9 AND A HALF UP

Mets 5, Phillies 4 (NYM: 42-23, PHI: 33-33)

This is going to cause some wear and tear on the bullpen - and I think the Mets are going to start paying for it this week. Back-to-back extra innings games, and now a trip out west to play Los Angeles, Arizona, and then back east at Philadelphia. I'm not expecting the best road trip....but maybe the Mets will show how good they are and come away with a winning record. (This is the last tough road trip the Mets have this year - at least as far as mileage goes.) - johnnymets.blogspot.com, Sunday, June 4, 2006, after the Mets lost a 12-inning game to the Giants, 7-6.

It's the darndest thing. I'm overly optimistic nine and a half times out of ten, and the half time I get cautious, the Mets roll off a 9-1 West Coast/East Coast road trip. Honestly, even in my most exaggerated hopes about this trip, I didn't expect a sweep in Philly to cap it off (or a 9-1 record overall). But I think that qualifies as a "winning road trip", and shows just how good the Mets are. They're at the next level.

On Thursday afternoon, the Mets got 4 runs in the first, and managed to hold on for the 5-4 win. It's going to be weird when the Mets are now home, and they won't be hitting first. I don't know what they'll do if they don't get the chance to jump out on top in the top of the first. On Thursday, the early lead was courtesy of a double by Endy Chavez, driving in a run, then a 3-run David Wright homer (number 14 on the year, 55 career). Carlos Beltran* had a sac fly, driving in a run. His "Player of the Week" performance last week lifted his average so much that I didn't even realize it, but Beltran* is hitting an even .300 on the year. David Wright is up to .335, and this week Wright is the leading vote-getter among NL third basemen in the All Star Balloting.

An added bonus - the Mets won a Steve Trachsel start. He is so unreliable. You know what I think I'd love? The Red Sox need pitching. I'd love to see the Mets deal Trachsel to the Red Sox. I don't know what the Mets would get in return, but I'd love to see the way Trachsel is treated by the Boston media. He'd get killed. And he'd be miserable. Of course, a trade would probably light a fire under him, and he'd become a good Steve Trachsel for a couple of months, but eventually, it'd catch up to him. I'm still not convinced he can handle the pressure of a winning team. (Right now, though, the Mets are winning by so much, there isn't much pressure at all.)

Lost in much of this winning, by the way, is that Billy Wagner has been pretty solid. He picked up two saves in Philadelphia, and neither one was particularly nerve-wracking (as far as I can tell - I actually didn't see Thursday's game because of school, and the other night he was saved by David Wright's incredible double play...).

The Mets are getting lots of attention right now...as the cream of a pretty crappy National League crop. I think they can handle it. And I'm really enjoying this season.

The Orioles are at Shea Friday through Sunday, as the Mets come home to interleague play. Alay Soler goes against Erik Bedard Friday.

MY TWO CENTS ON THE RECENT EJECTIONS OVER PITCHING INSIDE: I don't often step up on my soapbox to declare what's wrong in the world of baseball, so I hope you'll indulge me every once in a while. I want to talk about today's practice of umpires issuing warnings, then ejecting a guy if he pitches inside, and comes too close to hitting someone. I hate it. But....I think it's absolutely necessary in today's game. Here's why.

First of all, this is a hot-button issue today because Wednesday night Randy Johnson was ejected for throwing at Eduardo Perez of the Indians after Derek Jeter was hit, and after both sides were given warnings. Also Wednesday, Ozzie Guillen put in a rookie pitcher to throw at a member of the Texas Rangers (might have been Hank Blalock, but that's not really important), the rookie threw a few inside, didn't hit the guy, then got him out, and Guillen yanked him from the game, yelled at him, and then the kid was sent to the minors after the game. There's your background info. (I guess that doesn't have to do exactly with my soapbox issue, but it's somewhat related.)

Anyway, I liked the old days, where a pitcher could brush back a player, there could be retaliation, maybe a brawl, then it was over - a dead issue. (Maybe there wouldn't even be a brawl, because the players knew to expect it.) The problem is, that won't happen today...because young people feel entitled. I really think that's the problem. Young players feel entitled to hanging out over the plate, and not getting hit with pitches, and if you hit them with a pitch, well, darn it, I'm going to come out there and charge the mound. Heck, you don't even have to hit me, you just have to pitch inside, dangerously close to hitting me, and I'll come out there. Right, Manny Ramirez? It's just part of a spoiled society, I think, which doesn't want to be made to feel uncomfortable. I wish it could go back to the way it used to be...but it won't. And so the players can't police themselves - they're too immature, and the thing would never end. There would be retaliation after retaliation, because everyone would want the last say. So the umpires have had to step in to put a stop to it. And I don't like it. But you know what....it's working.

Going back to the Sean Tracy thing (he's the White Sox pitcher who was sent down after not hitting the batter), I have a big problem with that whole situation. Ozzie Guillen put that kid in an awful situation. Of course, he's not the first to do something like that - but really, if the kid makes the effort to throw at the guy, and then ends up getting the out, isn't that better for the team? It's an out. People are comparing this to the Sean Estes deal against Roger Clemens from 2001. There's a big difference here. First of all, Hank Blalock (or the targeted Ranger) wasn't doing the pitching for the Rangers. So he arguably didn't deserve to be thrown at. Sean Estes was carrying the weight of everyone who had ever been thrown at by Roger Clemens on his shoulders, and he couldn't hit him (Of course, then, I was psyched that Estes did homer off Clemens, which thought was better than physically hitting him). (I was especially peeved at Estes, though, in 2002, when he had been with the Cubs for about a week, and was throwing haymakers in a brawl with that team, when he wouldn't stand up for his Mets teammates in 2001.) Anyway, if anyone ever deserved to be thrown at, it was Roger Clemens, against the Mets, with Mike Piazza catching. (For those who don't know - he beaned Piazza really bad [don't tell me he didn't mean to - he practically caught Piazza between the eyes...and based on Piazza's career numbers against Clemens, and the homers he had hit off Clemens recently, and Clemens' career history and his great control....it was intentional], then, in the 2000 World Series, threw the shattered bat at Piazza.) So don't compare Estes to this kid Tracy. Estes wimped out. Tracy was put in an unfair situation.

THE KID'S KIDS: The St. Lucie Mets have hit the skids a bit recently. They lost Wednesday night to Vero Beach - their fourth straight loss following a nine-game winning streak. The winning pitcher for Vero Beach? A. Bastardo...so I think that explains that. Yup, A. Bastardo. That's right. Look it up.

FANTASY UPDATE: The What If Mets are 62-67. The schedule rotates, and I'm entering a (theoretically) easy part of the schedule. I've got the Cardinals and the Cubs coming up. People are just killing the Cubs right now - one score the other day was like 37-11. Seriously. When I played the Cubs last, I beat them like 3-2 in 12 innings. So I'm either that bad, or not lucky enough. We'll see if I can make some hay in the standings - I'm 5 back of the wild card. The schedule actually goes: Reds, Pirates, Astros, Cardinals, Cubs. Only the Reds and Pirates have winning records. I need a big streak...winning streak, that is.

BEAT THE STREAK: Back to square one, thanks to nada from Brian Giles. Oh well. I'll try to get leadoff man Jose Reyes to lead me off on a new streak Friday night against the O's. Meanwhile, the wife was working on a season-high 8-gamer...but Ty Wigginton ended that one on Thursday night with an 0-for-4.