12.9.05

At Last Our Long Lost Friend The "W" Returns

We've been looking all over the place for that elusive litte W these last few weeks but far away from home, boys and girls, what we've learned is that the elusive little W is very hard to find.

So we had send Uncle Petey out to see if he could find a W anywhere, under the bushes, on top of the roof, in the sewage system, underneath the skirts of women, behind D cups, at the bottom of hot plates filled with chicken and ribs, and Uncle Petey, boys and girls, as he's done so many times this year, was able to return triumphant, long-lost W in hand.

*****

Uncle Petey threw 8 innings of 8 hit ball, allowed only two of these contemptible Cardinals to come home and struck out seven of them en route to his first victory in three starts and the first Mets W in what seems like months but in reality is "only" a little over a week.


Uncle Petey in his very special FDNY search and rescue hat throwing the magic orb in the hopes it would land somewhere near the magical W we were desperately searching for.

Joining Uncle Petey in the hunt for the W were Cousin Carlos Beltran who woke suddenly from his slumber going "wha? wha? Yeah, o'course I'm awake!" and to prove it, he managed to hit a homerun in the seventh inning, as he often does when Uncle Petey is pitching.


Cousin Carlos, awoken from his long September nap, receives congratulations from his teammates for finally singing us all a song called "Better Late Than Never"

All in all, our brave Mets were able to get 13 hits whilst they looked all over for the W. David Wright, Mike Jacobs and Ramon Castro, all of whom have been taking little naps of their own over the past week, each had two hits a piece. During their naps over the last seven days, prior to last night, David Wright had been hitting .236, whilst Mike Jacobs and Ramon were both hitting .200.

More suprising than the outburst of success at the plate was when the always dangerous and nearly-always disappointing Bad Bradon Looper actually managed NOT to blow the entire game and make us lose the W even though he appeared to try hard as he always does, to undo all our hard work when he surrendered two hits in the final inning before finally and gratefully ending the game with the third out.

The moral of the story kids, is that you should never trust Bad Bradon Looper to carry the W home all by himself, even though the rest of the bullpen is just another unhappy ending waiting to be written. We were very, very lucky today boys and girls that the bullpen didn't ruin it for us all once again.

*****

The Phillies were able to beat the Marlins for the second time in three games at home yesterday, this time by an impressive 11-1 margin and the Astros lost yet again which means that not only did we not lose any ground in the NL Wildcard chase, we actually GAINED a game and are perched a mere five and a half games from the top with most of the month still left to go.

The Phillies were able to bounce back from a demoralising sweep at the hands of the Astros only the series before and now the Marlins will travel to Houston as part of their 11 game road trip. Unlike the Mets, they've managed to win a few of those games and in fact, are 4-3 so far.

As it stands today, the Astros are still ahead by a half game over the Marlins, one and a half over the Phillies, four over the Nats and the Cubs have joined the Brewers and Mets, five and a half games back in a belated chase.

The Astros, right after sweeping the Phillies and seemingly clearing the path for the wildcard spot, lost three of four to the Brewers - a team no one is quite sure whether or not to take seriously.

*****

Looking ahead, after a day off to recover from the road trip or perhaps enough time to forget it ever happened, and time for both Piazza and Cliff Floyd to heal (we need all decks on hand for this incredibly unrealistic push) - Tuesday Tom Glavine (10-12, 3.89 ERA) takes the mound against John Patterson (8-5, 2.74 ERA) and the Washington Nationals in a 7:10 p.m. ET start at Shea.

The Phillies will host the dreaded Atlanta Braves beginning tonight and the Astros will host the Marlins in key games. Although difficult to take the rest of the NL Central division seriously, it should be pointed out that the Cubs will host the Reds and the Brewers have some easy going at Arizona to face the Diamondbacks.

Root for the Marlins to take two of three from the Astros because in doing so, the Mets can creep further ahead if they win than they can if the Astros take two of three from the Marlins. Root for the Phillies to be swept by the Braves since we don't care about the NL East anymore and root for the Diamondbacks and Reds to catch fire. That's the best-case scenario for the week.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Astros and Marlins are playing a four-game series, so we want a split, yes? Over at Metstradamus's I worked out a series-by-series plan for all contenders over the rest of the season that would have the Mets winning the Wild Card by an entire game.

I thought all the Mets bloggers had abandoned hope for this season. It's good to see you at least considering the happy ending.

Jaap said...

Aha, I thought it was a mere three game series - not awake yet over here. Yes, a split indeed. I'll have a look at your series-by-series plan, Kyle, I like the sounds of it already.

Yeah, hell, we can't lose hope just yet, there's still too many games to listen to, too many possibilities, too many more chances for our hearts to be broken.

Thanks for reading!