The Brewers had just forged to tie the game dramatically with a four run 8th inning against the cream of the Met bullpen and now, top of the 9th, victory clinging to the palate like the foam of a bad Milwaukee beer to a mouthful of unmasticated grilled sausage, Derrick Turnbow, hero of Milwaukee, was summoned from the bullpen to the delight of the second largest crowd in Miller Park history on this, irony of ironies, Derrick Turnbow bobblehead night.
Going into this important moment, Turnbow had converted all 12 of his save chances this year and came into the game with a 1.35 ERA.
And make no mistake, this was a reeling Met side, having lost two of three in Philly and losing a lead in Game One here in Milwaukee, their NL East lead threadbare, this second game starting a patchwork rotation was a game which they would have to win if they wanted to at least put a dent in negative momentum.
After the unlikely heroics of Jose Valentin, virtually everyone's lock as most useless Met all season, the Mets had gone into that prolific 8th with an 8-4 lead and Duaner Sanchez, Mr Lock Em Up and Kick Em Out, coming in for what should have been a quick muzzling. Instead he suffered an uncharacteristic breakdown, this on the heels of surrendering his first run of the season the other night in Philly, and this time, a three-run homer to Corey Koskie who had battled back from an 0-2 deficit in the count and narrowed the margin to a lone run followed narrowly later by a Damien Miller homer to tie the game.
Oh, shades of just the night before when the Mets had held a tangible lead only to see themselves hauled out nekkid in the night of obscurity, squandering another potential victory like a junkie in search of another hit.
And then, after he'd hit Brady Clark with a pitch that was literally behind him, Sanchez was fortuitously if not unnecessarily ejected by Opening Day Hero, Tim Tschida, leaving Willie, normally clueless in matters of the bullpen anyway, forced to get ejected himself as Chad Bradford was summoned.
Bradford induced Jeff Cirillo to hit into an improbable yet seemingly simple double play ball to Chris Woodward only to see Woodward bobble the ball and man oh man, every one of us, every Met fan just knew that this was the beginning of the end, the season crumbling around us like the armies of the French king at Pavia in 1525.
But then, as though the baseball gods decided unanimously that the Mets fans had finally suffered enough to make up for all our early season enthusiasm, inexplicably, Bradford came back to strike out Rickie Weeks, who had gotten the Brewers on the board in the third with his second homer of the season, and induced Bill Hall to ground harmlessly to first.
Baseball gods relent, Mets take a difficult game by the skin of their teeth.
And then of course, came Mr Bobblehead himself, good fortune seemingly etched in stone, who tossed the pitch to leadoff hitter Paul Lo Duca that was smashed into a 9-8 Met lead once and for all before Billy Wags finally came in to save a game for the first time in what seems to have been weeks.
Someone check Valentin's astrological charts because he played as though he were a different human being altogether last night, two run singles, homers, amazing catches - just who was this imposter???
And let us not forget the three run homer by Carlos Beltran which gave the Mets their early 3-0 lead and a small cushion of comfort for starter Jeremi Gonzalez. Gonzalez was merely efficient enough in his five inning debut to prevent disaster however, in times other than desperate ones, his performance would likely merit a raspberry than a sigh of relief and certainly there must be an arm or two down in the Mets system who can be summoned in his stead.
Indeed, stop gap measures like starting Gonzalez and the comical Jose Lima are just that - we shouldn't see either of them for another start or two and hopefully, this little hiccup in the starting rotation will right itself in due course before further disaster befalls us.
The Army is on record as wanting no trade for a starter until the resources of their minor league system has been exhausted.
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