A Win Is A Win

My tweet after the game sums up my thoughts about tonight’s win…

I’ll take it.

In Their Own Words

One thing I like about Terry Collins is he seems to be pretty up front with how things go down.  For the most part, the players seem to follow that style these days.  When there are things Terry wishes to keep private, he simply says so.

The only way this works is if the manager holds the same conversations with the players.  TC seems to have this down.

“I was hoping it worked out.  If it didn’t, then why bunt your four-hole hitter? You look like an idiot.”- Lucas Duda

“Make no mistake about it, he came in and said, ‘Do you want me to bunt here?’ And I said, ‘If you want to.’ I said, ‘Can you?’ And he said, ‘Yeah,’ and he dropped the bunt down. I was pretty impressed.   I hit him fourth for a reason. He felt he could get the bunt down and get those guys in scoring position. He did it.” – Terry Collins

“He looked good. He looked good running to first base looking back at the bunt, too. But that’s Lucas. It’s good to see him, like people say, coming out of his shell a little bit and having some fun. He’s going to be a heckuva player.”- Jason Isringhausen

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Mets Dealt Knockout Blow For 2011 Season

Stupid Atlanta Braves.

I feel like I’ve said that once or twice before in my lifetime….

1. They are going to force me to talk about injuries even though I just got done telling you about my new aversion to doing so.
2. They ruined *Jason’s Game Of The Week.
3. The stupid, dumb, Braves dealt the Mets their 2011 knockout blow by way of a Larry Jones go ahead RBI single in the ninth inning.

*Jason’s Game Of The Week or JGOTW is the rare occasion in which I can actually sit down and watch the Mets from start to finish.  Normally, my schedule dictates that I watch four or five innings and then go back later to watch what I’ve missed. 

Due to the pure specialness JGOTW represents, I hook up my laptop to my flat screen TV and force my family to watch with me.  This typically results in them finding other things to do, periodically checking in on me as I direct various loud noises at the television.

Stiff Hammy And Murph’s Unluckiness

I am not going to even begin to speculate about how severe Jose Reyes’ latest bout of hamstringitis is.  No need for the torment at this point in time.  It sucks. I’ll just leave it at that.

The only silver lining I can see in this situation is that this could conceivably bring his market value down if it results in more time on the DL.  Not exactly something I am doing cartwheels over right now.

The Mets are not wasting any time and are sending him to get an MRI later today, providing me with more evidence of the belief in which shared yesterday,

“If you look at the 2011 season, one thing is for certain, the Mets have managed their injuries in a prudent and reasonable manner.”- Me

As far as Murph’s knee goes, all I can say is how unlucky can a guy be?  He busts his ass to work through injuries, takes advantage of opportunity by blistering the ball all over the field this season, and then blows out his knee because some punk kid named George Costanza doesn’t know how to slide into second base.

At first I wanted to believe it was a dirty play.  However, upon further review (which consisted of the very first replay), Costanza is lucky he didn’t break his ankle.  He slid directly into the base at full speed.  If he had been trying to spike Murphy, his front foot would have been air born, not digging into the bag.

No Way This Team Can Rebound From This

I’m not saying that I am going to stop watching the 2011 Mets.  This team fought the Braves hard this series and I firmly believe we have some more entertaining baseball to watch.  Hell, David Wright was playing shortstop at the end of the game today.  That was certainly interesting.

I just feel like this series was the knockout blow to any slim hope of post season play, if you are inclined to look for one in a 162 game season.  Mathematically speaking the Mets have to gain nine games on the Stupid, Dumb, Braves in 49 chances.

If I’m wrong, it is going to be one hell of a ride.

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Mets Swervin’ Like They’re George Jones

In honor of the Mets fifth win in a row.  A midwestropolitan.com ditty.

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Moving > Watching Mets Scuffle

Tonight, I helped my good buddy DeWayne move in 95 degree heat accompanied by 90 percent humidity.  Not that weenie dry heat that Tom is used to in Arizona mind you.  The smack you in the face sauna heat we experience here in Indiana in the summer.

When I arrived home, it was the seventh inning.  Sadly, I realized that helping DeWayne move was more enjoyable than watching the Mets scuffle right now.

I hung in and found some solace in watching Randy Choate make a complete ass of himself when Trader Jack yanked him in the ninth inning in the middle of an at bat because he couldn’t throw strikes.  A sweet ass move if you ask me by the way.

Alas, the Mets lost another one.

No Beltran, no Reyes, no Ike, No Wright, no win.

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Owning Cole Hamels & Another Start For Scott?

The Mets will not catch the Philadelphia Phillies this season.  Sorry to be such a Debbie Downer.

However, the continued owning of Cole Hamels keeps getting better. Today the Mets spanked Hamels around for a career high (or low depending on who you ask) seven earned runs.

I have to believe this is getting in Hamel’s head at this point.  Unfortunately, the Midwestropolitan research staff was unable to dig up any evidence of him weeping like a little girl in the visiting clubhouse.  Instead, he gave this bland reaction,

“Haven’t really been able to get a good roll against them.  It’s kind of one of those games where you just want to throw it out.”-Cole Hamels

Hairston To Start Tomorrow?

“One thing about Scott Hairston, about a guy stepping up when someone’s not around. If that’s not an example of it, I don’t know what is.”-Terry Collins

I’d like to see Hairston get a start tomorrow.  Try to see if he has a hot hand.

After an unbelievably horrible beginning of the season, he has been displaying some pop.  Something the Mets are seriously lacking right now. Assuming Carlos can play, I would let Bay take a day off.

Let me clarify that this is more of a preference than a statement.  I won’t be calling for TC’s head if he doesn’t get the nod.

P.S.

Jon Niese is good.

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Who Gives A Shit How They Score?

Lately I’ve been somewhat down trodden about the lack of power production by the Mets.  It’s rather natural for many of us I’m sure.

I mean, how can you not have at least a minor case of the blues after the realization that Ike Davis probably won’t be playing another game this season, we’re still a number of weeks away from the return of David Wright, and Jason Bay has become a facsimile of Rafael Santana?

Tonight, I had an epiphany of sorts.  OK, that may be over doing at a bit, it was more of a reassuring thought really.  The Mets just scored 22 runs in two games without the aid of a single home run.  Who gives a shit how they score?

Frankly, their style of offense has to be more irritating to their opponents. I’m all for being the annoying little pain in the ass team in 2011.  In my book it sure beats being the heavily favored squad that winds up choking in September and October.  Right 2007 and 2008?

Some Random Thoughts From Today’s House Money Game Win

1.  Why does Rangers pitching coach, Mike Maddux, wear two watches?

2.  What did Ron Washington say to home plate umpire, Andy Fletcher, to get tossed before he could even complete his jog out to defend his player?

3.  When is Jason Bay going to stop going o for 4 or 0 for 5 every other game?  Sandwiched between 1 for 5 or 1 for 4 game of course.

4.  Which will be the first team to employe a little league style outfield by moving their third baseman to the outfield allowing the center fielder to move into the right center gap to defend the “Jose Triple”?

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Thoughts Before the Quick Turnaround

Six days after losing on a balk-off the Mets walk off on a hit batsman. Kind of crazy. Nice job by Justin Turner to sort of move into the pitch while turning his back away.

Additional thoughts:

• K-Rod is pretty quickly turning a stellar season into an average one. His ERA has risen from 1.73 to 3.34 in a matter of ten outings. He’s blown two straight saves and looks really hittable (thanks captain obvious).
• These past two games have felt like American League baseball. Ugly as hell. Games take forever. It doesn’t help that last night Dillon Gee couldn’t throw a strike nor does it help that the A’s love taking pitches.
• Oakland’s grey pants with the yellow tops are gross. In my opinion their green jerseys with the white pants look fine. They should just wear gray on the road.
• I didn’t get to mention it last night, but why was Keith’s scorecard the focus of the SNY broadcast all night? Was it because the game was so unwatchable?
• J-Bay-Bay followed up his good night with an 0-5. Last year when he went yard twice against the Yankees a lot of fans believed he was breaking out. I don’t think many fans are holding their breath this time around.
• Game ball goes to R.A. Dickey who followed up a bad outing with yet another outstanding performance.

Other Notes:

• Jason’s little league team lost tonight. You can send him your condolences and well wishes by emailing midwestropolitan@gmail.com. He could really use some cheering up. He’s kind of like the Manny Acta of the wheelbarrow league. He just overthinks everything. Jason, you don’t need to pull a double switch or go lefty-lefty every game.

The Big Picture

Inevitably, there will be those that cry to the hill tops about how the Mets blew tonight’s game. “Same ole’ Mets” they probably will say.  Francisco Rodriguez giving up a two run bomb in the bottom of the ninth to blow a save and D.J. Carrasco’s losing balk certainly lends credence to that thought process.

My thoughts?  Quit your belly aching you Negative Nancies.

I am equally disappointed in the way things turned out tonight.  However, the difference is that I haven’t lost sight of the big picture.  The Mets took two of three in Atlanta, a place that has traditionally been extremely unkind to them.

If you want to focus on two horribly disgusting plays and forget the fact that the Mets actually won the series, there really isn’t much I can do for you.  Hell, you can actually look at tonight’s game alone  and find some positives.  The Mets could have easily mailed it in when they found themselves down by four.  They had already won the series.

Instead, they fought back, took the lead, and put themselves in position to win.  Obviously, it didn’t work out tonight, but I for one appreciate the effort.

If you want to call me a homer go ahead.  That is another example of your shortsightedness.  After all, I expected the Mets to drop two of three prior to the beginning of this series.  Instead, I am looking past tonight’s tough loss and grasping reality.  The Mets exceeded my expectations this series.

For those of you who want to bitch and moan about the small stuff and ignore the big picture, there isn’t much I can do for you.

Significant Progress?

The Mets wrapped up their sixth road series win of the year tonight, and in doing so improved their road series mark to 6-5 overall. It truly is hard to fathom when considering that the 2010 version made us wait well into August to win a road series. Not only that, but the Mets improve to 19-17 away from Citi Field, tied for the 3rd best road mark in the National League. If only they could win at home.

The Mets have also now taken 5 of 8 against Atlanta this year, including 3 of 5 at Turner Cemetery. Most importantly, the Mets return to .500 on the year for the first time since they were 22-22. They are now 34-34 and surprisingly enough just 3.5 games back in the wild card (pictured below).

Perhaps the Mets are taking significant strides towards relevancy. I don’t want to get too carried away about a .500 record in mid-June, but judging by the celebrations on Twitter and Facebook it seems as if this is almost as awesome as being in first. With lower expectations comes a certain degree of happiness – kind of.

As for the game itself, there was lots of rain and there were very few hits. Sadly, Dillon Gee did not pick up the victory because weather got in the way. But fortunately the game was not called after four innings (which would have erased it). The Mets are still undefeated when Dillon starts.

A new segment I’ll introduce to Midwestropolitan: Jose watch…

• Tonight he went 1 for 4 with an RBI (28). His average drops to .345 on the year.

St. Louis Cardinals	38	31	—	93
Atlanta Braves	38	31	—	93
Arizona Diamondbacks	37	32	1.0	93
Cincinnati Reds	37	33	1.5	92
Pittsburgh Pirates	34	33	3.0	95
New York Mets	34	34	3.5	94

Mets Sort Of Prove Me Wrong

As I mentioned earlier today on our Facebook and Twitter pages, possession of a functional time machine may have tempted me to travel back, call in sick from work, and watch today’s craziness live.

Since I do not possess a functional time machine, I had to be content with watching the game tonight knowing the Mets came back from a seven run deficit.

My live updates via my phone provided me with initial disappointment.  The disappointment turned to shock and awe upon seeing the Mets had tied the game  as I exclaimed, “Holly shit!” during a quick break from the meeting I was attending.

Once again, I apparently provided some unintentional motivation as I had the following to say this morning,

“We’re not going to see many three run blasts or six run innings out of this offense for a while.”

– Me (earlier this morning)

I guess Carlos didn’t quite prove me wrong.  In my defense, I did say we wouldn’t see many three run blasts.  Fact:   One does not qualify as many.

Also, I was correct in terms of the six run innings.  Although I have to be honest, I didn’t envision a whole lot of four or three run frames either.

Suffice it to say, I won’t be displeased one iota  if the boys in orange and blue prove me 100% incorrect.  So swing away fellas.