Tuesday, August 28, 2007

An absolutely brutal night

The only thing that saved this from being as bad a night of baseball as there could ever be was the Braves lost. Barely. Nonetheless, I got to see Chipper Jones hit a game-tying homer in the eighth inning off the immortal Armando Benitez. Boy, did that bring back memories.

Then the disaster at Wrigley. For all these pity party Cub fans, you don't have a clue about baseball. Actually most Cub fans are incredibly delusional anyway. Brewers lead 3-0, Jeff Suppan (a true piece of crap by the way) pitches well. Cubs rally. Bottom of 7, Suppan hits Floyd. In comes Scott Linebrink, one of the best setup men in baseball over the last five years. And the Brewers traded three top prospects to San Diego for this guy. Before you know it, single, double. Tie game. Fly out, then Linebrink makes a ridiculous error and the go ahead run scores. Lee adds a single for good measure 5-3. Of course, the Brewers threaten Two on, two out. Gabe Gross takes Bob Howry to 12 pitches before popping out. And the Cubs are of course on their way to a division title, taking a million bandwagon fans along for the ride.

Then onto THE game. The absolute ageda, misery, torture, and pain that was so bad I felt like a pit bull trained by Michael Vick. When Carlos Delgado by the grace of God hit a two-run homer to give the Mets a 2-0 lead, everything looked great. Little did I know that would be the last time a Met would touch home plate. And Paul LoDuca. Goodbye. He left more guys out in the field then Tiger Woods. Two double plays with at least one runner on base. And I have to watch Jose Reyes refuse to take pitches. He went 0 for 5 tonight and saw 13 pitches! For a leadoff hitter! And he's 0 for 9 in this series.

Then after Tom Glavine pitches an excellent game, we come up in the top of the eighth.
After two strikeouts, Beltran and Alou walk. Delgado comes up against JC Romero and reverts back to from, striking out on a fastball right down the heart of the plate. Then the lovely bullpen comes in the bottom half. Our most reliable reliever, Pedro Feliciano, starts. Jimmy Rollins promptly homers. 2-1. Utley grounds out, all is well. Then the Met killer, Pat Burrell, comes up. He walks and their best power hitter, Ryan Howard flies out. Oh, but not before pinch runner Shane Victorino steals second and moves to third on a horrible throw. Then Aaron Heilman comes in. I like Aaron, but I am losing faith quickly. Aaron Rowand dribbles an inside pitch down the line. And it trickles parallel to the foul line. Fair ball. Victorino scores. Tie game. Greg Dobbs walks, loading the bases, before Heilman gets a ground ball to send the game to the ninth.

We do nothing in two innings against Brett Myers. Meanwhile, Mr. Steroids comes in. Guillermo Mota. Gets a 1-2-3 eighth. Now all year long, even when he has one clean inning, Willie Randolph tends to leave him in the game and then everything goes to hell. So guess what? Mota comes in for a second inning. And I knew right there the game was over. Victorino, the fastest player nobody knows about, singles. Howard homers to left. Game over, Mets lose 4-2, their third straight loss and second straight in this series. The lead in the NL East is down to four games.

I don't want anyone to tell me about we're leading the division or we have all this talent. This team is not good enough to win a playoff series, I can't say it enough. The bullpen stinks, the offense is more up and down than a pogo stick. Bottom line is this: this year has not been fun. Last year was great. This team is just not any fun to watch. It is time for them, and I specifically mean the bullpen, to produce.

No comments: