KAZ-UALTIES OF WALKS

Phillies 6, Mets 3
(PHI: 40-38, NYM: 38-39; 7.5 GB, pending outcome of Washington's rain delay)

The Mets have an interesting combo in Victor Zambrano and Kaz Ishii. They both battle wildness, but they're both very capable of pitching themselves out of jams. Zambrano won praise for his pitching lately - there have been write-ups about how well he's doing, and how he's progressing, after Tuesday night's win, and people have been comparing him favorably to the year Scott Kazmir has been having...starting to think it might not have been a bad trade. Mike Piazza says Zambrano is wild to catch, because he gets himself into so many jams, but he says it's amazing how he pitches his way out of it.

All this is to set up the fact that "pitching yourself out of jams" is not going to help you play good baseball - because sooner or later, you're going to be just cruising through the first three innings, and then walk the first three batters in the fourth, and then you're going to give up a 2-run single, and a 3-run homer, and your team is going to be down 5-0 before they can manage to get a hit off the opposing pitcher, and then your team is going to lose. That's the long and short of Wednesday night's game, and start, by Kaz Ishii. Ishii did strike out Thome after loading the bases, so he did get himself within a groundball of getting himself out of the jam, but he still walked three straight batters. It's not the first time this season - it had better be the last. This loss is entirely on Ishii.

Changing gears - last night I mentioned my arch-nemesis Kenny Rogers breaking the pinky on his non-throwing hand throwing a hissy fit after a bad outing. Well, another hissy fit followed on Wednesday before the Rangers' game - Rogers attacked cameramen on the field in Arlington. He pushed one guy, then ripped a camera from another guy, threw it to the ground, and kicked it. Apparently, he has a huge temper, and it's becoming more apparent why Rogers couldn't cut it in New York, with the Mets and the Yankees. However, I do NOT remember him showing this much emotion after HE WALKED IN THE WINNING RUN IN THE 1999 NLCS. Probably because that game doesn't reflect in his personal stats.

Interesting fact from the Rangers-Angels series - Vladimir Guerrero has at least one hit in all 30 games he has played against the Texas Rangers. I think that's phenomenal. One more game this series Thursday afternoon in Arlington.

I was reading the Daily News online today, and Bill Madden talked about how the Mets want to be buyers at the (fast-approaching) trade deadline, but they don't really have much of a farm system to deal from. But they should be able to get something for Jae Seo - he won again on Wednesday for (1st place) Norfolk, and is now 6-2. He struck out nine in eight and a third innings, and has a 1.92 ERA since he was sent down on May 5. I'm not saying he's worth a ton - but he's gotta be worth something to somebody.

Let's talk Marlins for a minute: Jack McKeon will miss the next few games because of a death in his family....but that might be a good thing for Florida. Apparently, there is some unrest there - with players tiring of McKeon's old-school ways. Also, there are big-time trade rumors surrounding A.J. Burnett (I had no idea), and the players aren't happy about that at all.

Lastly tonight, I crunched the numbers on Piazza. I drew the line at May 26. To that point, Piazza had been hitting .239, with 4 HR, 10 runs scored, and 10 RBI in 42 games. Since then, he's hitting .316 (.322 before a 1-4 on Wednesday night) with 3 HR, 13 RBI, and 11 runs in 25 games. We'll probably never see the Piazza of old again...but I'll take the Piazza of late.

By the way, the Phillies still don't scare me.

CARTER COUNT: The Gulf Coast Mets had their game against "Washington" suspended in the first inning - they trailed 1-0. Two games on Thursday, putting their perfect record on the line.