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Look back at: Divisional Playoffs |
League Championship
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Wednesday, October 25
Question of the game: Game 3
ESPN.com
What was the Mets' key to beating El Duque when other postseason teams couldn't?
Buck Martinez
He threw a lot of pitches, and late in the game the Mets ran his pitch count up when they worked him for a walk or two. But you really can't fault El Duque. Once again, he was in command of all his pitches when he needed to make good pitches. When the Mets had a couple of rallies, he was able to snuff them out. He is a pretty special pitcher. The Mets were persistent and had confidence. They feel like they have a good offense, and Bobby Valentine put his guys in a position to succeed. He got Bubba Trammell up in the matchup he wanted in the eighth inning against Mike Stanton, and that was the difference in the ballgame.
Rick Sutcliffe
The biggest thing was the Mets went back to their strength during the regular season, which was being patient, getting good pitches to hit and -- when they didn't get good pitches to hit -- laying off them and creating some base-on-balls opportunities. Look at the walk to Timo Perez. Even though El Duque was able to get out of the inning, he had to reach back and use more energy. He physically wasn't 100 percent. On the walk to Benny Agbayani in the sixth, El Duque was betting Agbayani wanted to be the hitter in that situation and expand his strike zone. Yet he didn't. He took the walk. The Mets weren't able to capitalize in the sixth, but again El Duque had to go to the well. Then in the eighth, the Mets finally busted loose when Agbayani got a pitch to hit -- and became the star.
Dave Campbell
The Mets really battled every at-bat. In the first 25 innings of the Series, the Mets only had one walk and struck out 28 times. But then they got three walks in the fifth and sixth innings, all on 3-2 pitches. That got El Duque's pitch count up. Tom Robson, the Mets' hitting coach, kept telling Benny Agbayani to zone down and not swing at the high stuff. El Duque made a mistake over the middle of the plate, and Agbayani didn't miss it. Also, Rick Reed kept them in the game, Dennis Cook got a big strikeout, John Franco was terrific, and Armando Benitez slammed the door.
ESPN analysts will provide their answers to a key question each day of the series.
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