Mets Get Win Despite Themselves

Of course when your buried neck deep in mediocrity and every day is another drudgery of explaining to the world the reasons why you try but just can't get it done, a victory is a nice diversion.


Mets survive to struggle on another day and Duaner Sanchez, struck by a line drive, barely survives the mishap

Even one wherein your winning pitcher is a guy who probably isn't even going to stay with the team very long and you run yourself out of a potentially big opening inning with aggressive yet foolhearted baserunning.


Not even a reasonably good start will likely keep Armas with the team.

In a season of disappointments yes, we should probably cherish every little victory. A victory over your most distant wildcard rival, whose lead was narrowed to six games. A victory with a minor league pitcher starting in Tony Armas for you. A victory on the road against the team with the second best record in the National League. A victory led in part by a back up catcher in Castro, who matched his RBI total for June in one game. A victory with a rare combination of hitting from the corners; Delgado and Wright, who in their first eight appearances, had six hits, three doubles and three runs scored.


Are these the only two guys on the roster worth keeping?

Yes a victory that saw a rare, flawless performance from the bullpen when Heilman, Feliciano, Sanchez and Wagner pitched a combined three shutout innings and allowed only one baserunner.

Of course, by the end of the 1st inning the bitterness had only grown.

Reyes was thrown out at second trying to steal, killing one runner and then Endy Chavez was thrown out at home when he tried to score on a wild pitch only to see the ball bounce back short off the brick wall behind home plate. You had to be thinking to yourself losing two potential runs like that was going to be demoralising.

And then when Ankiel hit his two-run shot to give the Cards their early lead in the bottom of the 1st the temptation to simply stop listening and find something more productive to do with your time was overwhelming.

But somehow, the Mets persevered.

It's a win that keeps them on pace with the Phillies and staves off the howling rage of their supporters during this crucial, probably season-deciding road trip to St Louis and Philly.

*****

King of Understatement, Jerry Manuel on Luis Castillo, who didn't play last night: "He seems to wear out a lot easier than I anticipated,"

Pedro takes the mound tonight and who else other than me is dying to see if the rubbish theory about tipping his pitches? If this is the simple mechanical explanation that Pedro should throw 5 or 6 shutout innings tonight, I'm betting. And he'll need to because Joel Pineiro, who hasn't won since April, will be on the mound for the Cardinals. Pineiro's post-April streak likely means an inexplicably spectacular outing against the Mets. You just watch. That's how the Mets roll. Struggle against inferiority.

With June mercifully over I note the near identical stats of Wright, Beltran and, surprisingly, Delgado.

G AB R H D T HR RBI TB BB K OBP SLUG AVG
1. C Beltran 28 107 19 29 6 0 6 21 53 15 18 .361 .495 .271
2. C Delgado 28 105 14 27 8 1 6 20 55 9 21 .333 .524 .257
3. D Wright 27 104 13 29 3 0 5 23 47 14 17 .355 .452 .279

And poor Johan Santana - his June consisted of 5 starts and an 0-4 record despite a 2.53 ERA for June.

Pelfrey, on the other hand, was 3-0 with a 3.52 ERA.

Surprise, surprise: Heilman, everybody's favourite goat, pitched in 15 games and had an incredible 0.61 ERA over the last 30 days.

Mets Bring Joy To Cardinals Fans

"We just looked sometimes lethargic. We have to be careful that doesn't become a pattern." says Jerry Manuel after last night's stinging 7-1 loss, like his manager's position is allowing him unique insight he didn't have as the bench coach. Be careful it doesn't become a pattern? Jerry where the fuck have you been the last two seasons? It's not in a danger of becoming a pattern, Jerry. It's already set in fucking stone.

The Mets are a rubbish team with the focus and concentration of Oliver Perez and after a few weeks of Jerry Manuel I think it's now safe to say he isn't the man who is going to change that.

And maybe nobody is. Maybe it's time for the Mets to simply get rid of as much of this excess baggage calling itself a team that they can rid of and start all over again with a new GM, a new manager, whatever can be salvaged from a gutted minor league system and whatever they can get for the junkyard of a team they have remaining. Spare David Wright, but quite frankly, this is the only guy from this wreckage that I'd save.

I'm beginning to believe Luis Castillo is hiding behind the guise of injury when it's really disinterested laziness which seems to be his real foe. What else would explain how fast and agile he looked against the Yankees and what a lifeless fielding muppet he looked like against the Cardinals last night? Hurt? Old? Incapable? I've said this before - if Castillo is playing hurt, put him on the DL or let him undergo season-ending surgery but this rubbish of I'll play a few games and then put jersey on and take the field but not really play the rest of the games is simply cashed as a baseball philosophy. Sadly, because of Omar's short-sightedness, this empty jersey calling itself a ball player is going to be difficult if not impossible to unload on another team. How about an unconditional release?

Resting Delgado for a late-inning defensive replacement is another joke. This guy puts up half efforts in the league of Castillo and sticking some past-his-primer like Fernando Tatis for crissakes is like trying to stem the flow of blood squirting out from a severed artery with a square of toilet paper.

The right side of the infield a gaping hole of incompetence and lethargy and no amount of wishful thinking, no amount of late-inning replacements called up from Scrubville or Futility City or the MLB pension queue, is going to change that.


Look, staying out here is a bad idea coach, I think I'm just going to give up all these runs right now so we can stop having to worry about staying close altogether and just get this loss over.

Hard to believe that a year and a half ago or so these two teams were playing in the NLCS.

Sure, the Cardinals are looking good after a year of misery. But the Mets? Looks like the 2006 NLCS was the closest this collection of somnambulists and brittle bodies is ever going to come to winning anything again.

John Maine started the game off smashingly...for the Cardinals. A lead off walk, a single and an RBI single followed by another walk and the next thing you knew Coach Warthen is waddling out there to see what the fuck John Maine was smoking. Four batters into the lineup and the Mets were down 1-0 with the bases loaded and none out. Not the kind of beginning that makes you think the Mets have a prayer of staying in the game.

But Maine escaped it with only one more run to leave the Mets in a 2-0 hole.

Then in the second inning, as the Met bats went down meekly yet again to Kyle Lohse, a man the Mets rejected, or rather Omar rejected back in January off season. But Maine seemed ready to answer before Skip Schumaker's simple grounder with two outs went through Castillo's legs and let Yadier Molina to score from second base. 3-0 and hope slipping like sand through the fingertips.

Third inning, Mets go down as easy as 1-2-3 and the Cards get another run in their half, 4-0.

Need we go on and on and on? The millionth throwing error by David Wright in his short career, this one a circus throw in the 4th inning led to yet another run and by now, if you were still listening to or watching the game you are a confirmed masochist because everybody in the world knows the Mets are not going to come back from such a lifeless deficit with the entirey of the defence simply standing around waiting for the next lapse in concentration. How long has Wright been playing third base for the Mets and how long has he had problems throwing the goddamned ball from third to first? Is there some sort of learning disability on display here?


What? The game still salvageable? Why let's put in Carlos Muniz then so we can all get back to the hotel!

So there you go, folks. Another embarassing loss. Another reminder that no matter how delusional the length of the baseball season allows us to remain, the simple fact is that the Mets are going nowhere this season.

It's time to start the Fire Sale.

Perez Gives Mets Subway Series Split

You figure it out. Oliver Perez, one of the more frustrating pitchers in baseball, is now 4-0 with a 1.21 ERA for the Mets when pitching against the Yankees and the Mets earned a deserved split of the Subway Series. Another one of those little mysteries of the universe, how Perez can seem so sweet some days and so utterly, devestatingly incompetent on others.


Hitting the ground in anticipation of the re-emergence of the Evil Ollie?

But look, Dan Warthen, the pitching coach who replaced guru Rick Peterson, has tinkered with Perez's delivery a little bit, wiped away the cobwebs of Peterson's one theory fits all coaching and who knows, maybe he's found a way to wipe off the soot and expose the shine of Oliver Perez once and for all. Then again, maybe Perez will walk a dozen when he pitches next, against the Phillies. There's simply no way of knowing.

In the meantime, the Mets earned their Subway Series split against the Number One team in NYC (and yes, Jerry Manuel is right regardless of what Mets fans think if for no other reason than it is reality, is not defeatist and should be a motivator rather than ego-buster...) and now hit the road for what may well be a devastating run against the Cardinals and Phillies.

We'll get a few hours to make a big deal about Jose Reyes throwing his glove in a little trantrum after Delgado let an off the mark throw glance off his glove for an error, a Reyes error. Sure, a better first baseman would have had it but this is Delgado we're talking about. He can't be arsed to exert himself too much very often.

This is the second noticeable tantrum by Reyes in the Manuel regime and comes a day after he was stupidly picked off second base at a key moment in the game. Is there much else he can do to fall out of everyone's good graces? Sure, you can argue he is showing passion out there and normally I'd say give the guy a pass, I'm sure you'd have been pissed off if you'd have done the same thing and then watched the ball bounce off Delgado's glove like that but the thing is, I'm still pissed off about that pick-off so I'm not in the mood to cut the kid some slack. Even if in the WHAT IF scenario, he hadn't been picked off 2nd and Wright ended up driving him home and the Mets ended up winning on Saturday instead of losing it only would have postponed a loss in today's game because well, That's How the Mets Roll. Win one, lose one. One up, one down. Good follows bad and bad follows good. Inconsistency - the same we castigate Perez for but the same the Mets demonstrate game after game, week after week, month after month.

But before more misery is heaped upon the Mets allow them to savour a few delicious moments.


Wagner thanks the Hillbilly Gods that A-Hole's long fly ball didn't go over the fence and tie the game.

There was Delgado's smash in the 3rd inning to make it 2-0, Ryan Church's successful return to the lineup and Billy Wagner's barely functional outing that earned a save in the 9th to solidify it.

Where does it all leave the Mets?

Well, at precisely the halfway point of the season it leaves them 1 game under .500 yet miraculously, only three games out of first place in the NL East.

It leaves them an even .500 under Jerry Manuel meaning well, right about the same place they've been this entire season regardless of whose running the show: A maddening team of ups and downs who cannot find the consistency to run off a nice 7 or 8 game winning streak.

So put this little Subway Series split up there on the fridge and enjoy it for a day because with the Mets heading for St Louis and then for Philly, I can't see a way for this week to end on a happy note.

Not unless the Mets are truly going to start finding their ritmo with the emergence of Perez (and maybe even Pedro if tipping pitches really IS his problem and not old age), the return of Church (and who knows, maybe even Alou), and of course, that long awaited spurt that pushes them forward and up over the top of the NL East.

Like the rest of the Mets limited fiefdom however, I've learned not to really wish for such crazy things.

You can only take them one win at a time.

Ace Outpitched Yet Again, Yankees Take Another

With Johan Santana starting on fire, striking out five of the first nine batters he faced in three scoreless innings, the temptation to contemplate victory and greatness was ripe for the plucking.

But for those of you who have watched the Mets at all this season, you know better.


Johan to Wright: Whattacha wanna do dees afternoon, Davey?
Wright to Johan: Oh, I dunno Johan, why don't we stand near the foul line and watch baseballs NOT roll foul and end up as base hits?
Johan to Wright: Ok, esounds like fung!

For three innings you could try and let yourself feel good but for the nagging feeling deep down, the knowing, that Santana would not keep it up (my favourite scenario between innings was surrendering a massive, solar-plexus punching gopherball to turn the game around considering Santana seems to throw at least one a game...)and you merely had to recall Pedro strolling along through 4 last Saturday in Colorado before the roof caved in and the floor gave way.

Well, nothing as melodramatic as Santana surrendering back-to-back homers, just a little chip here, a little chip there and the next thing you knew Santana had his 7th loss against 7 victories on the season, the fifth straight game the "ace" has started which ended in a Mets loss.

Of course early on, we could be distracted by the revelation that Pedro has been tipping his pitches of late, specifically his change-up by widening his glove, and this is the source of Pedro sucking his last few outings. So according to this legend, Pedro will return to Hall of Fame form his next start. Let's say I'll not be holding my breath on that one.

There are many keys to any game: their ace outpitching ours, a continued somnambulism at the plate, the occasional yip from David Wright at third sending Delgado all over the shop (and yes, Delgado did make a nice stab of it and did actually tag A-Hole out before he reached first but you can't blame the umps for malaise...)but the true key was held in the 5th and Pettitte, who outpitched Johan all the way, picked Reyes off second to kill a rally in the 5th.


Bonehead act of the game, Reyes getting picked off 2nd by Pettitte in the 5th with two men on and David Wright at the plate.

This is the kind of baffoonery that stares the Mets in the face every morning following a game. These little things they failed to do, like hit the cut off man, or pay attention to getting picked off by the man with the base pickoff move in baseball, getting hits in key places, not walking half a lineup home, not throwing balls away, etc. etc. etc. These are the little facial tics that are preventing the Mets from getting a good head shot this season.


In the A Bunker clubhouse, four strikeouts in four at-bats would mean your game salary gets donated to charity because YOU DIDN'T DESERVE A PENNY, Beltran.

There's certainly no reason why the Mets couldn't have won this game but they didn't and that's the story within the story. Just like Santana's pitching. Good but not good enough.

And Jerry Manuel? Gangsta? How about winning some focking games first, or does that interrupt studying the Gandhi quotes for secret morsels on winning?

Game Two: And Now The Bad News....

So typical of the Mets season.

Game One, an afternoon shit-kicking punctuated by Carlos Delgado, the least likely of heroes.

And this endless little caged mouse's exercise wheel spins again and the Mets come home to bedazzle their fans with a fresh form of malaise.

Is it surprising, a brief high followed by a rapidly sinking low?

It is the calling card of the 2008 Mets.


There'll be no jumping out of hotel windows tonight Pedro, you've had a great career.


Pedro tells the man upstairs if he doesn't start getting some love, he's going to cut him.


Now add insult to injury by allowing this muppet to stage his career comeback against the Mets.

So there you have it folks, a day/night doubleheader.

One massive win, one massive loss.

Just about where you'd expect it.

Subway Series Doublheader Diary Game 1

18:12 Pregame - listening to online WFAN to get warmed up. It's Friday, post-work in England, pissing down, got eight 440 ml draught cans of Guinness, combustibles and Mike Francesa is busy proving with a vengeance what a champion moron he is - I'd almost forgotten after all this time...I lost track of how many stupid things he said after about 45 seconds. After the first few I was going to keep a long list of stupid comments by Francesa but then I realised without a stenographer, it's impossible. And thankfully at least the Maddog has got a day off. That makes sense. Biggest NYC baseball day of the season and he's got the day off. Looking for work, no doubt.

Anyway, took advantage of free 5 day subscription to the MLBTV promotion so if all goes well I'll have the good fortune of watching rather than just listening. A dollop of Keef Hernandez to keep things interested. I sense from reading It's Mets For Me with my tea and crumpets every day that this isn't always the most reliable of sources - we'll see.

Hang on, 18:21, Francesa is 'splainin' the bad blood with his douchebag partner...
Christ, what the FUCK did Maddog say yesterday? Fat Boy waxing poetic about their relationship. Shrugs his shoulders about whether or not their idiot sitcom will go on after 19 years. Please, some tissues...



*****

18:32 So far, nothing. Blank screen. I know the game doesn't start for a half an hour but won't they have a pregame? Fuck it, switch to WFAN in the interim....

After 7 consecutive minutes of commericals and a brief soundbite I realise Endy Chavez and Jose Reyes should have an English mangling contest. Speak Spanish, boys - nobody's going to hold it against you. At least then a few people will understand you.

Pre-game interview with HoJo explaining the listlessness of the Mets lineup after jumping to their 8 run lead the other night against Seattle, said "Good things happen but it doesn't show up in the numbers." - doesn't that mean failure? Then alot of mumbling about injuries and balance and so and so not being Alou and Church. The day off versus game off theory he expoused about resting David Wright...makes sense though. HoJo's a good bloke but sometimes I just fucking hate the sports cliches that get bandied about in lieu of real words.

18:48 OK, more commericals - going to try the MLBTV again....
Sweet F.A. on. No sound no video. Not even buffering. Just playing and nothing happening. What a great promotion. Yeah! Give me a full year's subscription to this!

19:01 Good news and bad news. Good news is, it's working. Bad news, it's the fucking Yankee network with that douchebag Michael Kay. If this gets real bad, I'm going to have to switch to the FAN until the night game when the Mets are home and we get the Mets broadcast....

******

Top of the 1st: Dan Giese is the typical sort of pitcher the Mets flail against. A virtual nowhere man, almost no MLB experience, Cy bloody Young against the Mets. How many times have they been embarassed by a pitcher with no experience? Anyway, bad omen. Reyes out on strikes. Amazing that McClelland, the home plate ump, called the George Brett pine tar game and also David Wells' perfect game. Certainly a pitcher's ump. Well the Mets get some nice run manufacturing, a walk, stolen base and RBI single...Delgado is hitting .229. Jesus.

Commercial break: Holy shit, you can vote 25 times for the All Star game? So the game's going to be held in Zimbabwe?

Bottom of 1st: Nice debriefing from David Cone on the difference between the two seam and four seam pitch which is supposedly Pelfrey's bread and butter. Lefties hitting .350 against Pelfrey. No wonder he gets killed. Castillo could not make the play on A-Rod's blooper and Beltran is sitting on top of the centerfield wall and could not run in quick enough to make the play...Here come's Pelf's moment to shine. Broken bat RBI single for Cheesily Moustache Steroid Boyo Giambini. The two-seamer moving away so difficult that it broke Giambi's bat. Dan Werthen makes his inaugural visit to the mound to hold Pelf's hand and whisper sweet nothings about what a big bad muthafuckah Pelf is and just git these bastids out, etc in the faint hope that Pelf doesn't take this too seriously and suffer a meltdown. Does it matter much anymore? His pitch count is going off the rails already. And in the end all three outs recorded were Ks. No wonder the pitch count is so high.

MLB.COM commercial break :now they've got video updates by mobile phone on every and any game being played. Pssst. Stickball match going on corner of E 7th St and 2nd Avenue...well, it's the other side of the pond so getting video messages from MLB overseas might end up costing more than flying in to see the bloody games in person...

Top of 2nd: Trot Nixon, a "nose on the dirt" kind of guy according to Michael Kay. Wow, what an engaging intellect that muppet has. And can he please stop talking like he's holding his nose? I gets annoying after 5 seconds or so...Suddenly the video feed goes kaput. Blank screen. After a bit of hyperbolic cursing and a reboot of the website, bam, back in the game only this time, like a dream, the Mets already have runners on st and 3rd with 1 out. But then, Schneider, deservedly batting 9th in the absence of a hitting pitcher, the automatic out and Reyes, blahhhhh, end of inning. So much for that rally.

Monkey cam break

Let's go Mets or I'll put a knife to your thoat...

Bottom 2nd: Cano doubles and you wonder if Jeter is the only righty hitting in this lineup today with the lefty-shy Pelf on the mound. Two-seamer and sinker away are a buffet for lefties. But Pelf lives to tell about it for another inning.

Commercial Break: More MLB self-promotion. Will someone give Harold Reynolds a real job now please? Isn't his penance over yet?

Top of 3rd, 1-1: Smile of the Game? What the fuck? How do they know it's the smile of the game when it's only the 3rd bloody inning? Won't there be any fit birds arriving laugh to have a larf and show us a big toothy smile, a Missus Ed sort of horse smile of the Game? And as the cam goes back to the field I can see the years have not made Posada's ears any smaller. Couldn't he get surgery for that? Ear reduction surgery, like? But ho, look at Castillo who is not looking like an arthritic auld man any more today, stumbling around with all the agility of Fred Sanford. Two times on base in the first two at bats and two stolen bases. Must be on something new. Michael Kay begins a lengthy discussion on whether or not the players will shower between games. What's next, chatting about the plethera of colours in Giambi's stools? ....woa, SEE YA. Beltran pops a 2 run homer over the short RF porch, 3-1. Kay points out that the Mets' batting order is basically the first four guys and a bunch of empty jerseys after that. Delgado strikes out on queue.

Commerical Break


Bottom 3rd, 3-1: Feel good moment is over abruptly. Jeter, lead off double. A-Rod's RBI single rockets past Reyes. Great little story from Cone about Rickey Henderson referring to himself in the third person: Up against Cone on an 0-2 count, Henderson steps out of the box and starts talking to himself: "C'mon Rickey, you're a Hall of Famer..."...Giambi, no Hall of Famer, walks. Pelfrey in difficulties with one out against Dumbo. Beltran, back on top of the centerfield wall, rushes in and misses Dumbo's bloop single to load the bases. C'mon back on the field, Beltran. Fuck sake, over your head is a homer, stop giving up cheap singles...2-0 count on Can-No...trouble...Reyes makes a great stab to steal Can-No's near certain hit but Yankees still tie the game. Wright "nearly" makes a spectacular bare handed grab but nope, Yankees go up 4-3, the mutts.

Commercial Break "Dodge. Grab Life" - what the fuck does that mean? Driving a pickup truck makes my life worth living?

Top of 4th: Watch this: Yankees answer both times the Mets score. If Met's don't score in this inning to up the ante again, it'll be game over, demoralisation complete... And there you go, 1-2-3 inning.

Commerical Break


Bottom of 4th: Getting there, believe me. It's amazing how much Guinness one can consume in 4 meagre, albeit drawn out innings..Tatis makes a great stop at first base, Pelfrey though, lost the ball. Then Wright saves Pelf from throwing it away to 3rd and stomps on Melky's ankle for good measure. Bonus. Dan Warthen back out again after 74 pitchers. Dumbo with the bases chucked, ooooh this is bad. But nyet, the day is saved.

Commecial Break


Top of 5th: Bases loaded nobody out, is Carlos Beltran going to bunt? No! Speed in addition to power, tie game, hooo-haaa. Delgado up though, that'll be the end of the inning. Hitless in last 12 at-bats but hooooo, what's this??? Clutch 2-run double? Next stop: The Apocalpse. Mets 6 Yankees 4.

I hate the Yankees and Michael Kay in particular, but this still beats getting dragged into homicidal rage by those Fox Chimps.



what? who snuck this bong up in here? This reminds me - perhaps you've heard that 1st of July the smoking ban takes effect in Holland. You might wonder about what happens to the coffee shops if there's no smoking...easy solution, you ban indoor smoking joints with tobacco in them. As if to say, go ahead, tobacco is bad but more THC in your system is better.

(editor's note: by now the consumption of banned substances are beginning to take their toll. The penmanship on the game notes decrease to illegibility, the stammering and hyperventilating tag team of incoherence make watching the game the sole activity.)

Suffice it to say Carlos Delgado wakes up in the 6th again to hit a grand slam and blow the game wide open which in turn, calls for a delivery of Chinese in celebration, firecrackers out the window and then, sweet bliss, the gradual stopping of the Yankees in Yankee Stadium.

A good afternoon out, boys. A good stomping. And Pedro coming up in the nightcap.

Mets Avoid Getting Swept By Crappy Mariners

You can't really say it's something to be proud of, avoiding a sweep at the hands of the Seattle Mariners.

But, taking in mind the bright side, at least they weren't swept by them.

They followed the humiliation of an 11-0 loss with miniature run explosion of their own through the first three innings, jumping ahead to an 8-0 lead through the first three innings before falling silent for the rest of the game.


Maybe the whole team should be given a day off.

David Wright, after being benched for a game (or call it a "day off", however you want to coin it,) homered in his first two at-bats over the first two innings and Jose Reyes hit a three-run homer of his his own in the third inning.

But Carlos Delgado, who unlike Wright, isn't getting benched, or "rested", had another hitless night to his credit, dropping his batting average down to .229. He may be getting more rest in the future though. Andy Phillips, conceivably a back-up first baseman was claimed off waivers yesterday. Claimed off waivers, mind you. He isn't a cure-all. Not with a career .248 batting average. But you don't really need much to improve upon Delgado, do you?

Carlos Beltran, a day after getting tossed from a game for the first time, had only a walk in four trips to the plate and unlike Jerry Manuel, no public apology from the ump, Brian Runge, who ejected both of them for his own miserable behaviour the night before in that debaucherie of an 11-0 loss to the worst team in baseball.

John Maine threw six innings in earning his 8th win of the season. It wasn't necessarily impressive, bar the first four hitless innings, simply reasonably effective yet his ability to get through innings flawlessly remains an issue. He has pitched at least 7 innings only once all season. It's an issue because the bullpen needs time off from time to time and none of the Mets starters seem capable of giving them one.


What a relief, not swept.

Last night, the bullpen did their job: Heilman, Smith and Sanchez surrendered one hit and two walks over three innings to keep the lead intact.

So rah, rah, the Mets won a game.

Big deal.

It doesn't make up for the first two losses to the worst team in baseball.

It doesn't make anyone believe that although his style is slightly different, Jerry Manuel is going to have any more luck than Willie did pinching performances out of this puny team.