Break Up the Mets! Break Out the Brooms! Even Mother Nature Jumps on the Bandwagon

 
The Tongue is in the house. 

Of all Omar Minaya's maligned offseason accomplishments, the one perhaps most criticized--the brilliant "and pray for rain" part of the Mets rotation-- is working just fine so far.  Last night, Mother Nature delivered the Mets and Big Pelf a victory on a platter over the once-and-future hated Br*ves.  One rain shortened game out of 20 ain't bad. Of course, it remains to be seen whether the Mets can sweep a team without Chipper playing third and running interference.  This series, Larry Jones seemed focused on hammerhanding back all the glory he achieved on the Mets' watch while they were playing at Shea.

Pelf wasn't exactly masterful, giving up five hits, walking five Atlanta batters, and tossing a Maine-like 106 pitches to get through five innings. But he did manage to remain unscored upon this season.  People will probably credit the split-finger fastball for Mike "Bats in my" Pelfrey's resurgence, but I swear it's all about the mouthguard. I mean, look at the waging going on in the picture above.  

Rain was perhaps the only thing that could keep Jerry from continuing his quest to help Fernando Nieve qualify for his second career Tommy John surgery. After the game, and apparently not in response to a question about Ron Washington, Jerry had this to say:

"I've always been more comfortable with speed," Mr. Manuel said last week. "I like speed."

He was talking about the Pagan, Luis, Reyes batting order, I guess. Which makes me wonder how long Reyes will stay in the three hole.  Castillo seems to be doing fine. And Pagan is Pagan. The Mets are over .500 somehow, and they are 10-9.  Can Pelf keep this up? Could Ike Davis be the magic? Will Reyes regain his old dancing steps? Has Frenchy turned the corner? Is Davey Boy going to return to form? Winning helps make us care.


Ike, you've gone and made me care again.

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Now, like all right-thinking people, I hate the Br*ves, even though the Mets-Atlanta rivalry is all but irrelevant these days thanks to Omar Minaya. But I have to admit, this is a hilarious prank on Nate McLouth from a few weeks ago.

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What's that smell? It's the stench of the corpse of Joe Torre, of course.  On to play the Dodgies next, a team that has brutalized us seemingly since the Mets wiped them out of the playoffs a few years back.  Bad things happen to the Mets when the Dodgers are around.  In the past few seasons, Pagan and Reyes have suffered lasting injuries while playing LA, and you should see my pride, since I have seen many of these games in person. Maybe this year will be different. But with Ollie and Maine pitching for the Mets the next two games, it will probably get ugly.