MET NOTES
MILWAUKEE – So much for the personal-catcher theory.
Manager Willie Randolph had Mike Piazza in the lineup last night, catching Pedro Martinez for the first time since April 16. Ramon Castro had caught Martinez’ last three starts, leading to a belief that Castro had become Martinez’ personal catcher.
At least for now, though, that appears to be unfounded.
“I told you it would be this way. You guys don’t believe me,” 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.”
As it turned out, Piazza went 0-for-5, but it would have been crazy to have held him out. He had finally emerged from his slump, ripping three homers in the previous two games.
After giving up five runs in seven innings last night, Martinez is now 1-0 with a 4.50 ERA (10 earned runs in 20 innings) in games in which Piazza has caught him. The pitcher is 3-1 with a 2.10 ERA (seven earned runs in 30 innings) when Castro has caught him.
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Something to watch? Jose Reyes said his left calf was a little tight last night. The shortstop played, insisted it was “nothing” and replied “no doubt” when asked if he’d play today. Still, with his injury history, any time Reyes is not feeling 100 percent, it bears monitoring.
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Martinez said some of the Brewer fans said things about his mother while he was in the bullpen yesterday. Said the pitcher, “Too many beers around here. Too many breweries.” . . . For the second straight night, Mike Cameron hit second while Kazuo Matsui batted eighth. Cameron went 2-for-2 with two walks and has reached base in 10 of his 15 plate appearances and scored seven runs in his three games since returning from the DL.
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Randolph actually played one season with the Brewers and was terrific, hitting .327 in 1991. He said he enjoyed his time in Milwaukee – for the most part.
“I had a good time here. It was fun,” Randolph said. “The only thing that was bad about it was Jeffrey Dahmer was eating people up.”
