Jose Reyes leads off the game with a single off of Matt Morris. This was overheard soon after: "I want blood. Five runs in the first inning. Let's go."Author of said quote? Yours truly. Yes, Metstradamus calls his shot and delivers with a virtual 500 foot bomb to center field (Not to be confused with Moises Alou's actual bomb to left field to make the prophecy come true.)
How does your soothsayer mark the occasion of telling the future? By trying to tell the future again.
"I don't think this one's in doubt anymore."Metstradamus once again calls his shot and hits a virtual 320 foot shot to the warning track at PNC Park, proving once again that you quit when you're ahead.
Because from beginning to end, it was in doubt. Before you knew it, that 5-0 lead became 5-3 as John Maine struggled yet again. Then Guillermo Mota hit Jack Wilson with two outs to set up the fourth run, and every Mets fan that was in the building wanted to pull a Mike Piazza and chase him around the PNC parking lot.
Shawn Chacon and his throwing error opened the door for a five run Mets ninth inning to put the game out of reach at 10-4. But then Aaron Sele hit the mound instead of Billy Wagner to end the game...and predictably, all hell broke loose. So Country Time had to come into the game anyway and close things out. Thankfully, ten runs turned out to be enough.
Ten runs should be enough. Consider this: the Mets are 8-6 since Luis Castillo came on board (outside of an 0 for 6 against the Brewers in a 12-4 win, and an 0 for 3 against Florida last Saturday, Castillo has had a hit in every game that he's batted in a Mets uniform), and since Moises Alou started a run of 12 games out of 14 with a hit. His average has gone up in that span from .298 to .310, and he has had many big hits in the process. In those 14 games, the Mets have averaged 6 runs a game, and the only reason that the Mets only went 8-6 is because of Willie Harris, Guillermo Mota, and Aaron Heilman.
And yet, Steve Phillips comes on ESPN Wednesday night and says that he doesn't think that the Mets aren't going to make the playoffs because they're not hitting enough!!! For crying out loud, say that our bullpen stinks. Say our starters are struggling. Tell me that Moises Alou can't be depended upon 100% to stay healthy. Tell me that the Brewers, Marlins, Cubs, and Pirates aren't the best of competition. Any of that...I'll buy. Really, I'm not that difficult to satiate.
But all I had to do was go on the internet to find out that the Mets are hitting a ton. I mean, is it really that hard?
Yet these are the people dispensing information to the masses...and paid good money to do so. I give up.
7 comments:
Willie has lost his mind on the pitch count front. Has he not noticed that as he lets the boys throw 110, 115, 120 pitches, they've begun to struggle.
Maine hasn't been the same since the idiotic 121 pitch effort in Houston just before the ASB. Why did we need to see him out there for 117 last night???
Ayyy-eeeee-aiiii!
Willie left Maine in to finish the 5th inning, and Maine got the win. I think that pulling Maine earlier would hurt his confidence. As it is, while Maine was certainly not dominant, he had an outing that he can build on. He gave up two homers, but that's not the worst way to pitch when you have a decent lead. The Mets need Maine to pitch like he did earlier in the season. I think that last night, by leaving him in, Willie helped Maine to find himself.
Put another way, I'll bet that if you asked Maine if he wanted to come out any earlier, he'd have said no.
On the prediction front, I swear when it was 10-4 and Sele strutted up to the mound I said, "oh, great, so we'll win 10-8"
I'm just saying, is all.
I caught that Philips commentary the other night and was struck by just how much of an imbecile he is. Perhaps even worse than his Met prediction was his assessment of the Yankees, which went somewhat along these lines: "The Yankees won't make the playoffs because they're hitting and getting good pitching right now, and when they stop hitting and the pitching isn't as good, they'll lose". They pay him for this?
Overall, I'm amazed at the great black hole of vapidity that is sports commentary. From Joe Morgan to Mike and the Mad Dog to John Madden to the ESPN clowns to the halfwits on all the NFL pregame shows... almost none of them have something of value to say, they just spout gibberish to fill air time. I watch/listen to very little sports other than Met games, just to keep sane.
One last thing, I hope everyone appreciates how GREAT we have it with our broadcast teams. Because boy, does everyone elses' suck!
yeah, why can't they hire me for sports commentary? I can't be worse. I'll even take a 10% pay cut from what Phillips gets.
Steve Phillips is contradicting himself in an attempt not to contradict himself. He said back in early June (why in God's name do they make the talking heads definitively say who's making the playoffs before the All-Star break????) that the Yanks were "done." At the time, the Bombers certainly looked the part, but even (maybe especially) the most dedicated Yankee-haters among us knew in the backs of their minds that the NYY roster was simply too talented to suck so much all year.
Now that it's August and it's apparent to everyone with half a brain that the Yankees most definitely will be a part of the playoff picture, he's still sticking to his guns. Whatever pseudo-rational factors he lists are mere cover for pride and stubbornness.
Be a man, Steve. Say you were wrong and you can stop making silly statements like Seattle and Colorado will make the playoffs.
Also, he's an idiot.
Steve Phillips and the rest of ESPN are the biggest fans of whoever makes the biggest splash at the All-Star Break so Atlanta.
John Maine struggled but he wasn't terrible, and he did win.
Also, in defense of Aaron Heilman yet again, no one seems to notice nights like tonight when he setup for the win. Aaron Heilman is a good pitcher.
Guillermo Mota sucks, though, ya. I wonder if there's like even a 50% chance that Joe Smith could be called up to take his spot. I mean I know Willie loves him, he's one of his guys apparently which is why he has gotten like 2000 shots while they overreacted on Joe Smith. But whatever, it could happen.
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