Wednesday, April 04, 2007

The Hunch

Up by two. Bases loaded. Pitcher's spot up. Orlando Hernandez has pitched only 12 innings in the spring, when he injured himself running, you know.

Willie Randolph could have went the safe route and pulled Hernandez for a pinch hitter such as David Newhan, who tore up during the spring. Instead, Willie opened himself up for ridicule, taunting, and having garbage thrown at him by leaving Hernandez in to bat.

At best, I figured, Orlando would meekly strike out. At worst, as you know, Hernandez could have torn every muscle in his body at once, leaving the training staff to carry him off the field piece by piece. Hernandez is so fragile that as he was running to second on that double, Chan Ho Park started dialing the airline to book a flight to St. Louis.

Thankfully, Hernandez reached second base without incident...and thus a turning point was born. A two run cushion became a four run bulge, and Orlando let the bullpen rest for a couple of more innings during their 4-1 victory.

Yes, he can afford to smile. He'll live to pitch another day. Willie can afford to smile as well. He'll live to have another hunch.

***

Hey, any chance that the Cardinals can have a ceremony before Wednesday night's game to give out special ceremonial rocks from the old Busch Stadium or something? Those ceremonies seem to work out really well for them...gives the team that extra jump, no? Maybe instead of a ceremonie, Braden Looper can sing the "Jose Jose" song in front of the sold out Wednesday crowd.

Am I a bad person for being a little extra excited that Looper is pitching tonight?

20 comments:

Mike said...

Tonight, Flooper goes down.

Anonymous said...

Imagine: you are defending your World Championship and your first series of the new season is against the team that you barely beat in last year's LCS. You lose the first two games of the new season to them. Now, the only thing standing between you and an 0-3 start - getting swept at home - is Braden Looper.

How much does that suck?

Unknown said...

If being excited about facing Looper tonight is bad, then I don't wanna be good.

Anonymous said...

Hey Metstradamus, how could you not pick up on the fact that Looper's first ever start against the Mets coincides with the Mets and the Cardinals playing their 666th all time regular season game?!?!?

Coincidence? I think not...

Anonymous said...

That mis-play by Skip Schumaker on Lo Duca's ball . . . never saw anything like that before. Over-diving on a shallow fly ball and the ball sails over your head, without even tipping your glove?!?

Maybe Skip was wearing his World Series ring under his glove, thus confusing him.

Anonymous said...

Two things:

1) Anon2,
Is that true?

2) Metstra,

To answer your question regarding Looper: you have every right to be extra excited for his start tonight. In fact, I daresay I'd be rather disappointed in you were you not excited. If they'd just beaten us, that'd just be business; but Looper made it personal. He should have been satisfied just winning it on our field. Adding insult to injury by mocking our Jose chant just shows an utter lack of class. I am personally gunning for Jose to knock the first pitch straight over the wall, and for him to chant "Looooooooo-per, Looooooo-per" as he rounds the bases.

(However, I can't help this feeling in my gut that he's going to give us trouble; let's hope I'm just being paranoid.)

Anonymous said...

I hope the Mets beat up on Looper,
but we were not exactly killing
Wells last night, and he is not
a good pitcher...in addition
Looper had a pretty god spring...

Anonymous said...

hahaha. Mutt$ fans. Im going to bet ten grand against you tonight and looper is going to make me rich. No way the MUTT$ can pull off the sweep!

Thanks for the cash, Mutt$ies! hahaha

The Metmaster said...

Sit Shawn Green! Ay, Yi, Yi. The strikeout in the sixth was horrible. OK, maybe the pitch was a little inside, but with Valentin on deck you have to know that they will walk him to get to El Duque. Instead of taking a rip he watches the third strike. He is horrible. The look on Randolph's face said it all as Green trudged back to the dugout. How bad could it be if Willie put Milledge out there? At least he'd be getting big league experience. We are getting nothing from Green.

Anonymous said...

"Sean said...
Two things:

1) Anon2,
Is that true?"

Yep--666th regular season meeting tonight...

Mookie McFly said...

Is it possible for the Mets to have played the Cards 666 times?

I guess they have been playing them for 45 years now...that would almost average out to 15 games a year though. This would make sense if they played in the same league but they haven't for the last ten plus years. It is possible I guess...

How would you even know this though unless you were Braden Looper? Is Anon possibly Looper? Perhaps Satan?

Mookie McFly said...

By the way Metstra...I'm back at mets3x.blogspot.com

Just a few Mets fans looking forward to that third title this year!

Anonymous said...

It' time for Milledge in RF. And facing Braden Pooper Should be enough ceremony for the Mets!

Anonymous said...

http://ultimatemets.com/wl.php

As of last night, 665 have been played. So tonight would be 666...

dave crockett said...

"Am I a bad person for being a little extra excited that Looper is pitching tonight?"

Oh-ho-ho, I think we've already established that you're a bad person. [read that in Jerry Seifeld's voice]

MP said...

I had to steal the quote and link to you...Looper gets rocked, and we start singing in front of the TV.

http://ketchuponyouricecream.blogspot.com

Jeffrey said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jeffrey said...

I have the Mets Media Guide (i am a season ticket holder), and I can confirm that tonight was the 666th regular season matchup between the Mets and the Cardnials.

Anonymous said...

We didn't just beat the Cardinals tonight. We shamed them, pilaged their city, kidnapped their women, and their children shall be raised as Met fans.

Anonymous said...

I kinda feel bad for that delusional troll, looks like he lost 10K tonight.