Archie Bunker's Army

Disappointing, yes. But two out of three from the Yankees in the Bronx, for the first time EVER, is something to be proud of, even if the bullpen completely negated a proud effort highlighting almost as much by Yankee miscues as Met surprises. Archie Bunker's Army is off for the next week hiking in Ben Nevis and thereabouts: In the interim, I fully expect the Mets to be battling for first place by the time I return. Haha. Let's Go Mets!

Both teams have identical 37-37 numbers after Cliff Floyd pounded two homers and the Mets clinched their first-ever winning series at Yankee Stadium with a massive 10-3 outburst. The case is being made for the Mets being the best baseball team in New York today.

Behind the pitching of Pedro Martinez, the homeruns of Cliff Floyd and Carlos Beltran, four sacrifice flies and the amazing grab by Beltran (above), the Mets took the opener of the Subway Series at Yankee Stadium, 6-4.

The stage was all set for a Met Meltdown. Having led the entire game, the 7th inning was proving more than formidable for the Mets. Kaz Ishii had withered after 6 2/3 innings of decent pitching, two outs more than his usual effort and after Todd Pratt had belted one to make it 4-2, with Rollins on first and Jason Michaels coming to the plate, Manager Willie knew the Invinshible Ishii was hanging by a thread. So in came Heath Bell who immediately conspired with Mike Piazza to allow Rollins to steal second and then gave up a run-scoring single to Michaels to make it 4-3. Out came Bell and in came Royce Ring to face Bobby Abreu. After a long at-bat, Abreu walked to put the winning run on first base so out came Ring and in came Roberto Hernandez with the game riding on his shoulders. Only the night before the bullpen was the scourge of the Mets, costing them a possible victory and tonight, after smooth sailing for almost seven innings, here we were again, out of paradise and into the bo...

Well, you don't have to pinch me, I'm not dreaming any more. One game after their high colonic output with 14 hits and eight runs had them fooled into believing they'd regained their touch at the plate, Mets bats were back on the rack gathering dust as they were dazzled and thwarted by yet another pitcher without a pedigree, this time in the form of Robinson Tejeda, who began the season at AAA and was starting only his third game of the season and was 8-14 with a 5.15 ERA at Double-A Reading last season. Tejada allowed only three Met hits and a lone run via Cliff Floyd's homer, in six innings of work. Tejada you will recall, if you recall anything at all about him, is not officially listed as one of the many "aces" that populate the starting rotations of our NL East opponents. But perhaps Tejeda's domination was no fluke. Since being called from the bullpen (Heilman anyone) into the starting rotation he has thrown 16 2/3 innings and the Mets are the onl...

What's this? Someone in the NL East worse than the Mets? Can it be true? Well, for a night anyway, it can be. After both teams suffered miserably against the A's and Mariners, the Mets were 14 hits and 8 runs worth of Citizens Bank Park happier by game's end than the Phillies, who have now lost five of their last seven and fell behind the Mets as the coldest team in the NL East. They are just 12-19 against teams in the National League East, the worst record of any club in the division. And all this after the Phillies were feeling massive about themselves, having won 12 of 13 on their big homestand just a week ago. As Tony Montana once said to hired assasin Alberto, "Well you stupid fuck, look at you now!" Jose Reyes, reverted back to leadoff hitter after the miserable failing of the Marlon Anderson Experiment, started the game off symbolically by legging out a routine ground ball to shortstop. Then he stole second, advanced to third and scored when he forced Ph...

Adding to what could grow to become a Brobdingnagian catalogue of a season-long accumulation of excuses, the Mets could point out that the Mariners beat the second place Philadelphia Phillies two games out of three just prior to sweeping the Mets and that hey, the Mariners are a team on the way up, waving to the Mets who are free falling like an elevator off its snapped cables. Yeah, the mighty Seattle Mariners, 28-36 prior to sweeping the Mets. After days of twisting hankies in our fists in frustration over one weak-kneed hitting performance after another, the Mets finally awoke, albeit vaguely, out of their collective batting coma, only to be bested by the Mariners, who had a season-high 17 hits. 8 of those hits and 6 earned runs came courtesy of Tom Glavine's two and a third innings and 47 pitches worth of bowel-clenching work in his most egregious performance to date, lowering the hideous standard he set back in early May against the Phillies when he let in 8 runs on 93 pitche...

Pedro's face says it all: I'm not going to say much about this. 8th loss in 10 games. Pedro's first-ever loss to Seattle. Second straight less-than-stellar outing, this time outdueled by Ryan Effin Franklin who was without a win since May 8th. Are you kidding me? New low point of the season. Is this the Mets guide on How To Make Crap Pitchers Shine Like Stars ? You might have thought it was a good omen that Richie Sexson got tossed in the 1st innning and was followed shortly thereafter by Mike Hargrove but it appeared to have about as much effect as moving Reyes out of the leadoff spot for Marlon Anderson. How do you spell desperation? M-a-r-l-o-n A-n-d-e-r-s-o-n batting leadoff. Or perhaps David Wright's mad dash for third from first base on Doug Mientkiewicz's shocking single. Tossed out, rally killed, inning over, Piazza's run deleted. 17 straight scoreless innings until Wright's redeeming triple in the 7th scored Brian Daubach. Wright also mad...

"Pop my balloon Can you pop my balloon? West Seattle hardcore Pop my balloon" --Mudhoney, West Seattle Hardcore Well, it was fun for a day. One game after exploding for 7 runs in the 5th inning against the A's, the Mets were right back into their dreary, saccharine hitting inertia, getting shut out by the first starting battery in baseball history with both pitcher and catcher being 42 years or older. Shut out by senior citizens. How low will we go? Yes, it was a battle of two Japanese players: v. Won in flagrant fashion by Ichiro with a three run homer and 4 RBIs on the day off of Ishii. Ishii has now won a grand total of one game in his 9 starts for the Mets. Can I get an Aaron Heilman? Can I get a hallelujah? ***** While the real story , other than this curious matchup and this curious battery, was of course, not Ishii's 10 hit, 5 run performance over 5 2/3 innings, rather the continued inability of the Mets to shake their hitting slump. Stat of the evening ...

"Thank God for letting us win," - Carlos Beltran following the Mets 9-6 victory over the A's. The Mets scored more runs in their 7-run fifth inning in last night's 9-6 victory than they had in their previous three games combined which should indicate to you how starved they've been for runs and how sudden the eruption came that had eluded them for so long. Whether it was God or simply an errant pitch by a shaky Ryan Glyn, Beltran hit his first-ever homer for the Mets in a game without Pedro Martinez pitching, a 3 run shot in a seven run fifth inning which effectively ended the Mets scoring drought, ended the Mets losing streak and allowed the Mets to escape a surprisingly pesky Oakland with at least one victory in hand. Hardly what you would have expected when the Mets first flew out West to begin this trip but in the never-ending hegira to escape the penultimate season-stifling slump, being happy with 1 win out of 3 games against the dregs of the AL West is some...

Prior to last night's 3-2 loss to the Oakland A's there were 13 teams with losing records in the Major Leagues and Oakland was one of them. Now that the Mets have lost their second straight to a losing team, the Mets are a losing team as well, dropping below .500 for the first time since being swept by the Braves in Atlanta back on May 5th. They stand at an uneven 32-33, have lost three in a row, 6 of 7 and have fallen 6 1/2 games behind the Washington Nationals in the National League East. Although 6 1/2 games is not insurmountable, it is a sign that things are not going in the right direction and sugarcoat as much as we'd would like, the Mets are headed in the wrong direction. Sure, you can point to streak of 20 consecutive scoreless innings as a primary culprit; silent Met bats, lack of Met baserunners and no timely hitting have meant that the Mets have struggled mightily to score. But really, this isn't the primary culprit. After all, the Atlanta Braves are ran...

Chalk it up to yet another somnabulistic performance at the plate. Only this time, the Mets couldn't find a way to hit against rookie Joe Blanton, who had been carrying a 9.25 ERA over his last 8 starts. Just the sort of starter you hammer to bust loose out of a prolonged hitting slump. But not these Mets, not now. Instead, this was being kicked in the ribs after getting knocked to the ground with a forearm shiver. This is humiliation, watching your first 14 batters go down in order against a starter like Joe Blanton, watching a starter like Joe Blanton carry a perfect game into the 5th inning against you, watching that same Joe Blanton toss a 7 inning shutout against you and watching a rookie closer in Huston Street shut you down with one out and the bases loaded by inducing Victor Diaz into a rally-killing double play. The Mets have now scored a mere 17 runs over their last 7 games, 5 of which, to no one's surprise, the Mets have lost. Although the starting pitching has b...

Although it wasn't really the most important story on Sunday, it is interesting to note that Mike Piazza finally came to life yesterday. Actually, it's so rare to see Piazza inject a little fire into his game these days (when was the last time, a Spring Training game going Jack Nicholson on skinny little Guillermo Moto?), here's another photo of the argument that got him tossed in the first, perhaps the most entertaining aspect of Sunday's pathetic, groveling loss: (photo removed for complaints, Mike too mean-looking, scaring the kids...) How many different ways can we look at this most recent loss? Good job they won on Floyd's homer the night before otherwise this would have been an ugly sweep and the Mets would be staring at a 5 game losing streak? Not even Pedro can save the Mets any more? David Wright blows another game with his glove? In the ninth inning, pinch-runner Robb Quinlan scored the winning run on an error by third baseman David Wright, who was unab...

Unlike their loss a few games ago to the Astros in extra innings, the Mets were able to use their time wisely to wait for Cliff Floyd's two-run homer in the bottom of the 10th inning in a thrilling 9 pitch at-bat to give the Mets a very hard-fought 5-3 victory. They were oh-so-close to never seeing the 10th inning to begin with. They were oh-so-close to dropping their fourth game in a row and turning their homestand into humiliation not to mention damaging their NL East position with a deep drop back to .500. Instead, we were able to experience a thrilling comeback in the 9th inning when, down 2-1 with Angels nearly-unbeatable closer Francisco Rodriguez on the mound, Marlon Anderson, pinch-hitting for Chris Woodward, hit a gapper to right-center field that dropped and then bounced off Angels center fielder Steve Finley's leg like a pinball, and rolled toward the right-field corner. Finley chased it down and relayed it to second baseman Adam Kennedy, who threw home, but Anders...

12-2 loss to Angels hits new lows. It took one can of Ishii and another can of Bartolo Colon but the two combined to earn the Mets their third straight loss and open the final series of their 12 game homestand with an ugly loss. Ishii tired quickly by surrendering five of the six runs the Angels scored in the sixth to turn a tight game into a 12-2 blowout. By contrast to his wretched finish, he started off by shutting down the Angels on two singles and a walk for five innings, striking out eight. He threw first-pitch strikes to 17 of the batters he faced in the first five innings. He had a 2-0 lead when he threw his first pitch in the sixth and well, we all felt comfortable to dream for several innings. But in the end, Ishii was beaten for the third time in four starts, proving with Zambrano to be the weakest links in the Mets starting rotation. Colon held the Mets to two runs on seven hits over six innings earning his 8th win of the season against 3 losses and the fact that the Mets ...

The game we're playing is called: Let's Find Another Way To Lose A Game . The rules are simple: you are the team with the great homefield record playing at home against a team that wins on the road about as often as a base runner gets thrown out stealing by Mike Piazza. Your goal is to lose as many games as possible to the inferior team by a maddening little number of ways and blow a perfect chance to keep pace in the chaotic traffic jam of the NL East. If you succeed, you are the NEW New York Mets. Last night the Mets accumulated a new slate of headache inventions and missed opportunities. The seemingly resuscitated Tom Glavine started the game as though he wanted to blow all the Mets' chances at once. The first four Astros he faced reached base -- a single by Chris Burke, who was caught stealing (because Mike Piazza is out injured and a "real" catcher, Ramon Castro, not merely a backstop was behind the plate in his place), a walk to Eric Brunlett and single...

It takes quite a combined effort by the forces of evil and ineptitude for the Houston Astros to win on the road. Prior to last night the Astros had been 5-23 away from home whilst the Mets had been a league best 21-12 at Shea. Last night however, perhaps still intoxicated from Pedro's performance the night before, the Mets somnambulated through what should have been a nearly-impossible loss and dropped a game to the Astros 4-1. The star statistic for the night was that the Mets went 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position. Perhaps in response, in a move that will no doubt have everyone catching their breath with disbelief, the Mets inked 36-year-old Jose Offerman to a minor league contract. The strikeout king of Latin America hit .182 with one home run and three RBI in 33 games with the Philadelphia Phillies this year before he was designated for assignment on May 20. Just the medicine we needed. Nevertheless, in a weird Zambranoesque performance, Astros starter Brandon Bac...

It's something you might have almost expected with Pedro taking the mound against the weak hitting Houston Astros, who had a .244 team batting average coming in, tied for last in the majors with Cleveland, and whose 439 hits and 201 runs were the lowest in the majors. The Astros are now 4-24 when their opponent scores first. For the first six and a third innings anyway, Pedro outpitched even our own steadily increasing expectations by no-hitting the Astros until Chris Burke, a lifetime .177, going into last night's game, hit the first homerun of his career , spoiling the no-no and the shutout in one swing. Suprisingly, instead of pelting him with curses and garbage as he rounded the bases, Shea fans instead chanted Pedro's name in recognition of his near no-no. Although disappointing that he wasn't able to complete the first no-hitter in Mets history, Pedro was nonetheless dominating, allowing only two hits all night whilst striking out 12 in pitching his second comple...

Alright kids, watch out now. Archie Bunker's Army has finally learnt how to use the dreaded html for images: GAME ONE: SAD : You might say that Ishii deserved this loss (even though it is the other Kaz pictured walking back dejectedly from another strikeout). 6th inning, down 2-1, two outs, men on second and third and Yorvit Torrealba is intentionally and sensibly walked to load the bases for Giants pitcher Brett Tomko. Actually, Tomko was hitting .160 up to that point, not bad for a pitcher, Mientkiewicz numbers. But with the bases loaded and the game on the line, it's Ishii's job to do the business, get the bloody pitcher out and end the inning. Instead, Tomko hits a three run double off of Ishii, suddenly it's 5-1 and the game is lost. Ishii's ERA is up to 5.14 so it's safe to say, not every starter in this rotation is a star right now. The Mets tried to make it a game in the bottom of the 9th with Cub reject LaTroy Hawkins waddling in from the bullpe...

Shhhh. Be vewy, vewy quiet because we don't want to distract him but with a 3-1 record and a 2.16 ERA in his past five starts, it might almost begin to look like Tom Glavine has finally found his way back from brink of the end of his career that he has wandered so perilously close to since last year's All Star break, has regained his touch and added a useful arm to the Mets starting rotation that it didn't have a month ago. Last night's performance against the Giants was yet another small stone in the foundation's wall: 7 2/3 innings a mere run and no walks surrendered. Yes, a handful of hits but coming against a team that had hit into 56 double plays over 53 game like the Giants had, it might not have been such a big deal after all. There was one or two rough patches, sure: it took a stupidly ignored stop sign that Deivi Cruz ran through at third base to get thrown out at the plate in the top of the first inning and prevent the Giants from scoring first. Then M...

"The Ice Man's mule is parked Outside the bar Where a man with missing fingers Plays a strange guitar And the German dwarf Dances with the butcher's son And a little rain never hurt no one And a little rain never hurt no one" -- Tom Waits, A Little Rain With the Mets-Giants opener rained out last night, we had a little time to catch up on some reading, and must-read reading it was for although I'd seen the fleshy shots of the partially clad Anna Benson and read of her threats on the Howard Stern show to sleep with all of hubby Kris' teammates if he was ever unfaithful to her, never before had I been allowed such insight into the bimbonic machinery of the Anna Benson brain at work until I came across this piece in the New Yorker for a little rainy day reading. I try to imagine what goes on in the mind of a pitcher who comes home from a night at the park to listen to this sort of intellectual wind-breaking from his "better half": "This is Petuni...

"He's one of the fiercest competitors you'll ever see. He's incredibly special. He's Pedro. One of those people you know by one name. Pedro, Elvis, Bruce, Ali..." - Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson disseminating the growing legend of Pedro Martinez. It's nice having an ace. For years we've survived on a bland diet of banality from the likes of the Al Leiters, Tom Glavines, Pedro Estacios, Kevin Appiers, Glendon Rusch's, Rick Reeds of the world, and now we stand at the buffet of Pedro where one heaping dollop of great pitching follows another. We finally have a pitcher whom the rest of the league follows , covets and even admires . And we can say we have something that the Red Sox and Yankees both wish they had right now: a dependable ace to steer them through the choppy waters of an inconsistent season. Last night with the first series of a 12 game homestand hanging in the balance, Pedro once again put on a performance worthy of all the hype ...