Welcome Back to Major League Baseball

The results certainly don't have to be pretty for a Win to count. And Zack Wheeler's 4th Major League start tonight certainly wasn't a thing of beauty, but it was good enough to get him through 5 innings and good enough to get him his 2nd victory.

The fact that the Mets offense generated 12 runs also helps. Much of this offense came from a pair of sources that have been the subject of some vilification at one point or another this season, in Ike Davis and Kirk Nieuwenhuis.

Davis returned to the Mets tonight after a well-deserved month in the Minor Leagues. Usually, in situations like this, the guy returning is placed lower in the order. But not Ike. Ike was called right up and slapped right back into the cleanup spot, a clear challenge from Terry Collins to put up or shut up. Ike answered the bell and was central to a number of rallies, and instead of flailing wildly at off-speed pitches, instead looked a bit more steady and comfortable at the plate. The results were certainly encouraging; Ike went 3-5, drew a walk, drove in 2 runs, scored two runs, legged out a key infield hit, and one of his outs was a smoked line drive that just happened to be right at someone.

Nieuwenhuis has also had his share of critics, though his struggles were certainly not as magnified as Ike's. Nieuwenhuis has also bounced between the Mets and Las Vegas multiple times this season, after he started the season off looking as though he was unable to catch up to most Major League pitching and struggled to bat his weight. Since he's returned, he's been mostly glued to the bench in the middle of a platoon situation that hasn't been much of a platoon because a) The Mets keep facing left-handed pitching and b) Juan Lagares and Marlon Byrd have played so well of late. Nieuwenhuis hasn't especially excelled, but he's made his hits count, between the out-of-nowhere walkoff Home Run against the Cubs, and his 14th inning Home Run yesterday. The problem is, instances like that have been few and far between for Nieuwenhuis. But, tonight, given an opportunity to start, Nieuwenhuis responded with a career game, going 4-4, a pair of doubles and a triple among them, and also drove in 5 runs and drew a pair of walks.

These particular performances certainly made the game, but the Mets were also helped by the fact that the Brewers right now look even more hopeless than the Mets at times have been known to. Early on, this looked to be the kind of game that was the exact opposite of what Abner Doubleday had intended, with balls being mishandled, thrown away, booted or just flat-out dropped. Eventually, the Mets were able to get their act together. But the Brewers appeared to not be able to do so, putting forth a performance that bordered on the embarrassing, and showed just how far a cry they were from the team that was a mere couple of wins from a Pennant just a couple of years ago. Proof, once again, that teams can lose it just like that, as if that weren't already abundantly obvious to the Mets fan.

With a lead, Zack Wheeler was able to settle down somewhat. Sure, the Mets gave him 2 runs in the first inning and he immediately handed them back. Wheeler wasn't helped by an error from Daniel Murphy, but that's besides the point. The key is how does it affect you going forward. The Mets went out and got him more runs in the 2nd, and extended their lead in the 4th. Wheeler responded by keeping the Brewers in check, allowing only a Juan Francisco Home Run over the remainder of his 5 innings. The Brewers loaded the bases with 1 out in the 5th, and appeared destined for disaster, but Wheeler got tough, getting Jonathan Lucroy to pop out and striking out Francisco to finish on a high note. The numbers might not be pretty, 5 innings, 7 hits, 3 walks, 3 runs (only 1 earned) and 3 strikeouts, but he responded well in adverse moments and didn't let things get out of control. So it's something to build on.

All in all, a fine night for the Mets, certainly a much welcomed normal game after the mess that was the Arizona series. Guys hit when they needed to, guys pitched when they needed to and the Mets were clearly helped by the fact that they were playing a team that really looks lost right now. Hopefully, the Mets can continue to take advantage of this through the weekend.

The Longest Week

In honor of the 4th of July, we, as always, remind you to take your hat off and keep out of the aisles during the National Anthem.

If the first two games of this series against Arizona were long, the final two were not only long, but also excruciating given the results.

The Mets had already played a pair of games that stretched late into the night for different reasons on Monday and Tuesday, and Wednesday's game was destined to do the same before it even began, thanks to a lengthy rain delay. Rain isn't something that generally bothers Matt Harvey, and for most of the early going on Wednesday night, it looked like every other Matt Harvey start. David Wright homered, Josh Satin homered, there was a full house on hand for Fireworks Night, everything was great!

Then, the 6th inning happened and everything went to pot. Matt Harvey got into a 2 on, 2 out jam, which generally isn't a problem for him, but he threw a slider that our dear friend Cody Ross just managed to get a hold of and sail over the Left Field fence for a 3-run Home Run that changed the game completely. Of course it was Cody Ross, one of those little bitch-faced nuisances that always seems to stick it to the Mets and take a little too much joy in doing so. Monday, Ross homered in the 13th and flipped his bat away like he'd just hit a walk-off. Fortunately, the Mets still had a chance to answer him in the bottom of the inning and managed to stick it in his ear by coming back to win the game. Wednesday night, the Mets had 4 opportunities to respond to Ross and were unable to do so. Harvey faltered again in the 7th inning and the Mets couldn't push enough across to get him off the hook, as he ended up stuck with his 2nd loss of the year in a rather unexciting 5-3 defeat that ended at somewhere around 12:30am, or, generally the same time as Monday's 13-inning game. And, of course, the Mets then shot off fireworks for those who remained at 1am, which was not quite as absurd as when the fireworks went off at 4am in Atlanta that one time, but was still much later than anyone involved in the planning of these things probably wanted.

That set up Thursday's July 4th afternoon game as the last chance for the Mets and D'Backs to get it right and play a nice normal game on getaway day. Unfortunately, they couldn't, as they instead played the longest game of the series in terms of innings and elapsed time. A rain delay was avoided, fortunately, because who knows how late things would have gone had that occurred. I tuned in to the game directly after watching the time-honored tradition of watching grown men shovel hot dogs into their faces in the name of the American Way and followed that up with my usual Sunday tradition of cleaning my apartment with the Mets game on in the background. It appeared that Dillon Gee was mostly efficient, but matched by Ian Kennedy (A former Yankee Prospect, so you know he MUST be good) as both teams managed only two runs apiece as the game moved into the later innings. Surely, for everyone's strength and sanity, someone ought to be able to push across a run before things ran late once again.

Surely was apparently not in the house this afternoon, because both teams went down meekly in the 9th.

Arizona threatened in the 10th, but was turned away by Carlos Torres.

The Mets got the leadoff man on in their half of the 10th, only to have Eric Young, Jr pop up a bunt and turn the inning to Jell-O.

Neither team threatened in the 11th.

The Mets got a couple of men on via walk in the 12th, only to have Kirk Gibson pull a Kirk Gibson and change pitchers with 2 outs and get David Wright to ground out to end the inning.

Finally, in the 13th, Arizona broke through, just as they had on Monday night, as the game steamed closer to 5 hours. Terry Collins' machinations led to David Aardsma intentionally walking Eric Chavez to pitch to Cody Ross and then unintentionally walking Cody Ross to force in the lead run. Then, he started playing matchups in the 13th inning, with Josh Edgin coming in to pitch to Gerardo Parra. Parra grounded into a Fielder's Choice, and then got called out for running inside the baseline. This would become rather important immediately, because Collins then pulled Edgin for Beleaguered Brandon Lyon. Lyon gave up a hit to Wil Nieves. This probably would have extended the lead, but Marlon Byrd threw out Chavez at home with ease to keep the score 3-2.

With 2 out in the bottom of the 13th, Anthony Recker hit a Home Run off Heath Bell to re-tie the game.

Arizona took the lead again in the 14th inning thanks to a series of annoying bloops and bleeders.

With 1 out in the bottom of the 14th, Kirk Nieuwenhuis hit a Home Run of Chaz Roe to re-tie the game.

Arizona took the lead again in the 15th inning thanks to more bloops and bleeders strung together with 2 outs.

Unfortunately, There was no 3rd rabbit to be pulled out of the hat. The Mets managed to get runners to 2nd and 3rd in the bottom of the 15th, but Kirk Nieuwenhuis grounded out weakly to first to end the game, after 5 hours and 46 minutes of bumbling around the field.

It was fairly easy for me to describe Monday's lengthy affair, because not only was I there, the game also featured a lot of interesting little nuances. This game on Thursday defies description, simply because it was just long and you could feel how sweaty and disgusting it was just by watching it on TV. I would consider Monday's affair memorable and a game I was glad I was at, but I think I'm equally as glad that I wasn't at today's game. Of course, had the Mets lost Monday and won Thursday, I might feel differently. So maybe it's not so interesting in retrospect. I have the feeling that the Mets didn't lose on Thursday, so much as they may have just run out of gas first. Now, of course, without a day off, they have the privilege of trekking off on a road trip to Milwaukee, where they'll be right back in action tomorrow night. No rest for the weary, that's for sure.

Another Late Night At The Office

After the Mets played it out until 12:24am on Monday night, last night was another late night, but for a vastly different reason. Tuesday's game was, in fact, motoring along rather briskly, having reached the bottom of the 7th inning before 9pm had struck. Monday night, the 7th inning stretch hit close to 10pm.

The pacing of this game was a credit primarily to Jeremy Hefner, who continues to impress me and everyone else who pays attention to the Mets. Hefner has, of course, been one of my flogs for quite some time now, and early in the season, he certainly deserved it. But somewhere along the line the switch flipped a little bit for him. He pitched rather poorly in the one start I attended against St. Louis, but for the most part he's pitched rather well, particularly against the Yankees, Cubs and Colorados, and last night he was outstanding against Arizona, giving up 1 run in his 7 innings of work and only departing, I suppose, because of the 90 minute rain delay that hit in the bottom of the 7th.

That rain delay, of course, is what slowed things down, and I suppose it was fortunate that it waited until last night to rain, as opposed to Monday, because what a clusterfuck that would have caused. Tuesday was a similar day to Monday in New York; a sweaty, gloppy mess of a day that makes me want to rip my skin off. You hope it rains because you hope that will knock the humidity out of the air, but generally, it just makes things worse. Sitting in 5 hours of it without it raining wasn't great. Sitting around while it rains must have been even worse. So, I guess given the choice, I'd choose the 5 hour game as opposed to the quick game with the hour-long rain delay. Tuesday's game did not end quite as late as Monday, but it was still after 11pm.

Fortunately, the Mets still won the game. Monday, the Mets kept having their rhythm broken by Kirk Gibson's petulant changing of pitchers. Tuesday, the Mets had no such trouble, although the game probably went on about 3 innings too long before the umpires decided to stop. When the puddles forming on the infield are visible and obvious, it's probably a sign that you should pull out the tarp and break out the card game, but hey, I'm no groundskeeper. What the hell do I know?

So, Hefner was great, only made one mistake to Devil Wore Prado in the 7th which accounted for the one run he gave up. The Mets also didn't have much luck against ballyhooed Patrick Corbin, who only gave up one run himself, a Home Run to Anthony Recker.

The Mets finally got something going in the bottom of the 7th, plating a run and loading the bases before the umpires finally stopped the game. I suppose nobody would have complained if they stopped things right there, but they waited 90 minutes and finally got things going again at around 10:15pm. This time, the delay appeared to ice the Diamondbacks, since the reliever they put in, Brad Ziegler, came in and promptly got whacked all over the park by the Mets, as their 2-1 lead went to 8-1 in a matter of a few minutes, removing any and all drama from the remainder of the game. This was actually rather nice, since we could then all sit back and enjoy the end of a game without something hair-raising happening. Given the rain delay and the increasingly late hour, and the Mets big inning, the D'Backs appeared to punt the remainder of the night, so the Mets ended up with a nice 9-1 victory where everyone pitched in to the war effort that saw the Mets score more runs than they've put up at Citi Field in week. And it sets up Harvey tonight with a chance to go for the kill in this series. 

12:24am Lightning

Were I still living at home, last night was the kind of game that I would have arrived back at my Father's house to him laughing his ass off at the folly of my sitting out at Shea Stadium for over 5 hours. Even now that I don't live at home, there is still quite a bit of folly to these ridiculous extra-inning games. 

For whatever reason, I seem to have the magic 13-inning touch when it comes to Mets/Diamondbacks affairs. Monday was the 5th time I've attended a 13-inning game, and 3 of those 5 have come against the Diamondbacks. The last one, back in 2008, was well-documented here. The first, in 2006, was a particular classic. Last night was a little gem in its own right, particularly given the way the game played out.  

I've been more and more skeptical about going to these games of late, particularly given the Mets struggles at home and the general banality of the games I've attended this season (except when Matt Harvey was pitching). I didn't particularly relish the opportunity to see this Shaun Marcum/Wade Miley pitching matchup one day after I was out at Citi Field to see the Mets get pummeled so badly that I couldn't stomach to sit around for the bitter ending. 

It appeared that many people agreed with me. After a crowd of 33,000 showed up on Sunday, it appeared that there were barely 10,000 out on Monday night. The weather, miserable all day, might have been a factor. Who knows. At any rate, it appeared there were so few people out, that you could actually hear the sounds of the game and the shouts of the crowd quite clearly. 

Often, in games like this, I have the tendency to sit there, dutifully keeping score as I always do, and lose myself in thoughts of how I might describe this game for you loyal readers. After an inning, I'd figured I had my storyline: Shaun Marcum, who generally seems to look like he's not enjoying himself, looked particularly uncomfortable out on the mound tonight. He kept flexing his arms and kicking at the dirt on the mound, like something just wasn't right. He hit Aaron Hill on a 2-strike pitch, and then threw to first a few times, before again stalling to kick some more dirt. I could tell that this wasn't going to end well, and I was right, because his next pitch to Mount Rushmore-like 1st Baseman Paul Goldschmidt was launched in the general direction of the Whitestone Bridge for a 2-run Home Run. In response, the Mets started off against Wade Miley with Eric Young, Jr working a walk and immediately getting picked off so badly that he didn't even react to Miley's attempt, instead standing there before making a feeble attempt to run away from Goldschmidt. The Mets then loaded the bases on 2 hits and a walk, setting everything up for John Buck to strike out. This, I figured, would be the game right there. The Mets served it up, missed their chance to respond, and Miley was set to throw a 5-hit shutout. 

The 2nd inning proved more of the same. Marcum, who continued to work at an excruciatingly slow pace, pawed at the dirt some more before giving up a 2-out RBI hit, while the Mets again got men on base and left them there. A long, losing night appeared imminent, but to his credit, Marcum eventually settled down and in spite of the fact that he was apparently dealing with a shoulder problem, gutted it out for 6 innings and kept the game at 3-0.  Unfortunately, the Mets continued to get hits off of Miley, only to fail to break through each time. Thus, I figured, the highlight of the game would have been in the 4th inning, when the sky turned a magnificent shade of pink, bathing Citi Field in such a striking shade of light that you could have shut off the stadium lights and kept playing. 

I knew the Mets would probably rue their missed chances as the game continued, particularly when they finally started to break through against a succession of Arizona relievers. In the 7th, the Mets finally broke through when Eric Young, Jr, who was one of several Mets who was on base all night, drew a walk, moved up on a Daniel Murphy groundout and scored on a key hit from the one guy who's usually good for those, David Wright. Marlon Byrd followed with a flare hit, setting up the Mets for more. But, Kirk Gibson, who seemed to be treating pitching changes as though they were some sort of psychological gamesmanship, went to the mound, removed Brad Ziegler and replaced him with old friend Heath Bell. Bell promptly got Satin to hit into a Fielder's Choice before getting Buck to pop out, a small victory in its own right because to that point, Buck hadn't even made contact. 

The 8th inning brought more baserunners for the Mets. Omar Quintanilla hit a gapper with one out that Gerardo Parra appeared to catch, and the groan from the crowd was palpable. But Parra subsequently face-planted into the warning track and when it became obvious that the ball was resting comfortably on the ground, there was an immediate roar of approval. Quintanilla motored all the way around to 3rd, while Parra lay on the ground, which immediately drew some concern. It's tough to tell, at least from my perch in section 512, what happened exactly, but it didn't look good, particularly given the length of time Parra spent on the ground. But after a lengthy delay, Parra did get up and walk off. It appeared another squandered opportunity for the Mets when Valdespin popped out, but Eric Young salvaged the inning with an RBI double, and moved to 3rd on a Wild Pitch. There he stayed when Daniel Murphy flew out. 

So, the Mets had chipped away enough to make a 3-run game into a 1-run game, and maybe they had built up enough of a groundswell to get one more run across against another old friend, J.J. Putz in the 9th. Hopefully, 2 more runs, so we could all get out of there, since the game had stretched well over 3 hours. Marlon Byrd, another Met who spent most of the night getting on base, very nearly tied the game on his own, but his drive to left landed mere inches shy of a Home Run. Or was it? Terry Collins came out to challenge it, and why the hell not? What's a few more minutes? Plus, at worst, there's still a runner on 2nd. The umpires upheld the double, so Byrd stayed put. It would take at least one more hit. Josh Satin, who's surprised everyone with his performance of late, followed with a flare hit into left. This resulted in one of those moments where everything seems to slow down, as Byrd dashed for home, just as the throw was coming in to the plate. It appeared Byrd was dead to rights, and this game would end with the Mets a dollar short once again. But, somehow, the ball shorthopped the plate and Miguel Montero couldn't handle it. And even if he did, his tag on Byrd was late. Byrd scored to tie the game. The Mets were now in prime position to steal a victory, particularly after John Buck walked. But after a Lagares fly out, Buck, who couldn't catch a break, got thrown out trying to move up on a passed ball. 

So, after the Mets had bumbled their way through much of the evening, they managed to scrape out 3 runs and earn themselves extra innings, as the game rocketed towards 4 hours and beyond. The crowd, thin to begin with, was now dwindling down to a few hearty souls who probably either could survive on little sleep or just didn't have to be up early in the morning. I took this opportunity to move down, into the 400 level, as Bobby Parnell came in for the 10th. As Carlos Torres and LaTroy Hawkins had done before him, Parnell stopped the D'Backs cold. So, the Mets had yet another chance to keep this momentum going. 

Chaz Roe kicked off the bottom of the 10th by giving up a hit to Omar Quintanilla. Quintanilla scooted up a base on a pair of ground outs, but got no further. Parnell repeated himself in the 11th, including netting a strikeout of Roe, who I'd automatically assumed would be pinch hit for and even went so far as to write in his line in my scorecard. But, noooo. Roe handed the Mets even more baserunners in the 11th, walking Wright, intentionally walking Buck (which was sort of silly considering how poor he'd looked at the plate), and then unintentionally walking Anthony Recker. The sight of Anthony Recker confirmed a mild fear of mine; that the Mets had run out of players. But, with a golden opportunity to finish things off, here was Gibson again, interrupting things with a 2-out pitching change, pulling Roe for Tony Sipp, his 7th pitcher of the night, two more than the Mets scorecard allows space for. I was now reduced to writing in margins, which meant things were starting to get out of hand. Quintanilla hit a shot. Unfortunately, it was right at Goldschmidt. 3 more runners left on base for the Mets, 4 and a half hours in the books, and more game to be played.

David Aardsma entered for the Mets in the 12th. With the bench now bereft of position players, I began to think about what the plan was going forward. The Mets now only had Scott Rice and Brandon Lyon left in the bullpen. Rice had pitched about a week in a row and needed a day off. Lyon was coming off getting embarrassed by Washington, so nobody was blaming Collins for staying away. If they needed a starter, their most likely candidate to eat innings, Shaun Marcum, wasn't available because he'd started the game, though that was long enough ago that one couldn't be blamed for forgetting that. Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler certainly weren't options. Jeremy Hefner was scheduled for Tuesday. Bottom line was, hopefully this was all unnecessary thinking. Aardsma did his job in the 12th, and the bottom half of the inning mirrored several others, as Young got a hit, Gibson changed pitchers with 2 out, and the Mets didn't score.

Cody Ross, a Marlins reject who nobody likes, led off the 13th with a Home Run off Aardsma and styled as he did it. Of Course he did. Of course, after 5 hours and 13 innings and 33 runners left on base, that's how it's going to go down. Another stupid night with the stupid Mets. 

But for as stupid as the Mets often looked in this game, they somehow managed to wise up at the right moment. Or maybe Kirk Gibson just got stupid himself after sitting through this mess of a game. With one out, Josh Satin nailed a double to right, his 2nd double and 3rd hit of the game, and his second 3-hit game in a row. Think about this for a second. Josh Satin has had two cups of coffee with the Mets over the past two seasons and did nothing in particular other than being an honorable Landsman and have bushy eyebrows. But, here he is, getting a chance to play because his fellow Landsman, Ike Davis, stunk for 2 months, and all of a sudden he's hitting .380. Where did this come from? He's looked so good at the plate recently that when he was up in the 9th, I actually felt confident that he'd come through. And here in the 13th, he did it again. Kirk Gibson then ordered John Buck intentionally walked. Again, think about this for a second. John Buck struck out each of his first 3 at bats, and looked progressively more and more clueless each time. After his hot start, he's fallen back to earth and I believe he went 3-for-June. And yet not only did Gibson order him intentionally walked in the 11th, he did it again in the 13th, when Buck was the potential winning run! 

The logic, I suppose, was that the pitcher's spot was up next, and the Mets were out of players. The Mets do, however, have one pitcher who can handle the bat rather well, and that would be Matt Harvey. Harvey, who draws a fanfare at the mere mention of his name these days, was now called upon in an unscheduled appearance to lay down a bunt. This in and of itself was controversial, since Collins was giving away an out, but realistically, as good as Harvey looks at the plate, he still hits like a pitcher. A ground ball at someone would have been certain disaster. The safe play was the sacrifice, which Harvey laid down with ease, and allowed Gibson to order yet another intentional walk to Omar Quintanilla. The strategy behind this, I'm again not quite sure. At this late hour, I was only able to come up with one of two reasons: 1) Gibson didn't have a pitcher warming up. Every time the Mets had two outs and men on base, and were ready to go in for the kill, Gibson broke up the rhythm with a pitching change. 2) Gibson really wanted the Mets to set a record for leaving men on base. Whatever the reason, it ended up not working, because Andrew Brown, after falling behind 0-2, got a hold of a high fastball and shot it into the gap in Left Field, scoring Satin and Buck to win the game and earn himself a sunflower seed shower in lieu of the Justin Turner pie. 

Of course, it was Andrew Brown with the winning hit. 2 weeks ago, I had derided Brown as a useless placeholder who wouldn't be around by this point. So, since that point, all Andrew Brown has done is come up with meaningful hits, and none quite as meaningful as this one, at 12:24am, after 5 hours and 13 minutes and 13 innings and 13 pitchers in soupy conditions and mysterious managerial moves,  so that the Mets could peck and scrape and claw and eventually be rewarded with a 5-4 win that defied all logic. Sometimes, you win games like this.

This was not the longest game I had attended in terms of innings, as I do have 4 14-inning games on my ledger. However, it did end up being my longest in elapsed time, and believe me, I felt every bit of those 5 hours and 13 minutes this morning. I'm always happy to see the Mets win, particularly since I'd been working on a miserable 4-game losing streak. But as I've gotten older, I think I'm beginning to appreciate the quicker, 2 hour, 40 minute games much more than these marathons. I'm all for good drama and good stories, but all things considered, this was slightly ridiculous.

Christmas Tree

I'm paraphrasing "Bull Durham" slightly since the quote isn't readily at my fingertips at this late hour, but at some late part of the movie, after Nuke LaLoosh gets called up to the Majors, he meets with his catcher Crash in the locker room. Crash, in imparting some final words of wisdom, tells Nuke, "These guys are going to light you up like a damn Christmas Tree at first. You be cocky and arrogant, even when you're getting beat."

This could effectively be applied to Zack Wheeler after Sunday's beating at the hands of the Nationals.

Sunday was my 10th game of the season, and my 2nd unplanned game of the season. Given a free Sunday afternoon, a nice day, the potential to see the home debut of a future phenom and a steep discount on good tickets from the Mets a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't pass it up. Only later did I realize that in addition to all that, it was David Wright Bobblehead day.

We, as fans, obviously can't help but think the most optimistic of thoughts on days like this. I remember feeling this way about Bill Pulsipher's debut in 1995. I went to that game expecting the shutout and the Cy Young Award all at once. But after a 5-run 1st inning, reality set in. Given the hype surrounding Wheeler, one couldn't be blamed for having similar feelings. You go into the stadium, get your bobblehead, and go up to your seat thinking you're going to see Wheeler go out, throw 7 shutout innings and the Mets cruise to victory. And after Wheeler zipped his fastball around, struck out the first 2 batters and got through the 1st inning without breaking a sweat, you thought this just might be that day.

Then, the rest of the game happens, and you get the good reality check you were hoping wouldn't happen. Yes, there will be better games, much better for Wheeler than the one he pitched on Sunday. There have to be, because the Nationals belted him around pretty good. After Byrd and Satin let Gio Gonzalez off the hook in the 1st, the Nationals dug in and teed off on Wheeler, who appeared to have a mysterious drop in velocity and a loss of location. His first pitch to Adam LaRoche was clanged off the Pepsi Porch, and things pretty much went downhill from there. Ian Desmond and Denard Span hit similarly well-struck shots, sandwiched around a mishandled grounder by Quintanilla, added up to a 4-run deficit, and Jayson Werth's long, loud Home Run an inning later hung a 5th run on Wheeler's ledger.

Admirably, Wheeler stuck it out, and was an out away from completing the 5th inning before a final walk to LaRoche sealed his fate. But in spite of his poorest outing to date, at 4.2 innings, 6 hits, 5 runs, 2 walks and 5 strikeouts, he still departed to a hearty ovation from fans who recognize that dreams are dreams, and reality is reality, and the reality is that even though Wheeler was made the proverbial Christmas tree, there remains the potential for much greater days to come.

Unfortunately, there was still more of a game to be played after Wheeler's departure, and boy, it wasn't pretty. The Mets, who found scant opportunities to cut into their deficit against Gio Gonzalez, were cut off each time. The Nationals, after knocking around Wheeler, also made a Christmas Tree of Brandon Lyon, running up 6 runs in the 8th inning, much of it done in the midst of a drizzling rain that drove most of the crowd to the exits. When the game reached 8-0, I turned to my other half, who had been enjoying herself most of the afternoon, and said one of those rare, embarrassing things that I don't like saying:

"I think, if you want to leave, we can go now."

It was raining, the Mets were losing and everything was terrible. I was actually hoping she'd say yes, and she did, so we packed up our Bobbleheads and got out of there, sparing ourselves the remaining 3 runs in the 8th inning, and the sight of having to see Anthony Recker mop up in the 9th and serve up 2 more runs courtesy of an Ian Desmond Home Run that I'm told landed in somebody's Acela Club soup.

So, that happened. I left early for the second time this season, and quite honestly I don't see how I could be blamed either time. But I hope to not have to do this again anytime soon. Particularly when you consider the next game on my plan is—Surprise, Surprise—Tonight against Arizona, where I'll have the high pleasure of seeing another Shaun Marcum start.