Right Back at Ya

Eight runs in an inning? The Braves had an answer with an 8-run inning of their own the next night. Jeff Francoeur got three hits? Ryan Church had an answer of his own with a three-hit game the next night.

I pity those who were there for this one. Thank goodness I wasn't there as I would've gone nuts scoring this game. Anderson Hernandez started at short, moved to second, back to short, then finally back at second. Wilson Valdez was all over the place. It was spring training.

Did we warn you about Bobby Parnell's performance against the Giants last week? It was the Giants. OK, so they ended up whipping us the last game, but come on, Benji Molina is their cleanup hitter. It can only get better for Parnell after this one.

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.

No More Softies

I don't mean El Duq- er, Livan's pitches. I'm talking about the schedule. A nice first inning to start off the game, before Livan even threw a pitch, was just what the doctor ordered in the final game before the big battle in the coming month against some tough teams. He now has a 3.88 ERA. One who was fighting for the 5th starter job in spring training.

As nice as it was to pad the schedule, I'm sick of seeing the Washington Nationals. It's time to see what the Mets are made of.

David Wright kills lefties, but has done most of damage recently on the road. Three Philly lefties facing the Mets at Citi- something's gotta give.

Welcome back Ryan Church; two hits in his return from the DL. I hope they don't jerk him around again. Play the guy. If he can do some hitting vs the Philly lefties, it could springboard into better things the rest of the season and ease the blow of not having Reyes and Delgado during this tough stretch. It was really nice to see him patrol right field again.

Daniel Murphy hitting would be nice as well. He also had two hits today. He and Fernando Tatis have to come up big.

Complete Game

First off, thankfully we did not have to see the Mets in those red hats.

We got to see a throwback tonight. A complete game by Livan Hernandez. It's not exactly a no-hitter, but for the Mets it almost seems as rare.

Gary Sheffield hit a homerun for real this time. Yes, the one yesterday counted, but you know it would not have gone out had the fan not reached out and touched it. What was great about tonight's homer was how he reached for that low pitch and managed to hit it hard. I will be the first to admit I was against the signing. Dead wrong. Unlike my NHL playoff predictions (Detroit is one win away from setting up the rematch in which Pittsburgh will win this time around. Ugh).

We got to see the debut of Fernando Martinez. It was time, seeing how the Mets were dropping like flies and he was already hot at AAA. With Carlos Beltran declared out for the next three days, Jose Reyes and Ryan Church were placed on the DL, at long last. Fernando did not do too much, but what do you expect? For all the hype he has not exactly dominated the minor league level. He had a great May thus far. Show me more the rest of the way. He'll get his chance with the big club for the next week or so.

Comedy of Errors

You gotta love DVR. Why kill yourself staying awake if you have to get up the next morning, when you can simply just record the game and wake up a little earlier and watch it the next morning over breakfast, Japan-opener style. I called it a night after an inning last night. The headline was going to be "Welcome back Steve Trachsel". That's who Tim Redding reminded me of in his first Met start.

Redding gave up two runs and made that first inning last what seemed like an hour, and included not one but two consecutive fake-to-third-throw-to-first moves. However what we saw was not the case at all the rest of the way. He settled down quite nicely and the game flowed along.

The story was the five errors the Mets committed. Where do you start with this one? It did not look promising just looking at the lineup. Angel Pagan was leading off and playing left field. Ramon Martinez, our down-the-stretch 2008 second baseman started at short. Martinez made two of those errors. Carlos Beltran was charged with one, but Pagan insisted to catch the ball after the center fielder in charge called him off ten times. Sean Green throws one away. To cap it off, outfielder Jeremy Reed, playing only a handful of innings at first has a ball find him in a key spot leading to the game-losing error, a throw intended for home that got away.

Then there's Ryan Church. A go-ahead run in the 11th was erased when an appeal play at third called him out. Church had missed third base on his way to scoring from second. Here's my take on Church. The guy is mentally screwed up and it's not his fault. With fifty outfielders on the roster, Jerry Manual had no choice but to get other guys in the lineup and pulled Church during his hottest stretch of the season. It's been downhill ever since. Never mind that the guy is one of the only pure outfielders on the team, aside from Beltran and Reed, who's playing first base instead. But it's clear from postgame reaction that Church will probably continue to be the odd man out. What's wrong with this picture?

Who's fault is it that we had an aging Carlos Delgado with hip trouble and no backup pure first baseman? Who's fault is it that the roster continues to get an influx of outfielders when the problem is in the infield? Ramon Martinez? Look I know you did not expect Alex Cora to get injured with Jose Reyes out, but Martinez with his second base arm is the best we can do as a third-string shortstop? Speaking of Reyes, I asked last week for a one-game benching, not a week with a mysterious calf-injury. It's obvious they need him back in the lineup soon, dumb mistakes aside. You only hope he learns from them, but it's been more than a few years now.

Mets 7, Pirates 3

The winning streak continues. Fears of yet another let down against an inferior club were erased with one swing of the bat by Carlos Delgado, launching a three-run blast that busted this one open in the 8th inning. The odds were not in Carlos' favor. He was facing a lefty with a release point that came from behind his back, a pitcher who lefty opponent batting average was 1-for-a lot this season. It was good to see. Carlos had been strugging with the hip and you were concerned that he was going to go back to second half 07/first half 08 form.

Congrats to Bobby Parnell, who earned his first major league win. Did I already say I like this kid? Who doesn't, the way he throws.

Does Jeff Karstens look like he's related to David Weathers?

I like Nyjer Morgan. OK, there's a little bias there because I picked him up for my fantasy team earlier this season, but looking at him play for the first time, I was impressed.

Great job by Jon Niese. 6 innings, 2 runs, 5 strikeouts, 0 walks- what more can you ask? You wish you could get that kind of outing by Oliver Perez. Give the kid another chance against Atlanta in the dreaded mid-week afternoon home game next week, especially since that was the team in which he had his best outing in his few starts last season.

Can't do anything about that misplayed fly ball between Beltran and Church. What are the odds both guys could not pick up the ball?

JJ, you're up 5 runs, let them hit it.

Blogs are Tough

OK, I'll admit it. Keeping a blog up to date is not easy. Seeing that I have not really expressed my thoughts on the Rangers and Mets since the second to last game and the opening Cincy series, respectively, I'll throw out a bunch of random thoughts to sum up the past week or so.

Rangers:
-It was sweet to see them win that last game in Philly. So what if it gave just as hated Pittburgh home ice. Sticking it to the Flyers in their own building was fun. Add to that the shorthanded goal we got, the first one they've given up all season.
-I missed most of game 1, but was able to get to the Garden lobby with about 15 minutes to go in the third to watch on the TVs they conveniently have set up there. Works out perfectly, especially when your next train is not until 9:45. Anyway, to my dismay, a 3-1 lead was 3-3, but a sweet move by Dubinsky put the Rangers ahead to stay. Plenty of Knick fans exiting at halftime of their last home game (an 8pm start) was kind of annoying, but not too much of a distraction. I guess if there were any Knick fans that were Ranger fans, they decided not to attend this one, because no one leaving the Garden stopped to turn and look up at the TVs.
-I was not subjected to an NBC Ovechkin lovefest because I invested in this thing. However the first test was kind of a failure, as NBC HD was about 10 seconds later than the radio feed. My new toy only allowed you to delay the radio feed by 8 seconds. Decision time: watch NBC HD with Emrick and the gang or watch NBC standard def with Kenny and Dave on the radio. The latter it was. It's amazing that the Rangers have now won the first two road games of the first round to take a 2-0 series lead each of the last three seasons. Let's hope it turns out the same way (we can do without the game 3 overtime loss, which was the case vs. Jersey last year).

Mets:
-The Marlins are annoying. How is it they get away with their six year plan of winning a title, blowing it up, winning again six years later, blowing it up again, and now six years later are off to a great start, looking like a good team except for their bullpen. Emilio Bonafacio is the new Shane Victorino. Pain in the ass.
-Speaking of pain in the ass, welcome back to Citi David Eckstein, here to torment the Mets again. Padres win two of three in the first ever series in the new park. More on that in a bit.
-A sweep over the Brewers would have been a nice end to the homestand after losing the series to the Padres. However, Todd Coffey pulls a 1970's style 2.2 inning save, getting out of jam after jam to hold on for the victory.
-What the hell do the Mets have against Ryan Church?
-I know Fernando Tatis has to get some playing time, but to stick him at second over Castillo, who's red hot- I don't know about that one. To top it off, the first two batters reach base late, calling for a perfect bunt situation with Tatis coming up. Instead of pinch hitting Castillo to bunt, Tatis strikes out.

Citi Field:
-After attending the exhibition game I was in love with the place. Then I attended opening night. I'm not going to be as picky as many others who have expressed criticism, but here are my only gripes:

Ads covering the bullpen and the tarp over the bullpen. I mean, wow, do the relievers get no respect or what? No wonder JJ Putz was watching the game from the dugout today. It looks silly from a design perspective- you build these bullpens for fan access and then make it look worse than it would have if fan access was not the intent and they were built in normal spots in right and left field. Even the TV crew can't figure out who's warming up in the visitor's pen! Why bother trying to show who's warming up on TV through the chain fence, there's nothing to see! Embarrassing for a new park.

Excelsior level access. I understand not letting certain cheap seat holders to the Caesar's Club. But the concourse level as well? Let all the fans have access to those fancy bars on the Excelsior concourse. If you can go to the field level, you should be able to go there as well.

Put fans so close to the field that they can touch fair balls down the line. Genius. These umpires must be going nuts, their job is not getting any easier with the new parks.

New Yankee Stadium:
-Why don't they just call the first row of the bleacher area Jeffrey Maier row? It took only until the 4th game for a controversial homerun call due to fan interference. There are going to many more of these. Citi is not much better. Watch for the first homerun in left field to be touched by a fan and deflect off the orange stripe on top of the fence and back into play. The instant replay rule must have allowed these designers to have the first row of seats so close to the homerun fence. It's like they want the new parks to set a record for most homeruns requiring instant replay.