Charity Starts At Home

So Pedro Martinez threw off of a mound today.

Looked good.

Felt good.

Unfortunately, Petey's return isn't going to get the Mets a key hit.

Oh the Phillies tried...tried their hardest to give the Mets a gift on Tuesday, with Pat Burrell running around to occupied bases, and negotiating the outfield with the dexterity of a water buffalo in a Home Depot. What do the Mets do? They hit the ball right at him, of course.

The Phillies even had one of their better fielders, Aaron Rowand, drop a ball with two outs in the ninth putting David Newhan in scoring position (it's the only way David Newhan is going to get into scoring position without being on a date these days). But that golden opportunity went to waste, and the Phillies won the game 4-2 thanks to a Chase Utley home run in the 11th off of Pedro Feliciano.

At least the almost impervious Feliciano and Joe Smith decided to have their blemishes in the same game, just like they did against the Brewers, instead of spreading them out. For that, we can be thankful. But the lineup is lacking that certain something that made them so good for the last two seasons. With Ben Johnson and Carlos Gomez in the lineup, it makes it easier for a 79 year old pitcher such as Jamie Moyer and others to tip toe his way through said lineup.

You'll have to excuse me while I order those hyperbaric chambers to be sent to the houses of Moises Alou and Shawn Green.

Get well soon.

Really soon.

With Apologies To Jose Feliciano (And Pedro Feliciano too)

Chan Ho, don't be discouraged, The Mound it ain't so hard to understand...

Chan Ho, if you sign now, I know that you can lend a helping hand.

Because there's good in everyone,

And a new day has begu-u-un...

You can see the strike zone if you try.

And I know, things will be better

Oh yes they will for Chan Ho on the Mound...

Yes they will for Chan Ho on the Mound.

Yo-Yos

"Keeping a yo-yo spinning while remaining at the end of its uncoiled string is known as sleeping. Sleeping is the basis for nearly all yo-yo tricks, the player first putting the yo-yo in a "sleep" before throwing the yo-yo around using its string. In competition, mastery of sleeping is the basis for the 1A division." -from Wikipedia, on yo-yo's

In major league baseball competition, the basis for beating the Mets is throwing your curveball and pulling the uncoiled string until the lineup, and half the fans, are put to sleep. Doug Davis, who has a WHIP of 1.62, held the Mets to six hits and three walks (two by Paul Lo Duca, and two in the eighth inning) with his major league curveball today in leading the Diamondbacks to a 4-1 win, and the first series win against the Mets by someone outside of the division (and fourth overall).

Obviously, the Mets caught Davis on a bad day...well, a good day for him. Davis had struggled with his control in May until his last game against Philadelphia when he didn't walk any batters in eight innings. Today, the curve reminded me of a yo-yo on a string, getting Met after Met to sit and stay like puppies at obedience school. Of course, for all of Davis' outs, the most important out of the day was the only one acquired by Tony Pena in the eighth...the one where Damion Easley had the bases loaded with two outs and grounded out to third base (after he barely missed a three run double with a grounder foul...I have my doubts about that foul call but it was indeed close) to end the only legitimate threat of the day.

And what makes me angry about that is...well, how many freakin' Tony Penas are there in this league? There's the shortstop (who apparently is known as Tony F. Pena even though he never hit a big home run against the Red Sox), there's the shortstop's father who shows up in all those old Dwight Gooden reels striking out and having his batting helmet fall off while falling to one knee. And now there's the pitcher...and I don't even know if he's related or not. I mean, I don't think so...but dude, can't you change your name? Anthony? Antonio? Jebediah?

Seriously, I'm old. I can't keep up anymore. More than one Tony Pena, just like more than one catching Molina brother, just tends to piss me off.

To Ruben, I Offer My Kingdom

A day game after a night game means that folks are going to be tired. Apparently, the folks who change the Topps cards to reflect the batting order over the ticket windows were too tired as well. We all went in thinking that Damion Easley was batting third again. But it was last night's lineup, as we found out when David Wright announced himself as the third hitter. Apparently, everyone in the house was presently surprised as the crowd in the section of right field that couldn't see the scoreboard let out a collective "Oh? Ooh! Yeeeeah!"

Nice of the Shea staff to keep us on our toes. Thanks, we're awake now.

Even with Sugar Pants back the Mets are still going to need help from the bench, and Gotay has given it to them. Omar traded Jeff Keppinger for Ruben Gotay and I wondered what the point was. Here was the point: Gotay made sure I saw my first victory this season. That's the point. So I should sit down and shut up. Thanks Ruben. I needed to be at a victory this season or else I would have had a complex going. And the last thing I needed was another one. (Heck I would have been satisfied with just getting through nine innings without any debilitating injuries.)

And boy, you thought Chris Russo complained heavily about Carlos Delgado's dances with Jose Reyes? Forget it. Even I could see from right field that the dance Delgado did with Gotay was not only rehearsed, but choreographed by Paula Abdul and taken straight out of the movie "Chicago" (I mean, not that I saw it or anything...I'm just assuming). I thought Eddie Van Halen was going to jump out of the stands and start playing the "Beat It" solo.

Not that I'm hating...I wish I could dance like that.

I don't suppose that in hindsight, the Yankees wish they had signed Jorge Sosa, do ya?

Well in hindsight, everyone does. It was nice of Jorge to tip his cap to the appreciative crowd...more than half of wish wanted to have Omar Minaya committed for signing him (and put me in that group)...after 6 and 2/3 innings today. And imagine that, his groin isn't fatigued...unlike the groin of Roger Clemens.

I heard that Alex Rodriguez's groin is fatigued as well...but for an entirely different reason.

(I'm sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Other highlights of the day, which was spent with my longest standing friend (he wanted me to mention him, but I couldn't call him my "oldest" friend because he's really not that old...and I can't mention his name or else by common law, I would have to pay him...but he's my longest standing friend who was with me for such momentous Mets moments like Jose Uribe and Robby Thompson letting a pop fly drop between them letting the winning run score, and on the negative ledger, that "turn ahead the clock" game where Al Martin launched two home runs in a uniform that looked like something hatched from a Quentin Tarantino dream...but at least they weren't from Mercury).

As I was saying before I strayed to the service road...other highlights of the day included seeing some stray orioles (not Orioles) hanging out perched on the fair pole, and spilling onions and peppers (not Peppers) all over myself because of some soft bread holding the Premio sausage. I've got to learn to suck it up and deal with the soft bread and stop my bitching.

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.

Look Ma, No Outfield!

I was wondering why Carlos Beltran wasn't turning and going to second on Kevin Frandsen's off target throw as Beltran ran into Rich Aurilia. Well duh, he was hurt!

Unfortunately, hurt enough to leave the game and leave the Mets juggling with an outfield of Endy Chavez, Carlos Gomez, and Ben Johnson. A far cry from Beltran, Moises Alou, and Shawn Green. But hey, when Orlando Hernandez is going the way he was going (after the first inning, of course), you could have an outfield of me, my brother, and my cat (our combined averages are just above Gomez's average right now but we can't cover nearly as much ground...that's why the cat would be in center field), and still come away with the 4-2 victory that they came away with.

The theme of this series was most assuredly "Giants two, Mets coming to bat", as three times the Mets spotted the Giants a two run lead before Jose Reyes' bat was to waggle in the box. Yet the Mets were a mere Barry Zito gem away from possibly sweeping this series. Two out of three, under those circumstances, and under the circumstances of no starting outfielders left standing, is completely acceptable, not to mention completely indicative of the way the Mets' starting staff is able to bounce back from early hiccups...and I give Orlando a boatload of credit. These are usually the kind of games that Hernandez can't bounce back from. He's usually either terrible or brilliant, but never both in one game. Luckily, he got the terrible out of the way and ended off with a whole lot of brilliant.

Of course, an MRI on Carlos Beltran is completely scary, as the last thing the Mets need while they are humming along is for a major cog in the offense to be out for any stretch of time. So y'all keep your fingers crossed.

***

Where were you when Armando got traded?

Where were you when you found out that Carlos Delgado's game winner was the last pitch that Armando Benitez would ever throw in a Giants uniform? Where were you when you found out that the Mets, who couldn't beat Benitez for the longest time, officially became dragon-slayers, retroactively, on Tuesday night? Where were you when you found out that not only have the Mets flushed Benitez out of San Francisco, but basically brought him back to the National League East where our team will have a few more cracks at him?

Of course, it was in a Marlins uniform where Benitez had his greatest successes against the Mets, so I probably shouldn't talk too soon. And more than likely, Benitez isn't going to be let anywhere near the ninth inning unless Kevin Gregg, Henry Owens, Matt Lindstrom, Troy Percival, Bryan Harvey and Charlie Hough all go down with injuries. But rest assured, our paths will cross again in 2007. The Mets and Armando. Armando and the Mets.

So go ahead, Fredi Gonzalez...let him close. I dare you. But you've gotta ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?"

Do ya?