Toolsiness

Monday Night's game was my 6th of the season at Citi Field, and I'm glad I eventually decided I was going to go. Being that it was a mostly gloomy, dreary day with on-and-off rain predicted, I figured the game was surely going to be delayed or, worse, postponed. And I was tired. But, come 5pm, the rain subsided, and when I left work at 6pm, the rain hadn't come back, and I already had the tickets, so off to Citi Field I went. Given that Miguel Batista was going for the Mets against the Brewers Hairy Ace, Yovani Gallardo, the prospect of a Mets victory didn't appear likely. Many people, if they had tickets or not, must have agreed, or at the very least weren't as hearty as I am, because at game time, it appeared as though I was the only one in the Stadium, along with the gentleman who likes to do an extended strikeout chant (you all know who I'm talking about). Even Cow Bell Man wasn't there. To make matters worse, half the concession stands in the Promenade were shut. Unless you wanted Blue Smoke, you were pretty much shit outta luck. Good thing I wanted Blue Smoke! So, there we were, all 10 of us, basically, sitting there and hoping that Miguel Batista wouldn't implode completely and the Mets wouldn't have to spend the night playing catch-up.

Of course, as has been the case most of the time this season, the Mets had other ideas. Most of them involved standing around while Gallardo walked 6 guys, but did not involve getting many, or sometimes any, hits. Unless, of course, your name was Daniel Murphy. Then, you were supplying most of the offense that was necessary, while Miguel Batista crossed everybody up, throwing 7 shutout innings that nobody expected him to throw.

Staked to a 1-0 lead that was manufactured on a pair of walks by Gallardo and a seeing-eye single from Murphy, Batista basically went out and spent his evening crossing the Brewers up and keeping them from mounting any viable threats, outside of the 2nd inning. Lucas Duda's misadventure on a Tyler Green hit landed Green on 3rd, and had it been a faster runner, he probably would have scored. This, however, didn't seem to bother Batista, who set about striking out Brooks Conrad before Cesar Izturis' 2-foot bunt short-circuited a suicide squeeze attempt.

Some innings later, it was the Mets in a similar situation. Daniel Murphy led off the 6th with a double, which was the first hit the Mets had had since his single back in the 1st. Since that point, they'd managed a number of walks, and managed to drive up Gallardo's pitch count, but hadn't done anything productive. However, on a night like this, the Mets even managed to make their outs count. Following a Davis Sac Fly, Ronny Cedeno came up and squared to bunt. Given the way the game had progressed, the squeeze seemed like The first pitch was a ball. Given that he squared, you would think that the already pinched-in Brewers infield would try to charge the bunt. But noooooo. Cedeno laid down a perfect bunt on the next pitch, and Murphy was across the plate before anyone had even picked the ball up.

Murphy had a hand in the final Met run, which was also of a fundamentally sound variety. In the 8th, the Brewers brought in old friend Francisco Rodriguez, who got the nice warm welcome you would expect, and was rudely greeted by a double from David Wright. If you're counting, this is the 3rd Mets hit I've mentioned. It's not as though there were other hits not worth mentioning, this just happened to be all the hits they could muster. But, the fundamentals came out once again, as Duda grounded out and moved Wright over, and then Murphy hit a grounder to 2nd, which appeared destined for certain disaster when Conrad threw home in plenty of time to get Wright. But, Wright seems to have a little rundown mojo working lately, so he naturally got himself in a pickle. Murphy sped around the bases while the Brewers made several futile attempts to tag out Wright, and then eventually lost the play completely when Aramis Ramirez just totally gagged and dropped the ball, allowing Wright to score.

Then, there was some other stuff that happened in the 9th, but we don't need to go into that, because it was the turd in the punchbowl of what was otherwise a fine evening at Citi Field. All that matters is that the last ball hit landed in Duda's glove, and everyone was sent home cheerful and happy, and the ride home on the 7 train was mirthful and full of people shouting updates on the Rangers game. Another fine night for the Mets, Yo Ho, Yo Ho!