Mets 5, Phillies 3 (24-26, 5.5 GB)

May 31, 2004

Mother Nature screwed me over yesterday. The Mets were supposed to be on ESPN2 at 1pm. The start of the game was delayed by rain, but it started around 2pm. So I watched the first few innings. Then the rain came again, keeping the game off until after 4pm. By then, ESPN stuck with its regularly scheduled games, and blew off the rest of the Mets-Phillies game. So I didn't watch much of the game, but I did see Matt Ginter's full outing. Nice. It's too bad the rain prevented him from going five and qualifying for a win. Ginter continues to pitch well - remember, last week he went six scoreless against Philadelphia before leaving and seeing his 3-0 lead turn into a loss. Everytime he pitches well is a huge boost to the team.

Jason Phillips homered again, and Kaz Matsui looked good. I read Mike Cameron had a clutch hit. Hopefully the offense develops some consistency. I did notice in the box score, though, that the Mets left five runners in scoring position with two out. Not sure if they left the bases loaded at all (although using some math skills I've retained from high school I think I can detect that they didn't), but that's still a problem that needs fixing.

I forgot to write this yesterday, but I think Mike Piazza is going to love hitting in the new ballpark in Philadelphia. Apparently the ball jumps out of this park, especially out to right-center field. He hits the ball well to that part of the field. He went 1-for-3 yesterday, we'll see how he does over the course of the year, and whether or not this is a stat that's worth following.

A couple of other things. First of all, the Mets finished the month of May 15-12. That's good. That's probably one of their best months in years, sadly enough. Let me put a 15-12 month in perspective for you. There are roughly 6 months in a baseball season. If you play 15-12 ball every month, you go 90-72. That's enough to win the NL East this year...at least in my mind. Now, the Mets went 9-14 in April, so they have some ground to make up. But the 15-12 per month is very manageable. Especially considering a couple of things - first, they finished May very badly, with a 4-game losing streak on the final days of the season. They also had 3 other stretches of back-to-back losses. Another good sign coming up is the Mets play the AL Central in interleague play. A weaker division in baseball is tough to find. The Mets play at Minnesota (27-23) next week, and they've been depleted by injuries. Then they play at Kansas City (17-31) - one of the worst teams in baseball. After that, the Mets host Cleveland (22-26) and Detroit (23-27), two not-so-good teams. The Mets don't even have to play the White Sox, the best team in that division! Of course, the Mets being the Mets, they're not going to dominate these teams like they should. But it's safe to say the Mets should win more games in June than they did in May. That's a johnnymets guarantee.

One last thing. Last night on WFAN, a caller says he was at the Binghamton Mets game. Says he saw scouts there from the Kansas City Royals and the Boston Red Sox, among other teams he couldn't identify. "Hmm", I'm thinking. "This guy sounds intelligent. Could be some good info coming here."
Those teams are there to check out some of the Mets' minor-league talent in the hopes of working out a deal, as the caller states the obvious.
Now, the Mets are in the market for pitching. So those scouts are there, I'm thinking, because if they're giving up pitching, they want to see who the young guys they'd be getting from the Mets are. (Assuming the teams were there to watch the Mets and not the Yankees' double-A team, as this guy said they were.) So anyway, the presence of the scouts assumes the Mets are buyers, not sellers. Because if the Mets turn in to sellers this year, it's not to get rid of minor league talent. Then this clown caller says, "I bet the Red Sox guys are there because the Mets are going to send Al Leiter to Boston."
What an idiot. There is just so much wrong with that statement. Yes, the Red Sox could very well be interested in Al Leiter. But if that's the case, WHY WOULD THE SOX SCOUTS BE WATCHING THE METS' MINOR LEAGUE GUYS?!??! DO THEY WANT TO SEE WHERE THE YOUNG TALENT THEY WOULD NEED TO GIVE UP FOR A GUY LIKE LEITER WILL BE PLAYING NEXT SEASON?!?! I was so disappointed that the host didn't call this guy out. All he said was, "I don't think the Mets are going to get rid of Leiter, especially at this point of the season." That story wasn't really worth telling, I just needed to get it off my chest.

By the way, speaking of Leiter, he comes back from the DL tonight to pitch against the Phillies. Hopefully he's a little more efficient, and doesn't have to come out of the game after just five innings. Glavine will go tomorrow. These next two games are huge, before four more against Florida.