Mr. Viagra on His Way to the Big One

The big news from last night's game is Tommy G's victory and the next step being 300 wins, which is clearly big news. It's big company for Mr. Viagra, now the Mets just need to help him win another World Series.

Kicking the Pirates butts has been a good thing. Everyone needs the boost of beating up a weakling, a la slaughtering of one of baseball's worst teams, the Pirates. The good news? Next on deck for the Mets is the hometown Nats, another team that should prove a relatively easy sweep. Confidence building heading into August. We need it.

By the time the Mets get through their emotional booster, the trading deadline will have passed. I know I have been bitching and moaning about our relievers, our hitters, and occasionally even our starters. I'm done complaining; there's nothing better out there. I'm sticking with the ones who brung me, unlike John McCain.

Who's Your Daddy?

Yesterday was beautiful everywhere. In LA where the Mets won 4-3 in 10 innings and even in Washington where I am still only riding my bike due to injury (yes, my Mets empathy extends to physical states.... I'm on the DL too).

While Jose Reyes' trip out west got slightly better yesterday (nice triple), David Wright has just been on fire. The fundamentals - great hitting and running - have made the difference, especially in this series against the Dodgers. This was an important series to win, if only to remember come the fall.

Plus, it is kinda nice to beat the father you never really knew. At least I guess that's what the Dodgers are.

Carlos Satisfies

Carlos Beltran knows how to take care of the ladies. Two run homer. Believe!

SWF seeks Starting Pitcher

All I want for my 34th birthday is some decent Mets pitching. If you watched or are watching Today's impending loss to the Dodgers, you'll understand why. Sosa (remember all the S's, particularly scalped?) gave away David Wright's beautiful 4-0 lead to an 8-4 trailer (in the 8th). That's not just giving it away, he Deanified or McCained, a la 2004. Total implosion.

I'm done. And I don't give a damn about Barry. Nothing can save my boys today. So even with Oli's filthy night and Glavine's chaos night, we're goin' down today. Bottom line, I need solid pitching more than a need a boyfriend.

UPDATE: I am also seeking someone who can hit, get on base, and score. The Mets have the ability, we just haven't seen it in a while. Kinda like having a boyfriend that never takes you out.

Driving in Reverse, But Moving Forward

So, we pounded the crap outta LA last night, 13-9. I was out beginning my birthday celebrations and was in no state to view Sportscenter either tonight or this early morning.

I did, however, have a chance to read the postmortems as I enjoy my day off and what is striking is the reversal of fortune that is last night. Everything that was good was bad and everything that was bad was good. Sele relieved, bats performed and Tom Glavine couldn't get it up. When have we seen that all season?

Somedays it all works (or fails to work as the case may be) as you expect and then, wham! It's all reversed. This doesn't have to be a bad thing, but our starting pitching has been precarious all season with injuries and the cobwebby spot for Pedro we have been forced to spackle with Triple-A'ers that have been inconsistent, to say the least.

I like some pieces of the reversal. The hitting is delish. To see Shawn Green actually hitting gives me hope for all my tribes.

Star F@#ker

Sorry about the slack in writing. It is summer, my birthday is this week and along with that comes a plethora of people, parties, events and other whatnot.

But I did wake up this morning, saw the beautiful 7-0 Mets win against the power Padres and Peavy and realized that finally the Mets are star f@#kers. Not only did El Duque throw a filthy game, the Mets bats were able to shut down a top performer like Peavy.

It may be the extra batting practice, who knows. But it appears there is a Passover reprieve. It's my birthday on Friday, so keep it up. I miss bread.

Atlanta lost, so we're 2.5 up. Movin' on up.

A Thousand Cuts

I was on the phone with my Grandma this morning and she asked me what's goin' on with the Mets. She had noticed that their lead in the division has been eaten up and was concerned. For those of you that don't know, they are up from the Braves just game and a half. A lousy game and a half. I cannot even use numbers to describe it as it is so meager.

It's hard to pinpoint just one thing that got us here. I was thinking about this today as I was having lunch and reading today's Washington Post expose on the collapse of the McCain campaign. The article cites rivalries within the campaign as the catalyst, which is not surprising with the elephantine sized egos that you come across in politics. But that sort of stuff breeds all kinds of other even nastier, pettier and more damaging things. In the end, things collapse under their own weight and while you can try to pinpoint the crux, it is ultimately death by a thousand cuts.

For the Mets right now, they are suffering from about 520 cuts - injuries, matzo bats, and no relief relievers. Not sure how the personalities fully factor into this; after all the Mets are not the Yankees with their soap opera like dramas and subplots worthy of a Page Six spread.

Nonetheless, I went on and on about this over the All Star break. So no more moaning and groaning. We know the diagnosis. Now it's time for relief.

Hot or Not?

Times they are a changing'. I have been thinking over the last few days about the brave new world. The Yankees are struggling, last year's World Series winning Cardinals are 7 and a half games out in the NL Central, John McCain is on life support as is John Edwards. What was once hot is not.

Now the big news out of the Mets clubhouse confirms this trend - Ricky Henderson, Lastings Milledge and the end of Julio Franco and Rick Down. Clearly the Julio thing is the right way to go. We saw nothing out of him and at this point, we need the slot in the rotation for a bat that can perform.

We'll see if this works. Tonight's 3-2 victory over the decidedly unhot Reds (basement of the NL Central) may be a smolder. It is nice now, but think there's another heat wave coming.

Halfway to the Fall

It's halfway through the baseball season and not quite halfway through the Presidential primary race, so some thoughts on both.

The Mets record is basically on pace from last year, with one disturbing difference- injuries. We have lost some of our best hitters and pitching staff to breaking bodies. I understand, it happens. But if we're gonna make it through the rest of the season and come out on top after playing the tough NL teams like the Dodgers and the Padres, heck even the Braves and the Phillies, our boys need to get to feelin' better.

Injuries are kinda like losing your staff, a la McCain today. But, the future prognosis of the Mets is probably better than McCain's.

I don't want to just be a crapper. The early part of the season was delish. The injuries really hurt our momentum, we just need to find our groove and get back to it.

Our relief pitching continues to lag. The three S's - Smith, Sele, and Schoenweis, as well as Heilman and Mota, must have an average ERA over 3. Somedays are good, but others have been disasters. We need some solid relievers we can rely on.

Our bats continue to be as flat as matzos. And it is way beyond Passover. It's nice to see Carlos Beltran finally hitting, but right now the only regular hitter above .300 is Jose. David Wright is nearly there, as is Shawn Green, but if we are going to the top come October, we are going to need to see the Carloses cracking 'em outta there.

Batting is like the fuel of the win, kinda like money in politics. I wish the Mets were like Hillary or Giuliani in their respective races, but they're probably more like Obama. Doing ok in the money race, but remaining competitive because of lotsa other things.

Bring It On!

Last night, I went with my neighbor to see the Nats v. Brewers. I mean, who would not want to see the team with the best record in the NL? Well, they didn't play like it. Sloppy fielding handed it to the Nats 5-4, but the Brewers scored 2 beautiful out-of-the park home runs in a football designed bowl that is hostile to the bat, to say the very least.

When we left the game, it was the 12th inning for the Mets, 3-3. I got home about 45 minutes later, the game was still going. Nuts. The Mets effectively played 2 games last night, with pitching for 17 innings. I'm happy to see the fight in them, to see pitching and fielding that kept Houston at bay for that damn long. And then, finally, victory.

I see the fight, I smell the fight, I taste the fight. Bring on July!