The Incredibly Shrinking NL East Lead

There may be hope for Willie yet...

What were the odds of this?

Xavier Nady, 0-17 on the season with two outs and runners in scoring position, came to bat in the top of the 9th against Mr Automatic Bobblehead with two outs and Delgado perched on third, the Mets down by a run. This was after the Mets had left 8 runners in scoring position through the first 8 innings.

Not only 0-17 in these situations, but 4-33 batting with runners in scoring position in general and yet somehow, he was able to beat a throw to first which was bobbled by Prince Fielder for an infield hit and the game was tied, Turnbow had his first blown save of the season.

That eventually led the way to extra innings, the 6th of the season for the Mets. And it was all for naught.

Jose Valentin, a pimple of a batsman only a few days ago, is suddenly the greatest player on earth. After going 5 for his first 30 at-bats, a .166 average, he had 4 RBIs on Saturday night including a great catch and then had 4 hits on Sunday afternoon and a clever throw out of Rickie Weeks in the 10th that could have been tide-turning were it not for a homer one batter later.

But he wasn't the only one to do something out of the ordinary. The Kaz Man, who had been 0-11 on the season against lefties, singled in the 5th off, you guessed it, the lefty starter Doug Davis.

After hitting a homer to make the score 4-2, Ricky Weeks made an error, his 12th of the season, which put Mets on first and second and then allowed David Wright to tie the game at 4 with a double, which probably should have been a single but for the bobble by Geoff Jenkins.

Then of course, David Wright, King of The 9th Inning Errors bobbled another in the bottom of the 9th, his seventh of the year. Even the night before he barely escaped what clearly was an error when it was mistakenly ruled a hit. Fortunately, this sloppiness didn't cause further demise.

Oh no, the demise was to come an inning later when the Brewers paid the Mets back for Lo Duca's homer in the 9th the night before -- Bill Hall blasted a Chad Bradford offering for a 6-5 walk-off win to take the series, two games out of three. On the heels of the Phillies sweeping the Reds, the Met lead has been shrunk to one with the doom and gloom of facing the Cardinals and Albert Pujols looming.

The Phillies will go to Milwaukee next.

Rhetorical Question of the Evening

When is Willie going to pull his head out of his arse and abandon this childish worship of the stupid rule of not putting your closer in the game on the road unless you've got the lead?

Today's was the SECOND game, the first being the opening game in Philly a few days ago, when the Mets had less than their best on the mound at the end of the game and paid for it.

The game is on the line, dickhead. It doesn't matter if you don't have the lead, if you don't hold the opposition, you won't get another turn at bat anyway. Or maybe it's Joe Torre's arse that Willie's head is burrowed up.

*****

For Mother's Day in America, baseball was festooned in pink for some reason - apparently the pink was to represent breast cancer - pink bats, pink wristbands, etc. It was a Pink Day - but there was no Pinky Tuscadero:


No Pinky, No Cry.

"On November 29, 1999, she was arrested for firing a 12-gauge shotgun into the living room window of a neighbor's house after a car alarm woke her up; she also shot the neighbor's car and another car nearby. The neighbor was not home at the time. She pleaded no contest to the charge of firing into the house and was sentenced to three years' felony probation on October 20. Kelly was also ordered to receive psychiatric counseling and pay restitution as ordered by the probation department."

---In any event, if the fight against breast cancer was to be promoted, why didn't everyone dress in black? How does pink represent breast cancer better than black?

*****

Uninspirational - the Mets were frankly, fortunate to even see this game into extra innings. Granted, after throwing Jose Lima and Jeremi Gonzalez on the mound, two losses out of three weren't surprising, but excuses are not going to keep the lead from the Phillies. We see the Mets going to St Louis and the Phillies going to Milwaukee and thereafter, the Mets will play the Yankees and the Phillies will face the Red Sox.

By the mid week, the NL East might well have a new leader.

And yeah, with the game on the line, let's make sure our best reliever, or the reliever who is allegedly our best, stays in the bullpen unless we have a lead. Real feckin helpful.