After two consecutive losses to the Braves with two consecutive pitchers tossing complete game victories against them, an ugly feeling of deja puke was creeping up along the backs of our throats like a vengeful, twisting snake as inning after inning against Jake Peavey proved equally fruitless and the body count of futility mounted to a mere 3 runs over 25 innings.
For seven innings, Jake Peavey baffled Met batters much as Davies and Hudson had done for the Braves before him but mistakenly left his 4-hit one run gem to the "best bullpen in baseball" after a dazzling seven innings which proved to be a fatal mistake.
In the top of the 8th, rallied by a double from Nady and then a pinch hit homerun by Julio Franco, the Mets suddenly and inexplicably seized victory from the jaws of defeat to grab a 3-2 lead off of Scott Linebrink, ruining Peavey's gem and opening the flood gates like a 47 year old's bowels emptying after a bowl of Mexican chili washed down with Rio Grande water. Franco became the oldest man ever to hit a major league homerun.
Reyes scored on a bunt single by Chavez and then Chavez was brought in by Carlos Delgado's two-run homer and then further still the runs came through pitching changes and outless plate appearances and by the time the dust cleared, the Mets were suddenly on top by a 7-2 margin.
And to think the Padres bullpen performed this miraculous meltdown without the benefit of a Jorge Julio to sink them. Perhaps somewhere in the alleyways and soup kitchens of Major League Baseball there are worse answers than Jorge Julio for a bullpen trying to protect a 2-1 lead.
Jorge came in for the Mets in the 9th with a comfortable 5 run lead and pitched flawlessly, striking out two of three to end the game and bring his ERA nearer to single digits for the first time all season. Jorge Julio is rapidly establishing his dominance when it comes to protecting leads of 5 runs or larger and although there may not yet be any baseball terminology for such a pitcher, recongition should be forthcoming for the man who has experienced three consecutive scoreless outings, three shutout innings with three massive leads, striking out 5 in his last 3 innings.
The Kaz Man slides past Piazza for completion of his in-the-park-homer
Other than Peavey's pitching prowess stifling the Mets for too many nervy innings, the game was marked by Kaz Matsui's 2006 Met debut and like his Met debuts the previous two seasons, he hit a homer in his first at-bat, this time an in-the-park number that served as the sole Met run over the first seven, futile innings.
You might have a laugh that Mike Piazza went 0 for 3 and ground into a double play in his first at-bat against the Mets. Amazingly and unexpectedly, nary a Met baserunner stole second on Piazza's watch but that was owed more to the paltry number of Met baserunners whilst Piazza was in the game than to any skill or threat on Piazza's part.
*****
Let's not forget the brilliant bullpen performance, in contrast to that of the Padres, in the bottom of the 7th when with the Padres clinging to a one-run lead and trying to build upon it when Trachsel put runners on first and second with none out, Chad Bradford came in to load the bases and then Pedro Feliciano came in for Bradford. Feliciano, ridiculed for being called up by the Mets when the need from AAA was an outfielder, promptly induced pinch hitter Geoff Blum into a pop up and THEN, showing a rare competency in guiding the bullpen absent much of last season, Willie Randolph called in Duaner Sanchez to persuade the next Padre into a rally-killing double play that basically, saved the game and allowed the Mets' massive rally.
*****
And let's not forget Steve Trachsel, pitching on normal rest rather than getting the Willie Randolph Unofficial Doghouse Holiday, keeping the Mets in the game through 6 positive innings, allowing 2 runs on six hits with 101 pitches. By contrast, Duaner Sanchez earned the victory despite throwing only two pitches.
*****
And fans, don't forget to sing the New Mets Song below....
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