Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Ownership Has Its Privileges

It's only fair that the Mets opened a can against Brad Penny today. After all, if Hong-Chih Kuo is going to continue his domination of all things blue with orange trim, then the Mets, by all rights and purposes, have earned the right to continue to take Brad Penny out behind the shed.

Going into today, Penny was a career 5-11 against the Mets with a 5.66 ERA. You can make that 5-12 now after today's 12-1 Mets pounding to salvage the Dodger series and even the road trip at 3-3.

The rout really took shape when Penny threw inside at Ryan Church in the fifth inning and nicked his jersey, prompting a warning for both benches which stemmed from John Maine coming in high and hard to Jeff Kent before striking him out (The practical point of view is that Maine's pitches just had an inordinate amount of movement and just got away from him. My point of view, of course, is that Jeff Kent deserved it. It took 15 years, but it's about time he ate dust.) But Penny wasn't retaliating ... he was just plain wild, walking two in the inning which sandwiched John Maine's two run single and led to his demise.

Maine, on the other hand, had a brilliant game (three hits, eight and 1/3) which underscores the reason why ... as frustrating as the Mets are going to be this season, are going to be in it until the end: and that is because Maine and Johan Santana are going to keep them there.

(Side note: If we've learned anything from this Dodger series it's this: Carlos Delgado, Luis Castillo, and Aaron Heilman shouldn't feel too bad. I can't imagine any of those players has been booed as constantly or as vociferously as Andruw Jones. And with good reason: He was completely useless this series ... and from all accounts, he's been that way all season. Of course he waits until he leaves the division to reach this level of sedentary. Lucky us.)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was at all 3 Dodgers-Mets games. Im not sure if the Dodger fans were saying AndrUUUUUUUw, Boooooo, or Boooo-urns.

Also, Pagan fell into the stands in the section next to mine (I was in the field level). Some of the fans started to make fun of him, cheer that he was hurt, and screm "He dropped the ball!" I yelled at them "Really classy, Dodger fans!" Some of them go embarrassed and stopped.

Gonzo said...

Each day, before coming to your site, I try to guess who is number 1 on the Hate List. Today I thought Shane Victorino.

Lo and Behold...

Keep up the great work dude.

Metstradamus said...

Keyser,

Funny you say that. I only heard the cheers when he got up out of the stands and thought that was nice. But I'm sure there was some derision in small pockets.

Gonzo,

It was really for no other reason than that collision he had with Conor Jackson tonight. Thanks, buddy!

Jaap said...

Well, if Johan and Maine alone can keep them in the race, just think of what might happen if Pedro comes back post-All Star game and people like Beltran, Castillo and Delgado start hitting their career averages again. We could still run away with it. It's possible. But naturally, no one is going to hold their breath...

Demitri said...

let's leave the optimism out of the comment area ok? You're ruining it for everyone.

Anonymous said...

I went to a met game once and had popcorn and soda and a pretzel. i got to root for my team and i cheered many times. I enjoyed the sun and the green grass and i gave high-fives to other mets fans when we would get a good hit.

All in all it was a great day, and that is why i never boo the mets because they are my team.

Anonymous said...

There's Larry "Chipper" Jones posting as anonymous again.