Felt Like '06...

IMAGE: ANTDEROSA FROM FLICKR



I haven't heard the postgame responses form tonight on the radio, or read them on the internet, and I don't really care how the fickle mood of the conspiracy theorist Met fans who behave like Yankee fans has been swayed one way or the other, but I can tell you plain and simple: that was the kind of game that just made you feel really good.

It not only made you feel good, but it put a lot of things in perspective after what in my mind was one of the single greatest days of fan overreaction in the history of sports. Maybe some of that negativity coming from the fans trickled in to the clubhouse, or was already present, and lit a fire under them, but that's not my feeling. My feeling is that this is a really good team that's going to amass a hefty sum of wins, and this was one of them, as the 6 losses were 6 of the 60-70 some games any 90-100 win team will lose.

So much for Reyes being done, huh? My expectation was that the slump would ease its way out, possibly beginning with a nice 2-4 game with a SB, and then maybe a 1-4 with a double and an RBI, but the leadoff man, after 2 1/2 days off, returned with quite a bang, going 4-5. Reyes singled, doubled and tripled in succession, and the whole park smelled cycle, but alas hit #4 was a mere single again. All of his hits were hard, and all of them were well-timed. Bravo, Jose. It's just impossible to convey, or rather, to put into words what the effect on this entire team is when Reyes is on his game. All that tension, all of the bad taste that you have in your mouth through collapses and slow starts, it's all gone. When Reyes is on, it just feels like everything's going to be OK.

Not to short David Wright, who homered in his 3rd consecutive game, barely clearing the fence in right center (right center? left center? my memory is escaping me...), doubled twice, and drove in 5 runs, 5 runs. Not a bad night to have David Wright on 4 different fantasy teams. The Captain apparent is now back to .300, and has knocked in a total of 15 runs, tying him with Mark Reynolds for the NL lead.

Beltran knocked one in. Pagan kept his hitting going. Church looked good in the 2-spot, where he was inserted today, notching 1 hit, 1 BB, scoring 2 runs, and successfully bunting Reyes to 3rd in the bottom of the 1st. I haven't seen any signs of late that Luis Castillo is capable of such tasks. Brian Schneider was unimpressive with the bat against his old squad, but looked great gunning Milledge on a caught stealing at 3rd.

Speaking of the Great Lastings Milledge, I liked him when he was here, and I still like him. I wore my custom #44 "Stings" Jersey from last year today, and I'll wear it tomorrow. You can count me out of the Milledge Boo-Birds. To me, he's an exciting player with a ton of potential which he may or may not fulfill, and all of his alleged off-the-field issues were totally overblown. In contrast with the DUI's, assault charges, weapons charges, domestic abuse, tax fraud, and steroid usage that is rampant in all of sports, I was never too offended by Lastings choosing to give high-fives to some fans and recording a rap album. I wasn't, and still aren't gonna listen to it, and probably disagree with some of its content, but that doesn;t influence my interpretation of Lastings Milledge the outfielder too much. I'll cheer for him tomorrow.

Duca, on the other hand, who didn't play today but should be in the lineup for DC tomorrow...
That's really tough, and I may just have to sit it out, not boo or cheer. The guy was a favorite of mine, but was not only on the Mitchell Report, he was very prominently featured, and probably introduced a good number of other players to the juice. He also wrote checks to buy drugs, which is just dumb as all hell. Come on, Paulie.
But I loved him, really did, as much as any ballplayer...
Gonna have to sit down and be silent.

To the issue at hand again, all guns clicked last night, Tuesday night, offensively. The leadoff man led-off, the #2 man got him over, the #3 man got 'em in, and the rest of 'em helped. Pelfrey was truly impressive, picthing 7 shutout innings, though not peril-free, and the bullpen was quick and done. Heilman got some boos after issuing a 4-pitch walk in the 8th, but no harm was done, SO STOP BOOING EVERYTHING, MET FANS! ESPECIALLY BEFORE ANY DAMAGE IS DONE! IT'S NOT GONNA HELP WHEN A GUY IS STILL IN THERE TO BOO HIM!

And who pitched the 9th? An indescribably welcome sight in Duaner Sanchez. He gave up one hit, but was locating well and K'd one batter in his one inning of scoreless work. It has to be remembered that he is working his way back to full strength, so if he gives up some hits now and tops off at 92, that isn't necessarily a permanent thing. Anyhow it was great to see him at all, and great to see him have a good inning; you forget just how dominant he was 2 years ago before in between Heilman and Wags.

Mets Win, 6-0. Solid score, no drama. They're the far superior team of the two, and they showed it. I was never worried, just enjoying myself.

Elsewhere, the Braves got blanked by former standout Scott Olsen in Miami, but the Jose Valverde and the 'Stros really blew it for us, giving up 4 runs in the bottom of the 9th in Philly and dropping a game which they led 3-0 going into that inning. That was an annoying score to see updated on the scoreboard. I'm sure Pedro Feliz is very happy with himself. Ugh.

Tomorrow/tonight, whenever it is, Maine will be facing Matt Chico, who is winless on the year, and should remain so.

It will also be my final game at Shea before I have to move to Atlanta, Georgia, (yes, I know. No, I'm not going to become a Braves fan, we've covered this) although certainly not my final game at Shea. They have things called airplanes and I have something called an obsession and something else called season tickets which I am not relinquishing. Gimme a bye for now win, guys.

How to Solve your Corner Outfield Woes: Go to Church and Seek the Help of Angels

IMAGE: MICHAEL G. BARON FROM FLICKR

Boy, has it ever been a while since we had a win streak...

My baseball week started on a very sour note, after waiting all April to see the Mets in person, I finally drove out to Turner Field, as I happened to be in Atlanta, last Friday, and what did we get? A rainout. Oh well, I thought, we'll get 'em on Saturday and Sunday. Not so much. 2 swings by Kelly Johnson and Mark Teixeira and it's Tomahawk Chops galore.

Oh well, I again think, I'll be back in Brooklyn tomorrow and on Tuesday we'll turn it around at Shea. And again, not so much with the second part of that arrangement. To be fair, I'll always be grateful to have been at the last opener at Shea, especially with my father close to his birthday, but on the baseball end of things the game was ugly and the second out #27 was recorded all the baseball Seventh-Day Adventists of the message board and talk radio world stuck their heads out and cried, "the end is near!" I'll admit, while the more rational and optimistic end of me was rife with self-reminders of the insignificance of week 1 records, they were accompanied with some foreboding.

And then the bats went off on Wednesday, led by, of course, Angel Pagan, with a good deal of help from the Philly defense, and Pelfrey gave us one of his better Major League showings. Eric Bruntlett is officially my all-time favorite Philly.

Thursday Maine looked very good, surrendering one run over six, and he had enough help to win it, but Heilman indulged himself in that one nasty habit of his, that is giving up bombs, and there were those phightins, right back in it. In extras the bats looked weak, they looked not so much with the clutch, and you were just waiting for the ball to drop with the bullpen.

As a side note, I understand completely why going in to Thursday night, any Met fan would have been sour on Scott Schoenweis, and why they would have booed him as he exited his prior appearance, but to me it seems counterintuitive to sit at a relatively important baseball game into extra innings and boo your own pitcher coming in in the 11th. I mean you want him to succeed, don't you? Boo him after he fails, or boo him if the situation doesn't matter, but in a tie game in the 11th, with 2 men on and Philly's best hitter at the plate, do you really want to shake Schoenweis' already shaky psyche?
And hey, he got the job done.

But the ball did not drop with the bullpen; the only ball that dropped was a line drive off the bat of the shortstop right in between Werth and Jenkins. Reyes stood at 2nd, and WHO ELSE BUT ANGEL PAGAN, 3 for 5 on the night overall, provided the winning base hit. Who knows if Reyes scored? It counted.

Friday, we had a feel-good story that will be hard to top. Brooklyn's own (And this time the player in question actually grew up here, rather than Paul LoDuca who quickly fled to AZ after birth) Nelson Figueroa pitched his ass off if you don't mind me saying, allowing 2 runs over 6, and the bullpen was nearly perfect behind him, Joe Smith allowing the only baserunner on a walk to Rickie Weeks. Delgado contributed to the runs, as he has been doing, Easley gave us one, even Raul Casanova managed to get away from the ladies for a moment to knock one in. And who roped a key, late RBI single? ANGEL F'IN PAGAN! Mets beat the Brewers, the Brooklyn boy shines, Heilman gives up no bombs, Wagner gets save numero uno, there's the first 3-game win streak of the year.

The bad news? Reyes leaves with a hammy strain, said not to be serious. There are many rumblings that perhaps it's more than they're letting on, but methinks something else might be brewing. What has been the single loudest whine about Reyes since last summer? "Someone needs to give him a good talkin' to!" I think Willie might have done just that. Physically he has looked fine, but his approach has stunk. He had the one highlight scoring the run on Thu. night, but otherwise he has swung early and made no good contact. He just hasn't gotten on base, and it seems to be a bad combination of simultaneous cockiness and subtle lack of confidence. That's a long, presumptuous way of saying he's pressing, and I really believe that with a lead in the game and the bullpen set to go according to the late-inning plan, Willie sat Jose down. I think he did this, and I think he figured that with Santana going on Sunday and some unlikely characters producing well, he could really make a point by giving Jose a day on the bench and a Monday off to think. Why not?

And why not bat Castillo 8th once him and Reyes are back? Let Pagan swing the bat, baby. Moises Alou is a distant memory. Here's to a fine discovery in left field. Right now I want no one else up in the big spot. Well, maybe that guy who plays third.

Tomorrow we get to see our Ace live and in person at Shea, and I can't sleep. Oh by the way, he's facing a pitcher in Ben Sheets who hasn't allowed a run this year in 15 1/3 IP. This is a good game waiting to happen. My hope is that Castillo can play tomorrow so he can bat leadoff with Pagan #2, but that may be unlikely. Pick a lineup, any lineup, if Castillo isn't ready.

One more sad note. I have made a business decision to move right in to the belly of the beast, to the town where a Larry Jones jersey is a common sight. As such, this homestand is my Shea Stadium farewell tour, sort of...
Hell, no I'm not giving up my seasons! My job in Atlanta will be right next to the airport and guess what ballpark's right next to LaGuardia? I could get off work at 5 and still see half of 7:00 game!
I'll miss NY, namely Brooklyn, my hometown and the greatest little big city in the world.

Let's Go Johan.