Gigantes!

Met fans are paying silver prices for tonight's game and gold prices for the weekend games, as part of the Wilpons' atrociously conceptualized "tier pricing system". My question here is: what exactly are the fans paying for, exactly?

• They're paying for no opportunity to boo Armando Benitez.
• They're paying for no chance to perform a "steroid" chant at Barry Bonds.
• They're paying for the privelage to watch...LaTroy Hawkins?

At least Edgardo Alfonzo makes another return home. Other quickies for the Giants series:

Friday: Noah Lowry (2-5, 5.37 ERA) vs. Tom Glavine (3-5, 5.05 ERA)

Bad news for Noah Lowry: The Mets lead the league so far this season in batting average vs. lefties. They're hitting .300, and they also lead the league in OPS (.845) vs. lefthanders. Historically, the Mets have swung the equivalent of wet noodles against lefties, so that was surprising to see. But the Giants themselves are not too shabby against lefties this season, hitting .290. So Tom Glavine may spend much of his evening looking like Charlie Brown himself.

Saturday: Jason Schmidt (3-1, 5.08 ERA) vs. Kaz Ishii (1-3, 4.79 ERA)

Cliff Floyd is lifetime 8 for 20 with 2 HR's and 5 RBI's against Schmidt in his career, and Mike Piazza is hitting .344 lifetime vs. Schmidt with 5 home runs, but most of those at bats came when:

1. Jason Schmidt was still searching for himself with the Pirates, and...
2. Mike Piazza was a productive player, and not the shell of himself he is now.

Ray Durham meanwhile, is hitting .500 against Ishii lifetime.

Sunday: Brett Tomko (4-7, 4.14 ERA) vs. Kris Benson (3-2, 4.21 ERA)

Don't forget boys and girls, the Sunday matchup is the ESPN game at 8:00. Special Metstradamus correspondent Rasheed Wallace is reporting that the Mets and the Giants would split the first two games to drive up ESPN's ratings for the Sunday night game, and that Major League Baseball would get "good people" in there to make sure that happens. Wallace added "if y'all can't see that, @&#% you're crazy."