It's Not Recovery Yet, It Was Only The Reds

I know, I know.

Taking three out of your first four after the All Star game is enough to get the heart racing again following the break but not so fast - these were the Cincinnati Reds, after all.

We're hungry - bring us some more NL Central Division lambs to slaughter - that's 15-6 now against this meagre little division.

Now if we take two of three from the Padres on the West Coast it might start feeling like reality, we'll see.

Nice to see Oliver Perez fresh rested off the DL coming back to toss 6 reasonable innings, allowing 2 runs and 6 hits whilst striking out 6. Worrisome were the 3 k's, perhaps but shake off the rust and this was nearly a very encouraging return.

I dunno, it's difficult to maintain concentration with Mr Met dressed in combat fatigues and Keith Hernandez cracking jokes about Mr Met needing some war paint on his baseball head because otherwise he's such an easy target. And the two of them in the booth just guffawing acting generally goofy as if they'd never seen a giant baseball with arms and legs dressed in combat fatigues before. How unprofessional is that?

Of course I realise that cruising along with a 5-2 lead in the 7th inning, on the verge of taking three out of four from the miserable Reds, the mind does tend to wander. I mean a few Mets batters even managed hits with runners in scoring position!


Jose Jero!

Or wondering what does it mean that the Mets' attendance over this miserable four-game series was the highest of any four game series in Shea history - is there some giant contigent of wanna-be-clowns who came to watch Adam Dunn bounce fly balls off his head in left field?


Is that Milledge wearing Henry Aaron's number?!

In any event, kudos to Lastings Milledge for scratching out some noise in every game of this four game series. Was there anyone louder with a .222 batting average out there? It seemed like every time a lift was needed, Lastings was there where the big money men like Beltran and Delgado, weren't. (3-4-5 hitters 2 for 9, no RBIs...)

Wonder if Moises Alou is thinkin' Wally Pipp just yet. Maybe he's thinking about how much better Ruben Gotay and his .337 batting average looks with Jose Valentin taking his spot on the bench.

And a few words of advice for the bullpen: Keep it up. 1 earned run in their last 29 innings is the kind of work that will be needed when they're scoring one or two runs a night in San Diego.