Dispatches from the Red Seats

You Win Some, You Lose Some

2007-04-07T20:27:00.000-04:00

Not a bad game for the Mets, especially considering the horrendously frigid conditions in Atlanta (Andruw Jones looked like he was ready to go snowboarding). They could have very easily tied the game in the ninth had Shawn Green's lightning fast line-drive not ended up in the glove of Craig Wilson. Those are the breaks in baseball, which don't always go your way on a daily basis, but do tend to even out over the course of the year.

I watched today's game on our little, 5" black and white t.v., which--I swear--was receiving airline radio communication at various points of the game, adding nice little interruptions to the stale commentary by Joe Buck and Tim McCarver (McCarver: "you see, when a batter makes contact with the ball, he's always going to start running to first..." Airline pilot interrupts: "pccchhhhhhhhhhhhhh....0849er, we'll call you when we're on the ground...pcccchhhhhht").

Anyway, I was watching the game in an uncomfortable position. No, my orange vinyl chair two feet away from the "set" wasn't giving me cramps. It was John Smoltz on the mound for the Braves. Smoltz is a starting pitcher for the Bob Ross Machine, my fantasy baseball team. And you see, sports fans, the Bob Ross Machine is off to a slow start. The Mets are off to a hot start. I needed the win from Smoltzy more than the Mets needed the victory from Glavine. And besides, no one makes fun of me when the Mets lose, but when my 40-year-old fantasy pitcher gets tanked, I have to hear about it from the three other guys in the league with me.

So I watched the game mostly expressionless, secretly hoping the Mets would win, then secretly hoping the Braves would win. I suppose it could say something of where my true heart lies when I uncontrollably cursed at Shawn Green after he dropped a fly ball in the outfield and yelled in exasperation upon Green's game-ending line-out. But then again, both of these things happened at a point in the game when Smoltz was securely, at least, not the loser and quite possibly the game winner. Brook was in the room with me throughout the whole game and she always gets on my case when I root for my fantasy players against my real teams. So maybe my few bursts of emotion were just a cover-up for what I was actually desiring. Maybe I'm a bigger Bob Ross Machine fan than a Mets fan. Which leads me to ask, is my fantasy more important than my reality?

[cue Sex and the City music]

That's actually the sort of dilemma that almost prevented me from playing fantasy baseball in the first place. I grew up an Orioles fan (still am an Orioles fan) and became a Mets fan in 1999, when I moved to the city. It was hard enough to suddenly become polygamous in my support for baseball teams, so I figured it would be too confusing, or too sacrilege, or too something not quite right to then also start pulling for various individual players who were scattered on a number of different teams.

But sure enough, I signed up anyway and I've stuck with it for six years now. There are occasional conflicts like today's, but generally I can split or commit my allegiance according to fairly straightforward logic. The bottom line is: who needs the outcome more, my fantasy team or the Mets (or the Orioles)? And further, what would be the greatest possible outcome, which would grant the most amount of pleasure to both the Machine and the real team out there? That can boil down to, say, I hope the Mets win 1-0 with Smoltz going the full nine, striking out eleven, and giving up an unearned run. Or maybe, Smoltz pitching extremely well, the Mets winning, but said pitcher not credited with the loss.

But today, with the near-freezing temperatures, I knew Smoltz would neither go the distance nor have his best stuff, so a win was the most probable beneficial outcome I could desire. And he got it. And the Mets didn't look too bad giving it to him. Thanks Mets.

Mets 20, Cardinals 2

2007-04-04T23:04:00.000-04:00

A very nice way to start off the season. Sweeping the defending World Champions, on the road no less. I listened to tonight's and last night's games on the radio and they "sounded" great. Maine seemed unhittable and the Mets' bats were off the hook.

It's a long season, but you've got to like how things are going so far.

Now, if only my fantasy team could start getting to business as well...

6-1

2007-04-01T23:15:00.000-04:00

Ok, so David Eckstein and Yadier Molina had good games and Delgado and Wright didn't hit homeruns. But 6-1. That's pretty close.

Unfortunately, I couldn't watch the game too carefully; I was at a bar with a lot of other people around me, most of whom (or maybe all of whom) didn't care about the game nearly as much as I did. And as soon as the game started, they turned the audio off and put the stereo on so I couldn't hear any of the play-by-play.

And another thing: I made the mistake of trying to politely explain to this slobbering drunk tough guy--a Yankee fan--why everyone else hates the Yankees so much, which resulted in him giving me this "'AHM from Brooklyn. I was BORN here. Where are you from? Where are you from?"

"Pennsylvania."

"OHH FUCK. And you like the Mets? Why the fuck don't you like the Phillies or something." He's still yelling.

"It was pretty much equidistant to Baltimore, New York and..." He interrupts me.

"EQUIDISTANT?!? What the FUCK does that mean? You mean you lived JUST AS CLOSE?!"

That was pretty much the end of our conversation. His friend, also a Yankee fan, made a point of then coming over and talking baseball to me. A really nice guy.

Yankee fans are like cops. Good fans. Bad fans. Nice fans. Arrogant fans.

But most importantly, the Mets won. And they looked good. The infield was hot defensively. Beltran's throw from center was a big moment of the game. Everyone was hitting the ball hard. Glavine was on. It was great to see him pitch so well. Did you notice that in the first inning he was trying to shave the edges of the strike zone, but the umpire was calling his pitches balls? And then, like the true future Hall of Famer that he is, he adjusted and moved his pitches in a bit, now hitting the black of the plate. Feliciano was good. Joe Smith...not so much. Heilman: job well done. Wagner gave us our usual near heart attack in the ninth. I hope he can deliver as advertised this year.

Opening Night

2007-04-01T12:50:00.000-04:00

I don't really like the idea of Opening "Day" taking place at night. Opening Day has always been a weekday for me, a day game, a collection of day games. If you have to work, go to school, be somewhere else, well, then, obviously baseball isn't that important to you. Opening Day is something you make room for; Opening Day is something for which you skip school and work. Or, as I did in eighth grade, Opening Day is something for which you bring a transistor radio to school, put it in your pocket, and run a single earphone up your shirt, through your sleeve and onto the palm of your hand, which you keep planted on your ear all afternoon long. That was probably the smartest thing I ever did in junior high school.

All that being said, the Mets are on tonight so I've rolled out all my baseball music, my Mets' hat, my Mets' shirt, and I'm pumped up.

What we'll see this evening: Glavine vs. Carpenter. Carpenter is the younger, stronger, better pitcher. But Glavine knows the big stage when he sees it and I don't expect him to back down from to the challenge. I think he'll go five or six innings, give up a couple runs and let Sele, Heilman, and Wagner finish them off. The Mets will get homeruns from Carlos Delgado and David Wright and a key two-rbi double from Shawn Green. David Eckstein and Yadier Molina will be reminded again just how bad they actually are.

Final Score: Mets 5, Cardinals 2.

118 Days Until Pitchers and Catchers

2006-10-20T00:46:00.000-04:00

The sun also rises.

The Boys Are Back In Town

2006-10-19T00:01:00.000-04:00

Beautiful win. Beautiful win.

I Can't Believe We're Losing to these Guys

2006-10-18T00:14:00.000-04:00

Seriously. The Cardinals are not good. David Eckstein? Ronnie Beliard? Aaron Miles? Jeff Weaver?!? The team barely made the playoffs. They finished five games above .500.

But I also don't know how we could have won tonight. The bats need to come alive but the Cardinals pitched the Mets really well and got a huge strike three call in their favor in the eighth with Valentin up and runners on second and third.

Plus, while the umpire was calling everything a strike in the late innings, he was calling everything a ball in the early innings for Glavine. I didn't think Tom pitched that poorly; he just wasn't given the corners and the Cardinals took advantage.

If someone can explain to me how and why Willie used hobbling Cliff Floyd as a pinch hitter in the eighth, I'd like to hear it.

John Maine: THIS, not the last two, is the game of your life.

By the way, if anyone still thinks the Yankees are the team of "class," guess how many of the vaunted Bronx Bombers attended Cory Lidle's memorial service today?

Three.

That's More Like It

2006-10-16T00:22:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lapse in posting, sports fans. I've heard that there are some other places on this "internet" where you can learn about the Mets, but I feel responsible for giving everyone the inside scoop from Brooklyn on the New York Metropolitans. I was in South Carolina from Wednesday until this afternoon and I didn't have any online access.

Great game tonight. You might see five earned runs next to Perez's name in the box score tomorrow morning but he pitched better than that seems. With a, what, eight run lead (?), he knew that he could afford to give up a couple solo homeruns, so he just threw strikes, which is what he was supposed to do. A couple went into the seats, but most ended up as outs. I was glad to see Willie put so much confidence in him by leaving him in. Perez has enormous talent (check out his rookie numbers with Pittsburgh but also a couple of his starts with the Mets this year); it's just a matter of consistently harnessing it.

Delgado and Beltran are on fire. Flames and smoke trailing them as they round the bases. David Wright: coming back alive. Jose Valentin: some great defense at second and a clutch bases loaded double. Nice. Jose Reyes: I still see flashes of 2005 in his plate discipline and some Manny Ramirez in his baserunning (ahem...) but he is slowly turning back into the Jose Reyes of 2006 that we all came to love. Chad Bradford: one of the infamous stars of Moneyball puts in a couple solid innings. Brook hates it that he "throws underhand" but I still like him. Reminds me of Dan Quizenberry every time he pitches. And Dan Quizenberry reminds me of my childhood in the early 80s, when I tried every now and then to pitch like him.

It's supposed to rain in St. Louis tomorrow. You hate to cheer for a rainout, but it would give Glavine a (needed) extra day of rest.

In the meantime, I have to send off a job application to the University of Oklahoma.

Mets! Mets! Mets!

How did the Tigers Beat the Yankees?

2006-10-08T18:22:00.000-04:00

That was the question that Ryan asked of me last night, over and over, calling from a wedding he was attending. The answer is quite simple:

Justin Verlander
Kenny Rogers
Jeremy Bonderman
and a little Joel Zumaya

The Tigers pitching was not only better than the Yankees on paper, but Rogers and Bonderman in particular pitched at the very best of their games. I could pull up the statistics for you, but it's true that when great hitting faces great pitching, great pitching usually wins.

Also, here is a statistic for you:

Yankees 97-65
Tigers 95-67

Those are their regular season records. And while the Yankees were two games better than the Tigers, Detroit's record is actually more impressive. The AL Central now is the best division in baseball and thus the Tigers had several more challenging games than did the Yankees. Detroit had to play Minnesota, Chicago, and even Cleveland (who were better on paper at the beginning of the year than their record indicated at the end) more times than did the Yankees (whose only real challenge in the East was Boston, who didn't seem like much of a challenge in the second half).

The Tigers, quite simply, were a better team.

METS WIN

2006-10-08T01:27:00.000-04:00

Willie's hyper-managing makes me nervous but it seems to be paying off. He's playing to his strengths (the bullpen) and against his weaknesses (starting pitching). They got some lucky bloop hits and some good line drives too. All in all, it's really nice to sweep because they'll have a few extra days off before facing the Cardinals or the Padres.

All in all a great day: Tigers win, Mets win, the music at Sunny's was beautiful. Good day to be alive.

YANKEES GO HOME

2006-10-07T19:45:00.000-04:00

Trachsel vs. Maddux

2006-10-07T09:19:00.000-04:00

I don't know. I think the odds are in favor of the Dodgers tonight. Who would you rather have on the hill for your team? The guy with an ERA hovering around 5.00 or the man with ten plus years of playoff experience and a resurgent arm?

But you know the Mets bats are still waiting to fully come alive and I wouldn't doubt it if they put up a crooked number on the board perhaps as Maddux tires or after the bullpen gets to work. It would be great to see the Mets sweep it today.

It would also be great to see the Tigers knock out the Yankees this afternoon. Did anyone see that game last night? Man, Kenny Rogers pitched the Yankees' lights out. What a curve ball! The Tigers deserve to win this series. Simply put: they're hungrier. And good pitching defeats good (and even great) hitting, especially in the postseason. If the Yanks had Wang or Mussina going today I'd give them more of a chance. But I'll take Bonderman over Wright any day of the week. And you can bet that despite the Michigan-Michigan St. game also going on today, Detroit is going to be lit on fire (not literally folks, let's hope) for the Tigers. I was really impressed with the crowd last night. Something about those new shopping mall ballparks that often induces a placid and passive consumer mentality in fans (see Camden Yards, but more than anything I think it's about the higher ticket prices which attract the wealthy suburban fans rather than the urban working class crowd). But the Tigers fans were in true form last night, harking back to the Tigers Stadium days of mid 1980s, when their team was the champion of the world in 1984, and they'd regularly sell out. The Detroit fans know what this means and they've been waiting long enough for a title.

I watched the game last night with Brook and her parents--all Michigan natives and we had Tigers gear on across the room. Very fun to turn a tiny little hamlet in Brooklyn into a Tigers' den. I wore my Tigers hat yesterday to the library in Manhattan and got some mean, dirty looks from a few guys on the street. I love it.

Today, it's the Mets who are deeply lodged into my heart.

(Last night I had a dream that John Maine and I were becoming friends; he sent me a long email about an urban history project he was working on.)

Mets Win, 6-5

2006-10-04T22:08:00.000-04:00

Nice. Very nice. I liked this game more than any other game that I've ever been to. I stood for many a Syracuse basketball game, but I don't think I've ever been on my feet for a greater proportion of a baseball game than I was tonight. Electricity was pulsating throughout the stadium, from a half hour before it started, when we arrived, to the final out in the ninth.

It was so great to see the boys all fired up for Game 1. Hats off to John Maine. Hats off. I saw him throwing in the bullpen in Ft. Lauderdale, for the Orioles, during spring training a couple years ago. He was the cream of the Baltimore farm system, their minor league player of the year one time, but for some reason they gave up on him. I'll have to hook up my scanner sometime because I have a great print-picture of him from that day in Florida. He has such a great rookie attitude--"I'll pitch whenever they want me to pitch. And if they don't need me, I'll be in the dugout cheering as loud as anyone." And he really delivered tonight. Willie may have taken him out too early in the fifth, but it ended up working out for the team, as Feliciano and Bradford got their outs.

The only thing that was inexplicable and inexcusable was Randolph not pinch hitting for Mota in the sixth with the bases loaded and two outs. Mota then popped out and then, tired in his second inning of relief, gave up three runs in the next frame. Almost cost them the game.

And of course, as usual when I see him pitch, Billy Wagner nearly gave everyone a heart attack by conceding a run and putting the tying run on base. Just relax, Billy. Relax.

Glavine's going tomorrow, which should be a good game. Let's hope the Mets can carry the momentum.

In the meantime, go Tigers.

LET'S GO METS!

2006-10-04T11:54:00.000-04:00

You're the man Maine.

Five for Five. You Can't Argue with That

2006-10-03T23:44:00.000-04:00

I hate the Yankees. I hate watching the Yankees even though it's October and even though it's still baseball. For the first four or five innings, it's like watching the Republican National Convention; for the second half of the game it's like watching a George Bush victory party. All those Yankee fans and their meaty necks, frothy exuberance, and horrible arrogance. What makes it worse is that I have to watch all this on FOX, and even more annoying than that, is that I have to listen (Brook doesn't like to have the volume down) to their fingernails-on-a-chalkboard commentators, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. Try to find me a person in the world who likes them. You can't. And if you can, you probably don't like him, do you Jamey?

Nonetheless, Jeter was simply amazing tonight. Five for five with a homerun. (But who was that guy playing third again?) I don't like Jeter but as a Met fan once said to his little son on the subway after he started mouthing off about the Captain, "you've gotta respect Jeter. He's New York Baseball. New York Baseball, son. You can't argue with that." Indeed.

El Duque May Not Start

2006-10-03T17:29:00.000-04:00

This just in from espn.com:

NEW YORK -- Already missing Pedro Martinez, the New York Mets suddenly might have to replace pitcher Orlando Hernandez in Game 1 of the playoffs because of a calf injury, too.
El Duque felt discomfort in his right calf while he was jogging in the outfield Tuesday as the NL East champions tuned up for their division series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The 40-year-old right-hander, who had been scheduled to start New York's postseason opener, was pulled off the field and was headed for an MRI exam.
"Obviously, we're up in the air on who our starter is right now," Mets manager Willie Randolph said. "We have some options, but we're going to wait and see how he feels."
Those options are limited, however. Martinez, a three-time Cy Young Award winner, is out until next summer because of calf and shoulder injuries.
Tom Glavine, slated to start Game 2, pitched Saturday in Washington. So if the Mets want to bump him up, he would be working on only three days' rest.
Randolph said he hadn't yet spoken to the 40-year-old lefty about that possibility.
Steve Trachsel, who went 15-8 with a 4.97 ERA this year, skipped his scheduled outing last weekend to attend to a family matter on the West Coast. He was due back in New York on Tuesday evening, but Randolph said the right-hander probably wasn't an option to pitch Game 1 on Wednesday afternoon.
That leaves rookie right-hander John Maine as perhaps the best option. Maine was 6-5 with a 3.60 ERA in 16 games this season, including 15 starts.
But he obviously lacks the October experience the Mets were counting on with Hernandez, acquired from Arizona in May. El Duque is 9-3 with a 2.55 ERA in 19 career postseason games, including 14 starts, mostly with the Yankees. He also owns four World Series rings, and his teams are 12-3 in postseason series.
"He was very upset," Randolph said. "Hopefully, it's just something mild. ... The doctor said it might just be a cramp."
Hernandez, however, has a more dire diagnosis.
"I was sprinting in the outfield," Hernandez told Newsday. "And I pulled my right calf. It's not a cramp."

This is exactly why Willie and Omar's strategy of never using one of their stellar relief pitchers as a starter was such a bad one. It would have helped to have someone like Heilman or Oliver to be ready for a spot start here (or later in the series), but they didn't give them a single start the entire season. Instead, we saw a string of mediocre AA pitchers (Alay Soler anyone?) get called up and soon after sent down. That strategy did lead to the discovery of John Maine, but it's too risky to rely on now. I think it was a good idea to build the pitching staff around the bullpen, but they became quixotic with that plan. And now it could pose a major problem. Don't get me wrong, I think Willie is a great manager and Omar is a fantastic general manager, but they were wrong on this point. Let's just hope this won't hurt them.

Either way, I'll be at Shea in 22 hours.

The Post-Season Begins on Wednesday

2006-10-03T00:18:00.000-04:00

After a long hiatus from a blog that barely even got off the ground, Dispatches from the Red Seats is back in action.

I'd like to "blog" the postseason as much as I can, especially considering that I'll be at Shea (in the green seats, actually) for Game 1, Game 5 (if necessary), and hopefully an NLCS and/or World Series game as well.

I've been a baseball fan since about 1977, when my father started rolling a ball back and forth with me in my crib (I was about 1), and this will be the first time that I've ever attended a post-season game. I grew up an Orioles fan and though I vividly remember all of the 1983 postseason, I didn't make the hour and a half trip to Baltimore that year to see the Birds win the World Series. In 1996, when the Orioles were back in the playoffs (and a bad call at Yankee Stadium unfairly sent them home after the ALCS), I was an undergraduate at West Chester University, where at the time I was more interested in anthropology, veganism, and the Grateful Dead than I was in baseball (though I did watch the Orioles' games on t.v.). When Baltimore made it back to the playoffs in 1997, I was studying abroad in Mexico (though I also remember watching a brilliant but heartbreaking Game 6 in a hotel room in Uruapan).

I moved to New York in 1999 and nearly instantly became a Mets fan. The Orioles were still my favorite team, but I rejoiced in the newfound pleasures of baseball polygamy. I was still, first and foremost, an Orioles fan, but I learned that I could also be a Mets fan, just so long as they didn't face each other in the World Series (they haven't since 1969).

I aged about ten years during the subway series of 2000, particularly after Roger Clemens--fuming and sweating, beat-red and looking as though he just injected himself with something that made him twice his normal size and twice as angry--inexplicably threw a broken bat at Mike Piazza. I've hated the Yankees and Clemens ever since. During that week there were people in my office--some of my closest friends, actually--that I couldn't even talk to. After the Mets lost in five games, a colleague of mine who was a life-long Yankee fan and I shook hands and exhaled and were freinds again.

This year, having moved back to New York after a long four-year absence, I've reignited my love affair with the Mets. Never before have I been to as many baseball games as I have this year. I could count all the ticket stubs that I've saved, but I'll estimate that I've been to about 10-12 games at Shea this year, always with seats in the Upper Deck, and always feeling right at home. Brook and I (and sometimes just me, or me, Aaron, and Ryan, or me and Mike) have seen some memorable moments this year. This isn't exhaustive, but here are some of the highlights:

Opening Day at Shea. My first Opening Day ever and it was a treat. Ryan, Aaron, me and Darin, a guy we just met the previous day, sat high in the upper deck, off to the third base side. It was cold and grey and we were afraid that the game would get rained out. David Wright had a homer. The crowd was so loud when Billy Wagner entered the game, we couldn't even hear "Enter Sandman." When the Mets won, it was all fists in the air and high fives.
Carlos Delgado hits an opposite-field, walk-off home run in the bottom of the 12th against Pittsburgh. Awesome.
Pedro Martinez and Brandon Webb pitch their teams into a 0-0 tie through eleven innings. Endy Chavez wins it for the Mets in the twelfth with an rbi double.
Lastings Milledge makes his MLB debut. He gets a standing ovation as he's introduced, before he has even stepped into the batter's box. He hits a scorching line-drive that lands in someone's glove. He doubles in his next at-bat. He guns down someone trying to advance from first to third. Exciting.
Mike Piazza returns to New York. Goose-bumps.
Jose Reyes hits for the cycle. The Mets lose but our entire subway car is singing "J0-SAAAAY, Jose-Jose-Jose, JO-SAAAY, JOOO-SAAAAY" all the way back to Grand Central.
Jose Reyes hits an inside-the-park homerun.

Needless to say, I'm ready for the postseason.

Let's go Mets.

I'm in just as much pain as you are, Cliff; LA 8, Mets 5

2006-06-07T01:45:00.000-04:00

For anyone who is even the least bit familiar with the Bob Ross Machine, they'll know that a loss like this hurts more than the usual defeat. My fantasy ace, Pedro, pitched well until the sixth and even then he fell into some bad luck with an error by Jose Valentin that broke up what should have been a double play. Still he was credited with six earned runs and the loss. I turned off my radio after the fifth run. The Mets still scored five runs of their own, which would have been nice in any of Pedro's previous five starts, but they were all for nothing as the Dodgers ended up scoring eight.

I've recently decided that sadness is a much better emotion to express upon watching (or listening) to your team lose than is anger.

Not Quite Enough: SF 7, Mets 6, 12 innings

2006-06-04T17:31:00.000-04:00

I listened to most of today's game on the FAN, but then realized that it was being televised on the WB, so I was able to see the last couple of innings. During the top of the tenth, I took my portable radio outside and watched the Queen Mary leave Red Hook on its way back to England.

Despite the loss, it's hard not to see the big story of the day as Lastings Milledge, who blasted a two-strike, two-out, bottom of the tenth inning pitch into the San Francisco bullpen for a game-tying home run. He also had a two-rbi double at a key spot in the sixth. Just a couple days ago, it didn't look like the kid could hit a major league curve ball, but sure enough, he roped Matt Morris's two-strike curve ball down the line in the sixth. I think the pitch he hit off Benitez was a fast ball, but either way, he seems to be learning pretty quickly.

As he went back out to right field in the top of the eleventh, though, Lastings made the bonehead mistake of trotting out slowly, taking his time to give high-fives to all the fans sitting in the front row. Get back out in the field, Lastings, the game's not over yet.

And indeed it wasn't. The Mets bullpen just couldn't hold on. A good game, nonetheless.

I missed all but about a half inning of the double-header yesterday.

Rained Out

2006-06-02T19:36:00.000-04:00

It's been raining all afternoon in New York and therefore the game tonight has been called off. According to the number the Mets set up specifically to publicize rain-induced postponements and delays (718-507-7246), the game will be made up tomorrow as part of a "single-admission" double-header.

You gotta love the true double-header. I was sure they'd say it was going to be a day-night double header, meaning that you'd have to leave after the first game and pay again for the second. But sure enough, it's a true double-header.

Unfortunately, though, I won't be going. Even the red seats are expensive against the Giants this weekend; I think they're going for about $18 or $19 a piece, a far cry from the $5 we spent for this week's games against Arizona. The first game's on Fox, so maybe I'll watch it on the 5" black and white t.v.

A couple weeks ago, I was hoping that Bonds would be sitting on 713 or 714 by the time of this series. Then I would have tried to go and could have been the only guy politely standing and applauding Bonds when he tied or passed Ruth. Because let's give credit where credit is due, and Bonds deserves at least a little.

Nonetheless, this little ditty might get you in the mood for tomorrow's games against the Giants.

Mets 1, Arizona 0, 13 innings

2006-06-02T02:47:00.000-04:00

A heck of a game at Shea Wednesday night. Brook and I had good seats--section 4, row G, in the upper reserve--perfect for watching a beautiful pitching matchup between Pedro and Brandon Webb. Both pitched well, but I thought Pedro was a bit lucky, giving up several deep line drives that just happened to go right into the outfielders' gloves. Still, you can't fault a guy for pitching eight scoreless innings. He struck out his usual 1 per inning and commanded the strike zone brilliantly.

In contrast to the previous night, when he hit two balls very hard, Lastings Milledge looked completely out of his league at the plate. Someone must have told him to take a pitch every now and then after swinging (and missing) at nearly everything that was offered to him; in his last at bat, he watched the first pitch sail right down the middle of the plate. His AAA numbers aren't bad though, so the future might be bright for the most exciting Met prospect of the year.

Duaner Sanchez pitched exceptionally well for three innings, which leads me to ask, why is Willie starting AA pitchers when he has a better chance of getting a quality start out of a guy like Sanchez, not to mention Heilman. I really think Heilman's recent foils on the mound are due to the probable letdown he felt after being passed over, again and again, for his rightful spot in the rotation. Brian Bannister, sure. But once he went down (and Zambrano went down, and Maine went down), it was time for Heilman. I know what Willie's thinking: he's got the best bullpen in baseball and Heilman is a big part of it. But tell me this, would you rather have your best available pitcher throw one inning every few games, or six to eight innings every four or five games?

Don't get me wrong, I think Willie's a good manager, but a few other things at Wednesday night's game bothered me: 1. When Paul Lo Duca got up in the home plate umpire's face, arguing the swinging third strike call he made, Willie should have rushed out and gotten in between his catcher and the umpire. Right or wrong on Lo Duca's part, Willie can't afford to get him thrown out of a game, particularly a 0-0 game in extra innings. But instead, Willie sauntered out to the plate, saying a few casual words to the umpire before quickly returning to the dugout. 2. When Beltran rolled around on the ground for a good three minutes after fouling a pitch off his leg, there is not a reason in the world that Willie should have let him continue hitting. The count was 0-2 and the man could barely stand up. First of all, he was bound to strike out. Second, what if he had put the ball in play, ran to first, and injured himself in an even worse way. 3. Why was no one warming up in the bullpen during Billy Wagner's second inning of relief? Chad Bradford was warming up while the Mets batted in the bottom of the ninth, but he sat back down during the top of the tenth. Wagner puts a man on base (if I'm remebering this correctly), he's up to about 20 pitches, he has a very recent history of blowing games, and the Mets' bullpen is doing nothing.

It was easy to forget all of those mistakes, though, when Endy Chavez roped the ball into deep right center for the win. Aside from the idiot behind me yelling racist and anti-semitic comments about every player (aside from of course the David Wrights and Paul Lo Ducas around) in both the Mets' and Diamondbacks' lineups, we had a good crowd around us. A large group of young men toward the top of section six, chanted, "we won't go! we won't go!" everytime a new batch of fans headed for the exits between innings. And two fans a few rows in front of us who had arrived at the game alone, were giving each other high fives and dancing, jumping up and down, pumping their fists in the air as the game ended.

Walking out of the stadium, we saw an overcrowded 7 train, maniacally tooting its horn in celebration as it rolled down the track toward Manhattan.