Thrills and Spills

Nothing like a few wins over a bad team to put a little spring back in your step, no matter how unseemly those wins may be (and man, check out the hops on Reyes there!).

Once again, the Mets seemed to play down to the level of their opponent, yet somehow managed to eke out a few reverse-jinx victories against the Nationals over the weekend in spite of some shoddy play.

It sounds a little strange, so I'll elaborate.

On Thursday night, El Guapo and I convened at Ballclub HQ, East Village bureau to watch the Mets close out what we hoped would be a series sweep over the miserable Pirates. To date, the Mets had not lost a game that we had watched at that location. When I walked in, the Mets had already charged out to a 5-0 lead. When we left, the Mets had pissed away a sure victory, helped by some miserable efforts from the Bullpen and another alarming string of runners left on base, in a game where their 7 could have easily been a 12. We were drunk, annoyed and arguing with each other over, among other things, the grammatical correctness, or lack thereof, used in this Blog, and whether or not it is acceptable considering the respective styles in which we both happen to write.

But I digress.

A loss like that, following Wednesday's game, which the bullpen made their best effort to blow, but couldn't, led me to believe that the Mets were about to charge into Washington and lose 2 of 3, or, worse, get swept and come home with a giant egg on their face.

But that didn't happen. 3 games, none of which were especially pretty, featuring a lot of late rallies to win, a couple of Bullpen-induced Heart Attacks and about 40 different times over the course of the weekend where you thought that this was where the bottom was going to fall out. Jorge Sosa wriggling in and out of a jam on Friday. Oliver Perez gutting his way through 6 hideous innings on Saturday. Jon Rauch's 6' 11" worth of implosion on Sunday. And all of a sudden, here are the Mets sweeping the Nationals. Whoda thunk it?

Funny game, that Baseball. Funny indeed.

Lastings Effect

With all the negatives going on with the Mets, many of which I brought up in my post yesterday, I felt it appropriate to offer a solution to some of these problems.

Lastings Milledge needs to play. And Lastings needs to play every day, starting in Right Field instead of Shawn Green.

Milledge isn't going to light the world on fire, and he certainly won't be perfect. We can expect flashes of brilliance and flashes of youth, as we are apt to see from 22-year old Outfielders.

It's a bit shameful that the job isn't Milledge's outright. I know that Green is the established veteran, but right now, Green is hitting .272 with 8 HRs and 32 RBIs, numbers not acceptable from a corner OF position (unless said corner OF is Benny Agbayani). There seems to be this unfounded dislike for Milledge within the Mets system, of course it all goes back to questions of his character when they drafted him, and continued to fester during the "Know your place, Rook!" incident last year, and his Rap record this year, but it's gotten to the point where Willie's criticism of Milledge borders on hypocritical favoritism. It's OK for Delgado and Reyes to do their Home Run dances in front of the dugout. But Milledge? Oh Noooooooo! God forbid we should have a player who reacts with joy and zeal (not Zeile) because he appears to be genuinely excited to simply be in the Major Leagues, let alone providing some sparks to a mostly dead lineup (other than Reyes). Let's use our veteran guys, who either creak around the outfield, or aren't even outfielders to begin with, Willie thinks.

Whether or not it's true, all this negativity focused on Milledge makes me believe that they're more than likely to trade him before long, which it is clear that this would be a) Totally against public opinion, and b) A gigantic Mistake.

Even buried in the 8 hole in the Batting Order, Milledge has been able to affect some change, and his hustling play has led the Mets to victories. Remember that game against Cincinnati, his first game back? How he dashed from first to home on Gotay's bloop hit? You think Green can do that? How about Beltran? Marlon Anderson? Nope, probably not.

Of course, Milledge scored the winning run and got criticized by his Manager for the slide into home plate.

Memo to Willie: It's time to shut up and play this kid. Stop complaining about the "attitude." He's going to be a spark, and what's the point of having him here if you're just going to let him sit on the bench and pinch hit? The fans want him. The fate of the entire season is probably at stake.

Play Lastings Everyday. Starting Now.

How To Disappear Completely

In the 7th inning of Saturday Night's debacle at Shea, Jose Reyes tagged up from 3rd on a pop out by Wright and attempted to score. In a bang-bang play at the plate where Reyes appeared to be safe, he was called out. Arguments and whining ensued.

It basically looked like the Umpire, Alfonso Marquez, saw the play and had no idea what the hell the call was, so he called Reyes out.

It's the sign between a good team and a bad team. A Good team will get the lucky breaks needed to win games like that. A Bad team doesn't get that call. And right now, the Mets are playing like a bad team, which is pretty ridiculous considering that this is supposed to be a pretty good team.

But given that the Mets had 6 pretty big Divisional games this year, and more or less Shit the Bed in 4 of them, and barely won a 5th, it's clear that this formula that Willie is using right now ain't working.

Each game it appears there have been different, multiple goats per game. Whether it's been the continued failure to hit with runners in scoring position, the continued mounting of runners left on base or the complacent reliability on the "Productive Out," or several failures by the Bullpen at the worst possible moments, the Mets have been playing a lifeless brand of Baseball, and while there have been glimpses of hope and spurts of strong, inspired play, this has gone on for the better part of 3 months now, this general Malaise. The Mets have not won more than 4 games in a row at any time this season, and they haven't even done that since the end of June, when they last played Philadelphia. Since then, inconsistency has been the norm, and it's beginning to cost the Mets more and more as they play poorly against the teams they really need to beat.

Even Wagner, who has been the picture of rock-solid all season long hasn't been immune. His blown save on Friday was not only his second blown save of the season, it was his first loss. And he hasn't exactly been sharp of late, but he'd been able to minimize the damage and get out of jams until Hanley Ramirez burned him on Friday.

What's most alarming about this is that Wagner had, to this point, been the one guy that none of us worried about out of the Bullpen. In fact, he'd been having a standout season even by his own standards. Heilman and Mota both imploded in spectacular fashion on Saturday. Heilman has been up and down all season. Mota has been simply miserable most of the time, Feliciano seems to have hit the wall after his strong start, Sosa is a mystery, and Schoeneweis is Schoeneweis. Too many of these names have been unreliable at the worst possible times this season, and have often created deficits that the Mets offense has not been able to pull themselves out of.

Last year, it seemed like there was no deficit too large to overcome, no lead that couldn't be locked down in the late innings, no break that didn't go the Mets way. And the team played with confidence and arrogance. And now, they come in with what appears to be an false air of supremacy, and then fall flat on their faces and don't get the breaks.

I don't want to say that the Mets are in serious trouble. But to a man, it really looks like they're headed in a really bad direction right now unless some changes are made, both within the Starting Lineup and within the Bullpen. It doesn't help matters much when the Mets are potentially looking at going in to Pittsburgh this week with Mike DiFelice as the Starting Catcher, with Castro ailing and LoDuca on the DL.

Incidents, Redemptions and Allegations

Thanks to Billy Wagner's Houdini act in the 9th inning tonight, the Mets were able to escape, both from a bases loaded, no out jam in that inning, but with a victory in a game that they had trailed most of the way, and looked rather poor in doing so. For about 6 1/2 innings, Wednesday Night's game looked almost like a carbon copy of Tuesday (which I had the poor fortune of attending), where the Mets looked flat and lifeless against a team that they absolutely had to beat more than any other team in the league, playing in conditions more appropriate for The Hound Of The Baskervilles rather than a Major League Baseball game. They scraped across a run in the first against Smoltz and then pretty much shut down, stranding runners and hitting into double plays with alarming frequency. And then Atlanta broke through for 3 against El Duque, and that appeared to be it.

But the Mets are a resilient bunch, and, of course, just when you think they are down and out, they shock you. First, Luis Castillo came through with a 2-run single to tie the game in the 7th. Then, it was Moises Alou, coming off a stretch in which he had hit into 3 rally-killing DPs in the last 2 games, stepping to the plate and ripping a redemption HR to put the Mets ahead and eventually give them a sorely needed victory.

It was a study in contrasts from Tuesday to Wednesday. On Tuesday, the Mets did little right, right from the get-go. Oliver Perez, who had been so successful against Atlanta (and perhaps my primary impetus for attending the game on Tuesday), got into jams he couldn't get out of, gave up a couple of monstrous HRs, and by the time anyone knew what hit them, the Mets were down 6-0, and the Braves fan in the Larry jersey I had the poor fortune of sitting next to in UR14 was whooping it up to the point where I moved seats, else risk strangling the bastard.

It was a miserable game of whatifs and missed opportunities. If Oliver gets the pitcher out in the 2nd. If Milledge isn't called out on a questionable strike 3 or Perez gets the call at first on his nifty bunt in their half of the 2nd. If Alou doesn't hit into 2 deathly DPs to kill a pair of rallies in the 4th and the 6th. It was another one of those games that I was tempted to leave at around the 4th inning, and the text messages to El Guapo indicated as much.

Few good things came out of that game.

1. Schoeneweis came into a game at home and actually got an out when he needed to get it.
2. The Chicken Tenders and French Fries at the concession stand now come with 4 tenders instead of 3.
3. I didn't die from Heat Stroke.
   
4. They solved the problems with the Express trains back into Manhattan after the game. I hopped on a train with little wait and no crowd, and I was home in less than an hour after the last pitch.
   

Alou was the main culprit for the Misery, however (despite his nice catch on a Teixeira liner). But he certainly redeemed himself tonight. All is forgiven, Moises. Now keep hitting like that.

Meanwhile, later on that night...
Some time after the game, and after I had returned to Ballclub HQ, Manhattan, I had gone to a local diner for a bite to eat with M2M, Sr. (Not a Baseball fan, however purports to have been a Brooklyn Dodgers fan back in that era; now roots for the Yankees halfheartedly mainly to maintain family dischord). On the TV at said diner was the Giants/Nationals game. And while we were eating, Barry Bonds did indeed hit his 756th HR, passing Hank Aaron's career mark and taking it for himself. Here's the extent of the exchange:

M2M: Oh my God...

M2M, Sr.: What?

M2M: Bonds did it.

My father peered halfheartedly at the TV, but seemed more interested in the giant scrum going after the ball.

I've made the extent of my remarks on Bonds and the Steroid issue, and the evidence against him is certainly damning enough. Whether people want to feel the record is tainted or not is their own opinion. All I have to say is that Selig turned a blind eye to this issue for so many seasons, never cracking down on the problem because of the excitement generated by the Home Run and the Home Run Chases. Then, when he finally decided to do something, he did a halfhearted job of it. And what he's got now is a Major Record set because someone used, or allegedly used steroids, and a public opinion that will forever question the record as long as it stands (until A-Rod breaks it). Congratulations, Bud. I hope you're happy.

As long as we're on the subject, I have one more comment and a couple of Kudos from the event itself.

Comment:
I believe it was Karl Ravech (it could have been Kruk, I forget) on ESPN last night who had mentioned that Hank Aaron wasn't at the park in person because of his desire to let Bonds have his moment, and not to relive his travails of 1972, 73 and 74, painful and difficult years for him as he pursued Ruth's record. Others seem to think that this is his way of condemning Bonds for allegedly using Steroids. Either way, while his videotaped speech was nice, it was pretty plastic as speeches go. It was probably taped a month ago at the behest of his good buddy Selig, simply as a show of goodwill towards Bonds, and I don't think that it came off as something genuine. They saved it until he broke the record, and then threw it up on the big screen as if it were something spontaneous, and I don't think it was spontaneous.

Kudos:
To Mike Bacsik, former Mets farmhand and victor of a start or two during the forgettable 2002 season (which I think I've mentioned before) for really handling this thing like a pro. It could have been a big, demoralizing thing for a pitcher, but it seems like Bacsik really relished his role in the moment itself. He talked about how his father told him to go after Bonds, and he did, and he gave up the HR, and now he's the answer to a trivia question. And he really seems to be genuinely happy about that. Good for him.

To the guy who caught the ball, Matt Murphy of Queens, NY, for catching the ball, surviving being gang tackled by 300 other lunatics, and being carried out with his Jose Reyes Jersey in full view. Nice way to kick them all in the nuts. My father was thoroughly amused by the sight of him being carried out by 10 SF Police Officers.

Lost Classics: July 14, 2005

With our old friends, the Atlanta Braves, coming into town for an NL East Showdown this week, I thought it good and proper to dig into the History Books for another instance when the Mets and Braves duked it out in a key Midseason series.

I dug deep into the annals of time.

Way back to the year 2005.

For me, 2005 almost seems like the season that time forgot. It was sort of this bizarre in-between year, when the last vestiges of the heroships of the late 90s were fading away, the dregs of the Jim Duquette era were moving on, and the groundwork was being laid for the Mets of today. Willie Randolph was in his first season managing the Mets, and after an alarming 0-5 start, the Mets had rebounded to play well, if a bit uneven, over the first half of the season. They carried a 44-44 record into the All-Star Break, sitting tepidly in last place, trailing the miracle Washington Nationals by 8 games and their opponent on this night, the Atlanta Braves, by 5.5 games. It's a Thursday night, the first game back from the All-Star Break, and the Mets and Braves are opening up a 4-game series. El Guapo and I are on hand, sitting in our regular perch in the fabled "Sack O' Nuts" section, Upper Deck, Section 1 as Kris Benson faces off against Horacio Ramirez.

It's mostly quiet early on, as Benson and Ramirez seem to be settling into a neat pitchers duel. The Braves go down 1-2-3 in the 1st. The Mets will threaten in their half of the first, with Mike Cameron drawing a walk and Carlos Beltran following with a single. It is a study in contrasts for these two. Both players were Center Fielders by trade, arriving via Free Agency. It is Beltran, though, who will be the future of the franchise. Although his 2005 season has and will continue to be marked with injuries and inconsistency and boos, he will prove his worth in a stellar 2006 season. Cameron's Mets career was also injury marred, and he will play his last game with the Mets in August of 2005; his season cut short in a gruesome collision with Beltran, and he will be subsequently dealt to San Diego in the offseason. A year later, Cameron's time with the Mets seems like a mere blip on the radar screen. Hard to believe it was only 2 years ago. The tandem will be stranded on the bases in the 1st.

Benson retires the Braves in order in the 2nd. In the Mets half, they break through against Ramirez. It's David Wright, emerging as the new Face of the Mets, off to a brilliant start to his first full season in the Majors, taking the first pitch from Ramirez and blasting a deep drive to dead center. Andro Jones chases it back to the wall and makes a futile leap, but it's gone. It's Wright's 13th HR of the season, on his way to a very solid 27 and a 1-0 Mets lead that will last until the top of the 4th, when the Braves break through against Benson.

Benson had, to this point, retired the first 10 Braves, when Pete Orr singles to center. One out later, with Andro Jones at the plate (and with Larry on the DL, Andro is the chief target of the jeers tonight), Orr steals second. Andro follows by dinking a single up the middle to score Orr to tie the game 1-1.

This tie will be short lived. In the bottom of the 4th, Wright steps to the plate again and belts another HR, this one a line shot into the bleachers in Left to put the Mets back on top, 2-1. The crowd, a surprisingly hearty 43,319 beckons Wright out for the curtain call. He's the new Darling of New York.

With the lead back, Benson again goes into cruise control. These were the kind of outings that the Mets had expected out of Benson when they dealt for him in 2004. At the time, I was a huge Benson fan, and I believed that he would surely thrive once he was playing on a better team than Pittsburgh, and on a team that would score runs for him. For a time, I was right, as Benson had a strong finish in 2004 and a good start in '05. But after this outing, Benson seemed to fizzle out. No Decisions and Losses began to mount, and consistency eluded him. He became a virtual unknown; identified more because of the antics of his trashy wife, Anna, who was more interested in showcasing her breasts than supporting her husband's efforts on the field. Whether she was the main cause or not, Benson would be dealt to Baltimore following the 2005 season for Jorge Julio and a Minor League throw-in who ended up turning out to be kind of OK for the Mets, while Benson would end up missing the entire 2007 season with Shoulder issues.

But tonight, Benson zips through the 5th and 6th innings with no problems. He's aided by some strong defense as well. In the 5th, a long drive foul by Ryan Langerhans is chased down by Cliff Floyd, who lumbers all the way down into the corner in left to make the catch, and then tumble over the wall into the plantings, in a spectacular scene. Fortunately, Floyd pops up OK, unscathed and with the ball. But Ramirez matches Benson on his side, and the score remains 2-1 Mets going into the 7th. But this is where Benson's luck would run out. With 1 out, Johnny Estrada bounced a grounder to Wright at 3rd. But his throw to first was high and wide and past Chris Woodward at 1st for an error. And Adam LaRoche would make that a costly miscue, lofting a 3-1 pitch from Benson high and deep and out into the Bleachers in left-center, over the 396 mark for a 2-run HR to give the Braves their first lead at 3-2.

But the Mets weren't done.

In their half of the 7th, the Mets would rally back. Wright would lead off by drawing a walk. Chris Woodward would follow by grounding out to second, just far enough over to be able to move Wright to 2nd base (the popular "Productive Out"). Ramirez will then attempt to pick off Wright at second, but his throw is high and into Center Field, and Wright scampers to 3rd. Now, all Miguel Cairo has to do is just get that ball in the air deep enough to bring Wright home.

He can't. Swinging as if he were trying to blast the ball off the Whitestone Bridge, Cairo meekly grounds to short, and Wright can't advance. 2 outs. Pitcher's spot up. We look at the on-deck circle.

"Who's #35?" El Guapo asks me.

"#35? That's Jose Offerman." I reply. Then, I notice that #35 is heading to the plate, bat in hand. I'm incredulous. "Good God! It's Jose Awfulman!" I yell. I'm convinced that Willie had just taken his stupid pill by sending up Offerman, 0 for forever, it seemed.

Of course, Offerman shut me up by pounding a 2-1 pitch through the hole into left field for the game-tying hit.

On to the 8th, where it would be The Past and The Future that would steal the show for the Mets. Roberto Hernandez would come on in the top of the inning, and he got into a quick jam. Hernandez starts by walking Andy Marte, pinch hitting for Ramirez. Rafael Furcal followed with a sacrifice bunt. Pete Orr will hit a slow chopper that Reyes can only knock down, allowing Orr to reach and Marte to go to 3rd. Kelly Johnson is next. As Hernandez begins his motion, Marte begins his mad dash towards home as Johnson squares to bunt. Seeing this, David Wright flies in from third as Johnson makes contact...

...And pops the ball straight up in the air. Wright dives in to make the catch. Marte has already crossed the plate. He's a dead duck. As the crowd roars with delight, Wright pops up and jogs back to third to complete the unassisted DP to end the threat, preserve the tie and end the inning.

And in the bottom of the 8th, the Mets would provide more drama. Cameron leads off by striking out against Jim Brower. Beltran follows by ripping a double off the base of the right field wall, his 4th hit of the game. Cox, as is his habit, immediately goes to his bullpen, calling in lefty John Foster to pitch to the Lefty, Cliff Floyd.

Foster walks Floyd on 4 pitches. Plan does not work. Cox again goes to the mound, bringing in righty Blaine Boyer to pitch to The Man himself, Mike Piazza.

And it will be Piazza, the Greatest Hero in Mets History, with his best days behind him, in his final year with the Mets, coming up with one more huge hit, the kind of hit he has delivered so many times before. Piazza takes an 0-2 pitch from Boyer and rips it, one of his big, inside-out swings that produces a long fly ball that seems to hang in the air forever. We can see Langerhans in right dashing back helplessly, but this ball is too high, too far, and gone, off the side of the Loge and into the Mets Bullpen for a 3-run HR, giving the Mets a 6-3 lead. As Piazza rounds the bases, the crowd is deafening. And as he goes back into the dugout, the crowd continues to roar and chant his name, until he comes out for a curtain call.

And it becomes clear that this is the beginning of Mike's Half-Season long Farewell Party, one that will end with a grand sendoff on the final day of the season, and will be complete upon his retirement, and the posting of his #31 along with the Retired Numbers in Left Field.

The Rest of the game seems academic. Braden Looper comes on for the 9th and, in a rare effort from him, retires the side in order, finishing with a strikeout of LaRoche to finish out the 6-3 victory that will pull the Mets out of last place.

The rest of the season will play itself out rather frustratingly. The Mets will continue to battle and draw themselves close to contention in late August. But just as it seems the Mets are ready to take the leap, the bottom drops out, and the Mets are doomed to another season of obscurity, finishing 83-79, well off the pace. Piazza will leave via Free Agency in the offseason. Players like Offerman, Cairo and Looper will be dismissed. Benson and his wife will be dealt. But the Mets will turn a corner in that offseason, and moves will be made that will make the Mets into a dominant force, one that will run away with the Divison in 2006.