Archie Bunker's Army

Despite David Wright's clumsy efforts to help bobble another game for Billy Wagner, the Mets took their second straight victory at Turner Field, this time 1-0 and this time, to widen their lead over the Braves to an incredible seven games and to clinch their first series victory in Atlanta since August 26-28, 2003 . It often gets lost in the shuffle of pitching performances and homeruns, but Cliff Floyd saved at least two runs and probably the game with his fantastic, diving catch in the gap in left center in the 4th inning with two outs and two runners on, and then made a sliding catch an inning later to save Glavine's skin. The Mets team character is officially stated. On the heels of overtaking the Giants despite Bonds' dramatic 9th inning homer in SF, the Mets have now won two straight games at Turner Field, two games, if we're being honest, the Mets would almost certainly have lost last season. Instead, Paul Lo Duca's homer in the 6th inning, his first of th...

(Thank you very much for two homeruns instead of three errors) Does this make up for the three errors now? Before we all step into the giddy machine and start talking about winning the NL East let us not forget that the last series against the Braves started with a Met's victory too. Pregame the WFAN broadcast booth couldn't contain their excitement, quoting Davey Johnson's infamous "I don't want to just win this year, I want to dominate," speech, indoctrinating the listeners with a fevered sort of expectation. This is the series where we can expect vindication. This is the series we will point to in the offseason, hey, remember when the Mets dismantled the Braves at Turner Field and knocked them out of the race by May? Pshaw. Hand on to your hats, fellahs. I'll be impressed with a sweep and nothing less. Two out of three is a prerequisite. But for one day anyway, let's sing the praises of David Wright as hard as we lamented his bone-headed, g...

Interesting stat about to be turned on it's head? Since it opened in 1997, the Mets are 20-51 at Turner Field. They went 1-8 here last season, 2-7 in 2004, 3-7 in 2003. In all, the Mets have not won a season series against Atlanta since 1997. Pedro Martinez will face John Smoltz for the sixth time this evening, followed by a Tom Glavine-John Thomson matchup tomorrow. Steve Trachsel squares off against Kyle Davies in the Sunday finale. The verdict? Wishful thinking or not, Wednesday night's improbable comeback victory over the Giants to conclude a winning road trip shows just what this team is made of. The Army notes that the Braves domination over the Mets cannot go on forever and now is just as good a time as any to begin driving the stake into the heart of it's worse nemisis. Mets will take two of three from the Braves and silence alot of doubters by the beginning of May.

It took either alot of guts or alot of stupidity to pitch to Barry Bonds when he represented the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the 9th inning and first base wide open, waving her arms frantically and alluringly. Then again, Billy Wagner was on the mound, and pitching out of a situation like this to preserve a two run win is precisely why he was hired. Not to mention the fact Bonds had been only 2 for 12 against him in the past. Steroid Beats Sandman Result aside, it's the type of classic baseball theatre you yearn for: fireballing closer against beleaguered homerun king, mano a mano, no cowardly intentional walks in the making. Wagner pumped fastballs of 97, 96 and 96 miles an hour whilst the crowd chanted Bonds' name, the atmosphere pregnant with hope and anticipation before Wagner threw one high and outside at 99 m.p.h. and Bonds yanked it out for the game-tying homer. Classic all the way. "My strength is his strength," Wagner said afterwards. "I ...

This was pretty much how it was drawn up in the offseason planning room this season. Steve Trachsel's back holding up and pitching brilliantly, Xavier Nady for Mike Cameron and the addition of Duaner Sanchez and Billy Wagner to keep things shut tight so victory couldn't escape out the barn door and run wild into the night until it became another frustrating loss. In the end, this game was about homers and Steve Trachsel's brutally efficient performance: six innings of three hit, one-run, low rent ball. Trachsel shows his moves in scoliotic dance masquerading as a fielding gesture... Homers, homers everywhere. Bonds hit one to lead off the second inning and tie the score 1-1 and pulling within four homers of Babe Ruth , who had a diet of hotdogs and beer instead of steroids for pretty much the same result. Shouldn't Bonds' homerun trot be followed by an army of Feds with Writs and Warrants in their sweaty paws? The rest of the game was quiet with Trachsel and Jam...

Moises Alou poses a funny question. Should you walk the steroid-scandaled human controversy Barry Bonds who is hitting .222 and looking as though he's had enough both of the media and baseball, or should you pitch to him and try to avoid filling up the bases for Alou, who is hitting .327? Willie chose to follow history, walking Bonds 3 bloody times making the Mets pay when Alou drove in 5 runs on 3 hits and virtually single-handedly defeated the Mets, 6-2. Normally Willie couldn't be faulted for such a strategy because Bonds has killed the Mets in the past as he has most teams, but this isn't Bonds' season just yet and the respect afforded him by Willie was almost absurd. Especially as it continued inning after inning and Alou made him pay. Let's hope Willie learned something out of this. Let the .222 hitter swing, no matter what his history. Bonds has a larf with Beltran and Julio Franco as he tells the story of how stupid Willie is for walking him three times...

One remark: If Carlos Beltran is ever healthy again, why not make him the lead off hitter and bat Jose Reyes second? Beltran loves walking. His OBP is a testament to that. Reyes love swinging. Hit and run or no double plays, either way - a good way to solve Reyes' recent impotence as the lead off hitter. Actually, two years running. Time to try something different. ***** Keith Hernandez should check his eyeballs - who wouldn't want a fit bird like that in the dugout? Kelly Calabrese, massage therapist. Fitting. Of the remarks, she says: "It is amazing that somebody can be that ignorant to actually voice that opinion if that is the opinion that he holds." What's really amazing is that anyone cares.

You begin to get the idea that without Victor Zambrano in the rotation, the Mets might still have MLB's best record. Even with him they aren't far off the mark at 12-6, one game behind the defending NL Champion Houston Astros at 13-5 but whilst having what amounts to a probable loss every fifth day isn't decimating to a team with pitching like the Mets, it certainly takes the fun out of things. And, you might also say, with Jorge Julio throwing another scoreless inning of meaningless relief to drop his ERA down to 7.45, that Victor Zambrano has become the worst Met pitcher on the staff and has gained the distinction with dedication to mediocrity, consistently poor outings and relentless adherence to meaningless post-game phrases like "I'm not frustrated," as though that could turn him into Cy Young material in and of itself. Our Pot-bellied Pitcher Sucks The Mets have beauty and greatness when Pedro pitches and the Mets have hideousness and mediciocrity whe...

I suppose it was meant to be a nice tribute to honour the military serving in the San Diego area but really, when the Padres came out for a game last night dressed in camouflage baseball uniforms, you had to wonder how humiliated they must have been looking so ridiculous and so un-baseball like. Enough to lose the game, 8-1. Back to back homers by Nady and Ramon Castro in addition to yet another by Carlos Delgado, his third consecutive game homering which now puts him one shy of the Mets record for April, were more than sufficient to help give Pedro and easy and dominating victory. Pedro struck out 11 and allowed only 4 base runners over seven innings. I know Mike Piazza's supposed to married to a really fit bird and all but you can't deny the comical dandism of this man, hands on hips as he is, styled in a hideous camouflage baseball kit. Piazza scored the Padres lone run with a moon shot off Pedro in the second inning which did little to slow Pedro or the Mets. The Mets have...

"Well, if you're going to make outs, make 'em fast." - Cliff Floyd spouted this after noting how quickly the Mets played through five extra innings of work. Maybe that's why Cliff Floyd is hitting .208 this season. He's in a hurry to get out and go home. Delgado's homer was the sole Met run in 14 fruitless innings A night after battering what was allegedly the best bullpen in baseball the Mets produced only two base runners in five extra innings of play and not surprisingly, the first team to score were their opponents and the Mets lost an uninspiring game, 2-1. Together, the Mets and Padres accumulated 18 hits and struck out 24 times. Brian Bannister? The skeleton in his closet appears to be the yearning ache for walking batters. He gave up only 4 hits but walked six, making that 15 walks in 23 innings pitched. Whilst that might be sufficient against the likes of the Padres, what do you think a team like the Braves or the Cardinals would do with tha...

See what happens when you don't pitch a complete game against the Mets and you've got a Padre bullpen? After two consecutive losses to the Braves with two consecutive pitchers tossing complete game victories against them, an ugly feeling of deja puke was creeping up along the backs of our throats like a vengeful, twisting snake as inning after inning against Jake Peavey proved equally fruitless and the body count of futility mounted to a mere 3 runs over 25 innings. For seven innings, Jake Peavey baffled Met batters much as Davies and Hudson had done for the Braves before him but mistakenly left his 4-hit one run gem to the "best bullpen in baseball" after a dazzling seven innings which proved to be a fatal mistake. In the top of the 8th, rallied by a double from Nady and then a pinch hit homerun by Julio Franco , the Mets suddenly and inexplicably seized victory from the jaws of defeat to grab a 3-2 lead off of Scott Linebrink, ruining Peavey's gem and opening ...

Telephone Call From Shea All night long we sing this song on the broken glass of the bottle of vintage Mets we dropped from the airplane flying overhead, as Jorge Julio mops up again. Some nights we get Pedro in a glass, shots of Wright and Reyes on the side feeling large and wonderful, the fat man who never pays the bill, and can't squeeze his ass into those tiny box seats. I got a telephone call from Shea the Mets are gonna to win today who knows, who knows, if it's just the third base coach waving another Castro home just to get thrown out again. Will you sell me one of those tickets if I shave my head into oblivion singing and chanting the newest Mets song as though we were wonderful all along? All game, all gone, we sing this song on the broken glass of the bottle of vintage Mets we dropped from the airplane flying overhead as the Mets lose to the Braves again. Get me out of hell on the number seven never trust a team that inflates your dreams only to puncture them again. ...

The first pitch for tonight's game at San Diego is scheduled for 3 am, my time. Frankly, it'll be easier getting up at 3 to listen than it would be staying up until three for a home night game... In any event, whilst there is time to kill, shall we point out for the trillionth time that not only is Piazza facing his auld team but so is Xavier Nady? Nady, who never found a permanent niche in San Diego, is batting .373 with four homers and eight RBIs, ranking among the National League leaders in batting and slugging. Piazza is batting .231 with 1 homer and 4 RBIs in 10 games. Mike Cameron, acquired for Nady, starts his rehab assignment at Class A Lake Elsinore on Friday night. And looking even further ahead, Armandogeddon is coming off the DL just in time for the Mets visit to Steroid Stadium . Other bits and bobs: The Onion had time to pan Pedro on Pedro's Success ... A review of the Brief History of Closer Music ...(complete with audio for the unfamiliar tunes...) Tonight...

Well...what do we say to this? What do we say to the bubble getting burst by the Braves, taking two of three of us at home like it was every other year in memory not the special season for the Mets? You can dress it up however you want but it's still a pig 7-1 or 2-1. Is that the sound of the wind leaving the sails? Sure, the Mets, like the Braves were depleted offensively. Floyd, Beltran, Hernandez and Lo Duca were all out forcing Willie to feed the likes of the 0 for 15 Valentin into the lineup like chum into shark-infested waters. Is it official yet? Jose Valentin, please remove your belongings from your locker and move on. Yeah, we can call it a pitcher's duel. Depleted rosters will do that. Hudson had a no-hitter through the first five innings and Glavine breezed until Andruw Jones humped us again with his fourth homer in three games to make it 1-0 in the 7th. But being on the losing end of a pitcher's duel is about as meaningful as another whistful Art Howeis...

"I SHOT an arrow into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where: For so swiftly it flew, the sight Could not follow it in its flight." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Arrow and The Song Ok, you didn't really expect the Braves to just fall over dead after one game when they've had 14 consecutive seasons as the NL East champs, did you? You didn't really think the Mets Momentum train was moving so steadily and ahead of schedule that not even a millstone around the neck like the pitching of Victor Zambrano could sink us, did you? Not even if the Mets were facing Kyle Davies and all his 23 games of experience, his 8.38 ERA and 4 homers surrendered in a mere 9.2 innings of previous work this season, his four straight losing decisions dating to last season. "Don't worry, Victor," Lo Duca tells Zambrano. "You've still got a firmer bum than Pedro..." Well, fear not. The Mets are mortal after all, even if it might only be for a single ga...

You have to wonder which was more important last night, seeing Pedro earn career win number 200 against the Braves or seeing the Mets as a team perform a baseball version of dunking the Braves, wherein the subject is immersed in a vat of water until they are pulled up to confess they are no longer champions of the NL East and if they don't confess, they are dunked again and again until they do. Mets, dunking Braves until they confess they are inferior! Barely two weeks into the season and the Mets already lead the Braves by five full games, beating the Braves in the way the Braves usually beat them: outplaying, outperforming and outscoring the opponent. "Good pitching, some power, good relief, good defense," Glavine said of how the Braves were beat. "And no mistakes." Oh, Tommy Boy, it must finally feel good to be a Met. Pedro is now 200-84, the fewest losses for any of the 103 pitchers with 200 wins. Question is, will he go to the Hall of Fame in a Mets or...

Yesterday wasn't an easy game on the nerves. Sure, it's only April and sure, the Mets had won 8 of their first 10 for officially, their best start ever, but for some strange reason, the weight of expectation is heavier than the weight of resignation and thus, yesterday's game, a rollercoaster of near misses, was difficult to endure. But in the end the Mets prevailed firstly because Bannister pitched a bend-but-don't-break sort of game, secondly because the Mets offence continued to sizzle and perhaps lastly because whilst the Mets bullpen was surprisingly sturdy (yes, even Jorge Julio , a 9th inning of scoreless relief), the Brewers' bullpen, which had entered the game with a 2.27 earned run average, best in the major leagues, was not. When Jorge De La Rosa and Jared Fernandez imploded for five runs in the eighth inning to help lift the Mets to their deceptively large 9-3 victory, that MLB best ERA suddenly ballooned to 3.37. Imagine another season of Mientkiewicz...

"I don't have good luck." Jorge Julio, unveiling the cause behind his Mama Cass-like 19.84 ERA It took a face like this to scare Mets batters into submission The Mets, like a runaway train, were looking for consecutive win number eight. Tomo Ohka, winless in five decisions at Shea was looking for win number one. Somewhere along the way like a baseball version of Freaky Friday, the two sides changed realities; the Mets becoming sloppy and failing to score first in a game for the first time all season, Ohka becoming a competent pitcher, throwing seven innings of five hit ball, allowing only a single earned run and winning his first game of the season as the Brewers embarassed the Mets 8-2. Jorge Julio completed the comedy portion of a disappointing evening by performing his "I'm an Unlucky Dog routine for the remaining embers of a dying record Mets crowd of 55,831, allowing three earned runs, two hits and hitting a batter in a lone inning of a decidedly self-de...

In the first true test of the season against a quasi-talented Milwaukee Brewers, Aaron Heilman almost single handedly threw away a 4-1 lead with a shameful performance that lasted three batters: two hits, a wild pitch that scored a run and a walk before Willie smartly and quickly yanked him in favour of Duaner Sanchez. Sanchez saved the Mets and Heilman's Jorge Julio impression , keeping the streak alive and pushing the Mets to 8-1 on the season. What's to talk about? Heilman's 10 pitches were almost enough to blow the game. Billy Wagner earned his third save of the season and finally made it through a 9th inning without incident, a simple 1-2-3 closing that slammed the door on Brewer hopes, striking out Carlos Lee on consecutive sliders to end the game. And the anticipated duel between Brewer's starter Chris Capuano, a lefty allegedly with the best pickoff move in baseball and Jose Reyes in the second inning, materialised solely in the form of distraction with Capua...

It was a lead not even the hurley gurley Victor Zambrano could out-gyrate. Yahhhhssss. Victor Zambrano broke the magical 6 inning streak by Met starters. He gave up six hits, walked four batters, gave up three earned runs. He sinned in all these fashions but the Zambranocoaster still walked away with the victory in his first start of the season, typically unpredictable, quasi-coherent, left and right, up and down. Zambrano allowed 10 runs in 9 1/3 innings against the Nats last season. When your team smokes 4 homers and score 6 runs for you in the first three innings, you have to completely derail to blow that kind of momentum. 3 homeruns in the first inning; Beltran's above the luxury seat in right field, Wright and Floyd. The first time since 1999 they hammered out of the gates like Thor. It reminded of the days when Mike Tyson used to bounce into the centre of the ring as soon as the Round 1 bell went off and battered his opponent senseless before anyone had settled into t...

"Just Play Ball..." immortal words from baseball's vice president Bob Watson to the Mets and Nats prior to tonight's game... After all the talk of the Milagro Beanball Wars , the official talking-to by MLB parents to both teams, fittingly, the game boiled down in essence to Pedro against Jose Guillen, bases loaded, one out with Pedro clinging to a 3-1 lead in the 6th inning. (Toe? What Toe? Pedro making a watered-down version of the infamous Pedro pitching face as he pitches the Mets to victory...) And rather than wreaking sweet vengeance upon Pedro, after digging in knowing that with the bases jacked nary a fortuitous HBP was forthcoming, Guillen grounded a 91 mph Pedro fastball into a 6-4-3 double play, killing the Nats aborted rally, snuffing out Nat hopes, propelling the Mets to their 5th victory in a row and 6th in their first 7 games. It isn't very hard to win five in a row when everything is falling your way. When your starting pitching are suddenly all a...

With a 7-1 lead and no hope for a save, Billy Wagner is inexplicably summoned into a non-save situation. He then walks the bases loaded... Oh, this could have been second guessed for weeks but fortunately for him and the rest of us, Wagner struck out the final batter, helping give Brian Bannister his first career MLB victory. Now only 133 to go to tie the auld man: And at this rate, Brian Bannister should have a good chance of eclipsing Floyd some day but the story behind the story, the Mets winning their 5th game of the first 6 given the cynical amoung us in the Mets Collective little room to ponder. Last year at this time the Mets were floundering with the exact opposite record. Perhaps even better was the ease with which the Mets dispatched the Natty Nats, a divisional rival, for the 3rd time in 4 attempts. Bannister has pitched brilliantly in both of his starts against the Nats, setting down 10 in a row at one point in this game and finishing with only three hits in seven inning...

You had to feel a little anxious going into yesterday's game knowing Dontrelle Willis had a 8-1 record with a 1.85 earned run average in 11 starts against the Mets. D-Train tosses ball in frustration after David Wright's game-tying triple. Yesterday's start appeared to be humming along on schedule after he'd held the Mets to three hits through six innings and had retired the last 11 Mets in order. But in the 7th, Paul Lo Duca battled Willis through a 10-pitch at-bat -- including five two-strike fouls -- before the former Marlins catcher singled to right and by the time the D-Train had finished the eighth inning, he had thrown 111 and left for a pinch hitter in the ninth. And that was the end of the Marlins' hopes. David Wright changed the game in two instances; a sinking liner that sank a little too much and an inside fastball that stayed a little too up. The sinking liner dropped under right fielder Jeremy Hermida's glove for a two-run, seventh-inning triple,...

Four games, three wins. Four starters, each of them going six innings. Auspicious beginnings for what was considered to be a questionable starting rotation. Everyone exceding expectation but for perhaps Jorge Julio, the new Armandogeddon and Anderson Hernandez who waited four games to get his first hit of the season. And look, two hit batsmen last night and no unsettling behaviour... Delgado bat in hand, hit by pitch but no steps to the mound. David Wright takes one for the team, another star hitter getting plunked and yet, where is the controversy? Where is the anger, the foaming mouth indignation? Oh, right. We don't have Jose Guillen on our team. Although starter Steve Trachsel started the game a bit sluggish allowing the first two hitters on board, he rebounded to keep these stripped down and paint-chipped Marlins scoreless but for former Met Mike Jacob's 4th inning solo homer. Oddly enough, Met starters have allowed more walks(13)than hits(9) over the first four ...

"You want to charge, you charge. But don't bring your bat out there. I wasn't scared anyway." Pedro on mound-charging etiquette following Jose Guillen's thwarted and threatened move at Pedro for being hit twice in one game, thrice over two. Jose being restrained: Does this look familiar? Jose throwing bat in anger: See a Pattern, anyone? Oh yeah, most certainly. ***** A night after Guillen's quasi-heroics pulled the game out for the Nats, he was hit twice by a less-than-vintage Pedro, who earned the 198th victory of his career despite allowing five runs, four earned, and four hits on 96 pitches in six innings. Of course, given The Toe and Pedro's general lack of Spring work, most would be grateful that not only did the Mets manage a 10-5 victory to take 2 of 3 from the Nats, but Pedro emerged unscathed, escaping even Guillen's crazed antics. Guillen threatened even more after the game, noting "I know how to take care of it, don't worry, I...