Mets Survive Attacks of Furloughed Nats While Phils Phade Pheebly

The Mets defeated the Nationals 13-10 tonight, scoring two touchdowns but missing an extra point. The Mets offense had to punt repeatedly but the Gnats were never able to establish good field positon. Neither team's defense against the (home)run was very impressive, but in the end, the Mets were able to wind down the clock and earn the sweep victory while the Phading Phils took it in the pooper from the Fightin' Fish.

On the Mets' mound, some tired chickens were coming home to roost when Big Pelf looked Big Spent and even Brian was Stoking the fire. Some other guy came in for a bit and gave up pivotal runs by walking and letting longballs launch, but I don't remember much about him and don't expect to see him again soon if Jerry wants to win that manager of the year thing folks have started talking about.

Then, in the 7th, the Gnats suddenly decided to start playing soccer. Mr. Lastings Milledge was just a mess in the field. It might have been too early to retire his number as a Met, but that didn't keep LMilz from playing so deep in centerfield that he could have pulled down the number if asked, as Ron Darling noted.

The middle of the Mets lineup is starting to look, well, amazin.' Wright (4 for 4, 3 RBI) and Beltran (3 for 5, 2 RBI) finally helped ease Carlos Delgado's burden, though he still came through at big moments, the big lug. Tatis wants to play too (3 for 3, 2RBI). And, footloose and symptom free, Brian Church seems to have got to the park on time, just in time to provide a sorely needed bat.

The Gnats want very badly to spoil the Mets' season. They also want very badly to rob liquor stores and hotwire cars, but you can't have everything. Elijah "Batshit" Dukes might take shits bigger than Cody Ross, but both players now have the luxury of tasting Big Pelf leather. Of course Dukes didn't want to wait to actually get hit to get so far out of emotional control that the chUmps felt they had to warn both benches for no reason whatsoever. Enablers. Dukes made a gesture at his crotch after he scored that inning, then left the field like a pro-wrestler in the 9th after making an out. According to the report in the Washington Post, Lastings apparently isn't figuring out that he needs to hang with the right crowd:

Said Lastings Milledge: "Don't make [Dukes] out to be a bad guy. The guy loves the game. He plays the game hard. I don't think he did anything wrong."

Wrong Lasto. Dukes is a bad guy. He's been arrested at least 6 times that we know about. He is not the kind of people your parents imagined you with when they spent their lives following you around in a trailer home. If you can't develop your own judgement, at least let the Nationals team of handlers instruct you. Here is what you should have said:

"He's an emotional player, but I don't know if there's really a place for that in this kind of game," teammate Ryan Zimmerman said.

[how badly must Zimmerman want out of that place now?]

As he locked Dukes back up in his "travel cage" for the trip home, Manny Acta didn't seem much for setting his player straight, as much as making excuses for what on any other club would be grounds for discipline :

"I think he had a very good game; he hit a home run and a double," Acta added. "Everybody knows he has worked very hard this year and the Nationals have worked very hard with him to work with his temper, and he's been great the whole season. It's unfortunate what happened tonight, but he's human."

This might be why you're the manager of a team of misfits Manny, that and maybe the fact that you have no idea how to position your outfield.

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Heyman weighs in on Mets Closer, Off-season plans

John Heyman, for what its worth, has some analysis of the Mets future particularly its pitching strategy. How quickly the Mets have gone from feast to famine, losing Maine, Wagner, and (effective) Pedro to injury, injury, and convalescence respectively. Now the entire major league pitching roster needs retooling this off-season, which isn't necessarily a big surprise since the shitpen has never been far from our minds. But I hope Omar can be more holistic in his approach this offseason--not letting the big ticket item blot out the sun-- as I do think the team could use another run producer at left field or second base, because as much as we want to welcome Carlos MVP Delgado back into the fold, at some point next year he will be Carlost again, and this team shouldn't have to wander in the desert so much before winning the NL East--there is enough talent there to best the Phils and take this division more or less comfortably. And Daniel Murphy, A. Reyes, and maybe even Nick Evans are the makings of a younger, more energetic bench that needs to be de-Marlon Andersoned with all haste.

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Aaron Heilman Filling his Suddenly Open Schedule with Committeework

Not someone I really want to talk about, but there's no way this item can pass without comment. I guess the parking spot committee was already filled:

Aaron Heilman is one of two MLB players - Kansas City's John Buck is the other - on the committee looking into the dangers posed by broken bats. Heilman said the issue is more complex than simply banning a certain type of wood. The group is studying how the bats are manufactured and such criteria as grain, dryness and shape. As an example, Heilman said it's possible that maple itself isn't a problem - just that inferior maple perhaps is being used because the prime material is steered to such things as table legs. (From Rubin's column in the Daily News).

I think Aaron needs to get himself involved in figuring out a different danger: why it is that batters, upon the delivery of a rawhide covered ball from some pitchers, are able to hammer that ball with their wooden bats repeatedly, sometimes even sending it out of the baseball park, even though the ball deliverer has sat on his ass for 6 or 7 innings and is at full, rested strength. Is there a committee for that?