"I got beat by the best hitter on their team and one of the best hitters in the league this year," Bannister dreamed after losing his first game of the season, "If you take him out of the equation, it might have been a different game."
A different game? Like the game Kellen Clemens was playing last night?
Bannister is likely to prefer he's place on the mound rather than on a gridiron but the place he's going now to soothe those dreams of Ryan Howard-less worlds is Norfolk. Four months away, one night back. And a first loss to take with him as a souvenir.
It started badly. Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino and Chase Utley began the game with singles, with Utley's scoring Rollins and sending Victorino to third. I dunno about you but this was a throbbing reminder of the back-to-back massacres we suffered in Philly last time around.
Ryan Howard then nearly broke the back of the game with a three-run homer that died at the warning track. It was only postponing the inevitable for Bannister because three innings later, Howard got it right with a two-run shot, his 45th of the season.
Howard's MVP competition, Carlos Beltran upped the ante with a two-run homer of his own in the 5th inning that brought the Mets within a run. It was Beltran's 37th of the season, one short of his career high achieved in a combination season with the Royals and Astros. His next will be his 200th.
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2 comments:
I thought briefly of the irony of perhaps one day wearing a Jets jersey with the name "Clemens" on the back.
But then I pulled a synapse muscle and went back to sleep.
Heretical and obtuse at the same time. Much like the game
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