Armando Benitez is a head case

Game 33: Mets 5, Giants 3
21-12 for the season

it sure looked like a perfect afternoon for baseball in San Francisco. the game started out with an interesting mistake-- when Carlos Delgado lined out to the Giants' first baseman, everyone assumed that he forced Beltran out at first and that the inning was over. the replay showed that Klesko, the guy playing first, never actually touched first base. the inning should have gone on, but no one caught it on the field.

David Wright has been breaking bats left and right-- I didn't count how many in Arizona (though there were definitely a few), but three last night and one in his first at-bat today. it was looking like the positive effect of the shearing might only have lasted one night, but he had the two-RBI double in the 9th that gave the Mets the win. sadly, it seems to be that those who look good with a shaved head keep doing well (Delgado had another good day, with a double and a homer, LoDuca had two hits, and Ruben Gotay had his ninth major league home run), while those who look... erm... funny with the new 'do had some trouble behind the plate today, for the first time in a while.



Mets scorecard. from a scoring perspective, it was a first for me-- I don't remember ever scoring a catcher's interference before, and it was a catcher's interference that sent Shawn Green to first base in the 4th inning. thank goodness for Gary Cohen, who mentioned off-handedly that it ought to be scored just as E2. seems kind of boring for such an unusual play.

it was, of course, Armando Benitez who gave up the lead in the top of the 9th-- as soon as Reyes had the hit that shouldn't have been, Benitez just got so wound up in his pissed off that he couldn't pitch decently anymore. it would be hard for me to decide whether I'm happier not to have him or Steve Traschel wearing a Mets uniform anymore, but the nice thing is that I don't have to choose-- neither one of them will ever pitch for my team again.



check out the Giants' first two outs of the game-- both guys Paul LoDuca caught stealing. he's throwing better than he ever has before, having caught 60% of the guys who've run against him thus far this season. his papa should be proud. Maine didn't have a great game-- and got his first no-decision of the year-- but the bullpen and the hitters managed to pull it out.

I'm looking forward to seeing the Brewers (with their best record in baseball) this weekend. looking forward in that nervous kind of way.

bald men do it better

Game 32: Mets 4, Giants 1
20-12 for the season

in the clubhouse this afternoon, all but four of the Mets players and many of the coaches shaved their heads. apparently David Wright was the instigator, LoDuca the antagonizer (and second to go under the razor), and Beltran the barber. the announcers on both the radio and TV speculated that David wanted to do it to change his luck at the plate, and it sure seems to have worked-- he had two hits and an RBI tonight, after going something like 1 for his last 18 before tonight's game. the first of his hits was an RBI, which is significant not only in that he hit right from the get-go, but also in that he was batting second when he did it, scoring Reyes from 2nd (where he'd gotten on a ground rule double just a minute prior). Paulie seems to have benefited from the shearing too, getting three hits in four at-bats tonight.

the Mets scored all their runs in the first two innings (the Giants' only run was a solo homer from--who else?--Barry Bonds), but that's all they needed, because Tom Glavine pitched brilliantly, and the defense was error-free. Glavine got up to 108 pitches in seven innings, and gained his 294th career win.

David Wright may be more attractive without hair-- he looks like less of a baby. Ramon Castro and Oliver Perez both look pretty good bald, too. Shawn Green, on the other hand, has really really big ears and looks awful without his thick curls. of the four who didn't shave, Glavine and Sele are reportedly going to after photo sessions this week, and there's no word on why Aaron Heilman didn't join in the party. Jose Reyes, though, didn't shave for more obvious reasons-- when you're already batting .348 with 23 RBIs and 19 stolen bases (on pace to steal more than 100 this year) and have the best head of hair in baseball, you don't fix what ain't broke.

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.