Ace Outpitched Yet Again, Yankees Take Another

With Johan Santana starting on fire, striking out five of the first nine batters he faced in three scoreless innings, the temptation to contemplate victory and greatness was ripe for the plucking.

But for those of you who have watched the Mets at all this season, you know better.


Johan to Wright: Whattacha wanna do dees afternoon, Davey?
Wright to Johan: Oh, I dunno Johan, why don't we stand near the foul line and watch baseballs NOT roll foul and end up as base hits?
Johan to Wright: Ok, esounds like fung!

For three innings you could try and let yourself feel good but for the nagging feeling deep down, the knowing, that Santana would not keep it up (my favourite scenario between innings was surrendering a massive, solar-plexus punching gopherball to turn the game around considering Santana seems to throw at least one a game...)and you merely had to recall Pedro strolling along through 4 last Saturday in Colorado before the roof caved in and the floor gave way.

Well, nothing as melodramatic as Santana surrendering back-to-back homers, just a little chip here, a little chip there and the next thing you knew Santana had his 7th loss against 7 victories on the season, the fifth straight game the "ace" has started which ended in a Mets loss.

Of course early on, we could be distracted by the revelation that Pedro has been tipping his pitches of late, specifically his change-up by widening his glove, and this is the source of Pedro sucking his last few outings. So according to this legend, Pedro will return to Hall of Fame form his next start. Let's say I'll not be holding my breath on that one.

There are many keys to any game: their ace outpitching ours, a continued somnambulism at the plate, the occasional yip from David Wright at third sending Delgado all over the shop (and yes, Delgado did make a nice stab of it and did actually tag A-Hole out before he reached first but you can't blame the umps for malaise...)but the true key was held in the 5th and Pettitte, who outpitched Johan all the way, picked Reyes off second to kill a rally in the 5th.


Bonehead act of the game, Reyes getting picked off 2nd by Pettitte in the 5th with two men on and David Wright at the plate.

This is the kind of baffoonery that stares the Mets in the face every morning following a game. These little things they failed to do, like hit the cut off man, or pay attention to getting picked off by the man with the base pickoff move in baseball, getting hits in key places, not walking half a lineup home, not throwing balls away, etc. etc. etc. These are the little facial tics that are preventing the Mets from getting a good head shot this season.


In the A Bunker clubhouse, four strikeouts in four at-bats would mean your game salary gets donated to charity because YOU DIDN'T DESERVE A PENNY, Beltran.

There's certainly no reason why the Mets couldn't have won this game but they didn't and that's the story within the story. Just like Santana's pitching. Good but not good enough.

And Jerry Manuel? Gangsta? How about winning some focking games first, or does that interrupt studying the Gandhi quotes for secret morsels on winning?