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.

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.