Breathing a Tad Easier

When I look at the three victories that the Mets have had over the last sixteen games, none of those victories gave me the impression that they were out of the woods.

Two wins were shutouts where the lineup was dead. The other victory was a blowout with John Maine on the hill and Johan Santana looming. Tonight, however, felt different. Tom Glavine looking sharp in a blowout has a different feeling than John Maine looking sharp in a blowout, for this reason: the Mets need Tom Glavine to be successful to feel better about themselves.

And it sure looked like the Mets felt better about themselves. This game had all the hallmarks of a slump busted. It had Shawn Green driving in three runs and hitting his first home run in about the time it took for Glavine to get win number 296. It had Carlos Beltran getting his average up to .272 with two hits, two runs, two RBI's, and a long home run. It had a opposing rookie pitcher treated like...well, an opposing rookie pitcher. It had Jose Reyes making a dynamite play on a double play ball in the fourth inning, and more importantly, looking like he's still having a whole lot of fun on the bench which you don't normally find on a team winning it's fourth game in seventeen.

And I can't be sure, but I can swear I saw Aaron Heilman smile.

But Glavine is the big deal here. This blogger was disgusted by Glavine's performance on Saturday against the Yankees. This blogger is now happy after hearing Glavine say in his post game interview that he was also disgusted by that performance (I believe the word was "embarrassed"). Still, after all these seasons in the sun, Glavine still has the honest introspection to make his game better, and the competitive fire to want to go nine innings even with a 9-1 lead tonight (not to mention the extra batting practice to get himself two hits and two RBI's).

And now, Tom Glavine can discover all over again what a post game spread tastes like after a win. It just tastes different.

***

And speaking of Oakland, if Omar Minaya went and acquired the recently DFA'd Milton Bradley for a mere bag o' shells, let's just say it totally wouldn't suck.

(Editor's note: Scratch that, as Bradley has already been traded to...Kansas City? Kansas City? Boy you have to really hate somebody to trade them to Kansas Ci...Kansas City? Are the Royals like those guys who buy houses on foreclosure and then fix them up and sell them at normal market value? Kansas City? Really? At least Bradley will help the Royals get past the White Sox in the standings.)

(Kansas City???)

***

Maybe it was my minor league rehab assignment that did the trick for the Mets tonight.

Yes, my minor league rehab assignment. They sent me down to the farm on Thursday...

Despite rain delays of over two hours, a train ride home of over two hours, and being present with a Yankee fan, all was well as the Cyclones pulled one out over the Staten Island Yankees, 6-1. Of all the people still there when the game ended at midnight, I wonder how many of them were from Queens? Well, actually there was at least one more, as Cow-Bell-Man made the trip, and even let two other fans take control of the cowbell in the top of the ninth. I apologize that there's no evidence of this as my battery ran out during the second rain delay, but the camera did catch this ominous shot right before the rain delay:

Then this happened:

And because that happened, the Cyclones were nice enough to offer us free tickets to another game after waiting until 10:15 PM to start the fourth inning with the Cyclones leading 5-0. You can understand why I thought God really was a Yankee fan looking at the above picture. But dollar sodas the rest of the night allayed that fear.

(P.S. For real analysis on this game and all things Cyclones, check out Matt Himelfarb at Cyclones Nation.)