Mets Ride the Bannercoaster To Victory

Yesterday wasn't an easy game on the nerves.

Sure, it's only April and sure, the Mets had won 8 of their first 10 for officially, their best start ever, but for some strange reason, the weight of expectation is heavier than the weight of resignation and thus, yesterday's game, a rollercoaster of near misses, was difficult to endure.

But in the end the Mets prevailed firstly because Bannister pitched a bend-but-don't-break sort of game, secondly because the Mets offence continued to sizzle and perhaps lastly because whilst the Mets bullpen was surprisingly sturdy (yes, even Jorge Julio, a 9th inning of scoreless relief), the Brewers' bullpen, which had entered the game with a 2.27 earned run average, best in the major leagues, was not. When Jorge De La Rosa and Jared Fernandez imploded for five runs in the eighth inning to help lift the Mets to their deceptively large 9-3 victory, that MLB best ERA suddenly ballooned to 3.37.


Imagine another season of Mientkiewicz at first base instead...

*****

Let's begin with the starter, rookie Brian Bannister. The lad's been great to date, surprising everyone with his guile and quick success but let's face it, who really wanted to be relying on a rookie starter to get us through the bumpy bits already; trying to avoid hosting Atlanta on the heels of a two game skid to the Brewers?

Brian Bannister again showed his poise under potential disasters created by his own hand. He wiggled out of two bases-loaded situations and stranded 10 Milwaukee Brewers in five difficult-to-watch innings of work.

He issued a single and a walk in the first inning only to escape.

As if to prove he could escape any potential disaster of his own making, in the second, he went out and made it evening more difficult, allowing a leadoff double and then walking two in a row to load the bases with no outs. And believe me, auspicious beginnings have long been the bane of previous pitchers who watched the houses of their starts collapse before the foundation was even finished.

Bases loaded, no outs and the rookie proceeds to strike out the next two batters and induces the third to fly out harmlessly to end the inning without any harm save for an abundance of pitches and Willie's wary eye cast upon the bullpen.

And then in the bottom half of the second the Mets did what they'd done 10 times out of the first 11 games: seized the lead by scoring first.

David Wright started it off by a single and then one Cliff Floyd fly out later, the man we pilloried Omar for trading for, Xavier Nady, popped his 3rd homer of the season over the left field wall making it 2-0.


The #7 hitter is hitting .366. This batting order is deadly from nearly anywhere.

*****

The 2-0 lead on the heels of the Brewers blowing the bases loaded, no-outs situation should have been sufficient to break their backs and allow the rest of the game to be experienced on cruise control but no.

In the 3rd, Bannister allowed two singles and a walk to load the bases again, this time with one out under his belt and again Houdini escaped, this time getting phenom Prince Fielder to strike out swinging and Damien Miller to fly out without allowing a single run to score.

*****

Let's face it, if you were a Brewers fan you'd be hating the fact that your team lost a game by leaving 14 runners on base and going a miserable 1 for 16 with runners in scoring position but hey, that's for the Bratwurst and Beer to obliterate, not for us to concern ourselves with.


They may have lost two of three but at least Brewers fans had somethign to look forward to.

*****

It may not have been pretty but by the time the fifth inning had been pitched, Bannister had thrown a massive 112 pitches, had walked five, given up six hits and had even had a wild pitch to his credit all the while surrendering a mere run for the trouble, his ERA at 2.50 whilst earning his second career victory the hard way.

And this game, which never really felt over, not even after Delgado's massive three run blast blew the game open because lurking in the background like the rumour of bird flu, was the vision of Jorge Julio entering the game with a six run lead to protect and three outs to get.

After Saturday's loss Jorge said of the booing public, "I don't listen to nothing (from) the fans. I don't care. They don't pay ... me."

(What he didn't know is that the AA battery that almost hit him from the sky luxury box came from the hand of a Wilpon or that neither Fred nor Jeff could even whisper a reply after the game so hoarse from booing they were?! Think Omar is slinking away from this trade like a dog that just farted?)

To make matter worse, Julio allowed Bill Hall, hitting .227, a double after getting the leadoff hitter out and my god, you could just see it all melting down in front of you wondering why oh why Willie with the palm of your hand smacking against your forehead.

He momentarily redeemed himself with a swinging strikeout of Prince Fielder before unleashing a wild pitch (who will we grow to remember more when the expression wild pitch is mentioned, Julio or Victor Zambrano, almost loveable by comparison?) as Hall advanced to third and then, miracle of miracles, Damien Miller flew out to Chavez in center and the game was over, Julio's ERA dropping to 15.43.

*****

So, eleven games into the season and the Mets stand at a healty 9-2, leading the NL East by an incredible 4 games.

Next up are the dreaded Atlanta Braves looking surprisingly vulnerable already this season.

After taking two of three from the weak-hitting Padres, the starting rotation lowered their ERA from 8.59 to 6.30 but the bullpen, the real Achilles Heel of these Braves to date, blew the final game to prevent a sweep and some momentum leading up to the Mets. The bullpen has allowed 26 earned runs in a mere 47 2/3 innings of work, something hovering near a 5.00 ERA. Of 9 save opportunities, they've managed 4, all from Oscar Villarreal who has 4 victories already this season.

And for those of you keeping score at home whistfully, Mike Piazza did not make an appearance, his .226 batting average remaining steady.

The Braves have many problems at the moment and now is certainly the time for the Mets to begin the corrective procedure of ridding themselves of the mystical sway the Braves have held over them for years by smashing them to bits in this series.

Larry Jones is already on the DL and now Edgar Renteria, who has a 12 game hitting streak, is likely out for the series if not headed for the DL with the loss making a missmash of the infield as well as the batting order.

Of course, the monsterous Andruw Jones is still coming. He's got 4 homers and 16 RBIs already to go along with his .362 OBP. But Marcus Giles is hitting .204 and Jeff Francoeur, struggles along at a .208 clip.

Nevertheless, this will mark an important stage in the Mets season already. A sweep of the Braves, even this early on, could have ramifications on the Mets psyche the rest of the season. Fittingly, Pedro opens this series going for career win #200 and he will face the less-than-formidable Jorge Sosa (0-2 11.37). Sosa has failed to go more than 4 innings in his two starts this season.

Victor Zambrano will take the mound in Game Two against the even-less-than-formidable Kyle Davies (0-1 8.38) and hell, Game Three will feature Glavine against Braves ace Tim Hudson but even Hudson has started the season off slowly, 0-1 with a 9.20 ERA. There's no reason why the Mets shouldn't score 20 runs in this series and shove a sweep down their throats to show 'em we mean business but this is, after all the Braves so we'll be keeping our delirium hats and party favours in the closet until much later in the season.

And if for some crazy reason, you needed ammunition to hate the Braves even more, just have a look at this commentary on the upcoming series including Adam LaRoche taunting:

"I bet their fans can remember 14 straight titles."

Indeed, and maybe LaRoche will get a beanball from Pedro to show how clearly we remember.