Mets Show Spunk In 6-2 Loss

Oy! Let's have a bat that works!

Ahhh, this is what we yearned to see all of last season: the Mets spitting and fighting and arguing like a real team scratching and kicking for every victory, taking every loss as an insult.

It took the majority of his inaugural season to pass (153 games or thereabouts) last year before Willie finally showed enough passion as the Mets manager to get tossed out of a game.

Perhaps he's a little more comfortable, perhaps a little less satisfied or perhaps he's just expecting a little more from his team and the season but last night, barely a month into the season, Willie was ejected for the dreaded offence of arguing balls and strikes with a tempramental umpire who had a very liberal outline of the strikezone when the fancy struck him.

Just after David Wright, mired in an 0-14 slump, struck out looking on an inside fastball that was nowhere near a strike, the third consecutive Met strikeout, Willie was ready for a proverbial fight.


Wright starts the ball rolling...

After O'Connor threw his next pitch, this time to the floundering Cliff Floyd, who had already begun showing the strain of his season-long slump, the umpire, Jeff Nelson turned to the Mets' dugout, walked toward Randolph, who had moved to the top step, and ejected him. Willie didn't go quietly either, getting up in Nelson's face.



"Getting thrown out of the game is protecting my players," Randolph said. "I just voiced my opinion and I was thrown out. I thought the ball was low. You say your little piece and the umpire doesn't want to hear it and he throws you out of the game."

I like that Willie is showing some spine and spunk early on in the season. It shows that he isn't always willing to play Silent Joe Torre from the dugout. Oh, hang on - didn't Torre just get ejected from a game the other day?...perhaps that was Willie's motivation. If Joe does it, it must be good.

In any event, Willie, Cliff and David Wright spiced up what was an otherwise uninspirational 6-2 loss to the Washington Nats, a loss as mysterious as it was frustrating.

Yet again, the Mets were stymied by a no-name pitcher this season. A no-name pitcher who is hot early on, that is. Mike O'Connor, a 25-year-old left-hander making his second big-league start, held the Mets to one run and two hits in a 6-2 Nationals victory at Shea Stadium. He might be an unknown but in 12 major league innings over two starts, he has allowed all of one earned run, good for an ERA of 0.75.

The Mets were starting an unknown of their own, John Maine acquired from the O's as part of the flotsame and jetsam in the Mr Anna Benson trade. Shall we not mention Benson's 7 Scoreless Innings last night?

Maine performed adequately, allowing four runs and six hits in 5 1/3 innings, good enough for a 6.75 ERA and to catapault him into fifth starter territory but not enough to keep the Mets in the game with Mets batters settling for solo homers and little else. LoDuca's shot in the first and Carlos Beltran's in the 9th were the only offensive highlights in an otherwise dreary exhibition.

After Maine departed, Darren Oliver allowed a two-run homer to pinchitter Damian Jackson but frankly, it didn't really matter much by then, the game was lost.

The other stiff tossed in the Benson deal, Jorge Julio had yet another marvelously meaningless yet scoreless appearance to drop his ERA down to 6.75. That means six out of his last seven appearances have been scoreless and in his last 9 2/3 innings, he's only given up two runs. Does this mean that Julio has turned himself around or that Julio thrives in competition which lacks distinctly any trace of competetive aromas? We will probably not learn that this season because if he throws 100 consecutive scoreless innings in meaningless appearances, Willie is still going to have to be vitally desperate to use Julio in a tight situation and watch the plaster crack.

Overall, a disappointing game but heartening at the same time. Good to see the Mets getting riled. That's what winning teams do, bristle at losses, not make excuses. It's yet another good omen on the season which has thus far been filled with good omens.

*****

Pedro pitches tonight against the mystical Ian Snell who struggled mightily in his first three starts but has had a few decent appearances since. This is the Pittsburgh Pirates after all, a team who is 8-20 going into tonight's game. The Mets should be prepared to sweep this mini series because this is precisely the sort of home-against-a-tosser sort of sweep they need to maintain momentum.