Trade Idea: Luis Castillo to the Texas Rangers

Here's one for you. Starting with facts that we can generally assume:

1. The Mets are, at best, one game better with Luis Castillo than they are with Ruben Tejada.

2. The Texas Rangers are "going for it" this year, acquiring Cliff Lee, Bengie Molina, and Jorge Cantu recently.

3. The Rangers all-star second baseman, Ian Kinsler, is out with an injury. And when playing, is very injury prone.

The Mets should flip Castillo to the Rangers.

With A Little Help From His Friends R.A. Finally Gets Win #7!

The Rubber Game: Mets 4 Cards 0

Tricky Dickey vs Blake Hawksworth aka the guy with the cool name

This was R.A. Dickey's 62nd major league start!

It was also game 1500 for Pujols.

It was also Umbrella Day at Citi Field.

And David Wright had the day off and Crash Davis Mike Hessman was in the lineup.

NO CASTILLO in the lineup, YAY!

At Least Keith Hernandez Was "Perfectamundo" Last Night...

So yes last night's game sucked. The Mets were never supposed to win this one. But at least Keith was en fuego in the booth!

Originally Pelf was slated to pitch in this game and well Manuel's getting all desperate and scary with his rotation decisions. I understand him wanting to start Santana last night because well the Mets since July 4th really only win when Johan's on the mound (this doesn't include Niese's start in the 8-2 victorino over STL Monday night).

THE TIPPING POINT

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW IS RIGHT THERE IN THE BOX SCORE.

TONIGHT, JOSE REYES WAS 3-FOR-6 WITH A WALK. DAVID WRIGHT WAS 3-FOR-6. ANGEL PAGAN WAS 2-FOR-5 WITH A HOME RUN. CARLOS BELTRAN HOMERED. ALL OUR STARS PERFORMED LIKE STARS.

BUT WE LOST. WHY??

Oliver Perez, a Confession and a Plan

You're not going to hear me say this a lot, everyone, so enjoy this.

I was wrong.

I was totally wrong on Oliver Perez, and it's finally become time for me to admit it. The guy can't get anyone out. There is no role for him. He's worse than a replacement reliever that we could dredge out of the minors. It's over.

Ted Berg on the #BlameBeltran Phenomenon

Excellent article again by Ted. I'll let it speak for itself:

I just don’t think there’s any strong evidence to believe that Beltran is in any way a negative presence in the clubhouse, nor that it would mean much if he were, if he were producing.

We Gotta Soldier On...

Hey folks I'm sorry I haven't done recaps as regularly as I used to. Honestly it's just been very difficult for me lately. This 11 game road trip knocked me out. I just am at a loss for words. And who knows what will happen today? Will Howard Johnson be fired? Will Manuel get the boot? Can we just fire Razor Shines for the hell of it? But seriously I don't want this team to change.

Move Over Karl Malone There's A New "Mailman." His Name Is Jason Bay And He Delivers...Sometimes

Game 2: Mets 6 Dodgers 1

Johan Santana vs Vincente Padilla

Larry King, Piers Morgan and (I thought I saw) George Lopez were all in attendance at Dodger Stadium for this glorious game! Well I guess they didn't enjoy it but too bad for them. And ever since I saw a "Curb Your Enthusiasm" a few years back involving Larry David, a prostitute, a car pool lane, and a Dodgers game I always look for Mr. David in the the Chavez Ravine crowd. But nope he wasn't at this game. But hey let's still watch a scene from this episode since well it's super hysterical:

I Won't Quit On The Mets!

There is a scene in Ang Lee's movie "Brokeback Mountain" where cowboy Jake Gyllenhaal tells cowboy Heath Ledger he wishes he "knew how to quit" him. I am not really a fan of this movie. I thought it was overrated and hyped up the wazoo but I know it is a good film with great acting. Here take a look at the quit you scene:

So yes this quitting scene represents how I have felt about the Mets lately. Since they have returned from the all star break they are 1-7 on this current road trip from hell and each loss is just painful. Being swept by the D-Backs was just the worst. I don't think they can ever live that down.

This opposite of winning thing the Mets are doing is mostly hurting my heart because the team that I have come to know this year is gone. This squad has never been consistent this season or even a so so road team, I know this but they always showed resiliency and a great fight to win. I remember the 20 inning game against the Cardinals, Takahashi's two great starts against the Yanks, a 6-0 who the eff is this R.A. Dickey and a rookie named Isaac Benjamin Davis who was the spark plug that turned the Mets season around back in the end of April. I even recall when the Mets swept both the Braves and the Dodgers and a month or so later CLEAN SWEPT the Phillies. These were great times and I know there are more ahead. I know they can't be done fighting!

Having said all this I know that on this road trip and even the series against the Braves before the break the Metsies really have no DRIVE to just get a victorino. There is no drive, they are just sitting in the car waiting for a win to come their way. Well that or they are waiting for Phil Cuzzi to ump another game for them. Oh that was awful of me.

A playoff spot at this point does seem bleak, they are 7 1/2 games behind the Braves and 4 behind the Giants for the wild card spot BUT it's not out of reach.

The chemistry on the team now is just not there but again this can all be changed. Of course Beltran coming back was going to disrupt things. Francouer was a leader on this team. I mean he was the leader. He told the guys when to grow beards, when to shave and he just was that positive force on the team. And now well everything is changing. I'm not a big fan of change. I'm gonna level with you folks now. Frenchy is my favorite Met, I've grown very fond of him over the last year and the fact that he wants to be traded now saddens me. I understand he loves this team but he also loves to get playing time. He never has had to sit out of games. I get all of this and I know he understands as do I that Pagan has been stellar this season and he does deserve a spot in the lineup over Frenchy. But with a demoralized Jeff Francouer that means the Mets no longer have that leader. And in the dugout and in the field the Mets just look like they are in pain. Everyone is now flashing that "JOHN MAINE I'm gonna cry" look. I remember a time when Pelf and Dickey were in the dugout filing their nails together. At one point Pelf and Cora practiced a little air guitar in the dugout. Ike and Jose would do funny handshakes and such after they scored runs and that's all gone. But like I said I'm not quitting on these Mets.

After last night's 2-0 loss to the Dodgers we can walk away from this one knowing that Takahashi can pitch great against any team that is the Yankees or has a connection to the Yankees. He must just see Mattingly and Torre and go "Oh Donny baseball played on the Yanks and Joe was a manager for the Yanks I can pitch really wonderfully in this game!" I imagine that's what goes through Takahashi's head. And he was really good last night. He gave up an rbi double and a solo homer to Mr. Rihanna (or I guess his real name is Matt Kemp) and those were the only runs scored by LA. But as of now giving up 1 or 2 runs to the opposition equals a Mets loss.

So I look at tonight's game and the rest of this series as huge. The Mets need to get wins and they need to get them fast. I have tried to have an effect on the team but it's not working. About 2 weeks ago when I was at Citi Field and the Mets played the Braves it was Jason Bay Bobblehead Day and I love this little doll giveaway.

During every game that I am home to watch my little Jay Bay sits by me and we cheer on the Mets. When Bay's up to bat I move little Jay Bay's head around, I rub his shoulders I do all this in an attempt to get the real Jay Bay's bat to come alive. I know this strategy is not working as of now but I'm not quitting on it. I was tempted to break my little Jay Bay bobblehead doll after the 14 inning loss the other night but nah I couldn't hurt him. I just couldn't. I still think he's going to have a big second half. Pelt me with stones and tomatoes for sounding so silly with this statement but I'm sticking to it. I am. And I also hope Frenchy isn't traded. I would be heartbroken if the Mets were Francouer-less.

So this is what could happen tonight and gosh darn it I'm gonna be optimistic it will. Santana will have another great performance, the bullpen will come in and not eff it up and Beltran and Bay (who will most likely be back in the lineup) will have big nights at the plate. I know this can happen and I know the Mets can win. I won't accept the fact that they are quitting on us fans. I just won't.

A Phrase You Will Never Hear Again.... Ever

Bet the mortgage on the fact that this will never be repeated:

"Now Castillo, the freshest legs on the field..." - Gary Cohen

Before We All Pile on Oliver Perez for Lack of "Heart" or Anything Else...

It just looks like he has nothing left. I don't mean to make excuses for the guy (who, by the way, was really the only pre-season prediction I was off the mark with) but facts are facts.

I look at the Upton at bat tonight as a microcosm of what Perez has become. He got ahead 0-2, with one of the strikes a well-struck foul ball. Then? He had nothing to finish with. After trying to back-door two slurves to Upton and running the count to 3-2, it looked like he had just no desire whatsoever to challenge the batter. He had nothing to challenge him WITH.

The Montero at-bat was similar. After getting Montero 0-2, he nibbled around. He no longer has the velocity on the fastball to beat people, and without it, the slider just isn't effective. Batters appear to be "on" his pitches. And why the experimentation with the silly side-arm motion?

It's hard to say, as a casual observer, if this is exactly the case. I don't know what is going on in the mind of Oliver Perez, and if he's really lost faith in his ability to challenge hitters. But I do know that when a pitcher loses a couple ticks off of their fastball, and doesn't have a diverse repetoire (a third pitch), that the pitcher is in big trouble. I do also know what it feels like to have two strikes on a batter and have NO IDEA what you can throw to finish him off, because he's better than you.

That's really what it looks like with Ollie. And for that, there's no remedy.

I'm Not Waving the White Flag Yet

But one thing that needs to be pointed out is that -- I mean, wow -- so many things have gone the Mets way this season. Almost all of the 'coin flips' heading into the season turned out in our favor, yet here we still are staring up at the Braves.

1. Jose Reyes came back healthy. Not amazing out of the gate, but healthy. And contributing.
2. Angel Pagan proved he could play every day.
3. Carlos Beltran came back later than we had hoped, but here he is, pushing Francoeur out of the lineup.
4. Wright's power returned.
5. Santana's elbow is ok, and he's pitching great.
6. Josh Thole and Jon Niese both are playing at the very very top end of what could have been projected for them at the start of the year.
7. RA Dickey came out of nowhere to pitch like -- and it's time to say it -- a legitimate #2 starter or ace (thus far)
8. Pelfrey has pitched more like 2008 than 2009.
9. The Phillies have suffered a ton of injuries.

All of these things, have broken in our favor, yet here we are. Our ace and our perennial all-star third baseman have each overcome adversity. Our two other all-star position players have returned from various career-threatening injuries. What more could you ask for?

I'm not throwing in the towel yet, but it is hard, very hard, not to wonder if the Mets have already given their all and fallen short. Eventually, not all the breaks will go our way.

Could it be better? Well... we do have a pythagorean W-L record of 50-43, one game worse than our actual record entering tonight. We have an 11-16 record in one run games, which is to some degree affected by luck. But for the most part? No.

We've gotten our breaks, and here we are in second place. Maybe Dickey and Niese will continue to dominate the National League. Maybe Santana will continue to outperform his peripherals. Maybe Pelfrey will recapture his early season dominance. Maybe Reyes and Beltran will round into the form they showed in their peak seasons. Maybe we will continue to avoid major injury.

It's still early, and as a Mets fan, dreaming is in your DNA. But it's getting late pretty early.

Big Pelf Ruins The Family Reunion!

Game 1 in the desert: D-Backs 13 Mets 2

Ian Kennedy vs Big Pelf

So Reyes, Beltran and Castillo were back in the lineup and well who even remembers that after this loss...

Pelf in this one was like that member of your family who comes to a family gathering and he ruins it. He's that uncle, or cousin or aunt or niece who gets too drunk, too loud and just too obnoxious. Last night was supposed to be great, argh!

Tejada has been demoted...

AND the 4 man outfield rotation is over and Frenchy will be enjoying sunflower seeds on the far end of the bench in the dugout. Poor Jeff!

Okay this one just maybe put me over the edge. Nah it hasn't but I'm not dealing with these losses well. I'm starting to whine a little bit and sulk and that's so unattractive! It's so girly, ick ick ick! It's just these Metsies are breaking my heart every day now. At least before the all star break my heart was just being broken every couple of days and I could handle it. But now I just don't know what to do. I stopped watching this one after Pelf was taken out of the game. Yeah I have my limits. This is the 2nd time in the last 5 days I've given up on the Mets. I had never done this (well at least this 2010 season) prior to Takahashi's start in San Fran. And I hate that I have started to do this but then again my parents' television set is pretty expensive and I'd rather not break it or the remote control that goes with it. So yes I shut this game off. So this recap is going to be brief and not really that much of a recap. I can't do it folks. And really would you want me to make us relive this nightmare!!??

So now let's just look at part of the nightmare in the desert, Pelf's stats from last night:
1.1IP 7H 6ER 2BB K 74 pitches thrown

Many people keep speculating that Pelf's performance in the first inning might be the worst first inning ever for a starting pitcher. I'm pretty sure that can't be true. Although he did give up 4 runs and he threw 51 pitches there have been worse starts to a game. But it's always fun to kick a man when he's down right, ugh. I don't know what's going on with Big Pelf and if I could I'd like to sit him down on a couch and use some of my guidance counseling skills and probe that brain of his. It's the off-school-season for me so I'm available Jerry Manuel and Dan Warthen!!

A few weeks ago everyone was saying Pelf could be a 20 game winner and now it seems hard to believe he'll get that 11th win. This out of whack Pelf is making us excited that Ollie could be back with the team tonight. Okay excited is a stretch but seriously Perez probably couldn't do worse than Pelf. Well maybe he could but you know what I'm getting at.

But I'm not giving up just yet. I am sticking around for the rest of this season no matter what.

And now let's laugh at some adorable little league Arizona D-Backers. They really are cute and well it might put smiles on your faces folks! I have nothing else to bring us joy really.



Tonight is a new night! Dickey is on the mound and maybe just maybe things can turn around for the Mets in the desert! Maybe they can beat this D-Backs team they should beat and Dickey can get win #7! And if not well let's not think about that...Optimism is key!

Forget about this one and go on out and have a great day folks!

I'm Pretty Certain Phil Cuzzi Learned His Craft From Leslie Nielsen

The Twilight Zone/Game 4: Mets 4 Giants 3 (10 innings)

Santana vs Sanchez

So folks I'm sorry I haven't written up about this "twlight zone" of a game. I was having a great afternoon with a friend and I got home just in time to catch the bottom of the 8th. And then I saw the rest of the game and I was really speechless. This has kind of just been a shitty week in Mets baseball and in life for me so yeah I had to take some time before I thought long and hard how to approach this writeup. And then my Dad and I talked about this one yet again this morning and my Pops said "Didn't that 9th inning remind you of Leslie Nielsen in "Naked Gun?" You know when he's umping that baseball game?" And yes my Dad's a genius. That's exactly what this 9th inning was like! So now let's watch this scene from "Naked Gun." Then I'll discuss Phil Cuzzi and K-Rod a bit more.

Oh and I have another trivia question. So here it is, "What is David Wright's classic line from that Lincoln MKS commercial he's in?" This is the part of the commercial where he's in the car and the window starts to open and David busts out a little soliloquy. Ok the answer will be revealed later. Good luck!



Oh Frankie I Want To Kick You In Your K-Rod...
So really I've come to the conclusion that if Santana is pitching a gem of a game 8IP, 8H, ER, BB, 5K there is no reason to not let him pitch the 9th inning too. Really do we need to deal with these K-Rod shenanigans when the ace on the mound can finish the game. Really pitch count smitch count! That's just my opinion on the matter. I mean if it's an 8-3 game like it was Saturday night K-Rod is amazing. He strikes out the first two batters and then he gets Aubrey Huff to ground out to end the inning. He's a superstar 1,2,3 dynamo when the game is already pretty much won by the opposing side. But when it's these close games when you need your closer to just save the game K-Rod is a mess. I've thought for a while it's those goggles of his but I don't know. Regardless I hope some Metsie brought K-Rod's goggles over to Alcatraz and well left them there before their flight to Arizona.

Top of the 9th: Mets 3 Giants 1
In this inning K-Rod did the thing he's best at, walking the lead off batter. Yep he walked Sandoval. But still this is nothing too "twilight zone" crazy. Mets fans know what to expect from K-Rod. This is what we have dealt with all season long. Then on an 0-2 count Uribe singled. Then Eli Whiteside sac bunted beautifully and there were now men on 2nd and 3rd with no outs for Travis Ishikawa. The first "twilight zone" moment happened now. The home plate ump Phil Cuzzi called ball two on Ishikawa and K-Rod and Blanco were pretty positive that ball was a strike. Blanco did something catchers never do, he turned around to face Cuzzi. Cuzzi flailed his arms, made fists, he basically made a motion that led Gary Cohen to announce that he thought Blanco or K-Rod or both had been ejected from the game. This was not the case though. Possibly Cuzzi just got mad at someone in the dugout. Keith and Gary had no idea what was going on and I didn't either. I still don't know what happened really! Then Ishikawa singled, both Renteria (pinch runner for the panda) and Uribe scored and this game was tied. K-Rod blew another save and Santana yet again got a no decision. Then Andres Torres hit a double and because of Jeff's arm in right Ishikawa was held at 3rd and the Mets still had a chance to not lose another walk off game.

So now the 2nd "twilight zone" moment of this game happened. With men on 2nd and 3rd and 1 out Freddy Sanchez grounded a ball to Wright. Dave threw home to Blanco in an attempt to get Ishikawa out at home and he was OUT. But oh no Cuzzi took a long time to say he was in fact SAFE. Whoa the Mets got a break. This led Keith to say, "He was SAFE." And Gary remarked, "Phil Cuzzi has just had a terrible day." And Keith added, "Terrible throw by Wright." And yes Cuzzi has been learning his craft from Leslie Nielsen and yeah Dave's throw was awful. But in Wright's defense he was hit in the knee by a ball Pat Burrell hit earlier this game. Speaking of Burrell, I mean he's a Mets killer, he always has been but I never thought he actually might want to kill an actual METSIE. Now I'm sort of unsure what goes on in that head of Pat's!

Ok but back to this 9th inning. Aubrey Huff was up with 2 outs and men on 1st and 3rd. And now "twilight zone" moment number 3 happened. Huff dribbled the ball right in front of home plate, Blanco got it, threw to Ike and yeah Gary Cohen announced the inning was over. But nope that wasn't so. The 3rd base umpire Mike Estabrook overrode Cuzzi's ruling and he said it was a foul ball or that the ball hit Huff's foot. I'm unsure really. This led Keith to say "Fair ball, it didn't hit anything!" And Gary remarked, "That's not his call anyway!" Well Estabrook's call was the call that counted because well I have no idea why and this inning was still being played. Gary then said, "This is like "The Twilight Zone! I don't understand." The count was now 0-2 on Huff and then Frankie threw ball 1, of course he did this, and Sanchez advanced to 2nd (defensive interference was called). Somehow Huff grounded out to Ike and this inning was over. I still have no idea what transpired. Btw K-Rod had thrown 27 pitches in this inning.

I have never seen anything like this ever! I mean each Mets game is like a learning experience. And this kind of education sucks. My head still hurts from this one.

The 10th Inning, A Slight Departure From "The Twilight Zone"
Thank goodness in the top of the 10th Isaac Benjamin Davis got a 2 out rbi double that scored the go ahead run and the Mets held on in the bottom of the 10th. Of course I was prepared for K-Rod to yet again lose this game for the Metsies in the 10th but somehow he didn't totally fuck up! He quickly on just 4 pitches got Posey to ground out and Burrell to fly out but then he sucked yet again. Frankie gave up a 2 out double to Renteria. Then he intentionally walked Uribe. Seriously why would Manuel have K-Rod put the winning run on base? Gary and Keith didn't get this managerial move and I didn't either. Now it was up to Eli Whiteside to either win this one for the Giants (well they had really won it already in the 9th) or to let the Mets really really really catch a break in San Fran. After Whiteside just got a piece of the ball to make the count go to 1-2 Gary remarked, "Here's the good news about that last call, Phil Cuzzi made it himself. Mike Estabrook was nowhere to be seen." Miraculously after making the count 3-2 K-Rod struck Eli out and this game was finally over! The Mets won, they avoided the sweep and oh boy thank god they are leaving San Francisco! Oh and after this inning K-Rod had a pitch count of well 47. Oye.

OH and here's the answer to the trivia question! Wright says the following, "The game has officially been changed!" If you got it right go on and get yourself a Lincoln MKS. Or well if you are poor like me go buy yourself an ice cream!

So tonight is a new night and the Mets will be playing the D-Backs. It has been advertised that Beltran and Reyes will both be in the lineup and Pelf will be on the mound. So let's hope for a great outing from Pelf! He can do it! And yeah some great hitting from our Metsies would be delightful! And well there better be NO Leslie Nielsen umpiring. That would be splendid!

Have a fun day folks!

To Arizona and beyond!

At Least The Mets Didn't Get Shutout...

Game 3/Tim Lincecum Bobblehead Night: Giants 8 Mets 4

Matt Cain vs Hisanori Takahashi

In Cain's last 5 starts he was 0-4, his ERA was 7.45 and the opp. avg was .328. Yes the Mets helped Cain get back on that winning track just like they so nicely helped that Barry Zito out 2 nights ago. Why are they so philanthropic!!?? This type of generosity sucks!

The Mets in their history have never been shutout by the same team in 3 consecutive games!

In the 4 man outfield rotation Frenchy was given the night off and Crazy Horse was back in the lineup!

Manuel now says Reyes will start Monday in Arizona. Again I'll believe this when I see it. Sheesh.

Last night's game also marked the first time David Wright faced Matt Cain since well Cain beaned him in the head back on 8/15/09. As Keith remarked, he "hit him right in the coconut solid." Btw did you know Cain has hit Wright twice in his career!? I didn't remember that he had beaned him another time. Thank goodness Cain was a good boy and he kept his balls away from Wright's head yesterday!

So I'll be honest now and I hate to admit this but I gave up on our beloved Metsies. I was so pumped for this game. I had just watched this terrible movie "CHLOE" starring Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson and Amanda Seyfried and I was ready for the Good Takahashi to cheer me up and to kick some Giants butt at AT&T Park. I just was optimistic it would be a good time! Well that positive feeling I had immediately changed in the bottom of the 2nd when the Bad Takahashi gave up 5 runs. Yep immediately after Torres hit a 3 run bomb I called it quits. I shut off my television and was done. I haven't done this all season and I never lose hope with the Metsies but I just couldn't take it. I always look on the bright side but these last couple of games just got to me and I stopped watching. But because I do love the Mets I dvr-ed the game and after I ran at the park this morning I came home and I watched most of the game. Do I regret shutting off the game last night? I do. I just feel it's a bad pattern to start and I don't plan on doing it again. I'm still believing in the Mets regardless of all the misery they are causing us as of now!

So let's get to the recap and a special conversation that took place between Gary and Keith. Oh and I'm going to test you guys. I've added a new segment to this recap. Here is my "Danielle trivia question" for you. This is a picture of a woman you may have seen while watching many games this season on SNY.

What commercial is she from? I'll reveal the answer later! Good luck!

Here we go!

Metsies lineup:
Pagan
Cora
Wright
Beltran
Davis
Bay
Barajas
Tejada
Takahashi

In the top of the 1st with 2 outs it was the match-up I was waiting for, Cain vs Wright. If I was Dave I would have been frightened out of my mind, probably like a PTSD thing would have been going on in my head. But Davey looked okay up there, he didn't look too scared at all. Sadly he grounded out to Uribe to end the inning but still I was proud of David!

In the bottom of the 2nd the game pretty much ended. Mets fans knew that lately giving up 1 or 2 runs to the Giants was just going to lead to a loss for the Amazins so the fact that Takahashi gave up 5 runs made a Mets victorino seem impossible. In this inning that stupid Baby Face Nelson (Buster Posey) led off with a double. This fricking awesome rookie now has an 11 game inning streak! Damn your skills Buster! The Mets killer Pat Burrell was then walked and Uribe singled. Posey scored and the Giants had a 1-0 lead over the Metsies. Then with men on 1st and 2nd and still no outs that Kung Fu Panda Sandoval rbi singled (2-0 Giants) and he gloated because that's what pandas do I guess! Next Renteria was a nice enough chap and he struck out. And Matt Cain sac bunted. So now there were 2 outs and men on 2nd and 3rd for Torres. Usually Takahashi gives up a homer after he has faced the batting order once and what do you know he did that again. Why Taka why!! Torres hit a 2 run homer and the Giants lead was 5-0 over the Metsies. Sanchez then flew out to Pagan to end this horrid inning.

Interesting to note Matt Cain's record when the Giants have scored 5 or more runs was 44-8. Yep that didn't bode well for this game. And now he's 45-8, argh.

In the bottom of the 3rd that Baby Faced Nelson Posey fella led off the inning with a homerun (the Giants lead was now 6-0 over the Metsies). That was his first blast at AT&T park this season and his 8th homer overall. Can this kid stop being so amazing!!?? I mean I'm all for him being the next Johnny Bench and all but could he hold off on being so awesome. Like wait until he's not playing the Mets, ugh.

With men on 1st and 3rd and 2 outs in this same inning, Manuel told Takahashi he was done for the night and he brought in Nieve to face Renteria. Forgotten Fernando, or well Nightly Nieve, yeah I don't know which nickname to go with got Edgar to line the ball right at him, and the inning was over, YAY!

In the top of the 4th Dave showed he's afraid of no ghosts, I mean Matt Cain and he led off the inning with a single! Cain then retired Beltran, Davis and Bay in order but still Davey got a hit, wahoo!

The Mets had gone 24 innings without scoring a run and thank goodness that streak ended thanks to our rookie sensation Isaac Benjamin Davis! In the top of the 7th Beltran led off with a triple! Maybe he would have settled for a double if it wasn't his 3rd game back but Carlos wanted to prove he could run those bases even with that HUGE knee brace on! And he proved he could do that! Then Ike Davis who had only 10 hits in his last 58 at bats homered! It was a blast and the Mets were now down just 6-2. Yay to runs on the board for the Metsies!!!!!! No shutout!

In the bottom of the 7th Valdes and then Dessens were pitching for the Metsies and well the Giants decided to go ahead and add 2 more runs on the scoreboard and any hope Mets fans had of an AMAZIN' comeback looked bleak. With 1 out and the bases loaded that freaking Kung Fu Panda doubled, Huff and Schierholtz scored and the Giants were now up 8-2 over the Metsies. And again that panda dude bragged. He did some sort of fist pumping thing or maybe it was a finger pointing to the sky. And the Mets get called out for their antics!!?? Seriously the Giants are kind of mean braggarts but I guess I'm just bitter and probably not assessing the situation with an open mind.

In the top of the 8th the pinch hitting badass Josh Thole singled! Gary and Keith decided this kid is not going anywhere! I concur! Pagan was then walked and Justin Turner pinched hit for Cora. Turner flew out but Thole tagged up and he advanced to 3rd. So with men on 1st and 3rd and 1 out Wright was up. And Davey hit a foul ball that the stupid panda caught. But Thole still scored and the Giants lead was cut to 8-3. Beltran then lined to left and Huff made a great catch and this inning was sadly over.

A great part of this game was the bottom of the 8th. It was a delight to see KRod pitch so well. He was on fire! He struck out Torres and Sanchez and then Huff grounded out to end the inning. Yay to KRod's 1,2,3 inning! This made me smile. I look for the positives in a game, what can I say...

In the top of the 9th Isaac Benjamin Davis led off the inning with his 2nd homer of the night. This one didn't go as far as the first one but it still cut the Giants lead to just 4 runs (8-4). Did you know the only other time Davis hit 2 homers in a game was against the Giants back on May 7th? If you are like me you didn't remember this. I mean I knew he had hit 2 homers in a game but against the Giants at Citi Field, yeah this deja vu thing last night was delightful! Again I say I look for the positives in any Mets game and Ike blasting the ball twice was definitely up there as major pluses in this losing effort.

The Metsies did show some more oomph this inning. Although Bay flew out to Torres and Barajas lined out to Renteria for the 2nd out, Tejada was up. And when Tejada's up we should always remember there's a good chance he'll get on base. Why is this so? Because he gets beaned in the back by pitchers all the time. And that happened yet again! So after being hit in the back for the 343434343 time this season, Tejada was on at 1st and The Animal was the pinch hitter. And Chris Carter did a great Thole impression and he singled! This led to Bochy bringing in the Beach Boy Brian Wilson to face Pagan. And that damn Beach Boy struck out Pagan and this exciting top of the 9th was over. The Giants won and blech blech they better not sweep the Mets today. Oh they better not.

Ok let's laugh now. And after we laugh I'll reveal the answer to my trivia question. So in the top of the 5th right after Barajas grounded out Keith and Gary had another one of their discussions about fashion. This time they talked about ties. Before this game started Keith and Gary did not do their usual pre-game 5, 10 minute discussion. You know when they talk about the pitching match-up and well you also get to see what clothes they are wearing. Burkhardt took over for them last night and I still don't know why Gary and Keith were MIA until the top of the 1st. Possibly they were picking out outfits for each other?


Yeah it's still boggling my mind but let's look at their convo on ties now:

Gary: But that's a beautiful tie so we figured we had to get Keith on camera at some point.
Keith: And I tell you what folks, Gary's ties have made a marked improvement over the last couple of years. I have a hunch that Lynn (that's Gary's wife) had something to do with it.
Gary: Lynn has been purchasing ties left and right. I don't believe I've duplicated a tie yet this year.
Keith: I thought I'd wear Mets Orange and try to change things.
Gary: It has the blue stripes that are perfectly placed.
Keith: Yep Mets colors. I'm not a "homer" though.
Gary: See if it had a black stripe with the orange then we'd think you were betraying the other side.
Keith: That's true.

And now the answer to the trivia question. The lady from the above photo is from that "FIBERAMA" commercial.

You know "Fiberama" has been servicing the neighborhood for 46 years! And my favorite line out of this adorable old woman's mouth is when she goes "And you'll be PLEASED!" It makes me laugh every single time.

Ok well today is new day and I am not giving up on the Mets. And I hope you guys aren't either. Santana can continue to shine and the Giants might just not sweep the Mets! Let's believe in our squad! Let's go Mets!

Oh and I almost forgot about this. Let's laugh at these Giants fans who enjoy HUFF maybe a bit too much.

How funny are these dudes! Ok again I say let's go Mets!

My Brief Brush With Fame at Citi Field

Last Friday, something happened at Citi Field that has never happened before. Never in the history of the Mets has this happened! And on that fateful night, it happened twice.

I was on the jumbotron[1].

Twice.

After literally hundreds of games - at Shea and at Citi Field (and numerous away parks and minor league games); on field level and in the Upper Deck; in street clothes, suits, and Mets gear; as a cute kid and as an adult; with hot girls and with unattractive dudes - I finally made it.

It just goes to show you that things happen when you least expect them.

For one thing, I gave up my partial season ticket plan last year when it turned out that the Mets were terrible and my idea of having nice seats in the upper deck behind home plate turned out to be a losing investment. If that weren't enough, despite being an enormous Mets fan[2], last Friday's game was actually my first game of the season.

But back to the story.

In addition to it being my first Met game of the year, I am pretty sure that I was being "that guy" at the game. I showed up late to the game, getting to my seats in the fourth inning. I had gotten hung up at work - an unfortunate side effect of being a grown up. I arrived at my seats in the middle of the inning (cardinal sin) with a bunch of beers. I didn't bring my scorecard to keep track of the game. I was being uncustomarily "bro-like." We were sitting in the Pepsi Porch, so the seats were real nice.

In between half-innings, either in the fifth or the sixth, the stadium did their patented "Boogie Cam." It's the second best "cam" of the game - miles behind the Kiss Cam and ahead of the lame Smile Cam. As the Boogie Cam splashed across the jumbotron, my friends and I noticed a very cute girl on the screen ... turns out, she was only five or six rows behind us. With the camera primed, we started to boogie.

We did not actually expect to get on the screen, but when we got back, we were in full BOOGIE FORM. It was amazing. In fact, at the moment I saw myself on the screen, I didn't know what to do. I stopped the boogie. I looked at the jumbotron, at my friends, and back at the jumbotron. What do you do in the one moment in which more people will be looking at you than any other in your life?

I pointed at my Mets jersey (an Alfonzo of course), and then pointed to the sky. I don't know why, but it felt appropriate. Let's go Mets.

The story does not end there, however[3]. After a few inning detour to the speed pitch and Shake Shack, we settled back into our seats for the eighth inning (told you, was really not being a good fan today). The Mets trailed 4-2 as R.A. Dickey gave up a pair of solo home runs in the seventh. They went meekly in the eighth, and it was on to the ninth, where the Braves did not extend their lead.

Sitting in our seats, my friends and I were still basking in the glory of our previous incident on the jumbotron. A few beers in, and heroes in our section, we were having a great time. Before the bottom of the ninth, Citi Field displayed one of those "noise meters." It started low, with "clap" or something, moved up through "scream" and "dance" and ended with something wild. I of course, went up through the stages like a good fan, dancing and yelling and stomping my feet to help hype the crowd.

That is when we got on the jumbotron a second time. Whether it was the good seats, or the Alfonzo jersey, or the frenzied dancing, or the camera man remembered us, there we were again. This time, however, we were not on the jumbotron as part of a boogie medley - this time we were on the screen for about ten seconds, imploring the crowd to get up and make some noise for the final inning.

It only took Alex Cora and Rod Barajas about seven pitches to snuff out the Mets chances of winning, but that second time up on the big screen was euphoric. And this time, I didn't simply point at the sky and hold a pose. This time, with people from the surrounding rows bounding around like crazy (some kid actually fell into our row trying to get in the shot) we had ten seconds of fame. Fist-pumping, jumping, hand-clapping goodness.

The Mets lost, and ultimately I did not get to see that much of the game, but wow. What an experience.

------------------

[1] Is it even still called a jumbotron? Am I dating myself here?

[2] I do operate a Mets blog, of course.

[3] It was also my first time seeing a knuckleballer.

The Mets offense is still MIA in San Fran. Somebody please send out a rescue team STAT!

Game 2: Giants 1 Mets 0

The battle of the lefties: Barry Zito vs Jon Niese

This was Zito's 339th career start. In fact he has never missed a start due to injury! Gosh him and Linecum are freaks, sheesh.

Reyes was out of the lineup again. But during the day he was seen in the batting cages! Manuel now says the earliest Jose will start is tomorrow afternoon. Yeah I'll believe it when I see it.

Frenchy was back in right field. Crazy Horse had the night off. Well he got to pinch hit in the top of the 8th...

Keith and Gary were wearing suits!

Well the Mets bats are still asleep in SF and they kind of caused me to drowse off during this game too. I actually pulled a Hernandez and I did conk out during the 2nd inning. Yeah I'm a grandma at times. It's hard to stay up for these West Coast games! BUT of course I watched some of the game this morning (yay to the DVR) so I could do a little recap. This is my plan, I'm gonna speed through the recap, zoom zoom zoom past the awfulness and then I have a lot of great surprises to cheer us up with. Oh you will be laughing (well I hope you folks will LOL) by the time you are done reading. Hint hint you might LOL about a certain former Yankee! Ok here we go!

The Metsies lineup:
Tejada
Bay
Wright
Beltran
Frenchy
Davis
Barajas
Cora
Niese

This game all came down to the bottom of the 4th. Jonathon Niese and Barry Zito were both incredible last night but the one run Niese gave up in this inning was the one run that did the Mets in. With one out Huff was walked. Then that fricking awesome rookie Buster Posey (I think I might start to call him Baby Face Nelson)doubled. Buster had thrown out Tejada in the top of this inning and after this double Keith told Gary he thinks Buster might just be another Johnny Bench. WHOA right?! He is pretty awesome all right. So with runners on 1st and 3rd and 1 out that Mets killer Pat Burrell was up. Gosh I forgot how much I hated him from his days on the Phils and well he reminded me in this game. Burrell grounded a ball to Cora, Alex through home to Barajas but Huff was safe. The Giants took a 1-0 lead over the Mets and Huff did one of those Jersey Shore fist pump things as he walked back to the dugout. Ick ick ick! Niese then struck out Uribe and Kung Fu Panda flew out to Beltran to end the inning.
BTW these were Niese's stellar stats from yesterday:
7IP 6H ER 3BB 4K

AND Zito was just magnificent last night, ugh. He had been struggling after starting out 5-0 this season and well the Mets just had to go and help him get back on track. I mean that was sweet of them and all but really I would have preferred Zito to live up to his sucking on the mound lately reputation! Besides the top of the 4th when Zito gave up a lead off single to Tejada the only other hit he gave up was a Beltran 2 out double in the top of the 7th. Unfortunately Frenchy popped up in foul territory to end the inning. Of course who caught that ball, that damn fist pumping Huff! He actually almost fell on Kevin Burkhardt when he made this play. Kevin later told Keith and Gary, "I didn't want Huff falling on me, he's a big guy!"

Zito unlike his buddy "The Freak" only shutout the Mets for 8 innings!
8IP 2H 2BB 10K 112 total pitches thrown
Haha no complete game for you Barry!

The Beach Boy Brian Wilson pitched in the top of the 9th and yeah he had to go and get his 24th save. The Mets had a chance to do something. With 2 outs Wright singled! Beltran unfortunately was no match for the sweet music Wilson was pitching his way and Carlos struck out and the Giants shutout the Mets yet again. Before these last 2 games I was a big fan of the city of San Francisco. I really enjoyed the time I had spent there a few years back. But now I hate SF. It's just a mean place and no friend to the Metsies or Metsies fans.

Okay enough of that terribleness now let's laugh! In the top of the 1st, Keith and Gary made fun of Barry Zito's wardrobe. They played the role of fashion police. It was hysterical and I'd like to see them take these characters to the big screen!

Keith: Very interesting stripes Zito is sporting out there on his socks. Can't say that I care for it.
Gary: Not a big fan of the muted orange stripes?
Keith: Not a big fan.
Gary: Well it's not quite Prince-tonian. You know it's a similar color, "The Halloween look." I'll tell you what, I like the socks better than the orange jerseys. I'm not a fan of those.
Keith: The orange tops. They used to wear them back in our day when I played and they are UGLY. Sorry.
Gary: They've got beautiful home uniforms with the creamy white that they wear.
Keith: Yep yep yep. I love their road uniforms.

Then in the top of the 9th Gary and Keith mocked the hairstyle of the Beach Boy Brian Wilson. It was great.


Gary: Brian Wilson with that entertaining hairdo.
Keith: You think.
Gary: That is something. It just makes you wish you could see the rest of it...or maybe not.

And now to my special treat. Let's laugh at the Yankees! So all of a sudden SNY started to air this Tino Martinez commercial that is just so bad that it's good. It's Tino telling viewers to get a car at Bay Ridge Toyota.

He wants those watching to go on that internet thingy and click on his picture. If you do that, you get a Tino T-Note which is worth $1000 off your next new or used car at Bay Ridge Toyota. Then Tino actually shows off the T-Note.

I wasn't impressed. He's no Andrew Jackson on the twenty at all! Martinez says the following while he holds this T-Note:
"I say the 'T' stands for me Tino. They say it is 'T' for thousand. Either way it's a pretty great picture of me and a really good deal for you!"

Tino's acting rather sucks in this one. He's no Paul O'Neill on "Seinfeld."

So tonight is a new night. Pelf is not on the mound as previously advertised. He has neck stiffness. And if you guys are fans of the show "Curb Your Enthusiasm" like I am you know Larry David is pretty sure there are only 2 ways you get pain in your neck! If you watch the show think about those 2 reasons and I know which one I think it is but I'm not telling. It's a little inappropriate for a recap! Well with Pelf out Takahashi will take on Matt "I like to bean David Wright in the head" Cain. So yes tonight also marks the first time Davey will face Cain since Cain hit him back on August 15, 2009. All I say now is please Matt Cain keep your balls away from Dave's head. I guess we should realize this also means SNY will constantly show David getting beaned because we haven't been horrified by that image enough already!

So let's hope for the Metsies bats to wake up and for the Good Takahashi to be at AT&T Park tonight! The Mets can still win the next two games. It is possible. Let's believe they can! Optimism isn't so bad!

Ew, a Yankee Post

Very interesting article over at the Times today at their Bats Blog. They used WAR, or wins above replacement, to determine who the greatest Yankee was during the Steinbrenner years. The result should come as no surprise:

Neither Henderson nor Rodriguez, however, has enough longevity with the team to come close to Derek Jeter, the greatest Yankee during the Steinbrenner era. With 69.9 wins above replacement, Jeter has been by far the most valuable Yankee since 1973, more than the second-place Mariano Rivera, who has 51.7. Jeter is also one of the most consistent, posting a WAR of at least 4.0 in 10 of his 13 full seasons so far despite negative contributions from his below-average defense.

I'm glad to see that people are giving the Boss the respect he deserved at his passing. Despite all the tumultuous stuff in the early years, he truly was a lion of a man. And there won't ever be another like him.

Also nice to see the Times do such a good job using, and explaining, an advanced statistic and putting it to use in such an accessible way.

Fernando Martinez Update!

July 16, 2010 - 1:40PM
Pointed out by Amazin Avenue's daily minor league recap: RF Fernando Martinez: 3-5, 2 HR(9), 2 RBI, 3 R, K (.266/.327/.473) Hopefully the start of a big second half

That is now a line of .324/.419/.757 for an OPS of 1.175. He's taking walks finally - five in his last ten games - and hitting with his customary power. He also never strikes out - five in his last 37 at-bats.

Kid is a stud. I can't wait. He could be our fifth outfielder in September.

July 6, 2010 - 3:01PM
In his last ten games, hitting a robust .278/.333/.583 for a .917 OPS. Includes 10 strikeouts in only 36 at-bats but he's coming back strong after his latest injury.

He's awesome. He's still 21, and won't be 22 until October.

Keep hitting, Fernando. Don't pay any attention to the haters. Hit and hit and hit (and please take a walk once in a while) and soon you'll be back.

"The Freak" Ruins Beltran's Return...

Game 1: Giants 2 Mets 0

Tim "The Freak" Lincecum vs R.A. "The Geek" Dickey

No Jose Reyes...

It was not a merry Carlos Beltran-mas for us all...

Dickey still can't get win #7...

Boy was this one a fast game. I think it was about 2 hours and 15 minutes or so. I don't remember the last time a Mets game clocked in under 3 hours!

All Mets fans were excited for today's game. Why were we all so excited?! Duh it was time for Beltran and his HUGE knee brace to make his first start as a Metsie since 10/4/09. Personally I was sad to see Jeff Francouer out of the lineup but I knew it was for the best. Well I hoped it was. All in all Jeff's week has sucked so far. I mean his long time pal Brian McCann was the MVP of the all star game and well Frenchy lost his spot in right field. SO yeah totally not the best week ever for Jeff. But he's a team player so he's not complaining about less playing time. Speaking of less playing time, Tatis just had shoulder surgery and he will be out for the rest of the season. Forgotten Fernando he will truly be.

But back to Beltran and his huge knee brace. Seriously if what they say about the size of your knee brace is true well then yeah Carlos is, uhhh yeah you know where I'm going with this. So basically Carlos was just so so tonight. He definitely was not in sync with Bay at times in the outfield and he went 1 for 4 at the plate. But it was good to have him back! And it was nice to see Dickey pitch a great game! Unfortunately Dickey's great pitching and Carlos Beltran's return to the lineup were in no way enough to combat the Kung Fu Panda and Tim Lincecum. "The Freak" put on a freak of a performance tonight! Damn him for finally living up to that nickname against the Mets! Before this game Lincecum was 0-1 in his previous starts against the Mets. He got a no decision the last time these teams faced each other at Citi Field this past Mother's Day. Yeah that game if you remember Ollie pitched against Tim (if you can call what he did pitching, Ollie was wild as ever). It was not a fun game. This one was also not fun. Lincecum pitched his 7th career complete game (0R 6H 5K 1BB) tonight! Damn that freak!

Ok so now I'm gonna do a quick recap and then I'll get to some Keith and Gary shenanigans! Here we go!

Metsies lineup:
Pagan
Cora
Wright
Beltran
Davis
Bay
Thole
Tejada
Dickey

In the top of the 1st with 2 outs and Cora on at 1st it was time for Beltran's first at bat of the season! Alex Cora stole second and well that was great. Sadly Carlos flew out and the inning was over.

In the bottom of the 1st Beltran made his first play in the outfield! With 2 outs Huff flew out to Carlos and Dickey pitched his first 1,2,3 inning of the night!

In the bottom of the 2nd the crazy good Buster Posey (sheesh this name makes me think he is some sort of a gangster wearing a zoot suit or something like that) led off with a single. Ishikawa then grounded out but Posey advanced to 2nd. Juan Uribe was up next, Dickey threw a wild pitch and Posey moseyed along to 3rd. Uribe then grounded out to Davis. So with 2 outs and Posey still at 3rd Pablo Sandoval decided to show off. In the series these two teams played at Citi Field this past May, Kung Fu Panda was terrible. He had 1 hit in 14 at bats. But at AT&T Park he was anything but terrible. The panda man rbi doubled, Posey scored and the Giants took a 1-0 lead over the Metsies. Btw this double was off the huge fence in right. So yeah Pagan had to get used to right field oh so fast, ugh. Dickey then intentionally walked Schierholtz to face The Freak with men on 1st and 2nd and 2 outs. Thankfully Tim grounded out and the inning was over!

In the top of the 4th with 1 out Beltran got his first hit. It was just a single but I think us fans were just happy to see him get a hit! I know I was! Baby steps right!

In the top of the 6th with 2 outs Beltran grounded out.

In the bottom of the 6th after Sanchez grounded out, Dickey had retired 10 straight Giants in a row. Sadly Huff ended that streak with a 1 out infield hit. Dickey pitched 7 strong innings and he gave up only 1 run but still that was just not enough tonight! The book reading geek was no match for the flexible as hell freak!

In the bottom of the 8th Elmer Dessens was the new pitcher for the Metsies. Lincecum led this inning off with a single and yeah that was going to be trouble. Then Rowand got an infield hit. But yay Freddy Sanchez bunted terribly, and Dessens threw Tim out at 3rd! Haha freak! But there were still men on 1st and 2nd and only 1 out for Huff. Manuel brought Feliciano into the game now and on just 4 pitches Perpetual Pedro (this was his 50th appearance) walked Huff and yep immediately after that sucking Manuel said adios to Feliciano. Parnell was now asked to stop the bleeding. With the bases loaded and 1 out Bobby faced Posey. Buster grounded a ball to Ike, Davis threw home but Rowand was safe and well everyone was safe, BOO. The Giants now had a 2-0 lead over the Mets. Miraculously with the bases loaded and 1 out Ishikawa grounded into a 4-6-3 double play and this inning was over!

Lincecum then pitched the top of the 9th and yeah this was a super fast half of an inning for Tim. If the Mets were going to tie this one up they had the right men up, Wright, Beltran and Davis but all 3 could do nothing at all to give the Mets a fighting chance. Wright grounded out, then Beltran grounded out and what do you know Davis also grounded out. Sanchez made a great diving stop for that final out and The Freak, the panda and the Giants won. Boo to that!

Now let's try to laugh a little with some of the things Keith said tonight:

It pains Keith to watch the VERY flexible Tim Lincecum stretching before a game.

Hernandez gave up on flexibility a long time ago. But he told Gary his mind is still flexible!

Keith coined the word "Lincecum-esque" tonight.

He always liked the Giants uniforms and he especially loves the road ones.

Keith likes to say "I concur."

In 1965 Keith was 12 years old. That was his MVP year in little league.

At one point in the game a boy in the stands who was wearing a Jose Reyes shirt caught a foul ball. This kid was super excited at his achievement. Keith as a result remarked from the booth, "Don't hot dog it!"

Every time The Freak faced Carlos, Keith would say "Lincecum is pitching Mr. Beltran with much respect."

He believes "Corona Extra" is not good for the waistline.

Keith thinks Huff looks like he lost weight. He doesn't remember him looking that thin and in shape.

He said Bobby Parnell was throwing "cheddar" tonight.

In the 9th Keith said "Tim was jazzed up." Yeah he was. Damn that freak!

Well tomorrow is a new day. Niese is our man on the mound and hopefully we can tie this series up. We gotta believe! And yay to the return of Carlos!

It's Time: The Return of Carlos Voltron... er, Beltran

Courtesy of Amazin Avenue

If you don't understand the reference, here is the original the Onion article.

A Poiffect Day At Citi Field!

Game 3:



Santana vs Lowe

NO SWEEP by the Schmucks, wahoooo! And ok ok there I go again being all vulgar and using the word schmuck. But really folks I couldn't resist.

I am now 1-0 at Citi Field this season!

So today I was at Citi Field to see our beloved Metsies face those annoying Bravos. I kept telling my Dad since Father's Day you name the game you want to go to and yep that's your present. So this week he said "Danielle are you free Sunday because if so let's go to the game! And yep I ordered tickets immediately! This ordering tickets online thing is so much fun. Oh the internet how did we live without you...

This was the first game I was attending this season and yeah I was stoked. And yes I do realize using the word “stoked” might be a bit much, a bit over the top, considering they had played horrible ball during this homestand but today was a new day and well how could they not want to win in front of me!? Okay obviously I’m not that vain, I know that song isn’t about me and I have no control over them but I just wanted to see a Metsies victorino. I thought I deserved it. My reasons: I pretty much watch every game from start to finish, I blog about them all the time, I’m obsessed basically and yeah that should count for something, right?! And really everyone watching and attending this one deserved a delightful Mets game before the all star break. After this week we needed it!

And I want to just let it be known that I wore my Jason Bay shirt today.


I am not giving up on this man but maybe Manuel did. I was very surprised to find when I arrived at my seat that Jay Bay had the day off. I thought the scoreboard was lying but nope it was telling the gosh darn truth. Bay was benched on Jason Bay Bobblehead Doll Day! What's up with that!!??

And my Dad and I were sitting in left field (because well the seats I wanted by Frenchy were sold out) to cheer on Bay! I figured we could be the 2 fans that didn't boo him today. But nope Carter got the start and my Jason Bay shirt was not seen by Bay sadly...

And boy oh boy was it hot in section 129 row 22 seat 21. That direct sunlight whoa! I guess it's good I'm not one of those Twlight kiddos. I possibly sweat another Danielle. Maybe that was a little too much information, ugh. Yeah it was fricking hot but I didn't care at all. I was just so excited to be there and I'm a trooper so who cared what Mother Nature was doing!

Ok so now I'm gonna recap in my own special way without the help of Gary, Ron or Keith. I'm the dork who kept her own little scorecard during this one! Well I call myself a dork because I like wrote it on notebook paper and well sometimes I jotted down things that were going on around me so I could share it with you guys. So to Gary Cohen who thinks fans don't actually watch and pay attention when they go to games you haven't met me. For the record Mr. Cohen would be proud to know I watched every second of this one. I didn't leave my seat once! Seriously I didn't. Ok here we go!

In the bottom of the 1st a guy a couple of rows over from me kept screaming at Matt Diaz. He kept going "Diaz you nerd!" That was kind of funny. Also seated by me was a man wearing a Jason Heyward shirt.

He thought he was hot shit. Later he came back to his seat and he had a Jones shirt on. Yes he wore one shirt over another shirt because he loves the Bravos that much I guess. My Dad joked "He has on two pairs of underwear too." And then I thought I would be funny and I said "He has too pairs of shorts on also" and yes clearly I did that thing where you take a joke too far.

In the top of the 3rd Frenchy did a great Ike Davis impression. It was hard to see from my seats but it appeared to be spot on! Cabrera hit a ball that took Frenchy right over the stands. He flipped! I think he did a 360 thingy! I thought he had caught this foul ball and Melky was out but nope it wasn't foul, Francouer didn't catch it and it was ruled a ground rule double. But it was okay because Jeff wasn't hurt and Santana got out of the inning! And the best part about getting out of this inning was the fact that Chip was the final out! Larry Chipper Jones with men on 1st and 2nd and 2 outs popped up! Oh it was splendid! Btw every time Chipper was up to bat I so screamed in an obnoxious New Yawwwwker voice "LARRRRRRY!" Yes I was that fan.

In the bottom of the 3rd with 2 outs Angel "Crazy Horse" Pagan screamed "Jerry really I don't think you are going to bench me when Beltran comes back for our road trip!" and he tripled! I thought he might get an inside the park homer but nope it was just a triple and it was delightful! Then Alex Cora did his thang when there is a runner in scoring position and he rbi singled! The Mets took a 1-0 lead over the Bravos! Then Wright kept the 2 out rally going and he singled! Sadly Isaac Benjamin Davis struck out to end the inning. But there was something really freaky that happened during Ike's at bat. With 2 men on and 2 outs and 2 balls and 2 strikes it was 2:02pm. How crazy is that!!?? Unfortunately I'm a little slow and when I took a picture the moment was over. The count was 3-2 to Ike, argh!!

In the bottom of the 6th I heard Ike's Rolling Stones at bat song "Start Me Up" for the gazillionth time this season and well I said to my Dad "I sure hope Ike can start something this inning" and Ike I guess heard me. He homered and it was marvelous! The Mets now had a 2-0 lead over the Atlanta Schmucks! Oooops I said it again. I just couldn't resist!

Santana pitched 7 innings of amazingness! I guess after today Santana has not given up a run in 16 straight innings, YAY! Johan appears to be doing his thang where he just dominates in the second half of the season! Of course I wanted him to pitch another complete game, I thought he was going to tell Jerry like he did against the Reds the other night "I'll finish it" but nope it didn't happen and although I was terrified KRod was going to pull another Strasmus incident like last weekend all was okay because the Mets bullpen rocked today! Bobby and Frankie were rock stars!

In the top of the 8th Bobby Parnell was the new pitcher for the Metsies and he struck out LARRY for out numero uno! Then Glaus flew out and McCann grounded out and the inning was over! Yay Bobby!

In the bottom of the 8th Takashi Saito was pitching for the Bravos and he gave up a lead off single to Feliciano (Jesus replaced Carter in the bottom of the 6th, he pinch ran for THE ANIMAL. And that fan who called Diaz a nerd kept screaming "You are an animal" at Chris). Then BRod kept up his "I'm an easy out" thing and he grounded out but Feliciano advanced to 2nd. Tejada also grounded out but again Feliciano kept on trucking and he was now at 3rd base with 2 outs for the pinch hitter Josh Thole. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I just love this kid, Thole is just clutch! Josh singled, Felciano scored and the Mets were now up 3-0 over the Braves! Pagan then singled but Cora flew out and it was time for the 9th! Frankie needed to put on a show like Billy Wagner had done the last two days and oh he did!

I'll admit I was nervous though with KRod. I am optimistic with the Metsies most of the time but I kept thinking this day has been too perfect something bad is going to happen. But nope I was wrong! I love being wrong! This was the best I've seen KRod possibly all season. Diaz, Escobar and Cabrera were all out faster than you can say "Dinner For Schmucks" and the Metsies avoided being swept by the braves and they won! Yes I had to add that schmuck in there one last time. I promise I'll stop now.

So the Metsies going into the all star break are 4 games back in the NL East. It's not so bad! It could be worse! And they start a West Coast trip after the break and this could be really great or quite terrible. I think it's gonna be the former! So let's hope for the west coast swing to start out splendidly this Thursday against the Giants! Let's go Mets!

Oh and as I left the game I took a picture with that smoking panhandling metsie dog!


And of course I gave him a buck. I will always give money to a panhandling canine!

Yay Mets!

The Movie "Dinner For Schmucks" Doesn't Star The Atlanta Braves, Seriously!!??

Game 2: Braves 4 Mets 0

Tim Hudson vs Big Mike Pelfrey

Reyes left the game in the top of the 7th. Proof again that you don't let a player play injured! The end result is never really worth it.





Today's game aired on FOX and the announcers viewers were forced to deal with were Kenny Albert and Kevin Millar. FOX also showed previews for the movie "Dinner For Schmucks" multiple times during the broadcast. Before I make fun of this film and such I do want to say that yes I do want to see it. I just have to admit that before I get on with doing a little mocking.

So in this movie Paul Rudd's character is asked by his boss to bring a schmuck to a dinner party. Simple enough of a premise. And well it appears from the trailers and promos that the schmuck is Steve Carell. Well during this horrible game this schmuck business made me think that this afternoon there were a lot of schmucks Paul Rudd could bring to dinner! His good buddy Joe Buck did not do the announcing today so he's officially taken out of this scenario but Rudd could sure bring Kenny Albert and Kevin Millar to dinner. Two schmucks for the price of one! Honestly I didn't mind Kevin Millar a week ago during the Strasmas game. He was actually a nice fit with Joe Buck in the booth. Kevin's very goofy and he actually had amused me. And I'm pretty sure he's a nice enough fella. He seems like a genuine guy. I consider him like a 5th string Keith Hernandez. He's like the D-List version of Keith in the booth. Yeah that works. But today he just didn't shut up at all and well Kenny Albert is such a dud that the combo was just schumckalicioiusly torturous to listen to. But I'll get to some of the crazy stuff Kevin said today in a bit! Yeah like I said he didn't shut up!

More schmucks Paul Rudd could bring to dinner are Chipper Jones, Omar Infante and Tim Hudson! Tim Hudson today pitched a gem of a game for the Bravos. 7 scoreless innings, 4 hits, no runs, 2 walks and 3 strike outs. Yeah he's a schmuck. Chipper returned to the lineup after being scratched from yesterday's game due to back spasms and well he seemed healthy enough at the plate and yes he's probably the biggest schmuck of them all. And that Omar Infante just again proved to naysayers like myself that he deserves to be on the all star team. So yes he's another schmuck. And well they weren't at Citi Field but we can add the Miami Heat to the schmuck list too! I would never leave LeBron James out of this schmuckity schmuck talk.

So this is my plan, I'm going to try to not use the word schmuck again since I have now probably typed it more times in this recap than I have in my entire life. I'm also going to quickly just get to the top of the 5th inning when the Bravos did their damage to Big Pelf and then we can laugh at all the things Kevin Millar said. That millar nonsense should cheer us all up somewhat! Here we go!

The top of the 5th, the inning that just sucked! Going into the 5th the game was tied 0-0 and although Pelf had struggled inning after inning he had gotten out of every jam he put the Metsies in. These were jams you did not think the Amazins were getting out of. The Bravos had bases loaded with no outs in the top of the 4th and the Amazins averted danger somehow. I know it was crazy. But that getting out of sticky situations business was not happening in the 5th. LARRY led off this inning with a single. Then the all star McCann singled. And Troy Glaus decided to be an ass and he singled too and the Braves took a 1-0 lead over the Metsies. So now there were men on 1st and second with no outs for Eric Hinske. He singled and the bases were now loaded for the Mets killer Omar Infante. He singled too BOOOOOO! McCann scored and the Braves were now up 2-0 over the Metsies. At this point Manuel took Pelf out of the game and Dessens was asked to stop the bleeding. Elmer could do no such thing. It was Saturday bloody Saturday. The first batter he faced with the bases loaded and nobody out was Escobar. And Yunel grounded into a double play but Glaus scored and the Braves were now up 3-0 over the Amazins. Then fricking Tim Hudson got an rbi double and it was 4-0 Atlanta, ugh. Prado then flew out and the inning was finally over.

But yeah the damage was done in the 5th and the Mets had no fight at all in them yet again. Even when they got the lead off batter on they would find some way to leave him stranded. The Metsies grounded into 3 double plays today. Yeah it was nauseating.

Oh and here are Pelf's stats from tonight. They are not pretty:
4IP 12H 4R 4ER 3BB 2K
Overall Atlanta had 15 hits today. But on the bright side of all of this terribleness Takahashi pitched great in relief! 3 innings (6th, 7th, 8th)of scoreless relief from the Good Takahashi was delightful! Nieve pitched a scoreless 9th too!

AND Wagner came in again in the 9th to prove how incredible he is this season. It was a non-save situation but yeah I don't blame Bobby Cox for bringing Wagner in. If you want the door shut on a possibility of a comeback you bring in Billy. Wagner retired Wright, Davis and Bay faster than you can say "Dinner For Schmucks" and the ball game was over. Atlanta has now won 4 games in a row and they've already won this series. Hopefully they won't sweep tomorrow. I'm going to be at this game and yeah I am fearing the worst...I don't like brooms one iota!

But I have to snap out of that pessimistic frame of mind and to do that I'm now going to attempt to make us all LOL with some Kevin Millar wisdom. Ok I guess wisdom is not apropos for Kevin but we'll stick with wisdom anyways.

Kevin enjoys saying "What a neat thing!"

He thinks no MLB-er was better than Frank Thomas in the 90's.

During his career, Kevin stunk it up against Tim Hudson. 1 for 8. He admitted he was pathetic.

Last year Millar hit a grand salami off of R.A. Dickey.

Kevin thinks Bay will have a big second half. I have said this too and yeah even after these last 2 games I still agree with goofy!

Millar said "Barajas is one of the slowest human beings in the league."

He thinks Cora doesn't make a bad play on the baseball field.

He called Derek Lowe a dizzy blond. Well he actually calls Derek Lowe "D-Lowe." But yeah D-Lowe's a ditz.

Kevin thinks the Braves will win the World Series. WTF right!!!?????

He said the following, "What those rbi guys do when they get a guy on 3rd base, they smell those steaks. It's like bbq-ing in the backyard." This was definitely an attempt to be like Keith Hernandez. And yes I did laugh at this.

Since Eric Hinske has won a World Series ring 3 years in a row, Kevin said flat out he'd take Hinske on his squad any day over Sabathia, Halladay or Pujols. He naively assumes if Hinske's on your team you win a World Series. If he ends up being right about the Bravos winning the World Series, then well I guess I'm the schmuck Paul Rudd is taking to dinner!

He couldn't pronounce Hisanori so he said, "We are going to be on a last name basis with Takahashi."

He gets ragged on all the time by players, "Hey media guy!"

When Kevin saw Santana today he congratulated him on his first career homer. He called Johan "Papi."

He whistled when talking about Tejada. It was like a cat call whistle kind of thing. And then he remarked that Ruben looks like he's 15. He added something like does he even have a driver's license and that he must take the bus everywhere. Yeah yeah we get it Kevin, Ruben has a baby face haha.

As of now Millar thinks the Cy Young winner in the NL will be either Ubaldo Jimenez, Roy Halladay, Adam Wainwright or Mike Pelfrey. Yeah he left out Josh Johnson and after the last couple of starts I think we know Big Pelf isn't getting the Cy Young. I just hope he can get that 11th win at this point.

And now to my favorite Millar moment! In the top of the 9th Kevin Millar busted out his Marv Albert impression. And I'll be honest it was dead on! He nailed it! To show off his impression he said the following: "Pippen and Jordan. That was Marv Albert's 'Patrick Ewing from DOWNTOWN' 77-76." Then he told Kenny he had wanted to do that all game. I am so glad he did! Kenny was not amused. But I was!

Oh this was funny too. Kevin called Billy Wagner "the little guy."

Well tomorrow is a new day. Santana put on a show because the Mets can't afford to get swept!

And the Metsies bats wake up! PLEASE wake up wake up wake up!

The Mets Can't Stop HOTLANTA

Game 1: Bravos 4 Metsies 2

Tommy Hanson vs R.A. Dickey, there was just too much MMMM Bop from Hanson and the Bravos in this one.

The Mets are now 4 games back. Damn you Atlanta!

Pagan led off for the Metsies and Reyes batted 2nd...

Chipper Jones was a late scratch and that evil Infante took over the 3rd base duties tonight. And unfortunately his impression of Larry is really really good.

SO I remember a series at Citi Field earlier this year where the Mets swept the Braves. A Braves team that kind of sucked. And wow how things have changed since April. The Braves are currently dominating the NL East and I fear there is no stopping them.

The Mets just had no fight tonight and that was hard to watch. Once R.A. Dickey gave up back to back homers to Cabrera and Infante in the top of the 7th it was clear the Mets had thrown in the towel. For so much of this season the Mets have shown they never give up. And I hate to say this but really against Atlanta tonight I just felt they didn't fight back at all. And this series is oh so important. The Mets had the opportunity if they had won tonight and the next two days to be tied with Atlanta as the leaders of the NL East going into the all star break. I wanted a sweep oh so badly! And instead after this loss they are 4 games back and there are two more games that could go in the same direction as this one, ugh.

Let's take a quick look at how these runs made their way onto the scoreboard. And really the booth action was nothing special tonight as well. I'm sorry to say that. Ron, Gary and Keith were just kind of boring. Except for mocking Yunel Escobar a lot they just didn't supply the funny that us fans needed. But the Escobar insults were great and I'll get to those too! Here we go!

In the top of the 1st with 1 out Melky Cabrera singled. Yeah Melky was a Metsies killer tonight. Then Infante singled. Guess what Infante was another Met assassin in this game. I actually was one of the people that felt Infante making the all star team was utter crap and well he stuck it to me in this game. Each at bat I could hear him laughing at me and well anyone who doubted how good he is. Ugh. Back to the game. So with 1 out and men on 1st and 2nd the other all star MCCANN flew out but Cabrera tagged up and he headed for third. Then Glaus grounded a ball to Reyes, it was a sure out but NOOOOOO Jose bobbled the ball, Glaus was safe at 1st and Cabrera scored. The Braves took a 1-0 lead over the Metsies. Hinske then struck out and the inning was finally over.

In the bottom of the 3rd Dickey led off with a single! Then Pagan bunt singled! Reyes who is obviously struggling during every at bat sac bunted and Tricky Dick and Crazy Horse were now on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out for Wright. And Davey sac flied, Dickey scored and this ball game was now tied at 1-1. Ike Davis then struck out to end the inning.

In the top of the 5th Infante laughed at me again for questioning his all star status and he got a 2 out single. Then Dickey walked MCCANN. Next, Glaus singled to right. Frenchy knew he had no play at home to throw out Infante, and Infante scored giving the Braves a 2-1 lead over the Metsies. BUT Francouer saw a play he could make, he got his good buddy MCCANN out at 3rd and oh yeah this inning was over! That assist of Jeff's was his 8th of the season and since 2005 he's had 78 assists. Yeah his arm is fricking awesome!

In the bottom of the 5th Dickey got a 1 out single! Yeah Dickey was killing it at the plate! Pagan then struck out but with 2 outs and with Reyes up, Hanson threw a wild pitch and Dickey advanced to 2nd. And then Reyes lined a ball right at Hinske BUT it went over his head and Reyes was safe at second with an rbi double. Dickey scored and this game was once again tied 2-2. Wright then flew out to end the inning.

In the top of the 7th with 2 outs Melky Cabrera homered. Yes I warned that this inning was the beginning of the end for the Metsies. The Bravos now had a 3-2 lead over the Metsies. Then Infante really really really laughed at me and he homered. And the Braves were now leading 4-2 over the Mets. After Infante's homer Dickey was taken out of the game. Feliciano came in and he was no help. Pedro gave up a 2 out double to MCCANN and then he intentionally walked Glaus. To remedy this situation Manuel had Dessens enter the game and he got the pinch hitter Matt Diaz to ground out and this horrible inning was finally over.

Dickey's stats tonight: 6.2IP 4R 3ER 9H 2BB 6K
119 total pitches thrown (season high)

The Mets had a great opportunity to score in the bottom of the 8th, Wright led off the inning with a single but Davis, Bay and Frenchy just could do nothing offensively at all tonight. And in the top of the 9th Billy Wagner retired Cora, Barajas and Pagan with the utmost ease. It was just too simple for Billy and Wagner looked incredible out there. And well Atlanta won and yeah that's that, ick blech ick.

But now let's laugh a little at all the comments Ron, Gary and Keith made about Escobar. They really think he sucks!

"He has the worst body language of any shortstop in the league."

"Escobar is just out to lunch."

"Escobar is just having a dreadful year at the plate and this inning."

"That was a lollipop throw!"

"That was lackadaisical lahdidah play!"

Well tomorrow is a new day and hopefully Pelfrey can return to his former winning ways! Hudson will be pitching for the Braves and he's tough but we gotta believe that the Mets will take the next 2 and head into the all star break 2 games back!

Let's go Mets!