Infernal Struggle

The 1985 New York Mets finished 98-64, which stands as the 4th best record in club history. They finished in 2nd place, 3 games back of the St. Louis Cardinals, and in those days, 2nd place meant that you got to go home and sit on your thumbs after the final day of the regular season.

One reason that they managed this was because their record for the season against the Pittsburgh Pirates, a team that went 57-104, was 10-8, and it was a difficult 10-8 at that. A better performance against a 104-loss team would have likely meant a different outcome for the season. One year later, the Mets did a much better job in cleaning Pittsburgh's clock to the tune of a 17-1 record. Oh by the way, the Mets won the World Series that year.

Right now, the Mets record against the Atlanta Braves, who might be lucky to match the '85 Pirates 104 losses is 6-5. And those 6 wins haven't exactly been easy. In fact, the 6th win, which they managed to pull off tonight, was downright horrifying.

Oh, sure, things looked great after 4 1/2 innings, because the Mets trashed Aaron Blair and ran out to an 8-0 lead, the sort of performance the Mets really should have been putting forth against the Braves all season. They had guys on base, guys getting hits with men in scoring position, and a coup de grace 3-run Home Run from James Loney.

And then Steven Matz, who may or may not have an elbow issue that he may or may not be telling the truth about had a complete meltdown in the bottom of the 5th and 8-0 turned into 8-6 real quick. Whatever the issue is here with Matz, he clearly wasn't the same pitcher after sitting in the dugout rubbing his elbow or his forearm during an lengthy Mets inning in the top of the 5th, and the Braves jumped all over him, knocking him from the game a few outs shy of being able to qualify for a win. Whether this is the harbinger of more injury issues, I have no idea but after a stretch in which I was ready to anoint him as the NL Rookie of the Year, he's come back to earth significantly.

On the other hand, Hansel Robles has, at least for this week, been the Mets savior.  Called upon to clean up the Matz Mess, Robles finished the 5th and for good measure pitched the 6th and 7th innings too, throwing all of 21 pitches after his 65-pitch effort on Tuesday night that saved that game. Again, like any reliever, Robles will run hot and cold but it looks like he's heating up again, and when he's going well, he looks really, really good.

So then after this, it looked like the Mets, who'd stopped hitting after they got to 8, were going to hang on, and when Collins went to Jeurys Familia with 2 out in the 8th, it seemed like they were bound and determined to hang on. Familia's no stranger to going more than an inning but it's still kind of a scary proposition. He didn't do anyone any favors by giving up a hit to Tyler Flowers and hitting Erick Aybar to start the 9th inning. With imminent disaster staring the Mets right in the face, Chase d'Arnaud came up, stood in front of his brother and bunted...badly. Wilmer Flores then tried to catch the popped-up bunt...badly. A surer-handed 3rd baseman might have caught the ball outright, but Flores dropped it. However, in dropping the ball, Flores unwittingly shit a diamond because he then essentially duped Flowers and Aybar from running at all, and further disaster turned into a Double Play. Because that's exactly how it was drawn up. d'Arnaud then stole 2nd off his brother, but Jace Peterson struck out to end the game, except that the ball got away from Travis d'Arnaud, far enough that it seemed like Peterson might actually beat it out. But Travis' desperation heave was somehow corralled by a diving Loney and after a brief replay the game was, in fact, over and the Mets had, in fact, won.

Whew. I know winning isn't easy but really, the Mets didn't need to make this game quite so difficult. On the other hand, I suppose I should just be happy that the Mets aren't getting swept again.

Toolsiness, Or Lack Thereof

8 innings of normal, run of the mill Baseball were played on Friday night in Milwaukee. I wouldn't say it was much to write home about. Matt Harvey continued his resurgence with 6 strong innings, looking, perhaps, as good as he's looked all season. True, I'm not sure if that's actually true or if I'm just saying that because Keith Hernandez deemed it so, but he gave up 1 run on 2 hits with 8 strikeouts, so I'd say that was pretty good if nothing else. The Mets, as they usually do, provided him with no run support, save for a Yoenis Cespedes bomb of a Home Run in the 6th inning off of Junior Guerra.

Otherwise, there wasn't much noteworthy about those 8 innings. Kelly Johnson, who's reappeared with the Mets this week in a deal for one-game-and-out-er Akeel Morris (and who probably shouldn't have left in the first place), made his re-debut, doubled in his first at bat and was promptly thrown out advancing later on. The Brewers made an attempt to cash in an early run but for some slick fielding and quick thinking by Asdrubal Cabrera, coupled with poor sliding by Scooter Gennett and the aiding and abetting of an Instant Replay that took too long, but, again, the follies of the game.

Yes, 8 mostly un-notable innings. Thing is, the game ended up going 11 innings. What happened in those final 3 innings was a melange of utter insanity.

Jeremy Jeffress, the Brewers closer, came in the game in the 9th inning and promptly got himself into an enormous mess. He walked Cabrera, gave up a chopper to Wilmer Flores that snuck through for a hit, and then a sharp single to Johnson, far too hard hit to bring home Cabrera. That's bases loaded, nobody out if you're keeping score. Unfortunately, this was the Mets at work here, and so in rapid succession, Kevin Plawecki popped out, Neil Walker (relegated to the bench after being punctured by a Baseball on Thursday) struck out, and Curtis Granderson grounded out to finish a perfectly Metsy inning.

Jim Henderson came in for the Mets in the 9th and got himself in a similarly sticky situation. With 1 out, he walked Jonathan Lucroy, who was pinch run for by Keon Broxton. Broxton then stole second. This is rather benign, but had Plawecki made a more accurate throw, Broxton likely would have been out. Again, not out of the ordinary. The real issue was that Johnson ole'd the throw and somehow allowed it to get through his legs, just far enough away for Broxton to get to 3rd. So, now the Brewers had their chance to win. Conventional wisdom would have had the Mets walk the next two batters just to give themselves a chance, but against the Brewers, who are mostly a bunch of walking Strikeouts, Terry Collins was having none of that strategy business. His strategy? Go get 'em. Henderson walked Chris Carter, which brought up old friend Kirk Nieuwenhuis, who, of course, struck out. Aaron Hill followed by grounding out. So after each team probably should have found a way to win the game in regulation, we were going to Extra Innings.

The Mets did nothing in their half of the 10th. Conventional wisdom would have had a different pitcher in for the Mets in the bottom half, given that Henderson usually doesn't fare well in second innings or second days in a row. Therefore, Henderson came back out for the 10th and immediately walked Ramon Flores on 4 pitches. After another ball to Miguel Maldonado, Ray Ramirez appeared at the mound. Whenever Ray Ramirez shows himself on the field, it's not good, not so much because it means that a player is injured, but that said injured player must then be treated by Ray Ramirez, who I believe holds a degree from Hollywood Upstairs Medical College. Fortunately, Henderson was simply suffering from blisters, but nonetheless was removed from the game in favor of Jerry Blevins. Maldonado sacrificed Flores over to second, and then Flores took off and tried to steal 3rd. This was a good move, because he was safe, but in his attempt to be safe, Flores made what we'll generously call an overzealous slide into 3rd and the momentum carried him off the base, while Matt Reynolds alertly held a tag on him, resulting in Flores being called out. The subsequent review only confirmed what we'd already seen. Jonathan Villar then struck out, and the game continued.

The Brewers were already having a pretty toolsy night but they outdid themselves in the 11th inning. Much like they did in the 9th, the Mets attacked early, with Cabrera singling and Flores (who's really come on of late in the kind of way we knew he would if he just got the playing time) doubled, and Johnson was intentionally walked. So, here we were again. Bases loaded, no out, Kevin Plawecki up, and I'd have to be forgiven if I wasn't optimistic after the Mets shit themselves in the same situation 2 innings ago. Plawecki did his job and popped out to 1st. Reynolds followed by hitting a sharp line drive that probably should have been caught by Villar. But Villar didn't catch it and with that, the wheels just fell off of everything. Flores, trying to not get doubled off, went back to 2nd. Villar flipped the ball to Scooter Gennett at 2nd to try to salvage an out. Flores, realizing he was in a force play situation, took off for 3rd. Johnson, who was out once Gennett stepped on 2nd, then ran back to 1st. The Umpire, Ramon DeJesus, gave a safe call, presumably because he didn't know what the hell else to do. Gennett, upon seeing Johnson wheeling back to 1st, decided to get him in a rundown, and ultimately tagged him out...thereby meaning Johnson was out for the second time on the play, which isn't a thing in Baseball. The only players who managed to get things right were Cabrera, who I assume just said "Fuck it" and bolted for home the second the ball hit the ground, and Reynolds, who ran out the ball and was safe at 1st. Oh, by the way, after everyone was done scratching their heads, the Mets had the lead.

Somehow, Gary and Keith tried to rationalize this play, but how can you explain the absurd? It's just Baseball. Sometimes weird things like this happen.

Jeurys Familia, who probably should have been in for the 10th inning, came in in the last of the 11th and restored some semblance of order to the game by retiring the Brewers in order. I'm surprised he didn't walk the first 3 batters on 12 pitches and then pull off an unassisted Triple Play, but then again I think we're all relieved that that didn't actually come to pass.

So, the Mets ended up winning this masquerade of a game 2-1, their second extra inning win in 3 days, if you can believe it. Now, they get to turn around and come back this afternoon for some more.

Many Ways To Win

For the second night in a row, the Mets won a game over the Colorados by the score of 14-9. Both nights, the Mets raced out to large leads and then had to weather a Colorado comeback, but would ultimately hang on. On Friday, the Mets won by virtue of bombing the Colorados into submission, blasting 5 Home Runs and knocking their starting pitcher out of the game in the 3rd inning. Saturday, the Mets did things a little differently. This time, the Mets only hit one Home Run, this one coming from Juan Uribe, but balanced that by hitting 9 doubles as part of a 21-hit attack. Nonetheless, this was another one of those games that sort of typified Coors Field baseball. Not a good night if you were a pitcher, but if you were a hitter you had a wonderful time of things.

Once again, the Mets jumped out to an early lead, scoring 3 runs in the 2nd off of Chris Rusin, as Travis d'Arnaud, Ruben Tejada and Juan Lagares each hit RBI doubles. But Jon Niese handed the runs back when Kyle Parker reached him for a 3-run triple.

And then came the 3rd inning.

Uribe led off the 3rd with a Home Run, which might have been the most innocuous hit of the inning. Uribe would bat again later in the inning, which should tell you right there what went on, and his double play served to give the Colorados their first two outs of the inning. In between, well, everyone hit. The 8 hitters subsequent to Uribe's Home Run either singled, doubled or in the case of Tejada, walked, 7 runs crossed the plate, and Rusin was chased from the game after basically being forced to absorb a rather merciless beating that took the game from 3-3 to 11-3. Rusin's successor, Justin Miller, fared little better, as he survived the 4th but was then reached for 3 more runs in the 5th before departing in favor of obscure pitcher Scott Oberg. By this point the score was 14-3 and you started to wonder if the Mets club record of 23 runs in a game was in jeopardy. That didn't happen, as Oberg and other Colorados Pitchers held the Mets scoreless the rest of the game.

Meanwhile, Jon Niese struggled, probably due to trying to throw strikes while pitching with a big lead combined with Colorado. Niese gave up a run in the 5th and 3 more in the 6th courtesy of a Charlie Blackmon Home Run before departing himself, leaving what was now a 14-7 game. Eric O'Flaherty entered and immediately gave up a Home Run to Jose Reyes to make it 14-8. And once again, you got those bad Dante Bichette flashbacks because it's still Colorado, and no matter how bad the Colorados seem to be, they still have to strike a little fear into your heart because stupid things happen in this ballpark.

Terry Collins had to manage the remainder of the game with this in mind, and while under normal circumstances a 5 or 6 run lead wouldn't have necessitated the use of Tyler Clippard or Jeurys Familia, well, who wants to fuck around? Carlos Torres allowed the Colorados a 9th run in the 7th and by that point I think we'd all had enough, and Clippard and Familia finished the game out.

This, much like Friday, was another Baseball Farce. Again, you do have to go up there and hit the ball, but when the hell did the Mets turn into a team that could score 28 runs in 2 days? For that matter, how the hell did the Mets allow 18 runs in 2 days and come away with wins both times? Somehow, they've done it and while Washington has won their games, again, by simply winning and maintaining their lead in the division, they are making time evaporate. Each time the Mets win, that's one fewer game for Washington to come back. Not that they've displayed much of an indication that they plan to do so of late, but I don't think anybody is falling asleep on them right now.

Then again, nobody should be falling asleep on the Mets either.

Something In The Air

I'd mentioned a few days ago that a trip to Colorado wasn't going to do anything to help the pitching. This was the case on Friday night. The Mets won anyway, though, because the Mets offense kept up their end of the bargain and took advantage of the rarefied air in Denver. Yoenis Cespedes had one of those once-in-a-lifetime kind of games, smoking 3 Home Runs and driving in 7. Behind Cespedes, Travis d'Arnaud and Michael Conforto also wend deep as the Mets overwhelmed and then survived the opening game of their series against the Colorados, winning by the rather uncomfortable score of 14-9.

The score alone should tell you pretty much everything you need to know about the game: It was at best a total shit show where all pitching was abandoned and basically anyone who held a bat in their hand had a pretty good chance of doing something meaningful. For the Mets, this was to the tune of running out to a 7-1 lead in the 2nd inning, which was led by Cespedes, who doubled and scored in the first, and then clanged a Grand Slam in the 2nd, both hits coming off hapless Jon Gray, the Rookie who looked so impressive when the Colorados were in New York, and looked anything but impressive on Friday night. Gray failed to survive the 2nd inning and a loss on his ledger appeared imminent.

But it being Coors Field and it being a night where general Baseball logic was thrown out the window, the Colorados rallied to get themselves back into the game. Bartolo Colon, who you figured was in for a rough night to begin with, had his general issues compounded when he got drilled by a pitch on the wrist while attempting to bunt in the 2nd. Colon was reached for 3 Home Runs and by time Nolan Arenado's 3-run shot left the yard in the 4th inning, the Mets 6-run lead had shrunk to 1-run, and then the Colorados tied the game in the 5th against Sean Gilmartin when Nick Hundley of all people drilled an RBI triple. This, then, was what you figured would happen in this game, because this usually seems to happen to the Mets in Colorado. They race out to a lead, their pitchers can't hold it and then something particularly stupid happens. All they needed was Dante Bichette to somehow materialize at home plate and you figured the whole blessed mess was going to go down the crapper. But instead of Bichette, the Colorados could only send up Kyle Parker, and though Parker did hit a fly ball that appeared long enough to be a Sacrifice Fly, Curtis Granderson unleashed the best throw he could possibly make and managed to get Hundley at home, or at least that's what the umpires determined. It looked to me like Hundley's trick slide beat d'Arnaud's tag, but it didn't.

From there, the Mets steadied their hand and took the game back over. Cespedes' 3rd Home Run gave the Mets the lead back in the 6th, d'Arnaud and Conforto went back-to-back in the 7th, and Flores doubled home another run in the 8th while Hansel Robles, Tyler Clippard and Jeurys Familia combined to not let the Colorados back into things and the Mets managed to escape with a bit of a hair-raising victory.

This again was not a game to revel in, given that the Colorados banged Colon around but good and were a fortuitous call at Home plate away from turning this game into something considerably different. But the Mets have shown a healthy amount of fortitude in these kinds of games and where a month or two ago we probably would be looking at another head-shaking loss, instead the Mets have been able to hit their way out of difficult situations. Yes, it's Colorado and it kind of excuses the bad pitching, but the Mets still had to hit the ball and they did that many times over.

Marooned

Every few years now, the Mets play one of these ridiculously extended games where they just can't seem to get out of their own way, and they get magnificent pitching for inning upon inning, and at the same time they prove themselves so comically inept on offense that when they do eventually score a run, it seems as though they did so in spite of themselves. Sunday's game was such an instance.

For 18 innings, the Mets waged a war that seemed to be more with themselves than with the Cardinals. Mets batters reached base in 17 of the 18 innings. 16 reached via hit. 13 reached via walk. One reached via Error. 3 of them scored. 25 were left on base, which tied an ignominious team record. The Mets went 1-for-47 with Runners in Scoring Position in this game. Juan Lagares was 2-for-10. Wilmer Flores was 3-for-9. Daniel Murphy seemed to be 0-for-16. Sean Gilmartin took an At Bat and got a hit. Jacob deGrom was summoned as a Pinch Hitter and walked. Mets batters saw 319 pitches in a game that lasted 5 hours and 54 minutes.

And, after all that, they won. They damn well better have given all the opportunities they were given.

I've said that once a game extends past the 11th inning, general logic of Baseball starts to be abandoned. Once you pass the 14th inning, you're entering what's basically Baseball Twilight Zone. When a game goes more than 16 innings, well, you start seeing the absolutely bizarre start to happen, generally out of desperation more than anything else. That's what we were subjected to on Sunday.

Jon Niese, if you'll remember, started the game and was brilliant, pitching shutout ball into the 8th inning, while the Mets offense did what they usually do and spend most of the afternoon acting like a bunch of Electric Football players. Niese departed in the 8th inning with the game still scoreless, as Niese received no run support in spite of the fact that Tim Cooney was ripe for the taking. Cooney, and his successors, Seth Maness, Seth Choate, Seth Tuivalala, Seth Siegrist and Seth Socolovich were all ripe for the taking, because they all managed to let Mets reach base and then stay glued to the bases while other Mets took turns popping out to 2nd base, grounding out to 3rd, or just striking out altogether. This continued on through 10 innings, and then the Cardinals turned to Mustachioed Carlos Villanueva, whose job was to basically pitch as many innings as necessary, so by this point Genius Mike Matheny was throwing the book out the window.

On the Mets side, their job, since nobody seemed to want to score a run, was to just keep the Cardinals from scoring, which they kept being forced to do, and dammit, they just kept doing it. Bobby Parnell got through a quiet 9th. Jenrry Mejia nearly spit it up in the 11th, after allowing a leadoff double to Randal Grichuk, a frightening intentional walk to Jhonny Peralta and a sac fly to Mark Reynolds. This set up the Cardinals with a golden opportunity to win the game, with Yadier Molina at the plate, but Ratso Molina hasn't quite been his usual irritating self, and he bounced into a Double Play to end the inning. This was, happily, Molina's 3rd DP of the game, and each time he seemed to be moving slower and slower up that 1st base line, at a pace that would make John Olerud look swift.

Hansel Robles pitched an easy 12th, which brought us to the 13th. Curtis Granderson, who didn't start the game and yet now found himself getting his 3rd AB, looped a ball into Left field and decided he'd had enough of this fuckery and took an extra base. Kevin Plawecki followed with a single and once again, Granderson decided to take an extra base and scored the first run of the game. The Mets had a golden opportunity to extend this lead, except that once Plawecki reached 3rd on a Ruben Tejada single, the Mets remembered that they were the Mets and immediately turned back into pumpkins, popping out, striking out and stranding runners. This would loom large, because Jeurys Familia was summoned into the game after warming up no less than 4 times and ended up giving up a pop fly Home Run to Kolten Wong. Of course he did. Because this game hadn't gone on long enough.

So, we continued, through the 14th, when Sean Gilmartin came into the game, and through the 15th, where Genius Matheny had the brilliant idea to summon the next day's starter, Carlos Martinez, from the bullpen to eat a few innings, to the 16th, where Gilmartin batted and picked up his 1st Major League hit in the process—and was predictably stranded. In the 17th, the Mets once again had an opportunity, with Tejada (Tejada? Sure, why not) on 1st and 2 out, and Matheny, genius that he is, had the idea to walk Daniel Murphy intentionally to bring up the Mets latest Pinch Hitter...Jacob deGrom. So Murphy was passed, and then deGrom was up, and Martinez ended up walking him too, although this served no other purpose than to inflate the Mets futility figures since Lucas Duda subsequently struck out.

In the last of the 17th, Carlos Torres came in, which was a bad sign, although in a game like this, I guess even Torres was capable of putting up a few zeroes. Which he did, although with 2 outs, SNY went black, and then blue as a "Please Stand By" screen came up. My assumption was that this game had gone so long and become so asinine that it actually broke SNY. Fortunately, there was still audio, and Gary Cohen could call a game via smoke signals if he needed to, so I at least heard Torres get out of the inning.

The feed was still out in the 18th as Flores led off with a hit, and then fortunately returned as Granderson got a hit. Plawecki then attempted to bunt, with most of the Cardinals infield charging out of their shoes, but Martinez appeared a bit overzealous in his attempt to field the ball, ended up booting it and getting nobody out. So this meant that the Mets had the bases loaded and nobody out. But after 17 inning of this shit I'm sure nobody was particularly confident that they would manage to get a run across. Somehow, they did, if only because Ruben Tejada got just enough of a pitch to drive it deep enough to score Flores and move Granderson to 3rd, and amazingly, the Mets picked up an insurance run when Terry Collins called for a squeeze and even more amazingly, it worked. This gave the Mets 3 runs, which represented their high total for the series, and Torres fortunately made it stand up—or had the Cardinals just decided that they'd had enough by that point. I'm pretty sure I did.

So, yeah. 18 innings to score 3 runs and leave 26 runners on base as the Mets now go to Washington for perhaps their most important series of the year. And Cuddyer's hurting, and Johnny Monell was sent back to AAA, and in his place the Mets called up...Anthony Recker.

I'm not saying that a reactionary move needs to be made here, but if Cuddyer has to go on the DL, and the offense just needs a kick in the ass, and you have 3 games against the team you're chasing, well, isn't it time to give one of these hotshot kids we keep hearing about a little burn? 3 runs in 18 innings isn't going to fly against Washington. 3 runs in 18 innings isn't going to fly against anybody. It's just some bizarre dumb luck that it worked on Sunday.

But Does It Count?

My plan for Sunday was to go out to Citi Field to see Steven Matz's Major League debut. That's not too hard to grasp, unless you know how much I dislike going to Sunday afternoon games. The weather on Saturday, however, threw a monkey wrench into this plan as the heavens opened and dumped heaps upon heaps of rain onto the area, stopping and ultimately suspending the game after 6 innings with a 1-1 tie.

So, you know, I forge ahead anyway, figure I'll get a few innings of Free Baseball in and hopefully I won't get home that late. Maybe an hour later than I normally would have.

Except. The. Game. Kept. Going.

And going...

And going...

Never mind that the resumed game started late in the first place. It was announced for 1:10pm (quite honestly, I don't know why they didn't set it for something more logical like 12:10, but that's besides the point) but some residual rain that fell throughout the 7th and 8th innings kept the tarp on the field and delayed things by about 15 minutes or so.

I should have known right then and there that this resumed game was going to turn into one of those Baseball Farce sort of games, the sort of game that dissolves into abject weirdness and makes you really start to consider the folly of this game.

Carlos Torres took the mound to kick things off and immediately gave up two hits. He was removed in favor of Alex Torres, who promptly walked the one batter he was tasked to get out. Hansel Robles followed and mercifully got Todd Frazier to pop out to finish the inning and bring us to the 1st Inning 7th Inning Stretch.

The Mets, for whom scoring runs is often a tall order, had a couple of scalded shots off of Ryan Mattheus in the last of the 7th. One, by Ruben Tejada, was ticketed for the corner but for Skip Schumaker Batmaning himself through the air to make the catch. Lucas Duda hit one to a similar spot, but this one was off the wall. Again, a sure double, except that Duda tripped over 1st Base and instead was thrown out by Schumaker at 2nd.

That was how this was going? It hadn't reached that point, but I was beginning to worry about extra innings.

Robles and Mattheus and Familia and Hoover all combined to ensure that this would be the case, aided in their conspiracy by Juan Lagares, who went over the fence to rob Jay Bruce of a Home Run, and by Michael Cuddyer, who with the winning run on 3rd base in the 9th, popped out.

Sigh. Extra Innings. My favorite. And if that wasn't bad enough, let's not forget that this was IN FRONT of the game that I'd shown up to see!

Jeurys Familia got through a rather difficult 10th inning, all but ensuring he wouldn't be available for the "2nd" game. Boris Badenov Burke Badenhop came in for the Reds and set down the Mets without much drama in the 10th. Logan Verrett, who for whatever reason I keep confusing with switch-pitcher Pat Venditte, entered in the 11th for the Mets, and did not switch-pitch, and did retire the Reds in order. Carlos Carrasco Carlos Contreras entered for the Reds in the last of the 11th, and here the Mets finally caught a break when Joey Votto yakked on a Granderson ground ball and Curtis reached 2nd on the error. Ruben Tejada followed with a walk, and just as they did in the 9th, the Mets had two on and one out with Duda and Cuddyer coming up, and just as they did in the 9th, Duda and Cuddyer each failed to do anything consequential except draw the ire of the fans that were beginning to get a little impatient.

By the 12th, I'd now officially seen as much of this game than the people who actually showed up to this game yesterday, although I was still waiting for a run and by this point lord only knows what was going through the mind of Steven Matz—something along the lines of "Score a run and get this shit show over with" sounds accurate. But neither team was cooperating. Verrett got the Reds quietly and Contreras did the same.

There have been bizarrely extended games that I've attended many times over, but never in a situation like this, where I knew I'd committed myself to a full game afterward, never in a situation where I'd walked in halfway through the game and felt like I'd sat through the whole thing, and never in a situation where I was truly afraid that nobody was going to score and this game was headed for 20+ innings. But that's what I was beginning to feel like as the 13th inning started, because unless somebody screwed up somewhere, nobody was going to win this game. Sometimes, the Baseball Stink is just that contagious. Bobby Parnell, whom I hadn't seen since his return, entered the game and got through a mostly quiet inning, aided by Kevin Plawecki throwing out Ivan DeJesus Jr on the bases.

Nate Adcock entered the game for the Reds in the last of the 13th and walked Dilson Herrera. This immediately was a good sign, because in the 9th and 11th, Herrera had made an out in front of Granderson and Tejada getting on base, and the lack of an extra out with the runners on base screwed everything up. So Herrera was on and went all the way to 3rd when Granderson singled. So the Reds had the Infield in and the Outfield in and Ruben Tejada hit a smash to Eugenio Suarez that Suarez didn't field, and didn't pick up right away, and there was Herrera vapor-locking at 3rd, and I suppose that's OK because Suarez recovered enough that he could have thrown out Herrera at home, but since he held the base, everyone was safe, and so the bases were loaded with nobody out. The Reds then had some conferencing and Skip Schumaker was brought in as a 5th Infielder with Lucas Duda up. All he needed to do was hit a damn fly ball, and yet I had this horrible fear that either he would hit into a Double Play and Cuddyer would strike out, or he would strike out and Cuddyer would hit into a Double Play, or maybe they would both hit into Double Plays. Either way, Duda didn't exactly not hit into a Double Play; his chopper was simply hit high enough that Votto had to jump to field it, couldn't hang on to it, and then could only take a bite out of it when he realized he had no time to get Herrera at home. A fitting end to a perfectly fine mess of a game, but at least the Mets won.

It was only about 2 hours and 40 minutes into the resumption of the game. Which led to me having the silent conversation with myself as to whether or not I'd seen enough of this game to have it actually qualify for my personal game log. I'm inclined to say no, if only because there have been games where I went to the second game of a Doubleheader, and showed up before the first game had ended, and watched the last inning or two, but I wouldn't count games like that. Plus, I hadn't seen the beginning of the game, or either starting pitcher pitch. Most importantly, I wasn't scoring the resumed game, since I hadn't scored the first 6 innings, I didn't want to pick up midstream. On the other hand, I saw more of the game than people who were there yesterday did, 7 innings today as opposed to 6 yesterday. Also, the game was still undecided when it was suspended, I actually saw the Mets score the winning run. Anyone out there have any thoughts on this?

This was my thought process as I waited for the game I actually came to see to begin. I'll discuss that game later.

Go Back To Sleep

Following a particularly taxing week, I found myself coming home this evening with a strong desire to just crawl into bed and take a nap for a while. The result was that I slept through a large swath of tonight's game. But I woke up in time to see the latter portion of the proceedings as they dragged further and further into the night.

Given the way things ended up, perhaps I should have just stayed in bed and forgotten about the game altogether.

That certainly feels like a recycled comment, and I know I'm pretty much echoing the sentiments of everyone who watches this team on a day-to-day basis. On the other hand, the artfulness in which the Mets found a way to spit tonight's game up was one of those particular cake-takers.

The Mets scored their requisite two runs for this game in the 4th inning courtesy of a Lucas Duda single. That's now 3 games in a row that Duda has managed to net an RBI, and this time he did it without loafing the ball out of the ballpark, which is kind of nice, it shows he has a pulse in situational hitting situations, but when that's the sum total of the offense for the night, well, you can probably guess how things ultimately turned out.

But for the Mets, who continue to pitch well in spite of often hopeless circumstances, they stuck around in this game. Jacob deGrom once again pitched well, and once again was victimized by one bad inning and a lack of run support. The 2 runs he allowed in 6.2 innings was indicative of another fine outing, but one that could do no better than match his rookie counterpart Brandon Cumpton. deGrom was followed to the mound by Josh Edgin and Jeurys Familia, who brought the game through to the 9th inning, when Jenrry Mejia took over and stopped the Pirates as well, sending the game into extra innings, setting the stage for one of those truly farcical Mets Moments that you look back on so many years later and smack yourself in the head.

The 10th inning began for the Pirates with Josh Harrison, one of those Brandon Phillips-types who has the look of a Met Killer all over him, singling. Fairly benign to start the inning, but then he stole second, although Ruben Tejada seemed pretty certain that he didn't. It looked to me like Harrison was safe, but Tejada got demonstrative enough to cajole Terry Collins into challenging the call, which was predictably unsuccessful. Mejia went back to work and got Gregory Polanco (not Gregor Blanco) to hit a comebacker. Harrison having taken off on contact, Mejia did the proper thing and ran directly at him to get him in a rundown, except that instead of a rundown, some horrible Baseball version of a Marx Brothers chase scene ensued, wherein Mejia gave up on the play too soon, made an ill-advised throw to Daniel Murphy. Murphy chased Harrison towards 3rd, dodging Harrison's helmet, which he may or may not have intentionally thrown off his head in some weird ruse to distract someone. Somehow the ball ended up with Ruben Tejada, while Harrison decided he was better off taking a left turn about 25 feet shy of 3rd base and crawling across the infield to avoid getting tagged out. Somehow, this worked, not because that was a great idea on Harrison's part, but because it's the Mets, and somehow every umpire on the scene neglected to note that Harrison was, in fact, out of the baseline. On the other hand, the Mets may or may not have deserved such a fate since Tejada decided to give up on the play as opposed to simply tagging Harrison, which would have sidestepped all this.

After the rundown and the Terry Collins bitch-fit that followed, Mejia was then tasked with having to get out of one hell of a jam, with runners on 2nd and 3rd and no outs, and he was very much up to the task, striking out Travis Snider and Neil Walker, and even getting Russell Martin (Mr. Low-rent Paul LoDuca himself) to fly out in a situation that seemed ripe for Martin to get a hit and rip off his own jersey while doing a Superman Dance across the infield. But, no, Mejia got LoDucu to pop out and end the threat. And after getting out of that particular jam, you might think the Mets would be energized enough to put together a rally. Vic Black took over for Mejia in the 11th, and he seemed primed to cruise right along until he walked Clint Barmes with 2 outs and Harrison came up again and I think we all know what happened from there.

In some other era, the Mets probably would have pushed a run across in their half of the 11th, and Black would have gotten a Save out of the proceedings. That's the same kind of era where the Mets are a perennial contender and have the intestinal fortitude to not only get out of impossible jams, but also get the necessary hits to win games afterward. Unfortunately, this isn't one of those eras, and the result is that games like this end up being those sort of games you can only chuckle about years later in happier times. You know, whenever those happier times may come.

You Cannot Be Serious.

Tonight's...or perhaps by this point last night's...we'll just call it Thursday's game probably is the most 2014 Mets effort of the season. Consider all the ways this game went wrong and you'll probably agree:

1. After 7.2 brilliant innings and only 97 pitches, Jon Niese is bewilderingly removed from the game by Terry Collins. Niese's natural reaction to this move is to shake his head and utter epithets you didn't need to be a lip reader to understand. There's no particularly good reason for Collins to remove Niese from the game at this point, and it's a move that will ultimately bite Collins in the ass later on in the evening. But he doesn't know it at that time. The flipside of this move, though, is that although Niese certainly appeared capable of mowing down the Brewers for another 4 innings, it likely would not have led to a better fate since his teammates were again generally incapable of getting a run for him.
2. In the top of the 11th inning, Jenrry Mejia came up with some back stiffness and had to leave the game instead of remaining in for a second inning of work. This meant that since Collins had already pre-emptively removed Niese several innings ago, and since then burned through Jeurys Familia and spent Josh Edgin on one batter, he was now even thinner in an already thin bullpen, forced to use Gonzalez Germen one inning earlier than he probably wanted to.
3. If that wasn't enough, Germen's entry to the game was immediately followed by a spontaneous downpour. Immediately, Angel Hernandez, whom we know all too well for his rather unique approach to Umpiring, waved the Mets off the field and called for the Grounds crew. Immediately, my thoughts went to things like suspended games and return trips to New York for the Brewers. That in and of itself would have been a fitting conclusion for the night. Only the Grounds crew didn't appear to want to show up and bring out the tarp. A couple of crew members came out with a bit of a "WTF are you doing?!" look on their face, and all of a sudden they were holding court with the entire umpiring crew. Then some kid with the Apple Weather app was running out and showing it to anyone who would listen to him. Finally, the whole mess was concluded by Crew Chief Gary Cederstrom overruling Hernandez and calling the Mets back onto the field, concluding a rain delay that lasted all of 3 minutes. Because if there's anything that took this game to another zone, it was a 3 minute rain delay.
4. Hernandez, clearly jilted after having his rain delay overruled, didn't want long to re-interject himself into the game. The Mets had a rather golden opportunity to win the game in the last of the 11th, getting David Wright to 3rd base with 1 out, and Chris Young coming to the plate. This isn't exactly a winning proposition, but still, the odds had to be in the Mets favor, particularly when the Brewers decided to throw the rarely-seen 5-man Infield alignment together with Ryan Braun. Young walked, amazingly, and Curtis Granderson and his back spasms were intentionally walked behind him, which brought Wilmer Flores to the plate. The Brewers countered with essentially moving Braun to Pitcher's helper, while the rest of their infield was straight up. Flores did the proper Mets thing to do by hitting a chopper to Mark Reynolds at 1st, who easily threw Wright out at home for the second out. Angel Hernandez then stole the show, spontaneously expanding the strike zone in order to punch out Anthony Recker on a 2-2 pitch. Recker, not surprisingly, blew his stack. Unwisely, Recker got himself thrown out of the game, meaning that the Mets, who by this point had blown through not just their entire bullpen, but their entire bench to the point that Zack Wheeler was thrown out as a Pinch Runner, had to throw the last man on their bench, Taylor Teagarden, into the game. 
5. Collins, now left to Carlos Torres and lefty specialist (with pizza) Dana Eveland, opted for Torres in the 12th inning, and after barely surviving the Brewers 12th, finally imploded in the 13th, allowing the first 6 Brewers that batted in the inning to reach. Highlights of this particular shit show included a Home Run by Jonathan Lucroy, a double by Aramis Ramirez and an RBI single from Reynolds before Torres was mercifully removed from the game. Eveland fared only slightly better, getting 3 outs while only allowing one more run when he hit Rickie Weeks. 

If the Mets were hitting, perhaps none of this would have been necessary. This was a game that could have been won if the Mets could have scored more than one run, but more than one run appears to be a tall order for the Mets on most nights. I mean, I guess we shouldn't be too surprised, when the latest solution involves Daniel Murphy hitting leadoff, and then immediately followed by multiple at-bats per game for the geriatric Bobby Abreu, the useless Chris Young and the hopeless Lucas Duda, plus a mostly scuffling David Wright, the problems are quite evident. Unfortunately, there's no good solution other than just boiling that spaghetti for different intervals, throwing it at the wall and hoping something sticks.

Long And More Long

This Mets-Phillies series has been long in just about every way you could think of. Never mind the fact that last month's rainout was tacked onto the mutual Monday off-day that these two teams shared, knocking out a travel day for the Mets before they go to Chicago, but it created the rarely seen 5-game series, in which each team will probably see just about every nuance their opponent has to offer. This is good and bad, and in the case of the Mets and Phillies probably irrelevant since they play each other 18 times a year anyway.

But a long series got even longer when these two teams decided they enjoy each other's company so much, they might as well tack another game's worth of Extra Innings on top of the proceedings. While Thursday night's game featured the absolute best the Mets had to offer from a pitching standpoint, Friday and Saturday's games devolved into these two teams at their most bizarre.

Thursday, of course, featured Zack Wheeler having one of those nights where he got his act together, ripped off an awesome 6.1 innings in which he walked none and struck out 9, and actually got some run support, courtesy of, of all people, Chris Young, among others. The 4 runs he got wasn't exactly a deluge, but it was good enough, and the resurgent tandem of Vic Black and Jenrry Mejia got the game home from there, Mejia with an especially impressive 3-strikeout 9th inning to cap off a 4-1 Met victory that saw them strike out 15 Phillies in total.

And, with that, everything normal about this series was summarily thrown out the window.

Friday night saw a game that featured me drifting in and out of paying attention to things, between nodding off after a long work week and other assorted distractions and things that I had to take care of that took precedence over a Friday night Mets-Phillies tilt. It speaks to, on many levels, the way one's priorities can change as one gets older. For many years, a Mets/Phillies Friday Night game might have taken me out to a local watering hole with some compatriots to watch the affair with some of the finest brew that can be had. Even once I began to imbibe less, I would still rather park myself in front of a TV to watch the game rather than do anything else, interruptions be damned. But with other, more pressing concerns to deal with, all of a sudden, a Friday night Mets/Phillies game is now secondary to whatever else I have to do, even though what I probably want to do is just sit and watch the game. But watch, I did very little of, and by time I was able to tune in, most of the action had already unfolded and the score was 5-5 in the 9th. Gone was Rafael Montero, who got an early lead and then watched it evaporate rather quickly. Gone were those who followed him to the mound, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Josh Edgin, Jeurys Familia, Scott Rice, and now it appeared Carlos Torres was going to be the innings-eater for the duration. But that duration never really came, as neither team appeared to want to budge off that 5-5 score. At some point, I ceded control of the TV to my other half in favor of War Documentaries of a different kind, and it was only later, after I glanced away from MLB's GameCast for a hot second, that the Phillies finally plated the game winner off of Jenrry Mejia in what I can only assume was in general excruciating fashion for a 14-inning game.

I can only assume that the Mets and Phillies had a real hoot of a time playing out 14 innings on Friday night because on Saturday afternoon, they went right out and did it again, following a 5 hour, 23 minute game with a 5 hour, 32 minute game that again went 14 innings. I missed a majority of this game as well, as more matters kept me out of the house and away from a TV for most of the afternoon. I'd assumed I would miss the game in its entirety, but when I got home, things were still going on, plodding along in the 11th inning. Long forgotten was another fine outing from Jacob deGrom, more fine hitting from the ageless-and-starting-to-become-overused Bobby Abreu and Ruben Tejada's long-awaited first Home Run since 2012. More freshly remembered were deGrom becoming unraveled in the 7th and allowing a Ryan Howard Home Run and Domonic Brown tying the game in the 9th off of Jeurys Familia, who certified himself as a true 2014 Met Reliever by become the 8th in that group to successfully blow a Save this season. So, further into the Philadelphia twilight things moved, far enough for the Mets emergency pitcher, Buddy Carlyle, to be summoned into the game. Carlyle, called up in favor of Montero, is one of those names you might remember if you collected Bowman Baseball Cards back in the era, when a series of cards was just a series of cards, before the whole thing blew up into an inscrutable mess of inserts and parallels. As a Major League Pitcher, Carlyle wasn't known for much and it seems he hadn't surfaced in a game in 4 years. But here he was, throwing 3 shutout innings and somehow getting a win in the deal when David Wright finally drove home a 14th inning run and Closer du jour Carlos Torres sealed the deal in a 5-4 Mets win.

So, after 3 games, it feels like the Mets and Phillies have already played a full 5-game series, but believe it or not, there's still two more games to go. Hopefully, they'll finish off one of these things in 9, but Extra Innings has become a bit of an Art Form for the Mets these days, particularly against the Phillies, where 4 of the 7 games they've played thus far this season have required more than the requisite 9 innings to decide a winner. So maybe this is just going to be their thing. 

Fall Stall

Hard to believe, but on May 27th, I was already attending my 9th game of the season at Citi Field. This season, like many of the few directly before it, has been kind of a rhythmless season as far as the games I've attended are concerned. I've sat through multiple extra inning games, games that went too long, some nice wins, some boring losses. There's been no real consistent theme among the games except that the Mets were involved and, win or lose, it's just the Mets.

Tuesday night at Citi Field seemed to exemplify that. The Mets won, 4-2, over the Pirates, which was nice. The price, however, was that it took the Mets 3 hours and 43 minutes on a thick night in Queens to accomplish said 4-2 victory. This is kind of ridiculous, 3 hours and 43 minutes. I've been to Extra Inning games that didn't last quite that long. When you only score 6 runs total and the two teams combine for 12 hits, something really messed up must have been going on for the game to last 3 hours and 43 minutes.

But, examine the game, and you can't really come up with one definitive reason as to why this game took so damn long. Walks might be a likely culprit, and there were certainly plenty, with the Mets drawing 8 and the Pirates 6, but that shouldn't slow a game down that much. The walks, combined with both starting pitchers Edinson Volquez and Jon Niese deciding they wanted to be a little more like John Maine and slowing down to a snail's pace combined with the complete and total inability to put away a hitter was this game's undoing. Volquez wasn't long for this game from the outset, as the Mets got runners on against him repeatedly, but, typical for the Mets, only managed to plate two runs in 5 innings. The Mets worked Volquez repeatedly, culminating in a 5th inning at bat by Lucas Duda where I'm pretty sure Duda fouled off no less than 12 2-strike pitches before drawing a walk.

Jon Niese, on the other side, started out wonderfully, neatly tying the Pirates up in knots through 5 innings. Then came the 6th. Oy vey, then came the 6th. Niese started out by walking the leadoff hitter Josh Harrison and he pretty much unraveled from there. A game where it seemed certain he could go much deeper into the game quickly evaporated into a string of deep counts and walks until his neat and tidy 60 pitches was nearing 100 pitches and Starling Marte was singling home the tying runs. Suddenly, the lead was gone, Niese was gone in favor of the return of Vic Black and the clock was about to strike 10pm. Much too late for the 6th inning. Black, who probably should have been here all along, came in the game and started throwing darts all over the place. And by all over the place I mean all over the place. He walked his first batter to set the stage for Ike Davis to pinch hit, the situation rife for Davis to recreate his early-season heroics. But instead, Black turned the tables on Ike, striking him out on a curveball to instead recreate many other less-memorable Ike Davis moments.

Still, the game did not speed up, even though the starters had left the game. A succession of relievers for the Pirates kept allowing Mets to reach base and, fortuitously for the Mets, a couple of them scored, allowing them to regain the lead. Ruben Tejada reached base and moved up on a pair of Jeanmar Gomez wild pitches, and then scored on a broken bat flair single from Juan Lagares. Daniel Murphy followed with a double into the corner that scored Lagares.

This, fortunately, was enough for Black and Jenrry Mejia to finish out the game, although there were plenty of moments where that appeared kind of dicey. In the 7th, Black got the first two batters out before walking Jose Tabata, which was great considering the defending NL MVP Andrew McCutchen was on deck. McCutchen got a hit to set the stage for our dear friend Gaby Sanchez, but much like he did to Davis, Black snuck a curveball by Sanchez for strike 3 to end the threat. Jenrry Mejia followed Black to the mound for the ever popular 6-out Save opportunity, and did a great job of summoning up great Mets closers of the past by immediately letting the tying runs on base and then somehow managing to get out of it. In the 8th, Mejia allowed 2 on and the Pirates sent up Pedro Alvarez to pinch hit. Alvarez hit a shot, but directly at Tejada, who turned an easy DP. In the 9th, with the clock now creeping closer to 11pm—and my bedtime—Mejia again prolonged things, allowing 2 more Pirates on (one on an error, granted, but a baserunner is a baserunner) to set up Sanchez once again. Every Mets fan had this horrible fear of Sanchez getting around on one and hitting it somewhere far, or even worse, far enough to simply tie the game and extend it even further into the night. And Sanchez almost hit it into a disastrous corner of the infield—too far away for Tejada to attempt a throw to 1st, yet not far enough away to do too much damage—so Tejada did the heady thing, as he is, in fact, sometimes capable of doing, and threw to 3rd, in time to get Travis Snider for the final out.

Usually, when the Mets win, I like to stand around and revel for a moment or two after the game. Not after this game, though. The game ended at around 10:54pm. I'd likely be on a moving 7 Express train by 11:10. If I were lucky, I'd be home before midnight. Turns out, I did luck out and get home before midnight. Barely, but before. I'll likely pay for this tomorrow, though.

Boy, Am I Glad...

...that I was neither at, nor did I see any part of Saturday's game. Several prior engagements kept me out of the house and away from a TV or a radio for the majority of the afternoon, leaving me only the ability to check things out on my phone. Unlike a similar game the Mets played 3 years ago, this appeared to be matchup of the completely moribund, the lifeless Mets and the miserable Marlins, both of whom hadn't played a game in multiple days, and the rust was evident.

I'd like to tell you more about this 20-inning debacle, but I fortunately wasn't subjected to any of this. I can only tell you that I was periodically checking my phone throughout the afternoon. Early on, it was 1-0 Mets in the 3rd inning, which was good, particularly with Matt Harvey on the mound. Later, when I looked, it was 1-1 in the 6th. Then 1-1 in the 8th. Then, 1-1 in the 10th. Then, 1-1 in the 13th. Then, I was in transit, and stopped checking. Usually, I get a buzz on my phone when the game ends, but that didn't happen, and I guess at some point I forgot the game was still going on. I was on the subway for a while, so that precluded me from getting any updates for a spell. When I got off, my phone was buzzing off the hook. Apparently, the game had gone so unspeakably long that ESPN actually sent me an alert telling me that "Marlins and Mets tied, 1-1, in the 20th inning; Marlins P Kevin Slowey, Mets P Shaun Marcum 7 scoreless relief innings."

Unfortunately, above that was another alert that read "Marlins defeat Mets, 2-1, in 20 innings; 1st 20-inning MLB game since April 17, 2010 when Mets beat Cardinals 2-1."

After my initial thought of "Oh, dammit," my thoughts then turned to mild cheerfulness that I had missed the whole game. When the Mets and Cardinals played 20 in 2010, that was at a point in time when I didn't have a TV, let alone cable, and I was relegated to listening to a majority of the game on the radio. At some point, I recall falling asleep with the game on, waking up and being shocked to find that it was still going. If I'd sat through this game, I can only imagine the vitriol with which I'd be attacking the Mets offense, who once again made the Marlins pitching staff look like the 1970 Orioles. But, no. I missed it and I suppose that's a fortunate thing, because I don't have to remember any of it, and I believe we should never speak of it again.

Not Worth Remembering

On a night where the Mets started out their day facing a field covered in snow, it seemed somewhat fitting that they would finish it by bumbling through a game dressed in the throwback uniforms of one of their worst years ever.

The circumstances that put the Mets in this particular fix were bizarre enough. After a pair of consecutive snow-outs spanning two different cities, the Mets hoped to get a day-night Doubleheader in against the Colorados on Tuesday. The first game was scheduled for 3pm in New York. But removing the more than half a foot of snow from a city that is routinely buried in snow was apparently a much taller task than anticipated, leaving WFAN to only update us with "We'll have an hour's notice as to whether or not they'll play." So, fair enough.

After some waiting around, and after hearing that the separate admission doubleheader was melded into a single-admission doubleheader, they finally announced a 5pm start time. This game started out well enough, with David Wright getting off his Home Run schneid and Dillon Gee pitching reasonably well. At 6pm, I shut off the radio and left to go home, where I figured I'd be able to catch the last few innings at home.

By time I got home, I was greeted with a now 5-4 Colorado lead, so I missed Gee's 5th inning meltdown. Nonetheless, I wasn't too concerned, since Colorado is a place where no lead is safe. This thinking would bite me in the ass later in the evening. I also overlooked the fact that very few good things have ever happened to the Mets in Coors Field, dating back to its first game.

Though the Colorados have rather poor starting pitching, their bullpen looks rather good. I don't know whether this is actually the case, but they certainly shut the Mets down the rest of the way while the Mets bullpen allowed the Colorados to keep tacking on runs. The final, 8-4, was just about as ugly as it looked.

So, a quick meal, a change of uniforms and hopefully a regroup before the second game. Until I noticed that the Mets were wearing these horrible uniforms with a tail under the team name. I should have known right then and there that the Mets were screwed. Nothing good happened to the Mets in 1993. I lived through it, and so did many of us. The horrible karma that the sight of those uniforms generated should have spelled it out clearly right there. And that's why I can't say I felt especially good even after Aaron Laffey—or was it Jason Jacome?—got through his start in reasonably good shape. Despite giving up 13 hits in 4 innings, the Mets backed him up with some offense and ran out to an 8-2 lead.

But, just like in the first game, the bullpen told the story. The Colorados stopped the Mets cold, and the Mets let the Colorados back in it. Before the paint dried, 8-2 was 8-6 thanks to Josh Edgin. And the combination of the cold, the inconsistency from not having played for three days, and the end of an excruciatingly long game combined with the stink of those 1993 jerseys combined to do the Mets in. Brandon Lyon—not Mike Maddux—kicked away an inning ending grounder in the 8th, John Buck—not Charlie O'Brien—didn't pay enough attention to Carlos Gonzalez and finally Ruben Tejada—not Tony Fernandez—threw away a routine grounder allowing the Colorados to tie the game.

From where I was sitting, the Mets were dead in this game. They looked about as cold and miserable as the some 300 hearty souls in Coors Field (as an aside, my other half was wondering why there were so many "Lets Go Mets!" chants in Colorado. My explanation was that they were either Mets fans transplanted to Denver who only had so many opportunities to see their team, or they were traveling fans who were stuck in Denver with nothing particularly better to do), and they probably would have been better served just letting someone hit the walk-off Home Run and getting out of there, but nooooo. Dante Bichette was nowhere to be found. With more snow beginning to fall, they just HAD to go to Extra Innings. On the other hand, since the Mets were stuck in a horrible 1993 time warp, I suppose it was fitting that they had to go to the last man in the bullpen, Greg Burke—not Mike Draper—as the sacrificial lamb for the inevitable ending. This, I suppose, is somewhat fortunate, because if they really wanted to stick it to everyone, they would have let the game go 14 innings before losing. So that was considerate on their part. Plus it was 1am in New York and I needed to get to bed. It was so late, in fact, that I couldn't be bothered to write anything until now.

So, if Tuesday wasn't ridiculous enough, now it's snowing again in Denver, throwing tonight's proposed affair, scheduled despite a low temperature of 9º, is now in doubt. So, we may just have to do this again tomorrow. I'd think, at this point, the Mets are just trying to survive at this point until they can get home for Friday, where the game time temperature is allegedly going to be 68º. Perish the thought.

No Game Today

Issues elsewhere in the world certainly took precedence Monday on a much heavier scale, but Baseball remained on as a pleasant diversion.

The only problem was that the Mets left the snow in Minnesota only to be greeted with more snow in Colorado. The game time forecast of a balmy 21 degrees with light snow appears to have been an understatement, because judging from the above photo (and others circulating), this wasn't a "light snow." Fortunately, the game was postponed, giving the Mets into their second consecutive Snowout and forcing a Doubleheader situation with the Colorados on Tuesday that already appears dicey because of more snow. Wednesday, it will reportedly not snow in Colorado, but the nighttime forecast calls for a low of 9 degrees.

I know the Mets have played the Colorados in Denver in April in prior years, but this is sort of ridiculous. Someone mentioned to me on Monday morning that there was a possibilty of the rarely-seen Tripleheader if things got bad enough, but I think there's a union restriction against those sorts of things. The reality was that it was merely a hoax from the devious mind of Jay Horowitz. The hope, I guess, is that somehow they get a couple of these games in and maybe try to come back later in the season. But the Mets have already lost an off day in August after a west coast trip because they have to go back to Minnesoter to pick up the lost game from Sunday. A more palatable option might be having a Doubleheader when the Colorados come to New York and have the Colorados as the home team, but that will probably go over about as well as playing in an April Snowstorm from the Colorados point of view.

Meantime, it complicates my job as a loyal blogger, because it's difficult to find things to write about when the Mets aren't playing any games. This ought to change at some point. I think...