Ask a British schoolchild if he has any rubbers
The New York Mets won the rubber game of a road series this afternoon for the first time in the 2010 season. Better late than never I suppose. The win over the last place Washington Nationals put the Mets 9 games ahead of said Nationals with 22 games remaining making the wholly unpalatable thought of the Mets finishing in last place less likely. It also gave the Mets a 7-8 record so far against Washington thus allowing for the possibility (however remote) that the Mets could have a winning record against their division opponent this season. All that’s required of the Mets is to sweep the final 3 games of the season against Washington at Citi Field. Easy as pie. As for other division foes the Mets will finish with a losing record against Florida no matter what being 6-10 currently with 2 games remaining. Their fate with the Braves and Phillies, like that with the Nationals, lies in their own hands. They are 7-8 against the Braves with 3 games remaining at Citi Field, and are 6-6 against the Phillies with 6 games remaining, 3 each in Philadelphia and New York.
Ask Steve McCroskey if he has any glue
Here’s how the Mets put themselves in the enviable position today of possibly having a winning record against 3 of their 4 division opponents. Mets starter R.A. Dickey and Nationals starter Livan Hernandez both started off with 2 scoreless innings. Then in the top of the 3rd inning Dickey helped his own cause with a 1-out single. He moved up to 2nd base on a single by Angel Pagan. Luis Hernandez then doubled driving home Dickey and moving Pagan to 3rd base from where he scored on a Carlos Beltran sacrifice fly to give the Mets a 2-0 lead after 2 1/2 innings. The Nats tied it up in the bottom of the 5th when the home run bug bit Dickey again. Dickey has given up only 12 home runs this season in 22 starts but has allowed 7 in his last 7 starts including the 2-out, 2-run blast by Wilson Ramos that tied the game at 2 runs apiece.
Ask anyone what Beatles song George Harrison wrote
The game remained tied until the top of the 7th. Josh Thole led off with a walk. 8th place hitter Ruben Tejada sacrificed Thole to 2nd bringing up the pitcher’s spot and unleashed the fury of dueling managers. Mets manager Jerry Manuel angrily sent out left handed pinch-hitter Lucas Duda to face the right handed starter Hernandez, so Nationals manager Jim Riggelman viciously countered by bringing left handed reliever Sean Burnett into the game. Not to be outdone, the irascible Manuel growled “checkmate” and called on right handed pinch-hitter Nick Evans to hit for Duda. Evans then doubled to drive in Thole giving the Mets a 3-2 lead. Elmer Dessens, Bobby Parnell and Pedro Feliciano combined to shut out the Nationals through the 7th and 8th innings then Hisanori Takahashi tossed a scoreless 9th for his 5th save. Final score New York Mets 3, Washington Nationals 2.
14 comments
stickguy
9/8/2010-3:37pm at 3:37 pm (UTC -4)
so, this is what a winning streak looks like. Nice!
next order of business, but some holes in the Philly dinghy, and catch up and pass the marlins.
team goal for the rest of the year is .500 and 3rd place. minimum. At least get a little bit of self respect back with a decent finish. And, ti probably means some of the Yutes are doing good.
man, I want to take a couple off the phillies this weekend. I despise the phillies.
TRS86
9/8/2010-3:39pm at 3:39 pm (UTC -4)
Agreed. Don’t care about the spolier role but any defeat for the Phillies is a good defeat.
Ceetar
9/8/2010-3:52pm at 3:52 pm (UTC -4)
Fantasy Football! join us! deadline is like..nowish!
Yahoo League ID# is 749317 and the Password is metsin2011.
Mr North Jersey
9/8/2010-3:56pm at 3:56 pm (UTC -4)
Dickey continues to impress in 2010. One of the few highlights of the Mets 2010 season for sure.
Now with 69 wins the Mets are poised to reach a significant milestone. What milestone some may ask? Tying last season’s win total of 70 wins. At this rate they can quite possible reach that milestone with 20 games remaining.
The 2009 team didn’t reach 70 wins till game 162 of the season.
metsfan4decades
9/8/2010-3:59pm at 3:59 pm (UTC -4)
Yes – I picked the wrong season to stop sniffing glue – that’s for sure.
Of course Jerry had Tejada sacrifice. What would a game be w/o a sacrifice from at least one of the 1-8 batters?
RA Dickey…I just love his post game interviews.
At one point…when they asked him about when he was on base, maybe going for third (I missed that one), Dickey says something along the lines of:
‘I felt a little bit frisky. I was trying to figure out if Livan was baiting me, being an older player. Anyone know how old Livan is? How old is Livan?’
With that, several beat writers replied: ‘no one knows how old Livan is’…..
Mr North Jersey
9/8/2010-4:00pm at 4:00 pm (UTC -4)
Nice…..
metsfan4decades
9/8/2010-4:04pm at 4:04 pm (UTC -4)
Oh…and agreed – I hate the Phillies.
I hope they’re going for the sweep. Friday night would be a real good time Jenrry to endear yourself to all Met fans.
Mr North Jersey
9/8/2010-4:08pm at 4:08 pm (UTC -4)
4D I don’t believe you. Deep down I think you like the Phillies.
Cmon admit it. Your favorite Phillie is Mike Shmidt. How much did you pay for that Mike Shmidt poster you secretly have stashed away somewhere?
stickguy
9/8/2010-4:21pm at 4:21 pm (UTC -4)
she keeps it right next to her supply of “in omar we trust” tee shirts from over at FWICG.
metsfan4decades
9/8/2010-5:35pm at 5:35 pm (UTC -4)
Ha! you and stick are funny, funny guys.
I couldn’t stand Mike Shmidt back in the day…way before the Phillies were relevant and if I had a poster of him, it was to throw darts at.
Hell…..even the Philly fan base didn’t like Shmidt. I remember the booing of their own all start 3rd baseman.
metsfan4decades
9/8/2010-5:38pm at 5:38 pm (UTC -4)
I think I’m becoming the poster girl for ‘Omar must go’.
Nothing personal Omar. Reassign him if they value some of his skills. He’s had his shot and a good long one at that. Still believe the #1 move they can make in turning the perception of this franchise around is a new GM – preferably not one from the organization either.
stickguy
9/8/2010-6:19pm at 6:19 pm (UTC -4)
culture starts at the top. and changing the GM is sadly as high as we can go!
and attitudes and actions also flow down. Put incompetence in charge, and it pollutes the entire organization. Nd spreads, when incompetants hire imcompentant firends (Tony B) for important positions.
hazmet
9/8/2010-7:18pm at 7:18 pm (UTC -4)
Give Omar a you broke my heart Fredo smack on the lips and send him off fishing on Lake Tahoe.
kingman 26
9/8/2010-9:28pm at 9:28 pm (UTC -4)
“Omar, you’re nothing to me now. You’re not a GM, you’re not a friend. I don’t want to know you or what you do. I don’t want to see you in the clubhouse, I don’t want you near my stadium. When you see our players, I want to know a day in advance, so I won’t be there. You understand?”