Show & Tell

this was the scene when David Wright came to bat in the fourth inning today:



(Mets 3, Marlins 0, bases loaded, two outs, top of the fourth)

and here is the commentary from your SNY broadcast team:

Darling: I just find it very interesting that--I'm not criticizing the manager-- well, I guess I am-- for not having a right-handed pitcher ready for David Wright. I think that's something that could reeeealy backfire.

two minutes, two balls and two strikes later...

Cohen: It's a three-run double for David Wright, and the Mets have a 6-0 lead!

Hernandez: If you're a Mets fan, thank you very much to Freddy Gonzales for not having a right-hander ready for David!


for visual reinforcement, here's what happens when you don't have a righty ready for Wright in this situation:


(Mets 6, Marlins 0, one on, two out, still top of the fourth)


Lesson learned, opposing managers?

Pérez, Wright llevan a Mets al triunfo

Game 127: Dodgers 2, Mets 5
72-55 for the season
1st place in the NL East, 6 Games ahead of Atlanta and Philadelphia

tonight was the Fiesta Latino at Shea stadium, and in honor of the mother tongue of 6 of tonight's starters and that of a lot of their fans, the dress whites showed that the home team at Shea was Los Mets. Gary Cohen wondered aloud in the early innings whether this was the first game ever between two teams with "Los" on their uniforms.



Ollie has been struggling recently, but after loading the bases in the first inning and getting out of the jam, he threw seven scoreless innings. It was nice to see the fierce Oliver Perez back on the mound, and the high-jumping Ollie going over the foul line. It was also nice to see the top of the order hit so well (though why the Carloses seem unable to hit in New York is beyond me), and to see Mike DiFelice have three hits, and to see Lastings dive for a gorgeous catch in center right field, and then hit at and opportune time.

After the disappointing loss last night, it was good to see the team bounce back so well, and play very good small-ball.



the likelihood of a Mets victory seemed so sure by the sixth inning that JRG felt comfortable dozing off, feeling well assured of the outcome.

holding our breath

Game 39: Cubs 1, Mets 8
25-14 for the season

Jose Reyes hurt himself either on his swing or his first step toward first in his 5th at-bat of the game, in the bottom of the 8th. he came out of the box limping. limping! Jose Reyes, limping! I could cry just thinking about it.

before the game was over, the report from outside the clubhouse (emphasized as completely unofficial) was that he'd felt tightness in the left hamstring in between pitches (you can clearly see it in the replay of his walk outside the batters box), and was scared that he'd really injure himself if he ran. the implication was that it was precaution that had him lamely gaping toward 1st, an action taken to prevent getting hurt rather than a reaction to being hurt.

upon getting the report from outside the clubhouse, Gary, Keith, and Ron started talking about all of Reyes' prior injuries-- he was out for portions of the '03 and '04 seasons for ankle and hamstring problems, respectively. I was shocked. this is the hazard of taking a break from the love of a team; I had no idea that there was a time when folks thought Reyes would never be a consistently healthy player. I had no idea because there hasn't been even a hint of Reyes being injury prone in the last two years-- the two years since I started paying attention again. it hurt. I felt like a bad fan for not knowing this about Jose-- like I'd somehow let him down by not being aware of his history of injury.

never the less, I blame the haircut.

Willie Randolph's demeanor in the top of the 9th and once the game was over was reassuring-- he was smiling in the dugout after getting a report from the assistant trainer and was teasing his young pitchers (Maine and Perez) on the way off the field. i reminded myself that Willie wouldn't have appeared so jovial if he thought Reyes was really injured. his press conference after the game bore that theory out-- he said that Reyes is ok, that it was just a slight cramp, that Jose says he's fine. "I don't think it's anything serious," he said. I choose to believe him, rather than acknowledge the fact that Willie would be unlikely to tell the world in a 1 am press conference that his star player is really hurt. I guess we'll see tomorrow.

Ruben Gotay came in to run for Reyes and stayed in at short. this is interesting because Damion Easley's best position is shortstop. I won't be surprised if we see him in the shortstop position at tomorrow's game, but I also won't be surprised if he stays at 2nd tomorrow, since he's hot at the plate and there are those managers who wouldn't want to chance disrupting that by making him think about playing a different position. I hope we won't need to find out, because Jose will be playing shortstop.

the important information that came out of Willie's post-game press conference was that Moises Alou is going on the DL and Jason Vargas is starting tomorrow's game. his ERA is over 7.00 in triple A. I'm not all that optimistic about our chances, but my pessimism has been blown to pieces before, and regardless of the outcome of the game, I know I'm going to have a great time, since I'm going with SRL and KJB.

in all this injury gloom (Pedro. El Duque. Valentin. Alou. Baruch Hashem, not Reyes...) and all my frustration with myself for not being at Shea tonight--just for the irregular experience of it all, and the real possibility that I'll never have another opportunity to be at a Mets game in Queens that starts at 10:16--its almost easy to forget what a fun, well-played game this was. it was really quick-- 2 hours, 38 minutes by my count-- because Jorge Sosa only allowed one hit in his 7 innings pitched, had 5 strikeouts in that span, and the Mets were efficient with their run-scoring. Sosa had a fantastic outing and goes to 3-0 for the season with the Mets, with only a 1.80 ERA. the wild-card pitcher who pulls it together rather impressively upon getting to the big club is a recurring phenomenon on the Randolph/Peterson pitching staff, and for a pitching fan like me, it's great fun to watch.

it was an offensive bonanza, too, with every single starting Mets player getting a hit in the game. Carlos Delgado had his first steal in (no kidding) five years on a double-steal with Beltran in the 3rd inning. Delgado's laugh upon reaching 2nd said it all. the third Carlos, Gomez, the call-up from New Orleans who's now got a .400 batting average and a .400 on-base percentage with a .600 slugging percentage in his two games in the show, had another great night, this time in the opposite field from the one he ran so well last night. he's the third youngest active player in baseball, and he's having the time of his life. it's a pleasure to watch. David Wright and Paul LoDuca had good nights too, both with RBIs and LoDuca even drawing an intentional walk with just a .290 batting average-- so fearsome is this particular hot streak, apparently. and the MOT in right field his having a great season thus far at the plate. sure, he's not so reliable in the field, but Shawn is batting .322 with 20 RBIs.

so while there is plenty to be happy about at the end of this game, I will be holding my breath until I see that Reyes is healthy and able to steal bases as he has been thus far this season. I'm hoping that this thing with Jose is as nothing as SNY is trying valiantly to reassure me it is. the short interview with Jose in the clubhouse they just aired for the first time (at 1:40 am) didn't reassure me much-- he seemed rattled, and looked like he'd been crying. I just want to give him a hug.

overidentification

Game 31: Mets 4, Giants 9
19-12 for the season

I feel for Oliver Perez. a lot. He really didn't pitch all that badly-- really not badly at all. until the awful 5th inning, he'd pitched really well. he went through the lineup in order the first time through, and though he allowed a lead-off hit in the 4th, he also had his first strikeout in the 4th. that might have been the issue, actually, that he wasn't throwing strikeouts-- except that it also kept his pitch count very low going into the 5th.

in reality, very few pitchers can withstand back to back errors followed by yet another blown call by Bruce FREAKING Froming (particularly one that costs two runs). Ollie was obviously upset with himself for the awful inning, and I don't blame him. I understand how he feels. It's hard sometimes to be either nearly perfect or totally awful and never a shade of gray in between.


when I was a girl, I hated west coast trips because I wasn't able to stay up to see the games. now that I'm an adult and work most weekday evenings and am an insomniac, west coast trips are a highlight of my spring and summer. they mean I can watch the whole game even on nights when I work, which feels like a special treat.

I celebrated the treat by scoring the game and taking some notes on watching it. as usual, you can see the homemade scorecard and my notes more clearly if you click on the picture. in fact, you'll see all the notes I took about the game, many of which I have not reported in this post. that's mostly because it's late and I'm tired, and I'm hoping to weave a lot of the notes I didn't relate into another post. but hell, isn't blogging about being transparent with the process?!



Mets scorecard. They stranded 10 base runners over the course of the game. It's hard to do that and win.



Giants scorecard. it's not complete (I did have to go to the bathroom a couple of times), but the 5th is brutal.

a little embarassing... for them.

Game 14: Mets 11, Marlins 3
10-4 for the season

one almost feels bad for the Marlins after this short series-- they were outscored 20-5 in just two games. I'm glad for the Mets that being in the warm weather worked out so well for them, and almost feel badly that they have to come back to 60-70 degree weather in NY over the next three days.

El Duque had 10 strikeouts in 7 innings pitched, and allowed only 2 hits in that time, both in the first innings. I've said it before, and will say it again as many times as events allow-- watching good pitching is one of the true pleasures in life. Thank goodness for DVR!

I listened to a lot of tonight's game on the radio (don't ask), and remembered how much I enjoy that-- you get so much better color from the radio than you ever do from TV, because the radio can't do re-plays and can't let the pictures speak for them. If you watch a game on DVR after having listened to a lot of it on the radio (not that you'd have any reason to do that... only crazy people do that, of course), you might really notice how much more the radio announcers discuss random stuff than the TV commentators do. For instance, the guys on FAN tonight discussed Jose Valentin's winter league team in Puerto Rico-- the one he owns and plays for a good lot of the time. You get some color on TV, and good color at that-- after all, it's Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez and I love them in a way that is adolescent in it's fervor. But you just hear more about everything on the radio than you do on TV.

I'm really looking forward to the series with Atlanta over the weekend, particularly the 70 degree and sunny weather we're going to have at the ballpark on Saturday!

I love SNY, part 3

as part of the broadcast in the third and fourth time through the lineup, SNY shows each batter's box score in hand-scoring notation as part of their lower-third* when they come up to bat. I love it-- they obviously score a little differently than the Greenberg way, but it's charming none the less. maybe it will inspire more people to score games.

speaking of graphics, the head shots they were using on DiamondVision in Miami for the Mets had a background of Times Square-- with a very clear head and upper body of Borat in the right side of the image, about half the size of the player (who was displayed on the left side of the image). Keith and Gary were vocally annoyed by this, mentioning it as inappropriate a couple of times through the broadcast. tonight, Borat was gone from the display image. go, announcer power.

in the bottom of the 7th in tonight's game against the Marlins, El Duque threw a pitch that everyone except the umpire thought was a strike. though he came right back with a gorgeous called strike three, upon reviewing the video twice, Gary Cohen said, almost under his breath but in the most certain of tones, "that's a strike."

*thanks to Hertzy for the reference.

Warm weather, hot bats

Game 13: Mets 9, Marlins 2
9-4 for the season

It was 80 degrees in Miami last night, and it was obvious that the Mets were pleased to be playing in more comfortable weather from the get go-- they scored 4 runs in the first inning off of a pitcher who had previously had their number game after game, and just kept on going from there. The only guy who didn't have a great night was LoDuca, and I was honestly surprised to see him in the lineup all night-- what with the hand injury in Philly, why not give him the night off, at least after the fourth or fifth inning when the Mets were well up on the Marlins?

While the offense was obviously having a good night, the defense was really the story-- John Maine, keeping the Marlins to no hits through 7 innings, Jose Valentin turning perfect double plays (the team now has 23 double plays on the season!), and Heilman's 4-pitch bottom of the 9th.

The nice thing about playing in Miami is that you get a lot of New Yorkers-- I could clearly hear the "Lets Go Mets!" chants at many times through the game.

I'm teaching tonight, but will hopefully catch the last innings of the game on my drive home.

$*&%^ DVR!!

Game 12: Mets 8, Phillies 1
8-4 for the season

oh, I'm so annoyed-- the recording of the game cut out after 2.5 hours, in the bottom of the 6th. the Mets were up 4-1, and I can't even describe the 30 seconds of tension in my body as I called up mets.com to see if we kept the lead. my dad has been known to turn off a ballgame at a certain point, claiming that "if they blow it now, I don't want to see it." suffice it to say that I hadn't yet reached that point when my recording of the game ended.

as it turns out, the team doubled it with a run in the 7th and 3 in the 8th. so many days off at the beginning of the season is never good for the guys, but they performed really well tonight. Glavine got his 293rd win (and I was really glad that Willie and Ron let him hit in the 5th, even with 90 pitches already, so he could keep pitching and get the win), Wright continued his hitting streak, and Moises Alou hit his first homer of the year, drove in 3 runs over the course of the game.

the defense continues to impress-- 3 double plays tonight, one each in the first two innings. I'm continually impressed by the way Glavine wins. He's not a power pitcher, is never going to clock amazing heat over the plate, but he just never. gives. up. His second swing through the lineup showed clearly that he was pitching based on how it had gone his first way through-- the Phillies hitters didn't fall for the breaking ball the first time through, so Glavine just served up the fastballs they weren't expecting. the 5th inning was really impressive-- two strikeouts on the #3 and 4 guys in the Phil's lineup (both on the aforementioned fastballs they weren't expecting), getting himself in trouble and then getting out of it again not by overpowering the hitters but just by being smart and wearing them down. watching good pitching is truly one of the great pleasures in life.

I'm a little worried about Paul LoDuca-- he took a foul tip on his throwing hand in the bottom of the 4th and wasn't able to return to the game after he roughed out the rest of the inning. he looked in pain as he kept shaking the hand out in the dugout after the inning, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the cold made it worse than it actually was, and he'll be OK to catch tomorrow night in Florida (where it's-- thank goodness!-- warm and humid). in any case, the x-rays they took of his hand showed nothing scary, so let's hope Paulie's hand is good enough to start tomorrow's game.

is anyone sure of what happened before the game started, when Willie talked to the umpires and Garcia (the starting pitcher for the Phillies) was made to go into the dugout and replace his red glove with a black one? as Ron Darling explained the new pitcher's glove rule, it's allowed to be any color other than white as long as it's not "distracting" for the hitters.

I've now changed my DVR to record the show following the ballgames on SNY-- hopefully that'll cover enough time to get the whole game.

stopover in Philly

thanks to the unnamed storm that seems finally to have blown off the east coast, the Mets have just one game in Philly tonight before moving on to Florida.

I'm doing an experiment right now-- I'm watching the game on DVR with no idea of how it turned out. it would be as easy as directing my browser to mets.com or watching the 11 o'clock news to find out who won, but isn't it more fun this way?

I hope so.

I said brrr, it's cold in here

Game 10: Nationals 2, Mets 3
7-3 for the season

...there must be some freaky weather in the atmosphere. it's cold in New York. so cold that even Willie Randolph, the most professional of all the professionals in the Mets dugout, complained yesterday about how hard it was to play well in such weather. last night, only Carlos Beltran wore the balaclava* that makes the players look just slightly like stick-up artists but keeps their ears and necks warm. tonight, only the white boys in the infield (Wright and LoDuca) went without. all the various kinds of silliness that attends games played in the dry cold weather that Shea saw tonight were present; broken bats, silly errors, perfectly good hits being blown foul by the wind.

we tuned into the game an hour into it, so we missed both of Washington's runs and the Mets were behind when we started watching. the really good thing about this game is that the production came from the exact people that have been struggling to hit, or to hit early, thus far this year. Delgado had an RBI and Wright had two hits. and then LHJ's favorite player, the one he affectionately calls Julius, was the hero of the game, scoring the winning run on a pinch hit in the bottom of the 7th.

he's some kind of talent, that Julio Franco, 48 years old, 30 years in the game, with his first hit of the year an RBI to score Wright and give the Mets the win. it was a fun game to watch, and gratifying to find that the team can win more than just blowouts.

*LHJ knew what this article of protective wear is called. I am duly impressed, as you should be too.

A chill in Atlanta

Game 5: Mets 3, Braves 5
4-1 for the season

We had to lose sometime, and I was pretty sure after the first inning that this would be the game. I believe we've discovered the only drawback of having a team that's made up primarily of guys from warm climates; cold really messes with them. Many folks commented that it was colder today in Atlanta than they could remember it having been in October in the past, and the way that the players moved their gloves really showed how stiff they were.

It started out with a silly error from Delgado, and though we ended up with just two errors charged to the team, they were much sloppier in the field than "just" two errors would imply.

Not Good Things:

1. The boys to the left of the field, Reyes and Wright, both had a bad day. Three of Smoltz's four strikeouts were on Wright's at-bats, and though he drew two walks, Reyes did not produce as he has in the last three games.
   
2. The first and second Mets errors of the season happened before the 6th inning was out, and that typified a defense not performing well enough to back up Glavine, who does not rely on devastating speed or breaking balls to take down batters. Glavine gets batters to put the ball on the ground, and relies on the guys behind him to do their jobs as well as he's doing his job. See Game 1 for an object lesson on how this is supposed to go.
   
3. I'm going to have to admit that V and M's daughter did not bring with her magical abilities to make the Mets win every game, but I'm still hanging on to my premonition that she's at least a good omen.

Good things:

1. LoDuca had a nice homer, Delgado went 2 for 5 with a walk, and Green had three hits. All appearances to the contrary, Glavine had a good outing on the mound.
   
2. Tim McCarver is the high tide that raises all boats in baseball broadcasting.
   
3. I scored the game on loose leaf while watching it on TV. It was actually quite fun.

Onward. It would be nice to leave Atlanta ahead 2-1 in this year's head to head series against the Braves, and to see El Duque perform well again.

I love SNY

the Mets broadcast team for SportsNet New York is, in my completely biased opinion, fantastic. Gary Cohen does fine play by play, but for me the fun is in the color commentary by Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling, heroes of the '86 World Championship team. Darling just won a New York Area Emmy award for sports commentary (who knew such a thing existed?!), and I think it's entirely deserved. The rapport between the three of them is great, but the camaraderie between Keith and Ron, the way they talk about the game and playing it together is such a particular treat for a woman who idolized both of them in her pre-teen years.

Beyond the great relationship, though, I like the insight these players who had such success with the Mets bring to the commentary. Last year, Keith talked a lot about what a powerful influence Paul LoDuca was on the team's success, both on the field and in the clubhouse. This doesn't put him in a class by himself, of course-- by the end of the season, most of those who care to comments on these things were recognizing LoDuca's important contributions. But Keith was talking about it-- and reminiscing about Gary Carter having had a similar influence on the '86 team with Darling-- much earlier in the season than anyone else. A small thing, but the kind of small thing that makes me a big fan.

I know it's not objective, but I prefer the games broadcast on SNY to those on ESPN or (Gd forbid) FOX. Sure, there are perks to FOX (Tim McCarver is the main advantage that FOX has over it's competitors), but I often feel like they show seventeen different angles of every play, making it difficult to actually follow the ball across the field. Saturday's game is on FOX, so we'll see if they annoy me any more or less than I remember being annoyed by their coverage last year.

Nostalgia on SNY

SNY broadcast the final game of the '86 World Series today. Crazy how fun that is to watch, even though I know how it ends, even though I've seen it at least four other times this winter.

25 hours to the Mets' first game of the season... not that I'm counting or anything.