The Ballclub

The New Key Met

2009-07-11T00:03:00.004-04:00

My initial response to the Ryan Church/Jeff Francoeur deal was something to the effect of "Huh?" I have to say I didn't expect it coming, or at least not a deal particularly like this. But if this is the kind of deal Omar Minaya is going to make to somehow cosmetically make us think he's conscious, well, so be it.

I understand the logic of the deal, which I assume to be something like, "Here, we'll take your headcase off your hands, but in exchange we'll deal you one of ours and hopefully this'll work out for both of us." That's the only way this deal makes sense to me, because I think that both players more or less cancel each other out.

Neither Church or Francoeur are going to save the Mets season at this point. I suppose thinking longer term, Francoeur is the better player, if only because he's 25 (5 years younger than Church), he has some sort of demonstrated record as a full-time player (though not necessarily a good one) and he gives the Mets some sort of decent bat from the right side (though, at this point, any bat that wasn't already on the team is probably an upgrade over the incumbent). On the other side, I was never especially fond of Francoeur, though, let's face it, that was primarily because he played for the Braves and drew a ton of hype during his initial splash in the Major Leagues and his solid seasons afterwards. There's also the whole "Sleeping with the Enemy" factor, which more often than not ends up burning the Mets in the long run (see: Glavine, Tom; Stanton, Mike; Randolph, Willie).

Then, there's Church, who becomes the first Met to be traded during the same season in which I named him a Key Mets player. To this point, Church has posted better numbers than Francoeur, but at the same time, there wasn't any sign that he was going to perform any better than he was. He hadn't gotten hot like he was at the beginning of '08, and it seemed like he was constantly being called out as being hated by Manuel, a problem in the Clubhouse and not a fan of New York. He also didn't help himself with that whole missing 3rd base fiasco. Again, who the hell knows if any of this is true, but I have a feeling that we're going to find out now that he's been traded and the Mets and Braves will play each other next week. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Church has already been in touch with good friend Larry, promising to spill all the Mets signs to the Braves. A common practice, no doubt, but when you have two teams whose fondness for each other can be best compared to, say, Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnell, these things can escalate.

Braves fans seem to be tearing their hair out. Mets fans are not surprised that Church was dealt, but perhaps odd to hear who's coming in return. I guess this can only work out in the positive for the Mets. After all, things can't get much worse.

Heading for the Exits

2009-07-10T14:33:00.003-04:00

Last night's game was a first of sorts for me.

It was the first time I ever seriously considered leaving a game after one batter.

I was pretty ambivalent about going to the game in the first place. If I didn't have the tickets already, I probably wouldn't have gone at all, especially after El Guapo begged out earlier in the day. Essentially stuck with out a posse, I decided to forge ahead anyway, and I seriously wondered if I was doing the right thing. I have these existential crises at games every so often. Sometimes, they come and go with the ebb and flow of a game. Other times, however, they fester and get worse as the game progresses. I knew that the Mets were probably not going to win the game. I rarely, if ever, feel quite as pessimistic as I did last night. But they had won on Wednesday and didn't look particularly impressive in doing so, and the Dodgers really look loaded from top to bottom, particularly within their starting lineup. But, basically, knowing it was probably a waste of time, I went to the game anyway. I had the tickets, and I suppose I didn't have anything particularly better to do with myself for three hours on a Thursday evening. This, I suppose, is why I'm single and only marginally employed at age 30.

Rafael Furcal hits a dying quail on Livan's 2nd pitch of the game. It lands softly in left field for a leadoff double. An older gentleman sitting a section to my right, someone I'd seen before, one of the denizens of Shea's UR1, no doubt, piped up and yelled, "ONCE AGAIN, NO NO HITTER FOR THE METS!" I was seriously tempted to walk over and punch him in the mouth. Right then and there I wanted to stand up and leave. Nothing good was going to happen. Nothing whatsoever. Instead, I stayed. What I witnessed didn't surprise me in the least.

The crowd was taken out of the game by the end of the top of the 1st. People started to leave in the 3rd inning, I imagine, in between the Mets losing 6-1, the weather chilly and the first 3 innings taking about an hour. The game moved along at a crawl most of the way. Livan was getting creamed. The Dodgers hammered every one of his mistakes. Wolfie wasn't particularly good for the Dodgers either. But the Mets, attacking with the ferocity of a bunny rabbit, kept getting men on base and then either hitting into double plays or grounding out to the Shortstop. Wolfie wasn't good. He was just reaping the benefits of pitching against a Double-A lineup.

By the 6th, it was 8-2 and the stadium had about half-emptied out. I still stayed. I still would have prefered to leave. But I never leave early. The reasons why are beyond me. I'd already had my Sausage sandwich before the game. Had I wanted, I probably could have run down to Shake Shack and been on line for 3 minutes. Instead, I opted to move down from my perch in section 518, just to see how things looked from a little lower down. I ended up somewhere in the 400s, where you really feel on top of the action. That made me feel a little better. Then I looked up and somehow Tim Redding had made his way onto the mound. This game couldn't end fast enough.

By the 9th, I'd say there were fewer than 10,000 people left in the stadium. I'm still there. I'm still not sure why. It was about 10:20 and I'd been looking forward to the train ride out of there since about 7:12. I was plotting my escape. It was virtually empty around me, I wasn't going to bother with a ramp tonight. The stairs were right there. The game ended, and I struck, dashing down the stairs and onto the Subway with a ferocity. A trip that, on a crowded night can take up to 20 minutes was accomplished in exactly 7 minutes, and I was on that express. Of course, it sat there for about 5 minutes before I was moving, but at least I'd managed to make it through the game.

What the hell is the matter with me?

The Accidental Victory

2009-07-09T10:06:00.003-04:00

I don't know if the Mets won last night's game out of any sort of skill or means of outplaying their opponent, rather it seems as though they may have won by accident, or by some cosmic alignment of stars and planets, because it certainly took some means of divine intervention to will the Mets on to victory.

Let's start with last night's starting pitcher. Oliver Perez hadn't pitched in the Majors in 2 months, following a lengthy DL stint for general suckitude. Our hopes were not high for his return. I predicted that he would give up 6 runs on 4 hits and 10 walks by the 3rd inning and that would be the end of that. Not that his numbers were anything noteworthy, but Perez did manage to get himself through 5 excruciating innings in which he only gave up 2 runs on 4 hits, but, in typical Oliver Perez fashion walked 7. Somehow, he won.

The Mets hadn't scored a run since Saturday and hadn't had an extra-base hit since Friday. These particular streaks don't last forever, but they both fell within the first two innings last night, first when Daniel Murphy doubled over the head of a befuddled Manny Ramirez, who clearly does not understand the intricacies of the Citi Field Left Field area, and plated a run when Luis Castillo barely beat out an infield hit, scoring Jeremy Reed. But the Mets didn't stop there. They even had an extended rally in the 3rd inning, scoring 3 runs to give them a bit of a cushion, and plated a 5th run in the 5th. Predictably, they also didn't get another hit after the 5th inning.

Then, there was the Murphy play, which I suppose has already cemented its place in Mets lore as "The Murphy Play," one of those plays where your supposedly defensively challenged 1Bman somehow makes a play that defies all logic. I heard it on the radio first, and when the normally milquetoast Wayne Hagin raised his voice to a near-squeal in his description, I figured something good had just happened. After examining the replay online later in the evening, I still don't know how Murphy managed to grab the ball and blindly fling it behind his back on target to Parnell in a singular motion. This, I suppose, is why athletes are athletes and why I'm sitting on my ass writing a dopey blog that nobody reads.

But I digress. When these sort of plays actually end up going in your team's favor, chances are they're going to win the game. No matter how many different ways they try to screw it up. Call it an accident, call it whatever. But whatever it was, it went the Mets way for once.

Broken Offense

2009-07-08T10:10:00.002-04:00

It appears the Mets have been using the remaining shard in Sheffield's hand as their bat for the past week or so. Or at least that's how they're making it appear.

These particular performances now the norm around here, I think it's become more frustrating knowing how bad the rest of the division has been around us. Not so much because of the "if we were healthy..." argument, but because the Mets remain merely 4.5 games out of 1st place. The problem is that this is a 4.5 game deficit that's pretty much impossible for the Mets to make up. It would have been a lot easier had Philadelphia and Atlanta played better baseball and just buried the Mets in late May or mid-June. Playing out the string is a whole lot easier to swallow when you're 10 games back instead of under 5. But in reality, that's what the Mets are doing. And there's no relief in sight from this. Beltran remains weeks away, Reyes appears to be months off and Delgado will be back in time for his contract to expire. So, what's there to do now?

Maybe it's time to start going to games and watching them from other parts of the Stadium. Maybe I should just go down to Shake Shack in the 2nd inning. Just hang out in the World's Fare Market and eat cookies all night. Get drunk in the Promenade Club. Tack a $50 dinner onto my expenses for the night at the Acela Club. The Mets e-mails no longer advertise the opponent or the team's play, now it's advertising, "Be a part of the Citi Field Fun!" The fun now lies in the attractions in the ballpark, no longer in watching the team on the field.

Met Meltdown

2009-07-07T09:48:00.002-04:00

I've returned from my vacation in Cleveland, where the closest I got to seeing a Mets game was seeing the highlights on SportsCenter at 11pm after a day of being harangued by my family. The Mets didn't make me feel any better.

In reality, I'm not at all surprised that the Mets went into Philadelphia and got swept. I know that a lot of people are really up in arms, how could they lose facing Rodrigo Lopez and Jamie Moyer, blah blah blah, but the Mets had this coming to them. When you don't play good baseball, the familiarity of sucking begats itself until you finally reach rock bottom. I don't know if this past weekend was rock bottom, but hopefully it will sound the alarm bells that should have been ringing since early June. In Steroid Field II, where Home Runs fly out of the park with a ferocity, the Mets managed 3 runs in 3 games.

You can tell it's starting to wear on everyone. The fans have been apoplectic all season. I heard a quote from Johan Santana after Sunday's game. When asked about a pitch he threw to Chase Utley that was hit for a HR, Santana replied, "It doesn't matter. The game was over after the pitch to Rollins [sic]."

If that doesn't sum everything up, quickly and concisely, I don't know what does. The pundits will say, "Sure, we're only 4 games out after all this," but I think too many of us know the truth. Between the injuries and the inconsistency and our inability once again to beat Philadelphia when they're at their most vulnerable, well, we're screwed. You can pretty much write off the 2009 Mets.

If it makes anyone feel any better, the Phillies scored 10 runs in the 1st inning last night en route to a 22-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds will be coming in to Citi Field this weekend. This means you can expect the Reds to win 2 of 3 from the Mets, mostly by scores of 5-2 and 3-1.

Inside Citi Field, Part 2

2009-07-05T08:50:00.004-04:00

When we left off on Friday, I was heading up an escalator to the Promenade Level of Citi Field. What awaited me at the top? Well, let's jump right back into the action and see...
Why, it's the Pepsi sign again! If you missed the first shot of it, here's another angle.
The water fountains at Shea were not only decrepit, they were also sparse. Seemed like you could never find one when you needed it. At Citi Field, you can't sneeze without hitting a water fountain.
Does anyone know what the hell this is? I saw these all over the place, but I don't have a clue. Is it a payphone? Some sort of mind-control device? All I know is that it's glad I'm here.
Not surprisingly, there are about as many of these as there are water fountains.
My stance on Subway at the ballpark has been well-stated. Earlier this year, El Guapo and I were talking about it, wondering if you could get a $5 footlong. He seemed insistent that you could, based on the fact that there's a huge sign advertising it. I said no way, they would be blatantly undercutting everyone else in the ballpark. The answer: No, you can't get a $5 footlong. Everything is $7 and up. And besides the point, I didn't go to Citi Field to get a Subway sandwich.
The toppings bars are still out. This one has stuff for Pizza, since it's right next to...
...Cascarino's. I've written about my experience with the Pizza at Shea. I'm told it's better now. I don't believe it, and I'm still too afraid to try.
This is usually where I end up. You can't ever go wrong with the sausage sandwich.
The Promenade Food Court is truly one of the hidden gems of Citi Field. The lines are almost always manageable, mainly because everyone looking for food has gone downstairs to the high-end concessions and is standing on line at Shake Shack for 3 innings.
Some things never change.
Reverse angle of the Food Court.
I'd never seen this stand before. What the hell is "Kettle Korn? Well, apparently it's a giant metal drum that's making popcorn. What's so special about it? Beats the hell out of me.
This is the view I'm used to.
Yankees.
Here's another angle of the Food Court, from the stairs leading to Section 515.
Now, I've walked around to the lone Citi Field ramp, out in the Left Field corner. Here's the view.
Picturesque, that view is, of...LaGuardia Airport.
The Apple again, this time from the top, off the Left Field end of the Promenade.
Looking back in from Section 538.
The line at Shake Shack is, at this point, much longer than it was when I was there.
If you were wondering why it seemed so empty in the Promenade, well, here's why. Everyone is down there.
Further proof.
Mark Teixeira in the cage. What a strapping young man he is.
Empty dugout.
More airplanes.
I walked back downstairs to the Excelsior level, and made my first trip into the Caesar's club, which, I guess is a step or two below the Diamond Club at Shea. What a weird place this is. It's sort of like walking into a lounge in the middle of the Upper West Side. I wasn't too crazy about it.
And here's the menu in the Caesar's Club.
There's also these rogue bars, serving whatever mixed drink and wine you might want. Also bizarre.
Well, now they're watering the infield, which means it's almost game time. We'll skip that part of the evening...
...And, here we are, 3 hours and 40 minutes later.
And almost 6 hours since I'd made that stop at Shake Shack. I think I need a little snack...
...before I head home. But not in this traffic. This is the kind of view that makes me glad I never got my driver's license. A quick trip down the ramp and straight on to an Express train home, closing out a fine evening and a fine tour around the Mets new home, that is, if you forget the game that went on that night.

TAKE YOUR HAT OFF!!!

2009-07-04T08:46:00.001-04:00

Happy 4th everyone, as always, we remind you to keep out of the aisles and take your hat off on this day of days.

And remember, everyone, the party's on the West Side this year.

Inside Citi Field, Part 1

2009-07-03T08:34:00.004-04:00

I'm on vacation for the weekend, but I'll be back to sound off on the weekend's happenings in Philadelphia on Monday. We'll see if a trip to Steroid Field II proves to be a cure for the Mets offensive ailments.

I had my camera with me for Sunday night's game, which is nothing new. But I thought that, rather than taking a bunch of pictures of the field, and the game, which never come out particularly well or are very descriptive of what happened in the game, I thought I would take some photos in and around Citi Field, for those of you who haven't been there, or who have missed certain views inside the new Stadium. I've got about 100 or so pictures ready, so this will be part 1 of the Citi Field Photo tour. Part 2 will appear Sunday (though I've actually written everything earlier in the week and postdated the column).

As I mentioned, I was particularly early for Sunday's game. So early, in fact, that I actually arrived before the gates opened. I took the opportunity to take a stroll out into the Parking Lot, where our former home once stood.

Tom Seaver stood here.

Piazza squatted here.

Part of me wanted to strike a Keith Hernandez pose.
Enough bases. Let's go inside!

Since I have a ticket plan, these little self-serve pickup stations are mostly useless for me. But I did use one to pick up my tickets for this game. Man, these are great. All you need to do is swipe your card and it spits out your tickets. Beats waiting on line.

Probably the #1 Citi Field photo op. I wanted to get a picture of the 42 with nobody in front of it, but that was damn near impossible. So I had to settle for this couple running into the picture.

Reverse angle of the Rotunda.

Top of the Escalator.

Bad flash.

Beer Vendor. The vendor kiosks here are much fancier than they were at Shea. I suppose that goes without saying.

Hot Dog stand on the Field Level.

Here's the lineup. As you may recall, they used to post this above the walkup ticket booth at Shea. It's almost hidden here. I didn't even notice it until Sunday's game when I walked past. This lineup, of course, would produce all of 5 hits against a mishmash of Yankee pitchers on this night.
Because, you know, when I think of a leadoff hitter, I think of Daniel Murphy.
Mets BP, from the Right Field corner of the Field Level.
Bridges. The upper bridge leads to the Pepsi Porch. The lower bridge is the "Mystery" bridge from the Empire Suites into the Mets Offices.
Trio of Kiosks in the RF corner.
I'd never been in the World's Fare Market. I sort of thought there was more in there.
In reality, there's just Sushi...
Pudding and cake...
...courtesy of Mama's of Corona...
...who also serves up some nice looking salads...
...and some charming looking cookies.
Meanwhile, in the outfield, Pedro Feliciano has an itch.
Good look at the contours of the Outfield, taken from the Modell's Zone.
Glory Days. These, of course, are hidden behind the bridge, right next to...
...our old friend. By now, Mets fans are beginning to forget what an Apple looks like.
Here's the current version.
And the bullpen, from the Bridge.
More Bullpen.
View from the Bridge.
Beer stand in the Grand Central Station that is the Center Field Food Court.
If you don't look closely, you might miss this sign, which is off on the far side of...
...Blue Smoke, which was empty when I was there, and doesn't do anywhere near the land office business its neighbor to the left does.
On the other side, there's the Taqueria, which I've never been to. I'm not much of a taco fan. I think you all know where I was heading right about now.
Where would I have to be to get this close of a shot of the old Shea Skyline?
You guessed it.
Mmm...Shake Shack, yo.
After a quick meal stop, I made my way upstairs. This mystery door is actually Empire Suite 202. Behind this door is the most magical thing in the world. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed in there.
This girl was just sitting by herself at a table full of cameras on the Empire level. I named her "Lonely Citi Field Girl." She was kind of cute. I wonder if she's Jewish...
Alyssa Milano was not present today, unfortunately.
I'm now on the Bridge to the Pepsi Porch.
I wonder if I can get a Mets Muffler here?
Every time I'm on the Excelsior level, I keep thinking of the "Manbearpig" episode of South Park.
Here's the Pepsi Sign from the Pepsi Porch.
The Bridge, from the Pepsi Porch...
...The bullpen and the Bridge Terrace, where you apparently need a ticket to sit, but I've never actually seen tickets offered for sale.
...and the Apple.
Here's the subway...
...and the Unisphere.
Continue upstairs? Yes, let's. But what's at the top? Tune in Sunday and find out!

About Damn Time!

2009-07-02T00:44:00.003-04:00

I think part of my problem as a Mets fan is that, between my own negativity, the phone calls from my insane co-worker, and the incessant listening to WFAN, combined with the Mets' performance of the past several days and I start to think that the Mets are never going to win another game.

Of course, that's not the case. But it's apparent that the only way the Mets can win a game generating offense at the snail's pace that they do, is if their starting pitcher comes out and throws darts all over the place like Mike Pelfrey did yesterday afternoon in Milwaukee. You can hand the credit for this victory to Pelfrey and Pelfrey alone. That's it.

Pelfrey has pitched rather well for the most part this season, though he hasn't had quite the eye-popping success he had last season. He's actually been sort of a headcase when you think about it, what with the yips, and the outings in which he's pitched good except for one horrendous inning that ended up sinking him. He's not quite there yet, but let's give him some credit: if Pelfrey can get past the bad innings and the head issues, he's one of the top starters in the NL. And he proved it with his outing yesterday. He did it around this time last year, after muddling around, he turned the corner and pitched like an Ace for two months. And if yesterday's outing is any indication, he's hopefully about to turn that corner and do it again.

Maybe this time some of the pundits will take notice. He's not going away that easily.

Bad to Worse

2009-07-01T10:35:00.002-04:00

The New York Mets in 2009 seem to be successful at one thing and one thing only: Finding new, inexplicable ways to lose games.

If it's not dropping a popup, it's a guy forgetting to touch 3rd base, or an outfielder spontaneously falling down while trying to catch a fly ball or a pitcher tripping over his own feet and committing a balk or walking the opposing pitcher.

Last night added the wrinkle of the entire team self-destructing in one inning, including several of the aforementioned elements, adding up to a sequence that started with the pitching coach getting thrown out of the game and ended up with Johan Santana heaving the ball into Left Field and the Brewers accomplishing what was tantamount to an inside-the-park Grand Slam.

It's officially become Murphy's Law for the 2009 Mets, and I don't mean Daniel. Whatever could have possibly gone wrong with this team has over the first 3 months of the season, and whatever can go wrong will continue to go wrong. I've mentioned it before, but it's the sign of a bad team. All the breaks and all the luck goes against them. They are a defeated team and now, they're starting to play like a defeated team, which is a scary proposition.

Garbage Time Team

2009-06-30T10:19:00.002-04:00

Sometimes I wonder if the Mets just go into Garbage time mode before the game's even started. That's more or less what it looked like last night in Milwaukee, where the Mets looked completely worn out and hung over from this weekend's massacre before exploding for 3 whole runs in a 9th inning rally that you can guarantee would not have happened had the Brewers not blown the game open innings earlier.

By virtue of their stellar play, the Mets have now earned themselves a spot in 3rd place, a departure from the lofty 2nd place perch we've grown so used to over the past 3 seasons. Apparently just missing the boat wasn't good enough for the Mets, now it's time for some real mediocrity.

I think you could discuss the offensive problems with the Mets until you're blue in the face. If you really want to create a solution, I think this is the only thing that needs to be done. I can't take full credit for this idea, in reality, it must go to my insane co-worker, but when he bellowed this at me yesterday morning and punctuated it by screaming "PUT THAT IN YOUR BLOG!" I figured it was time to bring it up.

Rather than the Mets taking the field, there should be a Clown Car that pulls up to the Pitcher's mound at the beginning of each game. One by one, each member of the team gets out of the car, dressed in some form of ridiculous outfit, led by Jerry Manuel, who is in full getup, with the Dunce's cap, Polka-dot suit, giant shoes and a huge red nose. The entrance music will, of course, have to be some sort of Circus Calliope. Everyone's At Bat music will have to reflect this. Sadly, this means no more Reggaeton (or Creed, in Brian Schneider's case). After everyone makes their entrance, usually by tripping over the pitchers mound or doing a cartwheel in the Outfield, Jeff Wilpon gets out of the car, wearing a T-shirt that reads "I'm With Stupid," and an arrow pointing to his left. To his left, Fred Wilpon. Fred wears a T-shirt that reads "I invested with Bernie Madoff."

Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2009 New York Mets. Imminent Disaster awaits.

The Status of the Mets

2009-06-29T11:19:00.005-04:00

Judging from this past weekend, it's not very good.

I went against my general ballpark routine last night several different ways in the hopes that it might change the Mets luck and bring them a few runs last night. Some of my efforts might have been more for the preservation of my own sanity more than anything else. Whatever I tried, however, I tried in vain as rather than witnessing the Mets kick the Yankees in the nuts and avert a sweep, I saw the Mets play the part of the Mets perfectly, squandering opportunity after opportunity and eventually embarrassing themselves, getting swept and being the victim of Mariano Rivera's 500th Save.

It's a great team.

I started out by getting to Citi Field at around 5:45pm. The only time I get to the stadium this early is either on Opening Day or the Playoffs. Or when I was younger and trying to get autographs. Nonetheless, I got there just as they were opening the gates. I had brought a cap for the cap trade (something I always forget), an old Jets cap that I'd bought for $5 in the Port Authority Bus Terminal on my way to a Jets game last season. I'm not a Jets fan, so I didn't have any particular attachment to it. But the cap they were giving out was such a cheap piece of crap that I think they got the better part of the deal.

Once inside, I figured I would walk around a bit, since there's nothing much else to do. What I did was make an amazing discovery: I finally figured out the way to beat the lines at Shake Shack! If you want to beat the lines, the solution is to get there 2 hours before the game! After my last attempt to eat there resulted in a 30-minute wait, this time, I zipped through the line in 5 minutes! Man, what a difference!

I managed to pass the time walking around and snapping photos of the Citi Field interior, and I'll share them this week, hopefully. By time the game started, I was feeling pretty grim. The stadium was full, there was a solid presence of Yankee fans, and I figured the only way I was going to get through this was with a few beers. So, going against convention, I started drinking. Then, I started updating my Facebook status en masse, my comments becoming more and more snide as things progressed. In fact, you could have figured out what was going on, more or less, just from following along.

3:44 pm - I sincerely hope I don't regret going to the Mets/Yankees game tonight...

8:58pm - 3 in the 1st for the Yankees. Mets making Wang look like Juan Marichal. F This, I'm drinking. Where the hell is the beer guy!?

9:11pm - I'm wearing my David Wright jersey tonight. In honor of this, David Wright has hit into a double play. I want to go home.

9:38pm - Holy Crap! The Mets score 2!

9:50pm - Dear Major League Pitchers: Struggling? High ERA and WHIP? In need of confidence? Just face the New York Mets! The cure for the common pitcher.

10:02pm - My choice for player of the game: Robbie Cano. DON'T YA KNOW!

10:09pm - Joe Girardi has just asked for a Coke with his Wang.

10:29pm - Buy me some peanuts and SACK O' NUTS!

10:47pm - And a big dish of gooey chop suey in the puss to you too, Matsui!

11:08pm - Mister Sandman, bring me a dream...

11:13pm - DAMMIT, SWING AT THAT PITCH OMIR!!!

11:23pm - I could use a nap.

11:33pm - WALK HIM!!!

11:37pm - I live in Hell. I live in Hell.

11:49pm - I hate being a Mets fan. Have I ever said that before? Probably. Well, it's because more often than not, I do. Baseball sucks. Fuck this fucking game.

12:02am - I spent 3 hours and 40 minutes watching this crapfest? Jesus. What sort of a masochist am I?

There was one saving grace for the evening. Usually, these games, if they go wrong, can turn into a gigantic horrible mess of Drunken, high and mighty Yankee fans starting trouble and picking on Mets fans. Fights generally ensue. Sometimes, this doesn't happen. Early, I thought there was a transplanted Bleacher Creature in a Joba jersey nearby. It could have been Joba himself. But outside of him, the crowd was actually pretty calm and peaceful. I sat next to a Yankee fan who was there with a Mets fan and we had a perfectly pleasant conversation throughout the game. Once the game got ugly, rather, when Rivera walked, most of the crowd emptied out since it was well past 11:30. And once the game ended, I breezed right out of the stadium and onto a 7 Express home. No screaming, no yelling, no wanting to choke someone. Just the ill misery of rooting for a team thats gone horribly awry. They had opportunity after opportunity to push a tying or perhaps a lead run across, and they failed every time. They didn't move runners up, they couldn't get runners in, and once the Yankees stretched the 1-run lead to a 2-run lead, everyone knew the game was over.

Sigh.

Funny Guys

2009-06-28T14:58:00.003-04:00

The only enjoyment last night's game seems to have provided is a bunch of really ridiculous looking photographs of the Yankees making merry all over our back yard. It's kind of sickening, really.

There's not much to laugh about as far as the Mets are concerned. Sometime around the 6th inning, when it was apparent that Tim Redding's magic had run out on him and the Mets offense had no prayer of putting together anything resembling a rally, a brief part of me started to root for A.J. Burnett to go ahead and throw a no-hitter. Yes, it would have caused me no end of grief from no end of Yankee fan friends and co-workers I have, and most of my Mets fan compadres would have had to suck it up but good. But in reality, it would have served the Mets right.

We can make all we want about how we've kept it close and kept it respectable, but right now, this is not a good team. In fact, I have a hard time even calling this a viable team. The Mets are playing without 3 of the 4 players counted on to shoulder the load, guys who missed about 10 games between them for all of last season. Of the 8 position players in the Mets lineup last night, only 4 were in the Opening Day lineup, one is at a different position, another is in a platoon, a third has been inconsistent and the other one is David Wright, an island unto himself in this heap of dreck. Jerry Manuel finally, in his own way, seemed to pop off after the game about how the Mets need some help and Omar has to do something. Something! You want to not be reactionary and you want to not tread water, but this is an emergency situation. I'm not sure what it takes to get a reaction. Almost getting no-hit by your closest geographic rival was a start. Staring down getting swept by them, and losing to a pitcher with an 0-6 record an an ERA over 11 would be another. Those 3 games in Philadaelphia aren't looking too happy right now either.

You have to laugh at the ridiculous pictures of the Yankees. It's the only thing right now that keeps you from screaming.

We Love You, Too!

2009-06-27T23:49:00.001-04:00

They make an adorable couple, don't they?

Yes, it's come to this for the Mets. After looking Pathetic on Friday and Miserable on Saturday, it's not even worth sitting here and ripping on my own team. I'll just make some sophomoric jokes about the other team instead. It's more fun, and it makes me and everyone else feel just a little bit better about the situation.

At least, I hope it does.

Thank Evans!

2009-06-26T11:26:00.003-04:00

I guess if I was going to pick the perfect day to buzz work and go to the Mets game instead, yesterday would have been that day.

The celebrated pitching matchup of Chris Carpenter and Johan Santana was somewhat uneven, but definitely lived up to its billing. Santana wasn't sharp most of the afternoon, spending most of the day working with runners on base or behind in the count. But, true to form, Santana got the outs he needed to get and prevented the Cardinals from doing too much damage. 2 runs in 7 innings, both coming on a pair of 2-out hits. You can't ask for much more. The rest, then, would be left to chance on how the Mets offense—if such a group can be called an "offense—would fare against Carpentier.

For most of the afternoon it didn't look promising. But, for one inning, Carpenter stifled the Mets completely, allowing nothing more than a hit batsman in the 1st inning. But it was the 4th inning where the Mets were able to reach him, and it was a 2-out, 2-run double by Nick Evans that gave the Mets their slight margin of victory.

The Mets offense right now is a total Mess. They are devoid of fundamentals. I attended the game with a colleague who spent most of the game screaming, and quite literally screaming about how the Mets downfall is their inability to move runners along. It happened in the 1st, it happened in the 4th and it happened in the 8th, which, if I'm not mistaken, were the only innings the Mets had any runners on base altogether. One such instance of pushing a runner from 1st to 2nd with less than 2 outs could have meant an extra run here or there, which would be crucial in this game.

Crucial, but fortunately, not necessary.

Santana wasn't sharp, we know that. He made big pitches when he needed to, in particular to Pujols in the 2nd, who lifted a drive to left that looked real scary off the bat, and to Cheech Molina, who hit a flare into center that appeared destined for disaster before Fernando Martinez came through with his 2nd sparkling defensive play of the day, picking off the ball and ending the Cardinals threat.

Solid defense and one big hit at the right moment. Some days, that's just all you need. That was all it took for the Mets yesterday. And for Nick Evans, who was clearly good enough to make the team out of spring training, but was left off for a myriad of reasons that are meaningless now, it has to feel very redemptive for him to have been recalled after struggling in the Minors, coming up and hitting well, at least for the last few games. The Mets are dying right now for someone to come in and provide some kind of a spark somewhere in that lineup. It remains to be seen if Evans, who was uneven in his cameo appearances last season, will continue to perform well. My guess is that being recalled would spark his confidence. I don't know. But maybe he'll be that spark we need.

That other team this weekend. I'll be in attendance Sunday Night, for The Biggest Game In The Galaxy, and my first non-plan ticket game at Citi Field.

Save Some Runs!

2009-06-25T10:26:00.002-04:00

Last night, the Mets put forth their largest offensive output of the season in support of Fernando Nieve.

This afternoon, as I buzz work in order to see my first Citi Field day game, I, and most of the Mets fans in attendance will have to be asking themselves, "Hey, did you guys save any runs for today?"

This particular question will probably be championed by the champion of poor run support, Johan Santana.

This Guy Again!?

2009-06-24T11:25:00.002-04:00

I don't know what the hell it is about Joel Pineiro, but it seems like every season he sort of just shows up and puts up mediocre numbers year after year, bouncing around from team to team, and generally just sucking it up and filling a roster spot.

That is, until he faces the Mets.

THEN FOR NO REASON THAT I CAN UNDERSTAND, HE MANAGES TO TURN INTO THE SECOND COMING OF JUAN FREAKIN' MARICHAL!

This team is in such piss-poor shape right now I've run out of words to describe it. I think the best I can do is feel fortunate that I'm working through the evening and can't actually watch this stupidity unfold for itself. It beats watching the game with my head in my hands, I'd suppose.

More of the Same

2009-06-22T10:22:00.004-04:00

Clearly, June has not been the Mets month. I feel more comfortable saying that than I feel saying 2009 is not the Mets season, which is a phrase I seem to be hearing more and more lately. I'd already declared the Mets season more or less over after this particular pair of games, but when you think about it, didn't most of us do the same thing last year? This season appears to be playing out kind of like 2007 if you think about it, only the roles of the Mets and the Phillies have been reversed. The Mets are sort of a joke at this point, and the Phillies are expected to stampede away without a challenger. But this hasn't happened. Philly has had a lead in the division pretty much throughout the season, and the Mets have just barely been hanging on the fringes, along with a pair of other pain-in-the-ass teams that can't negotiate themselves, Atlanta and Florida. But, here, we've hit June, and it won't stop raining, and the Mets keep losing, and now the Phillies keep losing too. Something, at some point, will have to give, right?

Conventional wisdom would have you believe that the Phillies are going to catch fire again, while you'd be less inclined to think that the Mets have the oomph within themselves to do so. This is a pretty solid argument if you figure that the Mets haven't been able to generate much more than 5 runs a game on any consistent basis, and for some reason, every time they shift a guy into the 8th inning role he automatically becomes Aaron Heilman. But the Phillies have their own issues too. Their bullpen, to this point, looks about as frightening as the 2008 Mets bullpen did, give or take a Joe Smith/Clay Condrey type. Brad Lidge, unhittable last season, has been ineffective and now injured, and his replacement, Ryan Madson, hasn't exactly looked sharp filling in. It's another one of my cockamamie theories, but it seems as though once a team's bullpen gets branded with a particular reputation and struggles on a regular basis, it has a tendency to snowball. Consider the Mets last season. Everyone in the bullpen for the better part of the season was, in and of themselves, a viable Major League talent. But once you blow a game, and then you blow another and another, and it becomes somewhat expected that once the game gets into the bullpen, the whole thing gets kinda dicey, you begin to fall into a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts. It's sort of like saying that the Mets were screwed the second Jerry Manuel emerged from the dugout and waved his hand. Will this happen to the Phillies this year? It remains to be seen. But the patterns are startling.

The Mets haven't been immune to these woes at all. But the pitchers that have struggled all have either righted themselves for an extended period, or at least shown themselves capable of solid performances on a consistent basis. Sean Green was miserable in the early going this season, but he's been great as of late. Parnell has been the opposite, solid start, lousy once he started being used more often. Brian Stokes looks good and bad. Takahashi is filler, at least for now, if you really want my opinion. But all things considered, it hasn't been at all comparable to the nightmare that was last season in the Mets bullpen. Especially when you consider the fact that the Mets can trot out Rodriguez in the 9th inning and he's going to kick you in the nuts and take your lunch money 18 out of 19 times (and I'm not going to count that BS against the Yankees since he did the job he needed to).

But if you can say that the Mets are better than the Phillies, or at least more stable than the Phillies in the bullpen, that's about the only edge you can give the Mets in the matchup. Starting pitching is about even, though the Mets have been injured and inconsistent, and the offense isn't even close. Someone's going to end up making a move and bringing in someone that will throw this comparison decidedly one way or another, and I'm not sure who. Most of the people I listen to think it's going to be the Phillies, since the Mets are running around like a chicken with their heads cut off. Omar has needed to make a move for some time, but I wonder if he's a little too smart to listen to the fans. There's something to be said about the fact that the Mets have fumphered around and looked clueless, yet still lie within striking distance while key players are hurt and they don't hit and lose eminently winnable games. It happens to every team and it can happen in bunches sometimes. Maybe there's something to this. Maybe Omar Minaya is silently buying time for himself, waiting for Reyes and Delgado to return so he can accurately assess what his team really needs instead of being reactionary.

I don't know. The alarm bells were set off a long time ago and the panic has already set in. You wonder just how long the Mets really are able to continue to just get by like this.

Phoning it In

2009-06-18T13:42:00.003-04:00

It's the point of the season where I start to fade slowly into the background as far as the Mets are concerned. If you didn't know, I work on a major Theatrical project each Summer that saps most of my time and most of my weekends, and, more importantly, puts most Mets games at simply a rumor level for me. I have no idea what's going on during these games because I never get to see them. The best I can do is steal a moment and try to get a score on my phone. Or I'll get text messages from El Guapo or another of my assorted Mets fan friends who will keep me apprised of the night's happenings.

The best I can assume from basically seeing the final score of the last two games is that not much has changed. Two games, same score, some good, some bad, some indifferent. My infamous co-worker, who isn't involved in the same insanity I am, was feeding me some information to the effect of the following, which may or may not be true:

1) Alex Cora has no range at Shortstop.
2) Daniel Murphy is an idiot because, even though he got 3 dinky hits, he swung at a sucker pitch in the 9th inning and screwed up the game.
3) Jerry Manuel has no clue.

Sometimes, I think it's better off that I miss most of these games. That's not always true, but I suppose the Mets have fallen into a predictable pattern of good, lousy, good, lousy, with very little in between. I may not get to see much of it for myself, but my phone will tell me the truth.

One Year Later...

2009-06-16T11:20:00.002-04:00

So, it's been exactly one year since the 3am Massacre that saw the Mets chop off the head and hack at the limbs of their coaching staff and replace them with the bunch we see today. Given the way things looked for the Mets then and comparing them with things now, it's hard to see too much difference.

Last year, the Mets, to this point in the season, seemed disinterested and lackluster. They were there more often than not, but the results told you everything you needed to know in the end.

This year, has anything changed? Other than the manager and coaches, and assorted players, it's been a whole lot of to do to get to this point in the season in similarly bad shape.

Where do we go from here? Tough to say. Last season, the Mets didn't do anything after letting Randolph go, and under Manuel, they got hot for a month or so before the teams' glaring weaknesses showed themselves.

Do the Mets have a similar hot streak in them once again? Given the sometimes porous nature of the starting rotation and the general inability to drive in runs when necessary, I don't know if an extended win streak is possible. Replacing the Manager, at this point in the season, would be tantamount to admitting to a massive and catastrophic error in judgement by Minaya, and if that were to happen now, Minaya's ouster would be sure to follow. What's besides the point is Manuel, to the best of my knowledge, isn't even on the hot seat (or have the dreaded "leaks" in the Mets system been fixed...). The problem, then, lies with the talent on the field. Much like, despite popular sentiment, it wasn't Willie Randolph's fault that Carlos Delgado couldn't hit and Jose Reyes was a petulant, moody brat, it's not Jerry Manuel's fault that Luis Castillo dropped that popup last Friday, or that John Maine's shoulder locked up, or whatever other injury might have occurred. Last year, I called for Ho-Jo's head and didn't get it. I'll still call for Ho-Jo's head if the team feels a change to the coaching staff is absolutely necessary. In the end, it comes down to the execution of the players, and right now, many of these players should be executed. Rumors are abound. But until any action is taken, it's little more than idle talk.

But, failing everything else, the Mets could always try to fire Willie Randolph again.

Who's Driving This Bus?

2009-06-15T10:02:00.003-04:00

The past week for the Mets would have been a mild success had they went 3-3, given the quality of the opponent and the state of the team itself. Though the 2-4 record they posted deserves an asterisk considering how badly they gave one of those games away, it's hard to imagine how those 4 losses could have been much worse, perhaps not so much for the psyche of the team, but for the psyche of the fans.

If nothing else, you have to at least admire the fact that the Mets will not quit. They won't just roll over and die, even with the mounting injuries and the complete lack of consistency they've displayed over the first 2 1/2 months of the season. But this team, no matter how hard they fight and scrape for victories, has proven themselves to be only good enough to get to the precipice and then come up short. And I don't see how this season will play out any different unless some major changes are made. I brought it up after Friday's game and I'll say it again: Every time there's a crucial spot, or a key play or a close call in a game, it seems like it's going against the Mets. Whenever there's a game decided on an error or a balk, it's going against the Mets. Whenever a lead is blown, it's blown by the Mets. And it's happened repeatedly over the course of the season. There are teams that are good and those teams are the teams that catch the breaks. The Mets catch none of the breaks, and that's the sign of a team that just isn't very good. They may well catch fire in July, that's certainly possible. In fact, it's easy to look at where things stood exactly a year ago and you'd see that things weren't that much different. But while the Mets might have caught fire in July last year, we know how it all turned out. Whatever the Mets might be able to pull off, it's only enough to get everyone to believe in them, only to have the rug pulled out from underneath.

There are surprise good performances by no-name pitchers followed up by Aces getting torched. What the hell is going on with this team? Fernando Nieve comes out of nowhere and shuts down the Yankees for 6.2 innings. It's just enough to inspire some confidence in you, especially with Johan Santana pitching on Sunday. But Sunday comes and Johan Santana is a pitch away from getting out of a 2nd inning jam, and then, all of a sudden, Francisco Cervelli hits a dinky little flair that just drops in for an RBI single, and that opens the floodgates for a flogging of insane proportions. I don't understand how or why this happens to the Mets continually, but it does. Jerry Manuel looks half-asleep sometimes, and then gets thrown out of a game when the game is grossly and ridiculously out of control. That's when you argue? That's going to somehow fire up this team? I'm a bit confused as to what sort of logic Manuel follows at times. There's no direction with this team. You have no clue who's driving the bus.

You'd like to think the day off today will allow the Mets to regroup and retool for this week, but I don't know if a day off is what this team needs right now.

A Defeat of Metsian Proportion

2009-06-13T10:55:00.002-04:00

At this point, I think if anybody came out and said that the Mets don't have it—whatever it is—this season, nobody would argue with him.

It's gotten to the point with the Mets now that they don't just lose, and they don't just find ways to lose, they've truly perfected the art form of losing games in the most excruciating way possible. In fact, they've even managed to perfect winning in the most excruciating way possible, but they're really starting to take the cake with some of these losses.

It wasn't cool when they fiddled away a lead and eventually a game on Wednesday night against the Phillies, and it wasn't fun when Thursday night's game followed the exact same pattern with a different score. But last night's game took the cake. It was bad enough that they blew the lead, and it was bad enough that they lost the game. But combine the manner in which the game ended, combined with the grossly unjustified fate placed upon the pitcher on the mound, and the opponent and the magnitude of the event, multiplied by the color my face turned as a series of obnoxious phone calls and messages began pouring in and that was when I realized that the Mets just pulled off their most Metsian defeat ever.

Consider this perfect storm of circumstances:

First game of the season against the Yankees.
First game ever in the New Yankee Stadium.
Packed house.
See-saw game that saw 5 lead changes by the 9th inning.
Sloppy game that saw the Mets score 2 runs without a hit in the 3rd.
Typical Yankee 3 1/2 hour plus game.
Mets take a late lead off Rivera.
Mets go into the last of the 9th with their new closer and his unblemished record.
Mets are one out away from once again gutting their way to a victory.

And then it All. Fell. Apart.

Can't pin this one on anybody but Castillo, and he's going to have to shoulder this one for a while, no matter what happens from here. Rodriguez gets tagged with one of history's most unjust blown saves, his first of the season. The Mets, well, they remain the Mets, and just gave the fans of the other guys fodder to beat into our heads forever. I know that this isn't the first time something like this has ever happened, but it seems like, the way this year has gone, and last year and the year before that, that it's always happening to the Mets. The Mets are going to continue to play this season out, and they're going to continue to show heart and guts, or at least something resembling that, but they're not winning anything this season. I think it's safe to say that now. The injuries and the inconsistency are proving too much to overcome. They can't get out of their own way, and right now, they're losing games based more on some bad luck and some bad calls rather than being far inferior to their opponent. They're in every game, and they're always right there until the end, which makes it even more frustrating. It's always a bad break that seems to do the Mets in, and that's the sign of a team that's not going anywhere. Winners get those breaks. The Mets always seem to manage to screw them up.

Lost In A Fog

2009-06-12T00:59:00.003-04:00

All I can say after subjecting myself to all 10 innings and 3 hours and 3 minutes of the debacle that masqueraded itself as last night's Mets/Phillies game is that it's a DAMN good thing I don't drink at Baseball games. I would have very likely done something ill-advised and regrettable in a more sober moment.

The irony wasn't lost on me that this was the second year in a row I'd been at a Mets game on June 11th. Last year, the game seemed to be mere background to the demeanor of the crowd. The Mets were struggling, the crowd was thin, the opponent was sparse, and the game moved along at a fairly brisk pace...until the late innings where things dissolved for the Mets. But they recovered.

Last night was more or less the same, though the game wasn't quite so much background as it was just a waiting game. But it moved along at a brisk pace, until the late innings, where things dissolved for the Mets. Unlike last year, they did not, and could not recover. They couldn't get out of their own way. Every bad habit they've had all season re-emerged. They didn't tack on runs, they let the Phillies come back, and then the game got away from them, and they couldn't scrape their way back. And, unlike last year, the entire game was played in a thick, thick fog that got progressively heavier and heavier as the game went on, sinking closer and closer to the field that, by the end of the game, you could have thought that the fog would descend completely and swallow the Mets whole. Which is basically how the game played out.

Around midnight, or maybe later, it really started pouring in Manhattan, and I said out loud, "Where the hell was this 6 hours ago? It would have saved me some misery." I was solo this evening, as El Guapo found himself stuck at work and other attempts to find a taker for the extra seat went awry. I might have done better with someone else, if only because of the assertion that misery loves company; sure, the Mets have just lost an excruciating game, but we can at least vent to each other about that. I've never disliked going to games alone, but on nights like this, you're left with nothing to do after the game but stew and walk around with a defiant scowl on my face, silently wishing I could just wrap my hands around the neck of that drunken Philly fan running around the Promenade, waving his hat in everyone's face and screaming that the Mets suck. But, as I said before, there's a very good reason I don't drink at games, and this such instance is a good example.

I didn't feel good about this game from the outset. Between the threat of rain and the fog rolling in and the pitching matchup, things didn't seem to favor the Mets. Sure, the Phillies were starting Jamie Moyer, and the Mets did feed Moyer his lunch last month, but that was May, and Reyes and Delgado were there, and Pelfrey was starting for the Mets, not Tim Redding. I figured that even if the Mets matched the 7 they put up against Moyer last month, it still might not be enough. The crowd seemed sparse and desolate. It looked like one of those nights where the weather would scare everyone off.

I didn't figure that the crowd would immediately fall into place once the game started. I didn't figure that Redding would show up with his A game and basically do absolutely everything you could possibly ask from him over his 7 innings, in which he absolutely pitched his heart out. 7 innings, 6 hits, 3 runs, 0 walks and 6 strikeouts? You'd take that from Redding in a heartbeat. I don't even want to hear about him blowing a 3-1 lead. He didn't blow anything. Even when the Phillies got to Redding, they didn't hit him especially hard, except for Utley's double in the 6th. In the 3rd, it was a pair of bloopers, Rollins' hit in the 6th just sort of fell in, and they scored on a groundout in the 7th.

The problem was that his offense couldn't generate anything other than Luis Castillo getting on base, Alex Cora bunting him over or, failing that, moving him along, and Carlos Beltran driving him in. David Wright had 3 hits and scored no runs. Fernando Tatis had a hit and Fernando Martinez got hit, but no runs. And when the entirety of your offense is generated by station-to-station small ball against a team that can blast you like the Phillies, that's not going to cut it. Once it was tied, and once the game got into the hands of the bullpens, the Mets shut down completely. Nothing against Condrey, nothing against Durbin or Eyre or Madson, when one key hit would have swung the game in their favor.

But the Mets bullpen was up to the challenge of going shot for shot with the Philly relievers. Feliciano came in for the 8th and did what he usually does, get the Philly lefties out. Parnell got through the 9th without much drama. In the 10th, he got Rollins to pop out before Victorino snuck one by him. Parnell left for Ken Takahashi. You still had to feel pretty good. It was really foggy, yes, but the crowd remained spirited and positive. Even after Takahashi walked Utley, it kind of felt like things would be OK. Takahashi came back and struck out Howard, and everybody was up. And then, there was Ibanez. And there was Ibanez lifting a fly ball out towards Right-Center. A golf shot. Martinez ranged back. It looked to me like he had it all the way.

No sweat...

He kept going back.

Hmm...

Oh God...

OH GOD!!!

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!

***
The mass exodus began immediately after the ball landed in the bullpen. I've seen crowds empty out fast, in fact, exactly one year ago, after the Mets blew the lead in that game, Shea emptied out quick. This was something else. Like everybody who had been sitting out in the mist and the fog just decided that this was it, we're outta here and we're outta here FAST. I was too stunned and angry to move at that point, plus I wasn't leaving early. I stuck it out to the end. And we know, more or less, what happened from there.

As I got outside the stadium, there was a pocket, and they appear to move in pockets, of Philly fans enjoying themselves. I passed two Mets fans walking in an opposite direction. One of them screamed at them, "PHILLIES SUCK!"

His friend pulled him aside and said to him, "Dude, the Phillies won."

That about summed up the evening. What more can be said?

It could be worse, I suppose...

We could be the Yankees.

You'll Show Us!

2009-06-11T08:35:00.004-04:00

For 5 innings last night, the Mets did a pretty good job of making Cole Hamels eat his words.

For the final 6 innings, the Mets did a pretty good job of making Cole Hamels look prophetic.

Though the game early on seemed to be playing out like a Pelfrey/Hamels pitchers duel, the Mets eventually got to Hamels and jumped on him to the tune of 4 runs and 11 hits over 5 innings, getting runners on in every inning, stealing bases, keeping him off balance and basically pinging him to death with a bunch of singles. It was truly beautiful to see, because the Mets were thriving on a pair of extended rallies. All they needed was the haymaker to put the game out of reach and send the crowd into a frenzy.

Didn't happen. Beltran got hosed on a bad call at 1st base to end things in the 4th, the Mets couldn't bring home any more runs in the 5th, and then couldn't get an inch off the Phillies bullpen the rest of the night. It became progressively more and more frustrating as the night drew on, not so much because the Phillies had come back and tied the game, but because it seemed to me that the Mets had the bases loaded or men in scoring position in just about every inning. The Mets basically turned back into the Mets and stopped scoring after the 4th inning, came up with 16 hits and only managed to score 4 runs.

It comes back to that issue of being lucky, and the good teams always get lucky. For the Mets, you knew that once they started to screw up innings over and over, it was just a matter of time before the game got away from them. After 5 innings, things were looking great. Pelfrey was in a rhythm, having recovered from his bad start last time out (and if you'd listened to my boys Benigno and Roberts, you would have thought Pelfrey was the first good pitcher ever to have a bad outing), he was pitching and acting without fear. Hell, he helped himself with his bat just as much as he did on the mound, chipping in with a pair of hits, a run and an RBI. He got in Utley's face in the 6th after Utley stepped out on him mid-windup. He was rolling right along. And all of a sudden it sort of just fell apart on him in the 7th. Beltran probably should have caught Werth's fly ball for starters, and once Wright made his error, the wheels had come off. But the Phillies didn't pass the Mets in that inning, they just caught them. So the Mets still had plenty of time and plenty of juice to push that winning run across.

Try as they might, they couldn't manage it. Just about every reliever the Phillies trotted out there let guys on base and then got out of it. Durbin, Eyre, Romero, even Chan Ho Freakin' Park got through two innings. Both teams were slugging it out and at some point it became apparent that whoever got one more good break was going to end up winning the game. And the longer things went, the more excruciating it got. Tatis made a huge play on Rollins' liner in the 10th. But when Werth made a Swoboda-like dive to rob Wright of what would have been a certain game-winning double in the last of the 10th, I knew the Mets were screwed. I stepped away from the TV for a brief moment and it seemed almost too perfect . The situation was rife for disaster. By the time I came back, Utley had already hit his 2nd HR and the Phillies had the game. You could see it coming a mile away.

So, tonight, a rubber game in between the raindrops (at least that's how it looks right now). I'll be there tonight. I wasn't especially thrilled to draw a Tim Redding start, but then again, the Phillies are starting Jamie Moyer, who I saw the Mets beat up on but good last month. So far this week, the Mets won on Tuesday, which was the 10th Anniversary of one of my favorite Shea Games. Tonight is the one-year Anniversary of one of the more bizarre evenings I'd ever spent at Shea. It's also Jose Reyes' Birthday, his 26th, though he's spending it on the DL. Hopefully, the Mets will celebrate his birthday this year the same way they did last year.

We'll Show You!

2009-06-10T10:16:00.005-04:00

For some reason, it seems like the Mets have this annoying habit of playing to the abilities of their opponents. When they were playing Washington and Pittsburgh, they looked lifeless and bored. Now that they're playing the Phillies, everyone's awake and aware and fired up.

It helps when you've got your ace on the mound and what was the most spirited crowd I'd heard all season at Citi Field behind you, but when things were looking bleak for the Mets, they got off the mat, fired back and came away with a steely, albeit harrowing 6-5 victory in the series opener.

Not that it was easy by any stretch. You couldn't help but fear the worst as the game began, even with Santana on the mound. Last time out, Santana didn't pitch badly but for one inning, and that was enough for the game to get away from him because the Mets didn't hit.

Last night, the Mets hit.

It's not a stretch to say that for whatever the Mets are meant to do this season, they will have to be led, offensively, by Wright and Beltran. Though Wright has run hot and cold, it's been more hot than cold over the past 6 weeks or so. But what's been lacking has been power. Not that it's been noticible; Wright has been hitting with a ferocious consistency, and driving the ball all over the place that it was only recently that eyes perked up and people started to chirp about the fact that it was June and Wright had only hit 3 HRs. Wisely, Wright has changed his approach at the plate to tailor himself to his environs. Wright previously had a tendency to muscle up and pull the ball for HRs, when his natural swing would drive the ball to right-center. But the ball won't fly out that way. Wright can still pull the ball when he needs to, but for the most part, he's just been spraying the ball over the field. The result is that, though Wright's HR numbers are way down, he's hitting .340. It's a simple tradeoff. Hit the HRs and bat .290, or screw it and hit for average. This was the Keith Hernandez method of hitting, and it served him well enough for a number of years. So, when Wright took a pitch from Muppet-Faced Rookie J.A. Happ and pulled it over the left field wall, it was his first HR in 100 ABs, dating back over a month to the last game the Mets and Phillies had played.

On the other side is Beltran, who has been on a ferocious tear all season, also running at a .340 clip. His power numbers are about average, at least for him, and we all know his power streaks come in major bursts, one of which he's hopefully about due for.

Either way, the two HRs from those key players served as the keynote for the evening, staking the Mets to a 3-0 lead.

Of course, you knew the Phillies would fire back. Even against Santana. First, it was Howard. Then Ibanez. Then, in the 6th, it was Jimmy Rollins, who popped one out and made sure everyone in attendance knew who hit it, shushing the crowd as he walked off the field. Would you expect any less from Rollins? No, I didn't think so.

So, rather shockingly, the game had gone from great to another Mets-Phillies nailbiter. But it was the Mets firing right back, aided mainly by the bat of Santana, who eschewed an 0-2 bunt attempt and instead swung away and nailed an RBI double to re-knot the game at 4, and extending a rally that would eventually see the Mets take the lead, 5-4. Ryan Church hit a long HR in the 7th into the apple, and once again, all seemed right with the world.

That is, until the 8th, when Chase Utley tucked one just inside the right field foul pole. This was followed by Santana storming around the mound and screaming at his manager before being removed from the game. There's been a bit of talk about this, and I don't see what the big deal is. Is Santana showing up his manager? Who cares? More than likely, Santana had thrown 91 pitches, given up 4 HRs, was pissed off about that and still had plenty of gas left and wanted to stay in the game. He's the ace. He's the leader. He should want to stay in the game. Would you rather he sheepishly shrugged his shoulders and walked off, defeated? Hell No. The man is a gamer. He's got more balls than just about the remainder of his teammates combined, and last year he threw a complete game shutout in a must-win game on one leg. Far as I'm concerned, he can yell all he wants.

Jerry Manuel, clearly, felt differently.

No matter, though. Parnell gave up a hit and departed for Feliciano, who did what he's made a very good habit of doing this season, which is making the lefties in the Philly lineup look silly. The rest of the game was placed in the rather capable hands of the gentleman in the photo on your right. And, with that, the Mets win a game that they absolutely had to win, beat a team that they absolutely have to beat if they want to go anywhere this season, and send what was a raucous, October-like crowd home happy. At least for one night.

Tonight, it will be just as intense, particularly if you take tonight's starter for the Phillies into consideration. It's nice that Cole Hamels has decided to show his face against the Mets this time around, and in New York no less. During the offseason, Carlos Beltran said that Hamels must be watched every time he pitches against the Mets. Well, here's hoping they're watching him tonight. And doing the same kinds of things they did to him last season.