Blood Thinners, Anyone?

Now I know how Fred Sanford felt.

I just assume these days that most Mets games are going to end up just like Wednesday's nine inning marathon did. Frankie Rodriguez has to know ... and if he doesn't he'll learn ... that he can get all the saves and break all the records he wants when he's wearing Anaheim red ('xcuse me ... Los Angeles of Anaheim red). But when he closes games for the orange and blue, being behind on the count 2-0 is automatic. From Sisk to Orosco to Franco to Benitez to Looper to Wagner, Frankie Rodriguez is just the next victim in the chain. Honestly, what makes him so special that he can just get through ninth innings without some sort of challenge ... whether it be not having his best stuff, or an umpire being talked into a call by the runner?

Or tonight, both?

Go ahead and watch that play where Delgado pulled himself off the bag to try to throw out Brandon Phillips going to third base in the ninth. It's okay to admit that Delgado was, in fact, off the bag. But he's the issue I have with it: If Carlos was indeed off the bag, it was by a couple of inches at most. And Bill Welke was way out of position to make that call. Welke was talked into the call by Edwin Encarnacion, who gets the Lee Mazzilli award for that stunt.

But Frankie caused a lot of his own problems by pretending that 2009 was actually 2008, and also by pretending that he was Aaron Heilman in a very demented game of charades where it's easy to mimic "blown save". Rodriguez, however, had the intestinal fortitude to reach up to the top shelf and pull down some of those pitches he saves for a rainy day and finish off the Reds once and for all.

(Hey, I'm not complaining. Frankie's replacement in Anaheim just gave up three runs in the ninth and blew his first save. Uh-oh.)

So now with the entire back end of the pen having gone the first two games, it would be nice if Oliver Perez could give the Mets a little length for the day game after the night game. But the optimist in me says that Perez will probably put the Mets behind by about seven runs by the time you read this, so Rodriguez, J.J. Putz, and Sean Green aren't going to be needed anyway. If I were Brian Stokes though, I'd start warming up now. (Billy Wagner is already warming up ... but he'll only be effective on eleven months rest.)

(Yeah, I said optimist. I could have said "down by forty runs".)

Mike Pelfrey won with less than his best.

Oh, and you're a true connoisseur of baseball if you were more impressed by Delgado's single to the left side to drive in the sixth run than you were by his tape measure blast in the first inning. If Jerry Manuel's 80 pitches in 6.6 seconds drill is truly going to have this effect on Delgado, maybe teams will stop playing the dopey shift on him.

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Gary Sheffield's outfield workout before Wednesday's game didn't go so well.

To Gary Sheffield's credit, he has yet to leave roadkill on my doorstep for anything that I've written on this blog. But because he was preparing for a season where he didn't have to play the outfield, maybe he ate the roadkill.

“I knew I was just hitting, so I kept weight on just to be able to hit and keep my strength. Now I’m asked to do something else, so I have to get the weight off and be able to do both.” -Gary Sheffield

Channeling The Wrong Spirits

Aaron Heilman can't even hold a seance the right way.

In his fervor to channel the spirit of Don Drysdale, instead he has let the aura of Doug Sisk waft through him. (Perhaps he failed to use the "rap once for yes, rap twice for no" system.) And because of which, the Mets dropped the final game of their four game series against Philadelphia, 5-3...with the difference being the two runs Heilman gave away in the seventh. One on a home run to a guy that's 180 lbs. with a piano on his back, and the other one on an Aaron Rowand liner that made Heilman look like Charlie Brown.

I will not kill Mike Pelfrey...by all rights and purposes, it was a hard luck "L" that was hung on him today with David Wright's error being the margin of loss for Pelfrey. I would, however, have hoped that Mike DiFelice would have taught him to be a little more economical with his pitches.

I can't even kill the Mets lineup for not putting the hammer down on a third rookie, this one being Kyle Kendrick...a better brand of rookie than those faced earlier. Although Carlos Beltran could have traveled a lot further towards that cause by not hitting into a double play in the first inning. But Kendrick made pitches when he had to.

Heilman though, does not get off easy this time. Guillermo Mota is struggling, and he had a scoreless inning today. Scott Schoeneweis? Mets fans want his head on a platter. And he pitched a scoreless frame today. Heilman, the meat in that sandwich, was undercooked. The pain is very raw. If you are going to channel a spirit, please let it be someone with more movement on their pitches.

(Editor's note: Doug Sisk is not dead...only his career.)

Walk It Off

OK, so here is a query for the all knower of walkoffs; and this isn't trivia, this is something out of curiosity...

Chris Woodward said after Tuesday night's victory that it was the first time ever he hit a walkoff HR in his baseball life. Lenny Dykstra's walkoff HR in game 3 of the NLCS was Dykstra's first walkoff HR since Strat-O-Matic. Now there's gotta be someone back in the annals that was around for a long time and then hit his first ever walk-off HR with the Mets. Mark Simon comes up with some great stuff for his Met Walk-off blog, so I fully expect him to tie tonight's HR in with something super cool from the Mets distant past. I know he can do it (if he hasn't already), so don't forget to check Mark Simon's blog often!

OK, on to business at hand, observations from tonight's dramatic 3-1 11 inning victory over the Padres...

Was that really Mike Piazza batting sixth tonight behind David Wright? I did one of those cartoon double takes where I shake my head so violently that my brain hit my skull. I'll give it to Willie, what ever you may think of his X's and O's, Willie Randolph will eventually turn wrong to right. It took a while, but he finally got it done. The only question is: was this Randolph's decision, or was it Piazza who went to Randolph to take the pressure off him and request the change? My guess would be that it was Piazza, but we'll find out. And while the move didn't result in a lot of runs tonight, in the long run, it will make a difference if the Mets go on a big run. And what better time to do it than now...after San Diego, you have three with the mediocre Dodgers, and three in Denver against the putrid Rockies.

It was the first time since May 12th, 1993, Piazza's rookie season, that he's batted that low in the order. And here's why tonight's lineup change was for the best: There have been 55 at bats this season where Piazza has ended an inning with a runner on base...that does not count the 5 outs that Piazza made to end the game, and the two outs Piazza made before walkoffs. In those 55 at bats, batters that led off the following inning has an on base percentage of .400 (22 for 55) with two HR's. Most of those hits came courtesy of Cliff Floyd, and most of the outs came courtesy of Doug Mientkiewicz and Marlon Anderson. David Wright was starting to have success in that category before tonight's move.

Meanwhile, going back to Willie Randolph correcting mistakes, tonight we learned that "Dae Sung Koo" is Korean for "Doug Sisk". With all of the lefty batters you are going to face with San Diego, Los Angeles, and Colorado, would you leave yourself with Dae Sung Sisk as your only lefty in the pen? Braden Looper had to face 5 lefties in 6 batters tonight, which could have been a disaster, but to Looper's credit, he was very low maintenance tonight en route to the win. Koo faced three lefties tonight, got none of them out.

There seems to have been very specific moments that Willie Randolph has lost patience with people. Felix Heredia had his early on. Hitaway DeJean had his moment against Seattle. Danny Graves might have had two, against Pittsburgh (the Jack Wilson grannie) and against Atlanta (giving up a run in three batters and 75 seconds). Tonight may have been Koo's moment.

And in an observation which may not be totally unrelated to Koo, I get the feeling that Kaz Ishii has pitched his last game as a Met. The evidence is mounting...first, Ishii's turn is skipped because of the off-day yesterday. Then, the Mets don't announce their starters for the Dodger game. Finally, Aaron Heilman warms up during the seventh inning tonight. But after Looper's stint, where it would have made sense to warm up Heilman again in case the game goes long, Juan Padilla warms up, and was ready to start the non-existant 12th inning. Why else would Aaron Heilman not be made to come into the game, except that he's starting on Friday, and the warm up tosses in the seventh was part of his off day throwing schedule in anticipation of returning to starting?

With players getting DFA'd left and right such as Alan Embree of the Red Sox, Heilman perhaps getting ready to start, and Steve Trachsel getting ready to return, do the Mets really have a choice but to release Ishii? He's not a long reliever...he's not a short reliever...and he's proven that he's not much of a starter right now. The tea leaves are coming together for Ishii, and the leaves are spelling out "D.F.A." And if I was Mr. Koo, I wouldn't look into New York real estate right now either.

And if I were Royce Ring, I wouldn't get too comfortable in Norfolk.

(Editor's note: Of course, after I go on and on about Ishii being gone and Heilman returning to the rotation, it looks like Ishii is going to pitch Thursday against Jake Peavy. Ishii has outdueled Dontrelle Willis this season, but I get the feeling that the Mets are almost conceding this game, and would be looking towards the Dodger series with Victor Zambrano, who originally was pitching against Peavy, going against Jeff Weaver on Friday, and Pedro pitching the Saturday game. I'm still going to say that Ishii will not make the 2005 finish line as a Met, but he has at least another start in him. And I still say Dae Sung Sisk is in trouble.)

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Barry Larkin making a comeback?

A more likely scenario to replace the anemic Cristian Guzman includes Tampa Bay's Julio Lugo. Rafael Furcal would be intriguing, but the Nats and Braves would never trade now. Would the Nats get Furcal for 2006? That would seem entirely possible.

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The A.J. Burnett deal to Baltimore seemingly hit a snag.

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Billy Wagner is a better fit for the "win now" Red Sox than for the "win now but keep an eye on the future" Mets.

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And finally, I agree with how you've voted in the poll so far, and I'm ready to officially agree with Andrew. If the Mets were to trade the farm, let it be for the 25-year-old Adam Dunn, and not the 31-year-old Mike Sweeney. Power hitters in Shea scare me, especially those who strike out a lot like Dunn...but if you can move either him or Floyd to first base without there being a federal investigation, then it would be worth it.