Game #74: Mets 3, White Sox 0

Either way you slice it, Shaun Marcum was going to have a "1" after his next decision. Fortunately for him, it came on the proper side for once.

(NYDailyNews.com)

Marcum tossed eight shutout innings for his first W of the season as the Mets salvaged a split with the White Sox, blanking the Southsiders 3-0.

The Good Stuff:

• Half of Shaun Marcum's 0-9 record came from bad outings, half of it came from bad luck. He got good on both counts tonight, tossing eight innings of scoreless, four-hit ball, walking two (both to Adam Dunn) and striking out two on 96 pitches.
• Bobby Parnell came on to induce three left-side groundballs for the final three outs, notching his 13th save and lowering his ERA to 2.45.
• New York's three runs came in the 5th inning off Chicago starter John Denks:
• Josh Satin led off with a single and Andrew Brown followed with one of his own two batters later. Juan Lagares then hit a groundball that got past the glove of shortstop Alexi Ramirez, allowing both runners to score. Two batters later, Eric Young beat out a groundball for a run-scoring infield single.
• Omar Quintanilla had about as good a fielding inning as possible in the bottom of the 5th. With no out and a runner on first, he started a 6-4-3 double play with a backhand shovel to a barehanded Daniel Murphy, whose wild throw was managed by Josh Satin, who cleanly tagged out Gordon Beckham. Six pitches later, Mr. Q flashed the skills of Mr. November with a long jumping throw to peg Tyler Flowers.
• At least a couple times in the game, WFAN's Josh Lewin made references to Jim Croce songs. "The south side of Chicago is the baddest part of town," and something about "Bad, bad Andrew Brown." It may not have been a huge hit with Howie, but it was to this Midwesterner. Way to go Josh.

The Bad Stuff:

• New York's big boppers (David Wright, Marlon Byrd, John Buck) combined to go 0-11, and Buck earned himself a Golden Sombrero with four strikeouts.

Final Analysis:
Shaun Marcum was bound to get off the schneid eventually; he's not a 9-0 starter but he's certainly not 0-9 guy either. 1-9 isn't ideal but at least he has a winning percentage.

Eric Young had three more hits tonight. In seven games with the Mets he's gone 12-29 with 6 RBIs. How did we not get this guy sooner? He probably won't be able to sustain it for very long, but the Amazin's have a winning record in games he's played, and that is an encouraging sign.

Stop the presses...the Mets are on a hot streak? Indeed they are: with tonight's win they've been on the right side of the scoreboard in seven of their last 11 games. Starting pitching, relief work, and the bats are all coming together at once for a change, and a grand time is being had by all. The team now heads out to Denver to make up a game that was frozen out in April. Fortunately this time the weather is supposed to be hot. It perfectly suits these day trippers.

MM