Easy On The Eyes

There isn't a good reason for the above picture other than the fact that with Friday night's rainout, your eyes would have been treated to that picture of Brad Penny at first glance for a third straight day. And to be honest with you, it's starting to freak me out. I have dreams where it talks to me, and tells me I need to fire Willie.

I needed to make it stop. Hence, puppies. Besides, who can go wrong with puppies? Puppies rule (and Shingo Takatsu drools). So let's double dip tomorrow ... and between games, go buy something for your mom ... like some Mets lottery tickets ... for Mother's Day.

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.)

Don't Worry, Lightning Never Strikes Twice...Er, Three, Er...Aah, Forget It!

Three pitches...

Three homers...

One stunned blogger.

I'm lost. I can't even fathom this right now. Three home runs on three straight John Maine pitches to the 7-8-9 hitters in the order?

On a team that came into the game second to last in all of baseball in home runs?

And the pitcher flips his bat after the third home run without eating the batters box in his next at-bat? Oh, and let me reiterate that the last time this guy hit a home run was high school.

High school?

The same pitcher that now has two career wins, and both against the Mets?

Dae Sung Kuo against the rest of the league, Hong Chih Kuofax against the Mets. Phenomenal.

It's gotten so bad that Hilary Swank doesn't want to be seen in her Mets hat anymore, as she was during Monday's game. Perhaps she used it to wipe Alyssa Milano's blood off the floor after a particularly heated Mets/Dodgers argument. Now that would be a more anticipated matchup than Jorge Sosa vs. Brad Penny.

But here's the good news, the Mets are on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week. At this point, what's left to jinx?