Upon Further Review

Now that we've all come down from the sugar high from another Yankee/Met series, the baseball season's version of a chocolate chip cookie in the middle of a steady diet of wheat toast and vegetables, let's take a step back and find out what we've learned...

• We learned that we're just going to have to take the bad with the good concerning Jose Reyes until he developes the savvy of a veteran...and that's not only his free swinging at the plate, but the chances he takes in the field. The dropped pivot play in the 8th was out of his insistence on all or nothing. The smart golfer lays up, and the smart shortstop makes sure of one out. The daring golfer goes for the green, and Jose Reyes went for the big pay off. Didn't work this time, but you really can't fault someone for being aggressive. Reyes, over time, will make more of those plays than he'll miss. When you sprinkle in the wisdom of years, Reyes will be all right.
• We learned that David Wright is cool as a cucumber. He went 5 for 11 in the series and made a great play in the first inning of Sunday's game with the bases loaded. But his error in the eighth was a loss of concentration. In other words, he was almost too cool. Again, the wisdom of years will make Wright more polished than he is now. It's a long season, but you have to keep your concentration and not give plays away like that. The series he had makes it hard to get on him, just like it's hard to get on Reyes.
• We've learned once again, that the Mets need a lefty for the pen. Yeah, Mr. Koo became a cult hero on Saturday. But after he was already used today, wouldn't it have been nice to have another lefty ready to come into the game to face Godzilla instead of Aaron Heilman (who got the job done anyway)? Here's hoping the Cubs collapse so that former Met Mike Remlinger would be made available via trade down the line (so long as they don't give up the next Jason Bay or Brady Clark for him.)
• We learned that Mets and Yankees fans alike came away a bit dissatisfied with what happened. Mets fans are feeling like they could have swept the series had a few key ground balls were handled clean. They got the pitching and the hitting, but defense is something that has let them down so often in the past few seasons, but rarely in 2005 thanks in part to Willie Randolph (they're in the middle of the pack in the NL). Hopefully this series is chalked up to nerves and they get back to business. Meanwhile, Yankee fans feel they could have swept the series if they had only Randy Johnson pitched like Randy Johnson and not like Randy Lerch. And even in the two games won by the Yankees, they kicked around the ball almost as bad as the Mets did, with two Jeter errors on Friday and a key Alex Rodriguez error on Sunday. Yankee fans feel like they escaped, the same way Met fans would have felt had they won on Sunday.
• We learned that, on both sides, there are bigger fish (or Marlins) to fry. The Yanks still have Boston and Baltimore to worry about, and the Mets have the Braves and Marlins this week. The cookie has been polished off. Now comes the main course.