MILWAUKEE – In the visitors’ clubhouse in Miller Park, the lineup card is posted directly on your right when you open the door.
Yesterday afternoon, Mike Piazza’s name was in the five spot. Four spots under it was Pedro Martinez’.
Piazza catching Pedro. So much for the personal catcher thing.
Manager Willie Randolph had Piazza in the lineup last night, catching Martinez for the first time since April 16. Ramon Castro had caught Martinez’ last three starts (and four of his last five), leading to a belief that Castro had become Martinez’ personal catcher and Piazza wouldn’t be behind the plate for him anymore.
At least for now, though, that appears to be unfounded.
“I told you it would be this way. You guys don’t believe me, that’s all,” Randolph said. “I know it would have been a nice story and all that stuff. It would have been nice to kind of keep that going, but I told you guys before, I’ll play with what I think is right for the day. And Mike Piazza is one of my big boys.
“So if we get into a situation one day where he has to play, I’m not sitting him down because I’ve got a personal catcher thing going on. I’ve said that from day one.”
Said Piazza, “I knew that it wasn’t an issue, so I guess it’s not apparently.”
Piazza is 36 years old and essentially needs a day or two off each week, but it would have been crazy to have held him out last night. The Hall-of-Fame backstop has finally emerged from his slump, ripping three homers and pounding out six hits in his last two games.
Piazza had played in the previous four games prior to last night (the last time he got a day off was last Monday when Martinez pitched), but Randolph believed he was feeling well enough to catch a fifth straight. The manager said he hadn’t even checked with Piazza to make sure.
“No, we have an open thing where either I’ll go to him or he’ll come to me,” Randolph said. “He’s swinging the bat pretty good. It’s only been a couple days since he’s been in there. I figured he’s fine. If he felt that he wasn’t, he would have came to me.”
With a day game today, Randolph said Piazza might rest in the series finale. That would seem to make sense, considering the Mets have three more games in Chicago before a day off on Thursday.
Since he hasn’t caught Martinez in three weeks, Piazza was asked if he needed to talk to him before the game. But it didn’t sound as if this was going to require an extensive get-to-know-each-other session.
“He’s pretty much in control,” Piazza said. “He calls his own games. I just try to follow along.”
Piazza did say that he planned to catch Martinez in the bullpen before the start last night.
The last time Piazza caught Martinez was Martinez’s first home start on April 16 when the ace tossed three wild pitches. Still, Martinez was plenty effective, allowing just two runs in seven innings while striking out nine.
In the two starts Piazza has caught Martinez, the pitcher has gone 0-0 with a 3.46 ERA (five earned runs in 13 innings). In the four starts Castro has caught Martinez, he’s gone 3-1 with a 2.10 ERA (seven earned runs in 30 innings).
DEAD BATTERY?
Mike Piazza had not caught for Pedro Martinez in Mets hurler’s last three outings. Here’s Pedro’s stats with and without Piazza behind plate:
Piazza (Yes/No) Date Opp. Score IP ER SO WP Dec.
Y Apr. 4 @Cin 6-7 6 3 12 0
N Apr. 10 @Atl 6-1 9 1 9 0 W
Y Apr. 16 Fla 4-3 7 2 9 3
N Apr.21 @Fla 10-1 7 1 8 1 W
N Apr. 26 Atl 3-4 7 4 8 0 L
N May 2 Phi 5-1 7 1 6 0 W
Mets W-L ER ER SO WP ERA Pedro W-LWith Piazza 1-1 13 5 21 3 3.46 0-0
Without Piazza 3-1 30 7 31 1 2.10 3-1
