New York Mets: 2007 Division Champs!

That was an awesome scene last night at Shea, wasn't it? Man, if you would have told me that the Mets would have clinched the division in June, I would have told you that you were nuts. But this team is on a mission, and nothing is impossible for this team. Damn, I'm impressed. Now we just get to sit back and wait to see who we're going to get in the first round. Maybe Los Angeles? Maybe Milwaukee? Ooh, the Padres? Their pitching is kind of scary. But with four months to go until the playoffs, the Mets can set their rotation. Heck, we can even give Mike Pelfrey some starts.

What?

You mean the Mets didn't clinch the division last night?

That's impossible. The Mets have to be division champs. Did you see the lineup thrown out there tonight? That's a lineup of a team that had all it's regulars doing a little too much celebrating the night before.

Damion Easley batting third?

Come on, you're kidding me. The Mets won the division last night! Can't be any other explanation. Paul Lo Duca batting fifth? Julio Franco batting sixth and playing third? David Newhan batting...anywhere?

We didn't clinch? Really?

Damn.

All right, seriously. If the Mets had won this game, we would have clinched the division right then and there. There's no way the Mets could have gone out there, with a lineup featuring Damion Easley batting third, against Brandon Webb of all people (who uses Shea Stadium as his own personal playground so much it's a wonder his uniform doesn't read "Atlanta"), then there would have been no use for anybody else to show up the rest of the season. It would have been over.

And with John Maine going the way he was going early, it almost happened. It was looking like one of those games that could have ended 1-0 where the winning run scored on a balk or something (sorry, couldn't resist another Benitez flashback) in the ninth inning.

But then came Chris Snyder and his golf shot into the bleachers off of John Maine and that was that. The way Webb was going, the Stephen Drew bomb off of Guillermo Mota wasn't going to matter. It is a situation worth monitoring with Mota, who got rocked in New Orleans during his "rehab" stint before coming up here. If it doesn't stop, Mets fans will start booing him causing the rest of America to call Met fans hypocrites like we need another label. But Webb was freakin' awesome, despite feeling like jelly.

"The humidity here always helps the sinker and the curve, gives them a little more bite...It's a great pitcher's park with a deep outfield and thick grass." -Brandon Webb

So it's not the heat, it's the humidity. Great.

***

Quick Fantasy Note: The Diamondbacks have just called up this awesome third baseman named Mark Reynolds who's hitting well over .400 in his first 50 or so at bats. I picked him up for my fantasy team, so expect this production to stop immediately.

My expectation of disaster with Reynolds after picking him up prompted one longtime friend to wonder:

"How many careers have you ruined?"

Truthfully, I lost track after Kerry Wood.