Rain puts damper on Mets' victory plans

07/20/2006
CINCINNATI -- With an early, 4-0 lead, and Steve Trachsel throwing well, the Mets looked to come out of a two-hour-and-23-minute rain delay on fire.
Instead they just got all wet.
New York managed only two hits over the last seven innings, and the bullpen let the game get away in the eighth, falling to the Reds, 7-4, on Wednesday night before 26,300 at Great American Ball Park.
"The rain delay really killed the whole momentum in the game," manager Willie Randolph said. "Getting out 4-0 like that [with] Trachs throwing pretty well. After the delay, we got two hits. I think, more than anything, the delay just kind of took us out of our rhythm."
Trachsel looked sharp early, retiring four of the first five hitters he faced. Then the heavens opened, and play didn't continue until nearly two and a half hours later.
At that point the veteran starter had only thrown 21 pitches, and returned to the mound with one out and a runner on first. He lasted just two more innings, allowing three runs on four hits and four walks.
Though he stayed loose and tried to maintain his mental focus during the storm, the right-hander was not the same after play resumed.
"Staying loose wasn't a problem," Trachsel said. "I felt fine, everything was working. The hard part [was trying] to stay focused. I spent two hours thinking about the first pitch to Brandon Phillips with a man on first."
"Trachsel was throwing really well the first four or five hitters," Reds third baseman Rich Aurilia said. "Then he came back after the delay and didn't have the command he had early. We took advantage of that."
Something about Trachsel on the mound seems to inspire bad weather. Wednesday's stoppage was the fifth time this season that inclement weather has either halted or delayed his outing.
"I went 12 years without having one ever, at least that I can remember," Trachsel said. "I would love to go the rest of the year without one, that's for sure."
The decision to leave Trachsel in the game rather than automatically turn to the bullpen was based largely on Trachsel's low pitch count and how he felt.
"He only had 21 pitches, so he felt good [and] stayed loose during the break," Randolph said. "He wanted to go back out, he wanted the ball."
Before the rain hit, the Mets appeared to be well on their way to a third consecutive victory. Two-run singles by David Wright in the first and Jose Reyes in the second had staked New York to a 4-0 lead against Reds starter Aaron Harang.
Reds manager Jerry Narron turned to his bullpen after Harang had thrown 51 pitches through the first two innings.
But a single by Reyes and a Carlos Delgado double were all the offense could muster against a Reds bullpen that came into the contest with a 5.20 ERA, the worst in the National League.
"Bullpens go through ups and downs," Randolph said. "Just because they've struggled doesn't mean they're going to struggle all the time. They came in [and] did their job tonight."
The Mets bullpen, however, didn't do its job.
Darren Oliver gave up a solo home run to Aurilia in the fifth that tied the game at 4.
In the eighth, Scott Hatteberg singled, and Royce Clayton reached on a fielder's choice to put runners at the corners with one out. Duaner Sanchez went to a 3-0 count on Jason LaRue before the Reds catcher smacked a fastball into the left-field corner for the go-ahead two-run double.
"There's nothing you can do about it," Sanchez said. "Is that the result I wanted? No, definitely not. But I can't fix it [now]. [I'll] just come tomorrow and [pitch] better."

Source: http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/