Archie Bunker's Army

"We've got a lot of young guys on that field. On the positive side of it, they don't really understand what's at stake." - Cliff Floyd, finger on the pulse of the Mets success. Isn't it nice when someone else's bullpen blows it for the night? Just listen to the disgust from Philly's Daily News in the aftermath: "As they entered their 22-game stretch against playoff contenders, the Phillies needed to be sharp in every aspect. They knew this. They were anything but...The Phillies stranded two runners in the second, fourth, fifth and sixth innings. That is their chronic problem. Only the Diamondbacks have stranded more runners." Come from behind, 6-4 victory for the Mets. It isn't hard to imagine the shoe being on the other foot. (Charlie Manuel lets Fieldin Culbreth have it over Culbreth's call of Kenny Lofton out at homeplate, who tried to score on Chase Utley's single in the fifth inning. Manuel was ejected from the game by Cul...

Did we really need those 32 runs in 2 games against the Diamondbacks? Couldn't we have saved a few for the Giants? On the heels of a five game winning streak, the Mets lost their second consecutive game to the hapless San Francisco Giants, this time by a 4-1 margin. They scored a total of three runs in their three game series yet miraculously, managed to win at least the series opener. Seemingly relaxed David Wright and why not? Unlike his teammates, Wright is still hitting: He batted .481 with three homers and 10 runs during the road trip. Giants starter Noah Lowry allowed five hits while striking out six in eight innings while the Mets, fielding a watered-down batting order without Cliff Floyd, Mike Piazza and phenom Mike Jacobs, went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position. They are now hitless in their last 24 times up with men in scoring position. Now they return to New York after consecutive losses to begin a stretch against their National League East rivals. Neverthel...

Admit it, you were getting spoiled for awhile there, weren't you? Five straight road games, five straight wins was a nice run but having scored only two runs in their first two games of this series, the streak was bound to come to an end as the Mets fell one hero short of a victory. Last night with the Giants' Jason Schmidt pitching just well enough to outduel Tom Glavine, the Mets were beaten 2-1 when they only managed four hits and did nothing with the six walks Giant pitchers surrendered. Ironically, it was former Mets closer Armandogeddon, earning his 250th career save, who got the final out after Victor Diaz doubled with two out in the 9th and Jose Offerman walked to put the go-ahead run on base before Chris Woodward's fly ball to centerfield feel short of a dramatic homer. Wright In A Less Heroic Moment After Striking Out In 9th Against Armandogeddon Back in the 7th, you could feel momentum swing once and for all in the game when the Mets failed to capitalise on a vis...

Five months after disc herniation and back surgery, not having pitched in the Majors in nearly 11 months and having seen limited rehab duty in the minors, no one was quite sure what to expect from Steve Trachsel on Friday night when he faced the Giants. Steve Trachsel 1993 Bowman #172 Rookie Card There is little doubt however that many would have expected eight innings of two-hit shutout pitching, including 5 2/3 no-hitting innings to start the game, Trachsel's reentry into the Mets starting rotation. And after the 1-0 win, their fifth win in a row on the road, now a mere four games behind the Atlanta Braves and one and a half behind the Phillies for the NL Wildcard, it might be officially whispered that the Mets are running the table in a way they've been waiting for all season long. "He made tons of big pitches," Giants manager Felipe Alou said of Trachsel's debut. "It is hard to believe that a guy making his first start would be so sharp. You do not find...

With a four-game sweep on the line against the Diamondbacks, Pedro Martinez began the first inning, as he often does, on a less-than stellar note. He walked Craig Counsell and after getting Chad Tracy to fly out, watched Ramon Castro throw out Counsell trying to steal second base only to then hit Luis Gonzalez and walk Tony Clark. But then he struck out Troy Glaus to end the inning and thereinafter, summoned his vintage Pedro, striking out the side in the 2nd and holding on to another flirtation with a no-hitter until Gonzalez's one out single in the 6th. He finished his night after 100 pitches having allowed only two hits and no runs in six innings of work and left with a 2-0 lead. Victor Diaz drove in two runs with a sac fly and a solo homer in the second inning. For a change, the bullpen held the lead for him and afforded Pedro his 13th victory of the season against five losses. The erratic Bradon Looper earned his 26th save of the season with a scoreless 9th inning. After t...

The Mets home may be Shea Stadium and they may have had taken turns looking miserable all around the country on the road this season but it would appear, given three games, three victories and a 32-5 run margin over their last two games alone, that the Mets and Bank One Ballpark are new-found friends. The argument could be made that at 58-69, the Diamondbacks are not exactly playoff fodder and this perhaps would explain in part why the Mets suddenly look like an offensive road juggernaut as opposed to the mincing, feeble powderpuffs they've more closely resembled on the road this season up until now. But something more protean would appear to be at work over these Mets these last several days since they left Shea. They've developed a swagger. All season long one of the more conspicuous absences from the lineup has been a power bat from first base. Ever since the failed effort to sign Carlos Delgado was painted over with the quick signing of Doug Mientkiewicz, first base has ...

"I feel a different energy right now. If you are a manager you're attuned to your team, and I feel good about [the road trip]." - Willie Randolph, as they began their seven-game road trip out West. "We're playing great and we're playing hard," said game hero Ramon Castro after last night's victory. "We never give up. We're a team, so we're playing together, and right now we're a winner." Right now, yes. They are winners. Last night, second game into a road trip that seemed destined to dismantle their season, the Mets finally pushed past five victories over .500 for the first time all season with a lopsided 14-1 steamrolling of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Believe it or not, this is the first time since May 18, 2002 !, that their record was at least five games above .500 - that's over three years of the combination of mediocrity and misery felled with one victory. They'd tried to do it two other times this season, June 8t...

Like an amnesia patient gradually recalling a past life, Tom Glavine, Met, is finally starting to remember how to pitch like Tom Glavine, Brave. Allowing only five hits and a lone run in eight innings of seemingly-forgotten artistry, Glavine lifted his record back to .500 (10-10) and lifted the Mets to their 64th victory of the season and their 5th in the last 7 games with a 4-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. Since the beginning of July, Glavine has made 10 starts, has a 2.97 ERA and a 5-3 record to show for it. not to mention four earned runs over his last 22 innings pitched. "He’s throwing cutters," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. "He’s throwing into left-handers, throwing changeups to left-handers, and it used to be just sinkers and changeups away for effect and go back out there. He’s pitching in a lot more and he’s manipulating the baseball off his fastball." Last night he threw 113 pitches and had retired 14 in a row at one point before reluctantly s...

It wasn't a perfect homestand, taking four of six from the Pirates and Nats. But coming on the heels of a disasterous road trip (and in the Mets lexicon disasterous and road trip are synonyms), it was soothing tonic. Trouble is, another road trip out West is looming ominously again and unless the Mets figure out a way to pack up their Shea Success and bring it on their road show, the season's dreams are going to come to a rather quick and painful end shortly. How can we be so pessimistic? After all, aren't these the Mets who keep picking themselves up, dusting themselves off, getting back in the box just when you thought they couldn't possible do so again? But we've all heard the litany of the Mets Road Woes recited verse and chapter, week after week like a self-fulfilling prophesy. We've seen the gloom and doom forecast and even the schedule (7 games out West against the Giants and Diamondbacks, one series at home against the Phillies and then away series...

It started out as a beautiful day. First came Ramon Castro's 3-run homer in the 2nd innning to give the Mets a comfortable 3-0 lead with Pedro on the mound. Then in that same inning came Jose Reyes' 2-run homer which ended a 4 month homerless draught and gave the Mets a 5-0 with Pedro on the mound. And even with Pedro's fastball only registering in the low 80s, when David Wright his yet another three run homer, this time in the 3rd inning, the Mets had an 8-0 lead with Pedro on the mound and the three homers represented 25% of the homeruns Nats starter Livan Hernandez had given up all season. Indeed, a beautiful day. Pedro's stiff lower back and the massive run advantage was plenty of reason for Manager Willie to pull Pedro after 78 pitches and give him some well deserved rest after 6 scoreless innings of work with only 4 strikeouts to show for it. And then, the clouds came in. Danny Graves, making just his fourth appearance of the month showed his rust and perhaps som...

If you blinked in the last several weeks of this season you might have missed the Freaky Friday exchange of bodies between Pedro and Jae Seo. Last night against the Nats, rivals to the Mets in the NL East and the NL Wildcard race, Seo pitched Pedroesquely, shutting the Nats out for 8 straight innings and helping the Mets get the first leg up on the Nats with a brilliant 1-0 victory. New York is 17-4 in series openers at home, tops in the majors. Seo has allowed only 1 run in his last three starts over 23 1/3 innings and has a 3-0 record and a miniscule 0.30 ERA since returning from the minors to show for it. So good has he been that he is even out Pedro'ing Pedro himself. In his own last three starts, Pedro has pitched 20 innings, allowed 10 earned runs (for a 4.50 ERA) and an 0-2 record. We will have a chance to examine this phenomenom a little closer tonight when Pedro follows Seo on the mound and demonstrates his homemade Kimchi Bokkum bap whilst impressing us with his Korea...

There were two moments in last night's game for the Mets, via Cliff Floyd, to assert themselves against a rookie pitcher on the mound and complete their sweep of the Pirates and both times, the rookie pitcher won and Cliff Floyd struck out. The end result was a virtual no-show for the Mets, a 5-0 loss which dropped them back to only two games above .500. But it wasn't Cliff's fault, it just seemed that way. Zach Duke, the Pirate phenom pitcher with the slow, deceptive motion that disguises a wicked overhand curveball and a sneaky low-90's fastball that cuts in on the hands of right-handed hitters, has still not lost yet this season and won his sixth straight game after allowing the Mets two measely hits over seven innings. He went to a three-ball count once against his first 21 hitters. The Mets first baserunner didn't come until two outs in the fourth inning, when right fielder Nate McLouth dropped Carlos Beltran's routine fly ball. Up came Floyd, down went ...

It didn't take long for Carlos Beltran to make it home last night. In the bottom of the first he scored from first base on Cliff Floyd's single, whilst the team and the giddy public gasped at a possible home plate collision, he ran full steam ahead 'round third and scored standing up. The legend grows, the leader is born. I know how much everyone carped about the New Mets and Carlos Beltran being the new fractured face of the Mets but despite the massive potential, this has been Beltran's NYC learning curve year and although he was voted an All Star, there have been moments when those intermittent boos began to escape the lips and throats of Shea denizens, moments not, I emphasise, of doubt for his talent, but simple impatience for the man to reach the next echelon already. Being part of one of the more gruesome collisions in recent baseball memory, suffering a concussion and fracturing a cheek bone, could have been a step back but instead the near-tragedy seems to be...

Remember all off season how much teams whinged and pitched fits when the Mets signed Kris Benson for 22.5 million over three years? Oh how they wailed about the Mets artificially inflating the starting pitcher market! Oh how them moaned that the Mets were throwing money at an unproven entity, reckless ratcheting up the value of starting pitching at a time when they'd thought they'd had a lid on it all. Now, in yet another Mets hour of need (one of many that have popped up this season already), Benson justified a little more percentile of those millions with a gutty, less than stellar performance which was sufficient to lead the Mets to a 6-2 victory over the Pirates. With a waning fastball forcing him to rely on speed changes and location, Benson still held his former teammates to 7 hits and two runs whilst knocking in a pair of runs himself in the bottom of the decisive 4-run 2nd inning to improve his record this season to 9-4 with a 3.49 ERA. Not bad for the money. Almost...

The losses mount like corpses on the road behind an invading army. Two of three in San Diego, two of three in LA, and all with their own painful stories behind them from the head crash of two Met centerfielders converging at once at the same place to the near-miss of Pedro's no-hitter which dissolved eventually into another loss like a love gone suddenly rotten. And what else would we expect on such a tour but losses mounting? These weren't your average losses. They were all devastating in their own distinctive flavours, one hammering blow after another rained down upon the collective skull of optimism. How much more can these Mets take of the late inning disappointments birthed out of a staggered bullpen? It only took two pitches for Pedro to undo the optimistic thread he had woven for seven and a third no-hit innings, gasping hope knowing that a no hitter was the tonic the team needed, that extra burst of excitement, the precise tonic the team needed to rise above the disa...

Jae Seo, the AAA pitcher that the Mets let linger in Norfolk most of the season whilst Kaz Ishii made fools of even the most half-hearted believers had another admirable outing yesterday, this time throwing 8 innings of 5-hit 1-run ball and helping the Mets defeat the Dodgers 5-1. Joining Seo in the replacement Met category were Ramon Castro, filling in for the oft-resting Mike Piazza, Gerald Williams, starting in centerfield in place of the concussed and fractured-cheek'd wonderboy, Carlos Beltran, whilst Victor Diaz started in place of Cameron in rightfield and Marlon Anderson filled in at first base which has been empty pretty much all season. Castro and Williams hit back-to-back homers in the 2nd inning to stake Seo to an early 2-0 lead, Diaz had an RBI and Seo did the rest with Looper tossing in a useless one inning of perfection with the game already in hand. Seo, after being ignored most of the season despite his successed, now has a 4-1 record and 1.35 ERA in his only five ...

Rats are the first to desert a sinking ship. Allegedly, that's because in the old days of wooden sailing vessels, rats lived in the holds of the ships and would be the first to know if a leak had developed. But that's the the point anyway, merely testing the minds ability to deflect, distract, deny the issue at hand which is: Mets 2005 season, a sinking ship? You have to admit, it was a curious game to play. Likely distracted by the news of the Cameron and Beltran injuries, which by all accounts, were even worse than dreaded and will likely see Cameron gone the rest of the season and Beltran more than a little shell-shocked for the next month, the Mets blew their chance at turning these losses into a positive and instead, absorbed yet another blow to the solar plexus, this time in the form of an 10th inning loss to the LA Dodgers, the fist being the homerun by the rookie Dodger catcher Dionar Navarro off closer Bradon Looper, his career first, to give the Dodgers their preci...

"I couldn't imagine being a paramedic going to the scene of a wreck. That's what that was, pretty much, a wreck," Marlon Anderson said. Man, it was ugly . "I couldn't go over there, man," the last remaining outfielder Cliff Floyd said. "Once I saw the blood, I'm not good with blood. It choked me up for a minute. We were laughing and giggling one minute, the next minute, a man's down on the ground, both of them." With the score tied in the seventh inning Padre pinch hitter David Ross popped a pitch to shallow right center field which both Mike Cameron and Carlos Beltran took off after. With both concentrating on the ball, Cameron sprinting to his right and Beltran to his left, both left their feet in dramatic dives to try and catch the ball only to collide full speed, mid-air, head-to-head in a collision that would have made even ardent football fans cringe with the force of it. If you haven't seen it yet (and my guess is this ...

One night after his bare-handed grab of a fly ball shocked the house in San Diego, David Wright etched his name deeper into the memories of Padre fans and solidified his quest for future stardom by tying career-highs with four hits and six runs batted in to lead the Mets back on to the road to redemption with a 9-1 victory over the Padres. Joining Wright at the winners, not the whiners table, was Kris Benson who held the Padres to just one run and three hits as the Mets snapped the Padres' five game winning streak and brought theirs back up to one. For a change, no whistful commentary on the Mets horrific road record, no clucks of disappointment at the end of another winning streak whose wings were pulled off before it could ever get off the ground. Just a victory, a beating, a two-man show to carry the Mets into another day. Highlighting Wright's night was a 400 foot 3 run homer in the 4th inning, his 17th all year, in addition to his 30th double of the season and stealing h...

"Everybody has an off-day -- today was mine," , the Mighty Martinez said following the loss that broke the momentum of the Mets three game winning streak. Of course even his off days are not as profound as say a Tom Glavine off-day or a Kaz Ishii off-day or even a Victor Zambrano off-day, where the runs and hits mount like points on a pinball machine with a manic flipper. He surrendered five runs in five innings of work, his shortest outing since gracing the Mets starting rotation. He also gave up nine hits, including two home runs, three doubles and a triple. The result of course, the Padres paying back the Mets to an 8-3 tune. How unexpected was this though when you consider the Mets are 11 games under .500 on the road and have fewer road wins than everyone in the league except Colorado and Cincinnati. Worse still, they have 29 road games remaining -- more than everybody in the league except the Phillies (30), Cardinals (30) and Reds (32). And once they finish up here an...

Although Victor Zambrano's 8 strong innings coupled with David Wright's 3 RBIs helped lead the Mets to a 6-1 victory to complete an unlikely sweep over the Chicago Cubs Sunday night, it's been well documented that the one consistent aspect of the Mets season has been their inconsistency so not even this hopeful tic is an indication of where this seasons future lies. How many times have they sunken into what we all begin to believe is an irratractable abyss only to see them pop back out like tassle-nippled coeds from a bachelor party cake? Remember the spastic misery of five losses to start the season? Remember the humiliating three game sweep in Atlanta, two of which were shutouts, just on the tail of losing two of three to the hated Yankees and then with the Marlins looming forebodingly on the horizan? And just as equally, in the few sputtering moments of daylight when the Mets appear to be generating some kind of momentum, some precious modicum of team chemistry that wou...

You've got to figure that any game that Kaz Ishii isn't taking the mound for the Mets is a good game, regardless of the outcome. As though to emphasise the mistake the Mets front office made shipping him down to Norfolk following his last start on May 4th, (a scoreless 1 hitter over 7 innings against the Phillies,) Jae Seo returned to the Mets mound and did it again, this time, shutting out the Cubs through 7 1/3 innings and leading the Mets to their second victory in a row, this time by a 2-0 margin. Only the Seo Knows Ironically, with Steve Trachsel throwing seven strong innings for AA Binghamton last night and predicted to need only two more rehab starts before joining the team, Seo's stint in the starting rotation may be a brief one, even if we never have to see another Hideous Ishii performance the rest of the season. Meanwhile, Greg Maddux (8-9), winless since July 10, was bidding for his 314th win to tie Gaylord Perry for 16th place on the career list. He allowed fou...

With the bullpen having been heavily involved in all three games against the Brewers, two of which resulted in last inning meltdown losses, it was up to Tom Glavine to give the arms a rest. Last night he pitched 8 innings of better-than-average-Glavine, allowing 10 hits and 5 runs, but more importantly, lasting 8 long innings on 105 pitches and giving the bullpen a very needed rest. In addition, he earned victory No. 270, moving him into a tie with famous spitballer Burleigh Grimes for 30th place on the all-time list. Over his last 5 starts, Glavine is 2-2 with a 3.18 ERA. Alleviating the pressure, KooKooKachoog pitched a perfect 9th inning. It wasn't just Glavine lasting 8 innings but the continued Met offensive which controlled late inning usage. The batting order jumped on Cub rookie starter Rich Hill early, scoring 7 runs in the first 1 1/3 innings, six of which came in the second inning and loosened up alot of breathing room early on. On the night, the Mets finished with ...

Similar to a few innocent little picnic embers growing into a massive forest fire that takes a week and hundreds of fireman from five different states to battle, the incompetence of the Mets bullpen is beginning to rage out of control and is now thoroughly threatening the 2005 season. Ringing as familiar as the phrase "I did not have sex with that woman..." from a former president a few years back, the rapidly aging set-up man Roberto Hernandez continues to insist that he is not tired, nor is his arm and that he's having no problems despite now having allowed 9 hits and 7 earned runs over 4 innings of work in three games against the Milwaukee Brewers including a blown save, a blown game and a nearly blown game in three outings. Last night of course, with closer Bradon Looper having already pitched three nights in a row and having enough common sense to know he was fatigued, Roberto Hernandez, eager to return, appeared to be the only option in Willie Randolph's seemi...

Two nights ago, Roberto Hernandez and Bradon Looper played a large role to enable the Mets to stage their 11th inning comeback and win the game against the Brewers but two inning outings from the both of them to do it so perhaps when called upon again last night they were a little too fatigued for a repeat performance. So when Pedro left the game after 7 innings with a 4-3 lead after a less-than-stellar performance, or perhaps a less-than-Pedro performance, it was up to Hernandez and Looper to save the game and they couldn't do it. The result was the Brewers scoring 3 runs in two innings, one after Hernandez surrendered a homer in the 8th to tie the game, which was his second costly homer surrendered in two days. In fact, over the last 7 days, Hernandez has made four appearances, has pitched 4 1/3 innings, allowed 5 hits and three earned runs for a chunky 6.23 ERA which makes you wonder if his old body isn't finally beginning to tire. The 9th inning was a bit of a rollercoaste...