000000000000000000000000000

That's not some binary code I'm th rowing at you, that's the line score for the Phillies in their most recent trip to Citi Field. Doesn't look like much, does it?

You never see these kind of things coming, and usually it's a pleasant surprise when they do. Three straight shutouts of the best offensive team in the NL, however, is something else entirely. I don't know where it came from, I don't know how they managed to pull it off, and I sure as hell don't know if they'll keep it up, especially considering this is something they haven't done in 41 seasons.

It takes some luck, yes, and that's what got the shutouts. But it also takes a good deal of skill simply to get the victories. Pelfrey proved that last night by punching his way through the middle innings, protecting a 1-run lead by serving up his specialty: The inning-ending, ground ball double play. Hamels was certainly up to matching him, at least until he ran out of steam in the 7th inning, allowing the Mets to tack on a pair of runs that pretty much iced the game, or at least iced it as much as you can consider a 3-0 lead iced.

In a series like this one, a 3-0 lead was apparently insurmountable. Go figure.

So, the Mets are back, once again, after another one of these rip-roaring homestands where they lost 1 game and won all the others. They're hot again, people are excited again, everything's wonderful in Metville. So long as they don't go to Milwaukee and San Diego and lose 4 of 6. Then everyone's head is on the chopping block once again. Hopefully this time they've gotten hot and will stay hot for a little while longer.

Hey, Hey, Hisanori!

So, I think it's time we start gushing over Hisanori Takahashi.

Last night was my 7th game of the season at Citi Field. After 4 quick wins out of the gate, I'd sat through a pair of games where I either froze my ass off while the Mets looked lifeless, or sat comfortably while the Mets looked lifeless. Last night, I sweated out a rather easy Mets victory.

Obviously, I'll take the latter every time.

While Jose Reyes provided much of the sizzle in last night's game, between his 1st HR in well over a season, and his acrobatic leaping catch to end the game, it was Hisanori Takahashi who really provided the thrill, going out and throwing 6 shutout innings for the second time in a row.

Takahashi was near-heroic in his effort against the Yankees, constantly getting in and out of trouble by basically throwing everything he wanted to throw exactly where he wanted to put it. I called him the Anti-Oliver Perez and I think that's quite fitting because not only does he throw strikes, but he seems to almost always keep things under control. The Yankees appeared to always just get close to getting to him. Last night, the Phillies didn't even appear that close. Aside from a bunch of singles and one well-struck double, the Phillies only managed to get two runners on base in the 6th, and of course Takahashi responded by striking out Ryan Howard and getting Jayson Werthless to fly out.

Basically, Takahashi has demonstrated that he knows how to pitch, he knows what he has to work with, he knows when to show what he has and he knows where he needs to put his pitches. How long this success will last, I don't know. But for now, he's the answer in the rotation, I don't think there's any debate about that.

Meanwhile, after the Phillies threatened and were turned away in the 6th, there were the Mets, coming out on offense and basically stopping and demoralizing the Phillies by tacking on 3 more runs and essentially putting the game out of reach. The Mets had been running at will against Joe Blanton all night. After a well-struck double from Wright, Angel Pagan laid down a textbook bunt single and appeared to have taken off for 2nd before Rod Barajas even stepped in the batter's box. Barajas followed with the double to plate both runs, and Reyes came up later and iced the game with a single.

The crowd was alive in a way I haven't felt much at Citi Field, primarily because there was never a reason to. Yes, there were plenty of Phillies fans. No, they didn't have much to talk about, and when they did, it appeared there were plenty of Mets fans shouting them down. In the stairways after the game, the chants were all in our favor, and all over the place. It was the kind of magic I haven't felt since Shea. It's nice. I hope it keeps up. I mean, can they? Think about it. Back-to-back shutouts of the best offense in the league by pitchers named Dickey and Takahashi? Jose Reyes back? Rod Barajas anchoring the offense? What's going on here? I was about to leave this team for dead just 5 days ago. If this is what's going to happen, maybe I should start calling people out more often.

Picking Your Spots

I wonder if it took facing the Yankees, a familiar foe from his Red Sox days, for Jason Bay to finally start to get on one of his hot streaks. After a 4-hit game on Saturday night, Bay finally flipped that power switch and knocked out a pair of HRs, not only aiding the Mets to a game and series win, but also tripling his HR output for the season and (hopefully) signaling that he's finally going to go on one of his tears.

I haven't especially worried about Bay or his slow start, because he really doesn't seem like he's pressing or bothered by any of this. Pressure doesn't seem to wear on him like it does on a few of his teammates. It's as though he knows the hits will come, just be patient and stick with it and the numbers will go up. But he certainly knows when to step it up and get some big hits, and last night proved that.

I still maintain that Bay just makes the Mets feel a little more professional. I wouldn't get down on him at all even if he goes back in the tank, because in the long run, I'm pretty confident that we're going to like this signing. I can see him maybe having a Beltran in '05 season, not quite right, and then coming back the next year and lighting it up. Hell, he could come back in the 2nd half and light it up.

Then, there's Johan Santana, who had a lot to prove himself, given that the last time he took the mound in The Biggest Game In The Galaxy, he got lit up by the Phillies, and the last time he took the mound against the Yankees, he got lit up. But, with the Mets primed to steal this series (one in which they were one stupid error and one key hit away from sweeping, honestly), Johan came out and looked like the Johan we're used to seeing. He was unusually economic with his pitches and he kept the Yankees off balance and off the scoreboard and basically just wagged his finger at everyone as if to say, "Don't write me off just yet..."

This rubber game business has seemed to always be a problem for this particular incarnation of the Mets, so it's particularly important to look at the performances by Santana and Bay last night and see how they stepped it up a little bit when the Mets needed them to. I'm not totally convinced that the Mets are going to go on another hot streak just yet, if they come back on Tuesday against Philly and knock them around, maybe I will be, but if they are, you can look to a game such as last night's as an instance where the Mets best players played their best and basically willed them to victory.

Our Savior!

I think Saturday night's Mets win could fall into the "Holy Crap, they won!" category, primarily because I don't think anyone really figured it would happen.

I think we can thank Mike Pelfrey for that one. In fact, if you're Jerry Manuel and the rest of the coaching staff or the other folks I called out on Friday, you're probably ready to kiss Mike Pelfrey's feet right now. Jason Bay, too, but Pelfrey first, since this is probably the 2nd time this week he's pulled everyone's asses out of the fire. Or has he just been doing it all season. Probably both. Basically, he's been the only pitcher who's gone out every time this season and pitched like it mattered. Even the couple of starts where he wasn't that great, he managed to will his way through it (or he was just undone by his defense).

Last night, he navigated the Yankee lineup masterfully. And not only that, he actually got some early runs to work with, making the task a little easier. Wright and Bay, who have been a couple of the chief culprits of the Mets offensive ineptitude, chipped in with a bunch of hits, and a few key RBIs as well as the Mets built up a 5-1 lead that, try as they might, the bullpen couldn't quite manage to hand back to the Yankees. No, the bullpen hasn't been great lately, but if I were going to point to a primary culprit, it would be their overuse rather than their not being good pitchers (hear that, Jerry!?). The 8th got a little frightening, but fortunately K-Rod was able to come in and stop the Yankees, because another stupid error, or a blooper that fell in for a 3-run 2B seemed imminent.

So, even. No Mets getting swept. No alarm bells throughout the organization, no imminent heads rolling. Not yet, anyway. Now, a chance to win the series if they can pull it together again tonight. That would be nice, wouldn't it?

Wasting Time

I seem to have a problem, lately, of starting posts, but not finishing them until a substantial amount of time later. It's either I'm tired because I'm working too late and getting up too early, or I'm tired because I sat through a 3 hour, 18 minute crapfest that masqueraded for last night's Mets/Yankees game.

If this is how the Mets are going to come out and start what's probably the make-or-break homestand of the season, then they may as well just start canning people right now, because this was pretty pathetic, both from the players and the manager's standpoint.

Predictably, the Mets went out against the much-maligned Javier Vazquez and made him look brilliant. Vazquez has been having his lunch fed to him on a regular basis all year long. So, of course, he no-hits the Mets into the 5th inning.

On the bright side, Hisanori Takahashi came out and pitched a heroic ballgame. You couldn't help but be a little skeptical, given the recent history of Met spot starters, but Takahashi clearly would have none of that. Not only did he pitch well, not only did he get out of jams, but he THREW STRIKES! It was like watching the anti-Oliver Perez out there. By the 4th inning, he'd thrown about 90% strikes, he only walked one guy in his 6 innings and he got every key out. The argument could have been made to keep him in, but you figured 6 innings was about all he was good for. I wasn't raring to see him navigate the Yankees lineup a 4th time, so pulling him wasn't the wrong move.

The wrong move was who Manuel went to to replace Takahashi.

When I saw that Elmer Dessens was warming up, I hoped it was a mistake. I thought he'd been cut, never to return. But there he was, on the team, starting the 7th inning. I've always felt that Elmer Dessens on the roster was like some bad joke or something. And almost like clockwork, he gave up a hit, Cora made his horrendous and egregious error (funny how Mets 2nd basemen always look their best against the Yankees), and Kevin Russo, with all of 1 Major League hit and 0 RBIs, drove home both runs. And right then and there everyone knew the game was over.

By time the 9th rolled around, most of the Mets fans in the crowd had left. With 2 hits to that point, who could blame them? Fortunately, the Citi Field Subway Series crowd seems much more civil and pleasant to be around than they were at Shea. The transplanted section of Bleacher Bums was nowhere to be found. Not that that made us feel any better. With Rivera in to protect the lead, the final seemed academic. At least until Bay reached out for a 2B that nearly got out, and Ike Davis followed with a rope to the wall in right center (proving the point that Ike Davis owns Mariano Rivera. Owns him!). A glimmer of hope! A chance with Wright at the pl...Oh. He grounded out. Never mind.

Pelfrey tonight, but what does it mean if nobody can get a hit?