Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
May 21, 2008
Concussion II

Ryan Church suffered his second concussion of the year trying to break up a double play last night:

The play happened in the ninth with Atlanta leading 6-2. After Carlos Beltran and Church provided a glimmer of one-out hope with back-to-back singles, Damion Easley hit a hard grounder back to the mound.

Manny Acosta fielded it and turned quickly to throw to second. Escobar took the throw and veered off to the side of the bag to make the relay to first. Church slid toward the shortstop, hoping to break up the double play, but his helmet collided with Escobar's right knee, which was up in the air as he completed his follow-through.

Church was sprawled face down in the dirt for several minutes, but he never lost consciousness. He finally rolled over and walked slowly to the Mets clubhouse.

Thank goodness players wear helmets on the base paths or this might have been worse. Church has an OBA of .379 and a slugging percentage of .534, so the Mets can't afford to lose him for a long stretch. With the double header loss (by a combined score of 12-3), New York sits in fourth place in the NL East, 2 1/2 games out of first. My guess is the good will from sweeping the Yankees wore off fast yesterday.


Posted by David Pinto at 07:05 AM | Injuries | TrackBack (0)
Comments

With a lineup loaded with the aging and/or overrated - Reyes, Castillo, Delgado, Beltran, Alou - the Mets desperately need Wright and Church to keep the offense going. Those two are the only hitters north of a .900 OPS. Everybody else is wallowing below .800.

No wonder the team rates a very unimposing eighth in the NL in runs scored per game. The pitchers are doing better in staff ERA, but not much better. New York richly deserves its current 22-21 won-lost record. Right now they're a thoroughly mediocre team.

Posted by: Casey Abell at May 21, 2008 03:26 PM
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