg Florida.  Garrett Morris was posing as  the fictional Mets player, Chico Escuela who wore uniform #5 (cinque).  Escuela was doing his famous spoof of the Latin players of the time, posing as a popular infielder from the Dominican Republic that didn't speak much English. His legendary catch phrase was "baseball been berry- berry good to me". "baseball been berry-berry good... to me" The Chico Escuela character appeared nine times during on SNL's fourth & fifth seasons. He debuted on December 9th, 1978, in a Knight of Columbus sketch as a guest speaker. He then became the Weekend Update Sports reporter, where after being introduced by Jane Curtain, he would reply "tank you Hane". Chico woul...
Read more

Remembering Batgirl: Yvonne Craig (1937-2015)

-
Image
centerfieldmaz interrupts baseball with a sad note on one of his favorite actresses. Being a huge Batman (TV series) fan Yvonne Craig has been someone I adored since I was a child.  As a boy I always hoped the Batgirl cycle would wiz by on the opening credits, meaning it would be a Batgirl episode. I didn't realize why until I got older & liked girls. For myself & millions of young boys of the 60's / 70's Batgirl was one of our first crushes. But her character also she added so much more than that to the final season of Batman. She was special in so many ways ... rest in peace Batgirl! Yvonne Joyce Craig was born May 16th 1937 in Taylorville, Illinois. As a young girl she was a talented ballet dancer, getting accepted to the prestigious Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. She eventually moved to Los Angeles & began an acting career. She landed a part in Gidget (1959) as one of Gidget's beach...
Read more