Cap Trade Friday

The Mets began their final homestand of the season Friday night, which is something that I usually look at kind of wistfully, although this year not so much. It seems as though it's arrived rather quickly this year. Maybe it always feels that way. This year, though, it has the odd juxtaposition of the overwhelmingly likely scenario that, come September 25th, the Mets will play their final home game of the season but nobody will know for certain whether or not it's actually going to be their final home game of the season.

Regardless, you want to enjoy the time we have left as much as possible, and I'll be at 4 games on this final homestand, the first of which was this evening, in a game against a team I've never actually seen play the Mets before, the Minnesota Twins. This isn't the first time I've seen the Twins--I in fact saw them play in Toronto three years ago--but now I get to cross them off the list of teams I've never seen play the Mets. This now leaves the Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers as the lone teams I've never seen--and Texas will be in town next season.

But next year is rather far away and the Mets still have a Pennant Race to deal with and so the Mets and Twins were my 18th game of the season. I have gone over my choice of game hat over the years and for 2016 I'd been wearing a new hat, with the 2015 World Series logo on it. It's proven to be middling in terms of luck and at my last game, I discovered something rather disturbing about it. I'd bought it at size 7 1/2, thinking that was my preferred cap size. But it never fit properly. It seemed too large in some areas and just didn't look right. At my last game, my other half, who has taken to wearing my old game hats, was complaining about it and wondered why I didn't go back to wearing last year's game hat, a 2012 50th Anniversary cap, since that seemed to have much more luck in it. She was wearing it and I compared them, and of course that cap fit much better. Surprise, surprise, that cap was 7 3/8! No wonder I'd had the stink this year! I was wearing a cap that was too big. So, tonight, I wore the old hat. As you now know, the Mets won, 3-0. So I think, superstition being what it is, I have to go back to the old cap. The fate of the Mets depends on this.

The fate of the Mets also depends on guys who played key in tonight's win. Bartolo Colon was chief among them. Colon right now defies any and all logic and is just a force of nature that we should just sit back and marvel at. He befuddled a young and inexperienced Twins lineup for 7 innings, allowing 3 hits, 2 walks (both to Joe Mauer) and no runs while striking out 6. He walked Mauer in the 1st and immediately got Jorge Polanco to follow by hitting into a DP. In the 3rd inning, he allowed the Twins to load the bases with two outs, but managed to get Polanco to fly out. In the 4th, Max Kepler reached when Cespedes nonchalantly dropped a fly ball directly at him (he gave no fucks, in typical Cespedes fashion), but Colon then proceeded to pick Kepler off 1st base.

He'd been backed minimally, as all the Mets were able to muster off of Francisco Berrios and a bevy of obscure relievers with bland names to that point were back-to-back Home Runs by Jose Reyes and Asdrubal Cabrera in the 3rd. Berrios, who appears to be no older than 16, was ripe for the taking, as he had demon stuff but little control and seemed content to hand the Mets plenty of runners, but a key hit never came. Berrios was gone after 4 innings, and outside of one rally in the 7th inning that culminated with an RBI single from Yoenis Cespedes.

It seemed like it would be a coast to the finish; the Twins were overmatched by Colon, and again by Addison Reed in the 8th, but in the 9th Jeurys Familia made things unnecessarily sweaty by walking Mauer, and then with two outs walking Kurt Suzuki, the only two players in the Twins lineup who seem to have any sort of Major League tenure to them, and this brought up a rather burly gentleman named Kennys Vargas. Vargas hit a towering fly ball out to Left which, for a second, looked horrifyingly like it might land in a bad place, but it didn't quite have the legs and Cespedes settled under it and allowed everyone to exhale as he gloved it for the final out.

So, now 15 games remain for the Mets and they're still holding steady in that 2nd Wildcard spot, and still sandwiched directly in between the Cardinals and Giants, who happen to be playing each other at press time. It may end up being that the Giants will hold on to the 1st Wildcard spot, but if they can continue to beat the Cardinals and open up a little distance between them and the Mets, that would be just as helpful. As usual, the Mets just need to worry about themselves. That seems to be the most important thing here.

Forgettable Endings

I was out and about doing an assortment of things over the weekend and as such didn't actually get to see much of the two Mets affairs in Tampa. I did, however, arrive home on both Saturday and Sunday in just enough time to catch the ending of the games, which led me to the conclusion that I hadn't missed much of consequence.

On Saturday, I didn't see Curtis Granderson belt a leadoff home Run and I didn't see Lucas Duda drive in two more to shoot the Mets out to a 3-run lead in the 1st inning. I assume by that point, after the 7 games prior, Mets fans couldn't have been blamed for beginning to make October arrangements. But, on this night, Noah Syndergaard didn't have it. This is an issue for him on the road as a general statement, because he's pitched rather poorly on the road (as opposed to usually excellent at home), and in this particular game, he took a 3-0 lead and promptly handed it back to the Rays. He did settle down somewhat, but only somewhat and ultimately it wasn't so much his own poor pitching that did him in, it was Ruben Tejada taking a bit too long to make a throw to 1st base, allowing Evan Longoria to beat the play and allowing what would ultimately be the winning run to score. Of course, all I saw was Brad Boxberger look quite UnBoxbergerlike and retire the Mets in order in the 9th to seal a 5-4 defeat that ended the Mets 7-game magic carpet ride.

Sunday, I didn't see the Mets charge out to a 3-0 lead again, and I didn't see Bartolo Colon sort of get nicked to death by what's a rather pesky Rays lineup, and I didn't see Kelly Johnson apparently misplay a ball that led to a pair of runs scoring, and I didn't see preternatural Rookie Richie Shaffer belt a game-winning Home Run in the 7th inning. All I saw was Jake McGee enter the game in the 9th inning and retire the Mets in order, while Keith Hernandez pontificated on the fact that McGee throws nothing but fastballs and tips his slider so badly he'd be better off not even throwing it. Not that that helped the Mets at all, they still lost the game 4-3.

So, the Mets are now done with this particular random Interleague series, although they do have three more which will pop up at what are certainly inopportune times, including one against the Yankees in the middle of September which I think is absolutely asinine. The Mets stand a very good chance, if things hold to form, of being in the thick of a pennant race in September for the first time in several years. The last thing they or any Mets fan needs at that particular point is to play the Yankees and deal with the bunch of bullshit that brings with it. Schedule the games in June when the weather is warm and nobody cares. You could schedule these games in November and they would still sell out. But the middle of September is probably the worst time for that to happen, although that's probably much more from a fan's perspective. I'll get off the soapbox now.

From The Ashes

The Mets won their penultimate game of the 2014 season solely on the timely and virtuous power hitting displayed by Lucas Duda. In a season where he's become one of the happier success stories in recent Mets history, Duda, who's slumped a bit down the stretch, sent himself into the offseason on a high note, belting a 2-run Home Run off lefty Tony Sipp with 2 outs in the 9th inning, providing the Mets with their entire evening's output of offense in a 2-1 victory that put everyone in a good mood, even if they weren't in attendance to see the season's final postgame concert.

My other half and I moved apartments this morning, and fortuitously cable was installed in the afternoon, and although nothing was in a shape for us to do so, we were too exhausted following the day's events to do anything beyond sit on the couch and watch tonight's game. For a Saturday night, next-to-last-day-of-the-season game between two teams that will finish with over 80 losses, the crowd seemed lively at Citi Field, and it was discussed at length by Keith and Gary that the draw was mostly of young girls to see teenybop sensation Austin Mahone. Who knew. I've never heard of Mahone, not like I've been aware of other Met Postgame Concert series participants, and when I first saw this on the schedule, I wondered if this particular ploy would sell tickets. It seems his presence is, indeed, enough to get people out to Citi Field on a Saturday night in Late September. Not me, I personally try to avoid concert games like the plague (also, I don't think Nirvana is available to perform at Citi Field), but for those that like that kind of music, I'm sure the game couldn't get over with fast enough.

Far as the game, which did happen, Rafael Montero took the Jacob deGrom spot in the rotation and pitched reasonably well over his 5.1 innings of work, allowing only one run, which occurred in the 6th inning when Dexter Fowler, who was last seen pogo-sticking his way around the bases in one of many Met debacles in Colorado, hit one of those terrible slow rollers up the 3rd base line that you can only sit and watch and hope it rolls foul, except that it never rolls foul. Daniel Murphy did his best Lenny Randle impression but to no avail. Jason Castro followed with a double up the gap that scored Fowler with, to that point, the lone run of the game. This remained the lone run of the game until the 9th inning, and for that the Mets can thank Montero, Buddy Carlyle and the Jeurys Familia/Jenrry Mejia Report, who kept the Astros off the board. They can also blame Samuel Deduno, a Twins castoff that resurfaced mysteriously with the Astros, probably because they needed a warm body who could throw strikes, followed by Jake Buchanan, Kevin Chapman and Jose Veras for not allowing them to score any runs on their own.

But then came the 9th, and Tony Sipp for the Astros. Eric Young tripled with 1 out, which was good, because it put the tying run on 3rd with Daniel Murphy coming up. But Murphy only popped out, which as a Met he is generally wont to do, and so it came down to Duda. Duda, who for years has been a particular flog of mine, and someone whom I've heaped loads of disdain upon, and mostly it's been justified. Because I, like most Mets fans, want him to do better, know he can do better, and don't quite understand why he doesn't do better. And when Davis was traded back in April, I was skeptical as to whether or not that was really the right thing to do. But based on what's happened since then, clearly it was; Duda has come of age this season, and it's been a delight to see and wonderful to have him prove me wrong. Duda has not only hit for power, yes, in fits and starts, but that's how power hitters generally are, but he's driven in runs and he's gotten key hits. Things he had not done consistently prior to this year. And he rolled all of these things into a bow to cap off his season when he lined a 1-0 pitch from Sipp off the Right Field foul pole to win the game for the Mets, 2-1, earning himself a rousing ovation from everyone watching in person and on TV, and a couple of pies in the face from some enterprising teammates.

So, one more for the season, tomorrow afternoon, which I'll be at. If Lucas Duda can come up with one more Home Run, he'll finish off with a nice even 30 for the year, and 90 RBIs if he can do so with someone on base. If the Mets win, they can finish off the season with 79 wins, 5 more than last year, and also hand me my 11th win of the season, something I haven't enjoyed since 2006.

The Soft Coda

It seems somehow fitting that the Mets would be finishing up their season against the Houston Astros. The Astros, as we fondly remember, are the Mets expansion brethren, but through the machinations of Bud Selig and an ownership change have now found themselves stuck in the American League West. So, though it may seem very incongruous and weird for the Mets to be playing Interleague Games to close out their season, at least they're doing so against a team that used to be in the National League.

Not that you'd recognize many of these Astros. By now it's fairly common knowledge that the Astros are still in the midst of one of the most dramatic rebuilding projects in the history of Baseball. Faced with an aging roster and a barren farm system, the Astros strategy has basically been to tank it for 4 years now, dealing away basically every single Major League quality player in their system for prospects and fattening up on high draft picks. The result is that after middling seasons of 74-88 in 2009 and 76-86 in 2010, the Astros basically fell into the abyss, going 56-106 in 2011, 55-107 in 2012 and, in their first year in the American League last season, 51-111. But this season, these young guys, that have basically been plonked in the Major Leagues long before they were probably ready, are now starting to gel and tick upward. The Astros won't lose 100 games this season—they come in to Citi Field with a record of 69-90—and they won't finish in last place thanks to the Texas Rangers. Players like Jose Altuve, who's on the verge of a batting title, Jon Singleton, George Springer, Dallas Keuchel, Chris Carter and Robbie Grossman, the sort of names you've never heard of (partiularly since their Chris Carter is not our Chris "The Animal" Carter who was so productive off the bench in 2010) now, but you might if you keep paying attention to this bunch and they continue to work towards respectability.

The Mets are in a similar position, we know that, although their rebuilding hasn't been quite as massive an undertaking as the Astros, but if nothing else, it makes for something resembling an interesting storyline in a weekend series between two teams going nowhere to finish off the season. Tonight, the Astros came out on top, 3-1, in a game that fell apart on the Mets primarily because Jon Niese, who capped off an annoying season, ended up exiting the game with an elevated heart rate in the 6th inning, and Carlos Torres ended up allowing 3 runs rather quickly thanks to hits from Altuve and Carter. The Mets, facing Brad Peacock, another one of these young Astros arms that probably is a year or two away from actually being well-equipped enough to pitch in the Major Leagues, also wasn't long for the game in spite of the fact that he only allowed a solo Home Run to Curtis Granderson. He departed in the 5th, turning things over to a quartet of relievers, Kevin Chapman, Jorge de Leon, Tony Sipp and Chad Qualls, who lack in name recognition (OK, Qualls has been around for a while, but the rest of these guys?), allowed nothing to the Mets the rest of the way, and so that was how the night went. An incredibly unexciting game played by two mostly unexciting teams, and yet you feel you have to watch, simply because the season is now down to just two games, and by opening pitch of Saturday's game, the season will be over in less than 24 hours (barring some sort of weather-induced issue or a 20-inning game, that might be too fitting for these two teams, and since I have tickets to Sunday's affair, maybe I should keep my mouth shut).

Even Flow

For the second straight night, I failed to make it to the end of the late-night Mets/Mariners tilt way out in Seattle. Unlike Monday, when I got through one inning, last night I made it to the end of the 5th, which is a marked improvement, but still not enough to prevent me falling asleep without knowing who won the game. Only when I woke up and checked my phone did I see that the Mets had emerged victorious, their 3-1 victory marking the first time they've ever won a game in Seattle—granted, it's only the 5th game they played there, but still. Worth at least making a note of.

Jacob deGrom was the beneficiary of this particular win, and deservedly so. After fizzling out with a series of losses and no-decisions in games where he's pitched well, he's now started to turn those efforts into some W's, and all of a sudden he's starting to be a little less under-the-radar. After stifling the Mariners for 7 innings last night, allowing all of 1 run and 5 hits, winning his 3rd consecutive start, he now sits with a 4-5 record and a rather shiny-looking 3.01 ERA, numbers that could conceivably throw him into an NL Rookie of the Year crop that lacks a particular standout. And the more you think about it, you have to ask yourself, well, why not deGrom? Even at his worst, he hasn't pitched particularly poorly more than 2 or 3 times he's took the mound, and as he's gotten his sea legs under him, he's been brilliant. For the month of July, his numbers could rival pretty much anyone in the league that isn't named "Kershaw;" in 4 starts, he's posted a 3-1 record, a 1.73 ERA and struck out 34 in 26 innings pitched against 5 walks. For a guy who was sort of regarded as talented trade bait for the past couple of years, buried behind the big names, this is a pretty damn good statement that he belongs in the Mets rotation for this year and beyond.

deGrom did most of the job himself, only allowing a run on a Dustin Ackley double that nearly got really ugly when Daniel Murphy's cutoff throw landed in the disease-covered Puget Sound. On the offensive side, the Mets didn't exactly generate much in the way of fireworks off of non-entity Erasmo Ramirez (non-entity in the sense that he was called up from the minors to start one game and then promptly get sent back to the minors for today's starter Taijuan Walker). Travis d'Arnaud had the big hand in things when his line drive to Center did kind of a knuckle and sailed past James Jones, who made an ill-advised slide and saw d'Arnaud's hit sail past him and all the way to the wall for an RBI triple. Jones probably should have just pulled up and played it on a hop, or dove for the ball rather than slide, but I suppose when you play to the immediate left of Endy Chavez, you feel you need to try to be as flashy as possible—Jones got burned on this one and it cost the Mariners 2 runs, the one that d'Arnaud drove in and then d'Arnaud himself when Ruben Tejada singled one batter later. Lucas Duda hit a non-Lucas-Duda in the 8th inning—that is to say that his moonshot of a Home Run off of Tom Wilhelmsen was actually useful because it provided an insurance run as opposed to padding a safe lead. Jenrry Mejia finished the job in the 9th inning while I was snoozing away.

The Mets have but a few more of these late-night, West coast games this season. I know there's a trip to Oakland and Los Angeles looming next month, but for now, they're done with 10pm games. Today, a 3:45pm start which once again means I won't be able to see the game—not because I'll be sleeping, but because I'll be at work—but I'll be home to catch the replay so maybe I'll get to see more than 4-5 innings of today's affair. Hopefully, it'll be worth staying awake for.

Sleeping In Seattle

I lack the general fortitude I had in my younger, sprier days, and as such a 10pm start time on a weeknight has become a bit of a dicey proposition for me, at least from the standpoint of my ability to make it through the duration of the game awake. Last night's game in Seattle was an extreme example of just how dicey these late starts are for me. As I'm still shaking off the effects of some jet lag, I managed to make it through the first inning of the ever-elusive Mets vs. Mariners game before dozing off. By time I woke up, the game was more or less over.

It seems, based on what I've read on the proceedings, that the Mets were about as awake as I was during last night's game. Though the Mets banged out 9 hits off of Roenis Elias (their second consecutive tilt with a crafty Cuban), one in each of the 9 innings of the game, but as usual, none of them were key, and their best chance at a key one—Travis d'Arnaud's deep drive in the 6th inning—was snuffed out by Dustin Ackley, who clearly has benefitted from having dear friend Endy Chavez as his teammate; his leaping grab was reminiscent of any one of Endy's greatest grabs during his Mets tenure. The net of all this was that the Mets marked the much-covered DavidWrightiversary with one of the more painfully boring efforts that seem to have pockmarked much of Wright's recent history with the team. It's not necessarily David Wright's fault; he's been whatever the Mets have wanted him to be, but without a decent supporting cast around him, Wright sort of sticks out like an island among the Lucas Dudas around him.

On the other side, there are the Mariners, a team that's suffered through their own particular wilderness, not having made a Playoff appearance since their 116-win 2001 season. They've had a rather Met-like arc over their recent run of forgettable seasons, but only now does it seem as though they've turned a bit of a corner. The Robinson Cano signing sort of brought them a bit of attention, but really, it's guys like Kyle Seager and Mike Zunino that seem to do a bit of their lifting on offense. Seager, who's one of these Jeff Cirillo-types that hits better than he looks, drove home a pair of runs and Zunino, a lunch-pail Catcher, hit a Home Run off of Jon Niese, who had a forgettable return from the DL in this eminently forgettable 5-2 loss. Something tells me that if I hadn't fallen asleep on my own, this game likely would have bored me to sleep.

Not Much to Talk About

I didn't write anything yesterday about Wednesday's game because, for one, it ended terribly and two, I had it on the radio in the midst of what was a particularly busy day in the office, so anything I had to say would not have been particularly well-informed. This hasn't stopped me in the past, but hey, it's my blog and I do as I please.

It was another game where I lost track of time and didn't put the game on until the 2nd inning. Not that I'd missed much, but I did hear Josh Satin's Home Run, particularly because Josh Lewin's guttural screaming clued me in. The rest of the game was a blur; the kind of weekday afternoon game that kind of just happened and then I'd prick up my ears in time to hear Howie Rose say "Put it in the Books" or something desultory if the Mets lost. Then I was in another office in a meeting for a while, and when I came back, I heard Josh talking about guys getting ejected and the Braves leading 4-1 in the 10th inning. A colleague was sitting at another desk in my office. The following discussion ensued:

Me: 4-1?! What the fuck happened?

Colleague: What? I wasn't listening.

It was that kind of afternoon.

Just as well, I suppose, since it was certainly the kind of game not worth remembering.

Fortunately, the Mets made an addition on Thursday as bit of a smokescreen to make us all forget about Wednesday's mess. Daisuke Matsuzaka, who had been lost in the shuffle for a couple of years after his flashy career in Japan and misanthropic few years in Boston, was brought in, presumably just to eat some innings and prevent any more Carlos Torres starts. Matsuzaka will get thrown right into the fire and face the Detroit Tigers, who have been a bit like the AL's version of the Dodgers tonight, so we'll get a good idea of what, if anything, he's got left very quickly.

To call this a stopgap move is probably the understatement of the year. Matsuzaka hasn't pitched in the Major Leagues this season, and hasn't pitched effectively since 2008, which, by the way, was the last time he pitched a full season in the Majors (and only his second since jumping from Japan to America). A phenom in Japan as a teenager, Matsuzaka has probably reached the end of his useful rope, so I can't say I think he'll be around much more than the 6 weeks remaining in this season (the early results are not encouraging, he's given up 5 runs in 2 innings, including a rocket of a Home Run to Miguel Cabrera). But, playing out the string, with several of their young pitchers on innings limits and others likely not to reach the Major Leagues this season, he probably is the best option out there, particularly since it's costing the Mets very little and they have no particular obligation to him beyond this season.

Harvey's Creed

It didn't snow in Minnesota on Saturday, although I suppose if it had, it probably wouldn't have been anything more than a minor irritant for Matt Harvey, who seems to be able to perform at a very high level in any set of circumstances. His first start came in a frigid wind tunnel at Citi Field, and although the weather was nicer in Philadelphia, he was once again facing some harsh elements in his 3rd start. Doesn't matter. The result has been pretty much the same every time out.

Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays this breakaway talent from the swift dispatching of his opponent. Thus may be the creed of Matt Harvey, every time he takes the mound.

Whatever barely noticeable loss of command Harvey suffered in his second start, when he gave up 1 run on 3 hits was clearly back on Saturday, since he made the Twins lineup look pretty much hopeless instead of the mere cluelessness he inflicted on the Phillies. For a while there, it looked like he had a pretty solid shot at throwing a No Hitter before Justin Morneau took a whac-a-mole swing at a slider and somehow just barely clanged it off the foul pole. Harvey did give up another hit in the 8th to Brian Dozier, but that was a single of little consequence. Pretty much everyone else the Twins sent up against Harvey met the same fate. No, Harvey didn't get his No Hitter, although if his first three starts this season are any indication, he certainly has as good a chance as any to throw one at some point (and it's a lot easier to make a comment like that after June 1st, 2012).

With the temperature in Minneapolis hovering around the freezing mark, I suppose Harvey took a page from the Crash Davis "Strikeouts are Facist" book and decided to try to pitch to contact a bit more. The line reads 8 innings, a career-best, 2 hits, 1 run, 2 walks and an economical 6 strikeouts over his 100 pitches. For the season, he's pitched what amounts to a pretty good game for any pitcher, 6 hits, 2 runs, except that he's spread it out over 3 games and 22 innings, and mixed in 25 strikeouts for good measure. And he's also emerged among the league leaders in gushing Tweets, earning the praise of Tampa Bay's David Price, and drawing several gushing raves from Dwight Gooden.

There was a rest of the game around Harvey, though not that you'd notice, but after their 16-run salute on Friday, the Mets were held in check by fellow Binghamton University alum Scott Diamond (currently the only Bearcat to ever pitch in the Major Leagues—Binghamton is not known for its Baseball team...) before he unraveled in the 5th and the Mets scored 4 runs on 7 consecutive hits. In his first save opportunity of the season, Bobby Parnell made things somewhat hairy, allowing a run and the tying run to the plate, but he eventually got out of the inning and the Mets were primed to go for a sweep on Sunday. Until the Minnesota Weather reared its ugly head once again and dumped what I'm told was the dreaded "wintry mix" on the region. The subsequent postponement means the Mets have earned themselves a second trip to Minneapolis in August, when the weather should most certainly be better. At least I hope that's the case.

Minnesoter

One of the more asinine set of circumstances for a Mets game was brought about by the unceremonious switch of the Astros from the National League Central to the American League West. The Mets, now playing in a balanced league, would now have to play interleague series at random, arbitrary times, rather than a bunch in June like we're used to. The scheduling geniuses, then, thought it best for the Mets to take a road trip to play the Minnesota Twins in their lovely new open-air Stadium, Target Field, in the middle of April.

One day after a major snowstorm dumped 5 inches of snow in Minneapolis.;

On a night where the temperature was forecast at a brisk 34 degrees.

In a city where they'd never won a game.

These weird Interleague trips to bizarre places they rarely go (Minnesota is among a select group that includes places like Anaheim, Oakland and Seattle) tend not to go well for the Mets. In addition to being swept in Minnesota in 2004, I seem to remember an Interleague road trip in 2005 that saw the Mets lose every game in excruciating fashion. As far as I could tell, although the Minnesota Twins have seen themselves fall on some hard times over the past couple of years, the situation seemed to dictate that the Mets probably would struggle, except for Saturday when Matt Harvey was scheduled to pitch.

So the Mets go out and score 5 runs in the top of the first, beating up Vance Worley with a flurry of hits in between a flurry of snow. You remember Vance Worley, right? He used to pitch for the Phillies. The Mets gave him the ol' what for a couple of times last year. And they did it again tonight. True, Worley wasn't helped by an egregious error by Trevor Plouffe, but by that point he'd already made his own bed. 2 runs were in before Worley ever got an out and instead of stopping the bleeding, Worley instead just gave up more hits.

The second inning was no better, and by time Worley departed, he'd given up 6 runs and conveniently left the bases loaded so that the guy who followed him to the mound could give up a Grand Slam to John Buck, closing his line with 9 runs allowed in 1+ innings.

The rout, as they say, was then on, as the Mets hit parade cruised the rest of the way to a resounding 16-5 victory. Jonathon Niese was mostly adequate; given a large lead, he didn't really look comfortable in the elements and the result was too many pitches too early on and a struggle to simply get through 5 innings. I'd expect better out of him against a bad lineup, but then again, I suppose you can only expect so much from a finesse pitcher in 34 degree weather. Offensively, pretty much everyone joined the hit parade. Jordany Valdespin, who has managed to parlay a few good games into a platoon situation with Collin Cowgill, set the stage in each of the first two innings. Daniel Murphy continued his hot start and continues to make me think that the best thing that could have possibly happened to him was getting hurt and missing most of Spring Training. David Wright looks like he's starting to heat up. And John Buck continues to hit everything in sight. All this added up to a resounding victory, rather than a bizarre loss in a weird American League town.

Ultimately, though the 16-run outburst is a great sign, tonight's win is an indictment of both their own offensive inconsistencies and the general ineptitude of their opponent (As I'd mentioned prior to the season, the Twins business model dictates they operate in some bizarre cycle theory where they're really good for 2-3 seasons and then really bad for 2-3 seasons as they replenish their system. Help is on the way for them, but like the Mets, it's still a year off). But, as inept as your opponent may be, you still have to be able to take advantage of it. Tonight, the Mets did that, but remember they struggled to win a series from Florida last weekend. Then again, Matt Harvey is scheduled for Saturday's game. If 39 degrees and the San Diego Padres in New York didn't bother him, why should the Twins in 34 degrees? I'd guess he could go out in a blizzard and strike out 10 batters in 7 innings.