Morning After Thoughts - Santos, Mets Win in 11

On the night that the Mets win with catcher Santos driving in all runs and catcher Castro traded to the White Sox, Manuel said "There's no panic or anxiety when he's in those situations." He was talking about Santos, of course. On the same night that David Wright came up in clutch situations again only to strike out both times again, I wonder if Manuel was also thinking, There's anxiety when he's in those situations when musing about David. It always seems that the more tense the situation is, the more anxious David becomes. Of course, none of us really know this. Only David does. It sure seems that way though.

Speaking of David, I noticed a photo of Boston star outfielder Dominic DiMaggio in an Obit this past week. DiMaggio, a great ballplayer in his own right and in the shadows of his brother Joe, passed away at age 92. In the photo, Dom was apparently in his early 20's. If you removed the wired rim glasses he is wearing, there is a certain resemblance to David Wright.

The Castro trade to the White Sox for Mr. Broadway is interesting. At first glance, it looks like a move only to address the catcher dilemma. On second thought, it seems that Mr. Broadway could have a role as a starter into which he will be remade in AAA Buffalo. It may or may not work out. On the other hand, the Mets' success this season wasn't riding on Castro. And with Omir Santos in the house, maybe they can ride his tails for a while.

The Mets are now last in strikeouts at the plate despite David Wright's 50 or so Ks for the early season. Also the Mets lead the league in RBIs with 2 out. Both good signs even though they are 3rd from the bottom in the power department.

Nice to see the 40 year old Sheffield continuing to do great things for this team!

Reyes starts rehab next week in Florida. Church is already there.

Let's see if Redding can have a better game than he did last week. I have a feeling that Redding is better off in a long relief role tha as a 5th starter.

Let's Go Mets!

Morning After Thoughts - Play It Again. Met Win!

It started this past Saturday against the Red Sox in Fenway. The Santos home run experienced the video review of the umpire crew before it was called correctly. Sheffield's homer was finally declared exactly that after the 6 minute video review on Monday. Murphy's "was it or was it not?" homer was ruled a round tripper after another evaluation of the tape. And then there was a review done for the opposition this week and that decision also went the Mets way. What do the Mets have in common with the film Casablanca? How about "Play It". Or as Woody Allen would say later, "Play it again.". It seems that the video tape review of MLB was designed to suit the Mets.

The Mets seem to have found a little of their power over the past 6 games after going through a drought.

What is it about David Wright that some of us are finding troublesome? The man is hitting .350! How can we complain? Well, David has these games where he is either not fielding or striking out. In the 3rd game of this series with the Nationals, David struck out 4 times. Is he guessing wrong? Or is he just not seeing the pitch? Then again, it's hard to argue a .350 average.

It's was hard to watch rookie and 20 year old FMart as he stood just outside the batters box gazing disappointingly at his infield pop up. When it was dropped by the Nationals catcher, FMart could have made it safely to 1st base had he been running in that direction. Instead he was out at 1st base. Embarrassing for the rookie. Let's hope he learned a solid lesson and won't repeat it. Something about his demeanor tells me this won't be a recurring problem. Otherwise, New York will let him know.

Murphy had a big story night - 5 RBIs, single, double and that video enabled home run. Congratulations, Murph. Let's hope your offense is back to stay.

15 strikeouts last night by the pitching staff! Terrific. Tom terrific-like!

Santana was perplexing. Huge strikeouts. Eleven in all. He seemed to lose his stamina in the 4th inning. Perhaps that was the result of the last game when he had to work through crucial situation after crucial situation due to the poor fielding of his teammates in that game. He may not have been at his best last night. Nonetheless, this win was well deserved payback for earlier season losses when Johan pitched like Cy Young and only received an "L". The cliches about how things even out in baseball are true.

By the way, this win moved the Mets back into 1st ahead of the Phillies. Not bad when it's our "B" team out there on the field and on the bases for the most part.

From Flushing to San Fran to LA to Boston

Here's another baseball adage. Just when you are sure things are going to get even worse, they turn around. Well, that may not always be true. In fact, in baseball it often isn't. For the Mets, the past 9 days have gone from disappointing in Flushing to exciting to San Fran. From then it went to miserable in San Francisco and onto the remarkable in Boston. With Santana displaying his own form of gutty magic again and with Santos and 9th inning defense in the 2nd game, the Mets seem back from the dead.

Or were they ever really dead or even dying? We can now all attest that the Mets aren't dead or even dying. They are hurting. Now add our closer tothe mix of walking wounded. Correction. In this case, non-walking wounded.

Sounds like disk problems, but I only say that because I have 2 herniated ones. When they act up, it feels like what KRod described, including sciatica paid shooting down my left leg. When it's really bad, there is a tingle all the way down to the toes accompanied by lower back spasms. In those cases, I can stand for maybe to the count of 5 before needing to lie down. I hope this is not the case for KRod. I hope it's something more easily treatable.

So now can we sweep and hope for a Yankee win against the Phillies too? A move back into 1st just before arriving home to face the Nats would be nice. Maybe Reyes, KRod, and Church will be ready then. More remarkable things have happened in the past 2 days. Just ask the Bosox.