Maybe the Mets should only give John Maine one day’s notice before he pitches.
The 25-year-old rookie starter gave the team an efficient outing in his first postseason start when he was a last-minute replacement for Orlando Hernandez. Last night, with more time to think about what he was facing, Maine crumbled in his NLCS Game 2 start against the Cardinals.
“I couldn’t get into a groove. I needed to settle down,” Maine said. “I couldn’t settle down and the walks kept coming.”
Maine did have a tough time finding the strike zone. Home plate umpire Jim Joyce did appear to be squeezing Maine at times, and the rookie wound up walking five batters in four innings. Forty-one of Maine’s 88 pitches were balls.
“I wasn’t throwing too many strikes to begin with,” Maine said when asked about the umpiring. “I wasn’t pounding the strike zone with my fastball like I usually do.”
Willie Randolph pulled Maine after four innings, with the score tied 4-4. He gave up four runs, three earned, on two hits. He struck out three.
“I didn’t do my job, not going all that long,” Maine said.
He started out the game with a 1-2-3 first inning. Things went south from there. He walked Jim Edmonds to lead off the second. Scott Spiezio then reached on a Carlos Delgado error. Maine walked Juan Encarnacion to load the bases with no outs. After getting a pop-up from Ronnie Belliard, Maine gave up a double to Yadier Molina that scored Edmonds and Spiezio.
The middle of the Cardinals order gave Maine trouble again in the third inning. After striking out Chris Duncan to start the inning, Maine walked Albert Pujols. Edmonds then launched a 410-foot blast over the center-field wall.
The start was Maine’s shortest of the season, 1/3 of an inning less than his outing last week in Game 1 of the NLDS with the Dodgers. In that game, Randolph pulled Maine for a more favorable match-up, not necessarily because Maine was struggling.
In that game, he gave up only one run on six hits to the Dodgers. Met fans feared the worst when Hernandez joined Pedro Martinez on the injury list the day before the playoffs began. But the Mets were able to piece together an outstanding start from Tom Glavine with decent starts from Maine and Steve Trachsel, along with a strong bullpen to get through the Division Series with a sweep.
Glavine did his part again in Game 1 of this series, but Maine gave the Mets reason to worry. He is expected to be the Game 6 starter. Maybe no one should tell him until Tuesday.
