METS TAKE TWO OUT OF THREE IN SAN FRAN

Mets 5, Giants 3 (NYM: 21-12, SF: 17-16)


The Wife's jinx on Armando Benitez is alive and well. For those of you unfamiliar with the jinx: Back in the early stages of The Relationship, I took The Wife and my brother to a Mets game. Armando Benitez came in. It was against the Reds. I told The (future) wife, this guy throws hard. He threw hard, and Ken Griffey, Jr. hit it hard - the Mets lost, 2-1. (I think Benitez entered a tie game that day.) From that day forward, Armando Benitez was a wreck to watch, especially in the playoffs, and the commond denominator seemed to be The Wife. She was a jinx on him. Whenever she was in the room, he blew a save...so she learned to leave when he entered games.

The jinx seemed to reverse itself when Benitez was on the Marlins, and had incredible success against the Mets...but it's back.

The Wife, The Baby, and I went for a walk when the Mets and Giants were in the bottom of the 8th inning. We went for a shorter walk, me thinking we'd be back in time for extra innings. But we were back in the top of the 9th - bases loaded, one out, David Wright at the plate. Benitez went to 3-1, and then Wright, sitting fastball, ripped a 2-run double to left. Beautiful, and the Benitez jinx still works. It was great to see Wright come through in a clutch situation. He had a good series - hitting .384, with 3 doubles - maybe he's starting to come around.

Delgado has also been struggling, and he came through in a clutch situation. Delgado hit a solo homer into the water early in the game (4th inning), and he tied the game late with an RBI double. Ruben Gotay also hit a solo homer, in the third.

John Maine had a rocky start - 3 runs, 6 walks, in 6 innings. When I was listening on the radio on the way home, Howie Rose was saying Maine had a lot of trouble locating the ball. But he avoided the loss, so he's still 1-0. Scott Schoeneweis, Aaron Heilman (who got the win), and Billy Wagner (8th save) shut down the Giants the rest of the way.

After losing the two out of three to the Marlins early last week, the Mets had a nice road trip. They went 5-2 in Arizona and San Francisco. They have Thursday off before hosting Milwaukee this weekend. Orlando Hernandez might be back Friday night. I heard that about a week ago, I think.

AT&T johnnymets.blogspot.com Player of the Game: I wanted to give this to David Wright for driving in the go-ahead runs, but Carlos Delgado put the Mets where they needed to be. Delgado was 2-for-5, with a solo homer and an RBI double, 2 RBI total, scoring once.




TUESDAY'S RESULT

Monster.com johnnymets.blogspot.com Player of the Game: Tempted as I was to give it to David Wright (again) - 2 doubles and an RBI - I have to give it to Tom Glavine, who gave up just one run (a Barry Bonds homer) in 7 innings, striking out five, giving up 7 hits and a walk, and picking up career win number 294. I saw none of this game, so I really have nothing further to comment on.


MONDAY'S RESULT


PacBell johnnymets.blogspot.com Player of the Game: Bengie Molina had 2 home runs and 5 RBI in a 9-run fifth inning against the Mets in the series opener. Oliver Perez gave up 8 of the 9 runs, but only two were earned - he was hurt by a couple of errors. Molina's line - 2-for-3 with a walk, 5 RBI, 2 HR, and 2 runs scored. (Those Molina brothers have caused the Mets a lot of problems in the past six months or so.

HAIRCUTS: The Mets apparently bonded on Tuesday by shaving their heads before the game, with Tom Glavine shaving his head after the game. As far as I know, the only person who didn't do it was Jose Reyes (who has a 14-game hitting streak, by the way). On the radio, Howie Rose was talking about Jay Horwitz's newly-shorn head, so I can only assume some front office folk also were involved in the fun.

BEAT THE STREAK: Albert Pujols screwed me over on Monday, but Ivan Rodriguez and Jose Reyes have me back at two games. No worse feeling than coming back from 1 game after building a 12-gamer. I have Miguel Tejada on Thursday.