I’m watching the Washington broadcast of the Nationals/Mets game, and the Nats broadcasters brought up two criticisms of the Mets strategy involving pitchers batting. In the fourth, Kurt Suzuki, batting eighth, comes to the plate with a man on second and two out. Instead of walking Kurt to pitch to a pitcher in his major league debut, the Mets pitch to Suzuki and he singles in the first run of the game. Then in the bottom of the inning, poor defense by Ryan Zimmerman helps the Mets score a run and load the bases with one out. That brings up Dillon Gee. Taylor Jordan is on the ropes, and falls behind Gee 2-0. Gee then swings at the next pitch and pops it up in foul territory, and Jordan gets out of the inning with no more damage. As the Washington broadcasters noted, the way the Nats defense was set up, a poor bunt would have scored a run in that situation.

In general, I would agree with the moves by Terry Collins. Suzuki is a weak hitter, so why walk him if you’re likely to get an out. Why give up an out with a bunt when a single might give you a big inning? Gee has a decent OBP for a pitcher, so he might have walked in a run if he stayed selective. As it turned out, Jordan did single. So I think Terry has a decent defense for his moves, but not a great one.

The Nationals and Mets remain tied at one going to the bottom of the fifth.