My Kingdom For An Inch Of Beer

So what's tougher right now for the Mets:

• Losing a game in Milwaukee, a city supposedly full of beer, or...
• Going out after said game to try and drown their sorrows in some of that beer, only to find out that Rick Sutcliffe and Bill Murray drank it all last night?

They say that baseball is a game of inches. I happen to think that all sports have their moments where inches send an outcome one way or the other. But tonight was one of those nights where a game was decided by mere inches. How about Jose Lima's 1-2 pitch to Prince Fielder (who's looking to become King by the end of the series), which missed by inches, before Fielder hit a ball that went only a few inches...

about 5,700 inches.

Then the fifth, with runners on first and second. Lima gives up a base hit to Bill Hall and Brady Clark takes a wide turn at third (due to a late stop sign by perhaps the worst third base coach in recorded history Dale Sveum), and is almost caught going back to the bag by David Wright. Missed him by maybe inches. Maybe one inch. Maybe he didn't miss him at all. But the out of position ump called him safe, and six more runs came home after that.

Inches.

How about the ninth with the score 9-4 Brewers and the Mets seemingly out of it, a potential oasis comes in the form of Dan Kolb. Paul Lo Duca (who Keith Hernandez called De Luca at least once tonight), hits a shot up the middle which just happens to hit the middle of Kolb's glove and sticks (happy birthday Danny Boy). What if that's hit an inch in any direction? What if Derrick Turnbow comes in one batter earlier with Cliff Floyd, who you have to give a punchers chance to tie the game against a fastball pitcher, as the tying run instead of Kaz Matsui?

And now all of a sudden, look who's creeping up behind the Mets...trailing by two games. Yup, it's those Phillies. It's those eleven wins in twelve games Phillies...who won tonight because they were smart enough not to trade their prize lefthanded prospect for a bag of used hubcaps (like there's actually a team that would be dumb enough to do that...oh wait).

Two games.

Mere inches at this stage of the game.