Another Bad Rerun

I think I've already watched this Movie. And I didn't like the way it turned out.

I suppose I can't go off and say this year's visit from the Brewers was a carbon copy of last year's visit. After all, that was in a different Stadium, with a different set of results. But for some reason, it's more or less felt the same way. You saw very few things you liked out of the Mets, and quite a few things you didn't. Probably more disturbing was the fact that you didn't really see anything that surprised you.

It got kicked off on Friday, where El Guapo and I gathered at Ballclub HQ, East Village Bureau for a few drinks, which turned into more than a few drinks, and watched the game. It was, for the most part, a blur, which is kind of interesting when you consider that the game was 3 hours and 18 minutes. But it certainly felt that way. The Mets did a very nice job of letting Dave Bush more or less hand them 3 runs in the first, then did very little most of the rest of the way. They were doing what they seem to do best: Get one or two guys on every inning, then hit a popup, strike out, and then a ground ball. You could mix a double play in there, too. And the other team will eventually come back, which is exactly what happened, when Ryan Braun (perhaps the best Landsman we've seen since Shawn Green) nailed a 3-run HR off a fading Livan to give the Brewers a 4-3 lead in the 6th. I don't think it was wrong to leave Livan in at that point; he'd certainly been doing a good enough job of getting in and out of jams, but he was clearly spent when Braun hit the HR.

Spirits were relatively ambivalent when Sheffield came to the plate in the last of the 7th, prompting a minor tirade from El Guapo about how he disliked Sheffield, and how he'll be a headache, and it was an unnecessary signing, and it's going to screw up Church and Murphy, and who cares, he's a jerk, and of course, all this was punctuated by the Iron Sheff nailing his first hit with the Mets, oddly enough his 500th Career Home Run, to tie the game.

Say what you will about him, but he makes them count.

So, now, a tie game. And it's now late, and both of us have downed a fairly large amount of beer. I'd like to say there was some sort of deep Baseball discussion going on, but it kind of got foggy from there on out. I remember seeing Sean Green pitching, and I think Feliciano as well. I'm sure I was ogling some of the women at the bar as well. Some people I knew came up and said hello. I smoked a few cigarettes. At some point, the Mets surprisingly had a couple of guys on with Wright at the plate, I think in the 8th, and I said to El Guapo, "Here comes the Fielder's Choice."

"Don't be so negative. Wright's the man." he responded.

Wright hit into the Fielder's Choice.

I remember the end of the game. I was pretty sure that extra innings were imminent, especially since the Mets had runners on 2nd and 3rd with Castillo up. But I suppose even the Mets can't fail every time, and Castillo did what was necessary, grounding a ball far too deep in the hole to be thrown out, allowing Delgado to score the winning run.

I then went home, which is about as impressive considering it was a tall order for me to walk a straight line at that particular moment and didn't have the necessary cash for a cab. Somehow I managed to wait until I got home to pass out.

Saturday, I was nursing a heavy hangover and of course was stuck in the same long, nonsensical meeting I usually am subjected to on April Saturdays. What I missed was, basically, the Johan Santana Show, wherein he mows down opposing batters with a ferocity and the Mets score very few runs in support of him. Fortunately, the formula that everyone had in mind when the "Improve the Bullpen" moves were made this past winter was in order. Santana, Putz, Rodriguez, and once again, the Mets won in spite of themselves.

So, Sunday, the Mets were going for the sweep, although it really didn't seem like they were going for a sweep. But since those final scores from the past two days apparently did end up on their favor, I guess they were. Not that they acted like a team that had been beating up on a lesser opponent in any of the 3 games, and particularly not on Sunday, where they managed to do exactly what I was afraid they might do: Get 12 hits, score 2 runs and hit into a double play in just about every inning.

I hate seeming like a clairvoyant.

Right now, I just have a bad feeling about this team. They're starting out exactly the same way they did last year, sleeping through games, not playing with any kind of a sense of urgency, allowing all their question marks and obvious problems to rear their heads at the worst possible times and, if that wasn't enough, making an already apoplectic fan base even more hysterical. It's April 20th and we shouldn't be going crazy, but the Mets are already 5 games behind the Marlins, and everyone's going crazy.

The season is only 2 weeks old, but it feels like it's Mid-June already. If that's the case, how am I going to feel when we get to September? We haven't even played Philadelphia yet.