Save The Last Dance

The night started out with the pleasantly surprising revelation that an honest to goodness movie star is a life long Mets fan...Bourne trilogy star Julia Stiles threw out the first pitch, using the leg kick that she learned from a certain recent acquisition.

The night ended with another late inning victory for the New York Mets...a reminder that you should always save the last dance for this team.

(Stiles' ceremonial first pitch by the way, was the only pitch hurled by someone in a Met hat that did not leave the yard on Monday night. As such, Omar Minaya announced after the game that the Mets have signed Stiles to a minor league deal, hoping she can fill the role of fifth starter or long reliever at some point this season. Hey, she adds depth, no?)

It didn't matter whether Steve Trachsel threw one down and away, up and in, or right over the plate...it was getting hit just as fast right back at him, and out of the yard. Trachsel had a bone pop out in his back recently, and tonight it may or may not have caused him to be a "pain in the ass". Seven hits and four runs in six innings isn't helping Omar Minaya's poker face when he goes to other general managers and tells them "oh no, our starters are fine! See the new girl we got?"

Fortunately, it also didn't matter what Diamondback pitchers threw Paul Lo Duca...he was getting a base hit. The Duke was four for five, and had the cajones to tag up from first to second on a routine fly ball to left field in the fifth (great slide included) . Duke also had a big hit in the ninth to get Jose Reyes to third base. The hits were all big in the ninth...a pinch hit from Endy, the first hit of the night from Reyes which drove home Chavez, Duke, and finally David Wright with his walk off job over a drawn in outfield to win it.

Tonight had it all...the continued resurgence of the slumping left fielder who went two for three with a big dinger...the cruel twist of fate near the end as Aaron Heilman coughed up the lead in the seventh...the career revival of the formerly useless bench player who has now seemingly become the everyday second baseman (another three RBI's for Jose Valentin)...and it even had the bumbling comic relief, who was booed lustily tonight as he pinch hit for Trachsel.

Tonight even had Julia Stiles, our new ingenue...who by the end of the season we hope will be the leading lady in all of baseball.

And of course, the Hollywood ending.

(P.S. Great minds do think alike. So click here for the same title, but smarter perspective.)