Big Apple Circus

The trick is to put the apple up for the seventh inning stretch. By doing that the Mets get homerun happy and start hitting them. OK, not quite- as far as I know the apple is always up for the seventh inning stretch. Sure enough, it was the focal point on the telecast this time, and then two of the next three Mets at bat hit homeruns to bring up the apple when it counts. However, it did not go up the for the second homerun, hit by Fernando Tatis. It takes 45 seconds to "recharge." No support for back to back homeruns (and this pair was not even back to back)? What kind of contraption is this thing? The old apple probably would have went up and down with no problem. Get that thing out the bullpen plaza and bring it back where it belongs.

Enough about fruit. What looked to be a laugher was anything but. A win is a win, and all of a sudden the Mets have a two game winning streak. Daniel Murphy is even figuring out how to stretch for balls at first base. Alex Cora looks comfortable in the 8-hole. The Mets pounded out 16 hits!

David Wright looked like he wanted to rip Mike Pelfrey a new you know what when he had that conference with him in the 5th.

That Joey Votto ejection was just waiting to happen. He's been hosed with the strike zone and was very respectful in not showing up the umpire when making his thoughts known the previous two games. Today he had enough.

Just when Sean Green had his ERA go down to a decent 4.9 he allows the first and only three batters he faces to get on. They all eventually come around to score. ERA now up to 5.54.

Welcome Back Johan

Now that was the type of outing from the Johan Santana we all know and love. He threw strikes, made it look easy right throughout, then hung in there when things were getting dicey and he was well over 100 pitches.

Jeff Francoeur contributed in his first at-bat with a 2-rbi single, not the prettiest of hits, but a hit nonetheless. The Mets are 1-0 with him in the lineup, what's not to like?

Maybe, just maybe a reserve player can step up to be a solid player who deserves to be an everyday player. Angel Pagan, can you possibly be the one?

After ragging on Omir Santos a couple of posts in a row, he comes out and gets three hits. Who should I trash today? That Pelfrey kid has been horrible, how many innings will he last today?

Churchy for Frenchie

Last night's game was another typical Bronson Arroyo start in Flushing. He shut down the Mets for a complete game and the Mets were once again shut out, the third time in a week.

The story of last night was not the game itself, but a trade between divsion rivals. We get Jeff Francoeur for Ryan Church. Does anything else need to be said about the fact that Church was just not a popular guy in the clubhouse? You can listen to Omar spin it all you want. The only defense you get is a better arm- and Church's throw's from right were not too shabby, either. Hitting wise you get a free swinger who's on-base has been hovering around .300 for his career. I guess the Mets don't believe in on-base percentage. See Omir Santos.

That being said, Church might have reached his ceiling, while Francoeur might have some potential. Maybe a change of scenery will do good for him. Maybe we'll be dazzled by all the guys he throws out from the Mo-Zone and cheer for every wide turn by baserunners who's brakes come to screeching halt when he retrieves a base hit. All we do know is Church was not liked here, whether it was by Jerry or teammates, and was the one who had to go.

Bad Ollie; Rangers clinch

Oliver Perez was cruising through the first couple of innings. This was not the pitcher who was told he was out of shape coming back from the WBC. Then came a couple of walks to the bottom of the order and the wheels feel off in typical Ollie fashion. 8 runs later he's gone in the 5th and has an ERA of 16.62.

The Mets chipped away nicely. You almost had the feeling they were going to come back. However, Arthur Rhodes (who lately owns the Mets), David Weathers and Francisco Cordero were untouchable.

You can't blame Gary Sheffield for taking strike 3 in his first at bat as a Met. Leading off the 9th down two, you're just trying to get on base any way you can.

You knew the first loss was going to come sooner or later. At least they won the series. On to more pressing matters at the moment if you are a reader of Flushing the Garden.

The Rangers are in! They do it in the last couple of games of the season, like they usually do. Despite the great October, it never ends easy.

Don Van Massenhoven, who usually screws us, put the whistle in his pocket when Marty Biron appeared to have the puck covered early in the game, only to have the Rangers bang it in to take a 1-0 lead. It turned out to be huge.

Remember what I said about Crosby, Malkin and pig-face a couple of weeks back? Well, someone needs to deck Scott Hartnell. Pull him around the ice by his hair or something.

Ryan Callahan scored again. This guy is our star all of a sudden.

Unfortunately the Flyers could be a scary team come playoff time. They are saying their resident goon, Daniel Carcillo, played his best hockey last game and he looked pretty good today. Danny Briere was back to his scary little self today. It felt like it was the second round of the 2007 playoffs vs Buffalo out there watching him. And I didn't even mention Carter, Richards and Gagne.

Who was that on the ice for the Flyers with the name NODL on his back?

If Paul Mara is going to let that beard continue growing for the playoffs, I'd love to see a long run just to see how that thing turns out.

The question now is: do you hope for a Montreal point or two on Saturday and a Ranger loss on Sunday to get Boston instead of Ovechkin, Green and the rest of the Caps? Be careful what you wish for, you know how that turns out.

Mets 9, Reds 7

There we go, that's more like the stuff we're used to. A good old, sweat it out, load the bases in the 9th and hold on for the victory save. K-Rod decided to walk everybody, then get out of the bases loaded one out jam. That error on Delgado, a questionable call by the first base umpire for leaving the bag too early on the throw to first did not help matters.

Scary first inning for Mike Pelfrey, but he bounced back nicely.

Here's to more of the Carlos Delgado from the second half of last season. Nice to see that homerun out of the way early in the season.

Damn, JJ Putz gave up a run in the 8th. Sean Green allowed an inherited runner to score the inning before that. It's not supposed to be this way.

Why is David Wright sliding head first into home?

Let's erase the demons of 2005 by sweeping the opening series in the matinee today. Damn afternoon workday games.

Mets 2, Reds 1

Aside from the new stadium, there has not been opinion and commentary on the Mets themselves here. With opening day now having come and gone, it's time to get going.

We have a bullpen now. Not since 2006 have we been able to say that. Yes it's only one game. But this is exactly what the braintrust had in mind over the winter meetings. Santana-Putz-K-Rod not quite. On this cold and frigid Cincinnati day, we needed Sean Green to come up big as well.

Daniel Murphy is awesome. He's the perfect #2 hitter and showed it with a patient at bat before launching one into the rightfield seats.

Freakin MLB gameday did not pick up the WFAN feed today. So those of us stuck at work without a radio and who did not speak Spanish had to listen to the Cincinnati feed (WADO, home of the Met broadcasts in Spanish, was available on Gameday radio). Made us root harder for Putz when those clowns were hoping for a walk and a blast from Votto in the 8th. Of course they made it a point to remind us that Votto hit a double off JJ while playing for Team Canada in the WBC. Sit down Joey!

Hey, Luis Castillo had a double.

The Mets offense picked up right they left off last season, leaving 50 men on base.

It was opening day, listening to the game at the office was not enough. The DVR was rolling come evening time. Welcome back Gary, Keith, and Ron. I only watched maybe a couple of innings of spring training, all 45 days or so of it.

Oh baby, baseball's back. Thanks to what the Mets have done the past couple of seasons I'm pretty numb to what the Rangers are doing right now. Although the same cities are kind of making it irritating. On the diamond, Philly gets in the last two years because we lose to Florida. Now on the ice, Florida could get in because we lose to Philly.