8 posts tagged “moises alou”

Through 75 games, the 2008 and 2009 teams went 37-38. They were 4 games behind Philly at this point last year. And the Mets mostly hovered at the .500 level all of June, often falling 3 games under .500 before the 10-game win streak in early through mid July which propelled them above .500, back into the NL East race.

So turning things around isn't impossible.

But the major difference between last year's team and this year's team through 75 games?

Carlos Delgado was a week away from the beginning of his resurgence.
Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran were healthy.
Oliver Perez was starting to improve.
John Maine was still pitching well and his ERA was under 4.
K-Mart wasn't on the team.
Neither was Argenis Reyes.
David Wright had 12 HRs.

The biggest injury problems the team had were Ryan Church, Pedro Martinez (for the 83rd time), losing Billy Wagner in early August, and the revolving door of leftfielders filling in for Moises Alou.

For all of the fans who think things will be fine and dandy when (or if) Delgado, Reyes, Beltran, etc. come back? Remember that this team went 9-12 in April. So as is the case with baseball, there's no guarantees that their returns will change the team's fortunes, but you'd certainly like to have the opportunity to try and play games with your best players, win or lose.

As mentioned in the last entry, we stayed down in San Diego for the weekend to see the Mets play the Padres on Saturday night and Sunday day at PETCO park for the final 2 games of the 4-game series.

I decided to stay at the Manchester Grand Hyatt for a night, which is also where the New York Mets team stays when in San Diego. It's about a 15-minute walk to PETCO park, and I was told (whether true or not, who knows) that David Wright had walked to the ballpark himself without any entourage on Saturday.

I'm not an autograph hound nor a groupie, and I don't bother pro athletes, or even Hollywood celebrities, and lord knows I've worked with many through the years. But I thought it would be fun to, on the off chance, hang out with millionaires in a hotel bar as well as other Met fans. And well, we didn't really "hang out" with them, but did see a lot of the team after the 2-1 loss on Saturday night at the hotel.

If you're looking for crazy gossip or wild tales of 1986 Mets-like partying, you will be disappointed.

Here's how it went down:

The 10-inning game ended at about 10:15pm. Got back to the hotel around 10:35pm, and hung out in the hotel bar area for a while.

Some other Met fans were there as well, trying to get autographs and pictures. One guy was in town from NY for a conference, and was very eager to get autographed baseballs for his daughter back on Long Island. Speaking of Long Island, his accent made me want to plug my ears with shot glasses.

There were a few other fans milling about, but not a lot by any stretch.

Moises Alou was the first person we saw, just meandering about the hotel lobby before the team bus came by. He apparently told some other fan, who later told me, that he'd be back playing on Tuesday against Arizona. We'll see...

Then we saw Keith Hernandez and some other SNY folk who I'm not really familiar with since I don't get SNY in L.A. I imagine Gary Cohen was one of them.

I then saw Brian Schneider with his parents. I also saw Oliver Perez walking through the lobby with cellphone attached to ear. I told him, "Good pitching tonight!" and he thanked me but kept walking.

Then the team bus came in at around 11:15pm-ish? It was a lot of the team including Jose Reyes, Luis Castillo, Raul Casanova, Ramon Castro, Endy Chavez, Damion Easley, Carlos Beltran, etc. I imagine there were others but we either didn't see them, or simply didn't recognize them.

I think every player who got off the bus went into the elevators up to their rooms. I can't say with certainty they didn't go out later, but we didn't see them leave, and didn't hear reports from any other people that they were seen again.

I heard later on that David Wright showed up and was apparently one of the few who was willing to sign things for a couple of fans. The other players didn't stop, although to be fair, I didn't see anyone try and stop them either. The aforementioned Long Islander showed me an autographed baseball that was made out to his daughter personally by David. Not something you can sell on Ebay, so his heart was in the right place. Success!

After the players contingent, we then saw Willie Randolph, Jerry Manuel and Sandy Alomar walk through the lobby together. A couple of fans told Willie "We'll get 'em tomorrow!" and of course Willie could only agree. I told him "No friggin sweeps!" and he chuckled.

They also went off to the elevators, presumably up to the rooms, never seen again that night.

At the hotel bar, the following Mets personnel...

• Carlos Delgado was at a table with his parents. Papa Delgado is morbidly obese in his mid 60's. I hope Carlos doesn't follow down the same path. Pedro Feliciano later joined the table and remained after Carlos had left. Feliciano ended up talking to Papa Delgado for a bit, and later spoke with Scott Schoeneweis before calling it a night.
• Brian Schneider was at a table with his parents.
• Hitting Coach Howard Johnson and his wife were sitting at a table with a bunch of people. I'm not positive, but I think Mets media director Jay Horowitz was among them.
  
• Scott Schoeneweis was at a table with his parents. One Met fan was talking to them because she grew up in the same town of Medford, NJ that Scott did. I think she may have talked to his parents more than Scott, but they were all very nice from what I heard.
  
• Oliver Perez was at a table with a bunch of people no one recognized, presumably people he knew from his days of playing with the Padres. I remember glancing at their table at one point and saw a lot of empty beer bottles all around. But hey, he pitched well and deserved a little relaxation time.
• Duaner Sanchez provided the closest thing to "gossip" that night, as he was talking up this very attractive Latina at the bar as he was drinking white wine. We couldn't figure out if she was his girlfriend, or he had just met her. It was funny because just like real life for the rest of us poor people, when talking to a hot broad, you still have to deal with her ugly friends. Poor Duaner. No idea if Dirty did the deed.

All the players had wrapped up their socializing by around 1am, and called it a night since they had to be at the ballpark by 10am the next morning. I've since read that Ramon Castro didn't make it there on time and was benched for sleeping late.

From what we witnessed at the hotel bar, fans were very respectful of the players and didn't bother any of them.

We did not see Billy Wagner, Mike Pelfrey, Joe Smith or Aaron Heilman at any point in the hotel. Actually, if I haven't mentioned their name already, I didn't see them nor hear that anyone else did. Or maybe simply didn't recognize them.

We were told by other fans that they got autographs from Pedro Martinez and Johan Santana prior to them leaving for the ballpark on Saturday.

All in all, it was a nice experience, which would've been a lot nicer had the Mets swept the Padres, and not vice versa.

The Mets begin the month of June at 27-27, a record which needs to improve substantially for the team to make a run at the playoffs come October.

The good news is that Pedro Martinez comes back to pitch against San Francisco on June 3. The team can't afford to lose him again.
Ryan Church is (allegedly) healthy and free of post-concussion symptoms.
Moises Alou should be ready to go again on Thursday when the Mets open up the series against San Diego.

June is a month in which the Mets schedule should be one they can take advantage of as 21 of 28 games will be played against teams that have a .500 record or worse. The 7 "tough" games will be 3 against Arizona at Shea, 3 against the Angels in Anaheim, 1 against St. Louis at the end of the month which is the beginning of 4 games with the Cardinals that goes into July.

The team went 14-12 in April (plus March 31), but finished 13-15 in May.

The month of June is going to be boon or gloom. Feast or famine. They will be playing teams like Colorado, San Francisco and San Diego in the laughable NL West division, although all on the road. These are all absolute must-win series, if not series sweeps.

Another month of 14-14 baseball is not going to cut the mustard. This Mets team has the talent, but they're going to need to go 20-8 over the next month or the 2008 season basically ends for the Mets before the All-Star break.

Random thoughts from tonight's game.

- As often as it is noted that Oliver Perez can be erratic, the same goes for Chad Billingsley. Unfortunately for the Mets, the good Chad Billingsley showed up, so did the crappy Oliver Perez.

- What's the story of the game? Furcal HR, Dewitt's first MLB HR, Kemp's HR. Perez sucked, Billingsley was great. I suppose the silver lining was that Perez didn't leave in the 2nd inning like last time?

- How great was Billingsley? He threw 1 ball in the first inning, and was hammering the 1-2-3 batters with fastballs. I THINK he threw 12 total pitches that inning, 11 strikes. He only got in one real jam the whole game, and got out of it easily. He also K'd Wright twice.

- The Mets biggest threat was in the 2nd when they had Delgado on 2nd and Beltran on 3rd with 1 out. Billingsley got Schneider to K, and Castillo to ground out weakly to 3rd. This was also probably the early turning point in the game for the Dodgers as the Mets never had any runners reach 3rd again until Beltran's triple in the 6th.

- From my view, Brian Schneider was having a lot of trouble throwing guys out at 2B. 2 balls went into CF, one of them charged as an Error since Russell Martin was able to take 3rd as well.

- Andruw Jones is beyond awful, but this is known even to scumbag Dodger fans, who (deservingly) boo him at every AB. This team is lucky to have 4 out of 5 OFs who can hit.

- Conversely, all this talk about the best SS in the NL. Whether it's Hanley Ramirez, Jimmy Rollins, Jose Reyes, OH NO. Wrong Wrong Wrong!
The correct answer right now is Rafael Furcal, who is hitting up a crazy storm, and his arm for a SS is second-to-none.

- Beltran probably would have scored safely on his triple, had he went for the inside-the-park HR. But when you're down 5-0 in the 6th inning with 0 out, why risk it? It wasn't a sure thing that he'd be safe, and holding him up at 3rd was the right call. If it had been 2 out instead, you send him and hope for the best. Good thing Alou got his first RBI this season and broke the shutout. You think I wanted to leave that dump being shutout?

- Speaking of Alou, is it me or is he not hitting the way we had hoped? I know it's VERY early to judge him, but he's 2-for-11 so far, and those 2 hits were singles up the middle. He hasn't hit the ball HARD yet. Maybe he'll bang Kuroda around tomorrow.

- Dodgers bullpen was lights out. Beimel the 7th, Big John Broxton the 8th, Takashi Saito the 9th. Their pen has been very impressive over the last two seasons. It's their starting pitching past Penny, and I guess Billingsley on occasion, and lack of power bats (though you wouldn't know it tonight) which are their weaknesses.

- I thought it was... odd that Sosa pitched an inning tonight instead of Aaron Heilman. Sosa pitched Sunday against Arizona and got the club-leading 4th win. Heilman did not pitch. Either way, Sosa was fine, so I can only guess that Willie is hoping to use Aaron in Tuesday's game in the 7th or 8th, which I do believe is a game the Mets will win.

- Tuesday night's game pits Nelson Figueroa vs Hiroki Kuroda.
Kuroda has been mediocre for L.A. so far, Figueroa has been good enough for the Mets this season, although I am still of the opinion that once teams develop a book on him, he's going to fall off sharply come June if not sooner.

Won't be seeing this one in person, but I'll record it on the DVR and maybe end up watching it at some point riding the FF button. Although if they lose, will I really want to?

Good news. The New York Rangers are down 2-0 after 2 periods in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semi-finals. Sean Avery is out of the hospital, which means I didn't pray hard enough. Fuck the Rangers. DIE RANGERS DIE! Especially that cunt Sean Avery.

Onto baseball, the New York Mets are playing the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field in Phoenix, AZ. And the amazing thing is that the game is national on TBS. This means I can actually SEE THE GAME!!! WOWIE ZOWIE!!!

Today's pitching matchup is a great one pitting Dan Haren vs Johan Santana. Combined with the strange 15-2 record the Mets have in Phoenix over the last 4 (?) years, the advantage has to go to New York, but the team isn't exactly hitting with any consistency either.

Onto the liveblogging of the game!

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Top of 1st Inning:
1:10pm: The opening shots of Chase Field show a fairly empty ballpark. Last Sunday, Arizona played before 18,000 people. It doesn't look to be any different of a crowd today as far as numbers go.

1:11pm: Jose Reyes fouls out to Eric Byrnes in LF. 1 out. The sound is off on TBS-HD. Lovely. It's like I'm watching YouTube.

1:13pm: Ryan Church flies out to Chris Young in deep centerfield. 2 out.

1:14pm: David Wright flies out to Chris Young in even deeper centerfield, hitting the ball about 404 feet. But that's the third out.

Bottom of 1st inning:
1:19pm: After falling behind 3-0 against leadoff hitter Chris Young, Santana throws 2 strikes and gets Young to fly out to centerfielder Carlos Beltran. 1 out.

1:20pm: Augie Ojeda lines a single into CF, Carlos Beltran bobbles the ball as Ojeda successfully takes 2nd on the error.

1:22pm: Eric Byrnes can't hold up his bat and strikes out. 2 out.

1:23pm: Conor Jackson is hitting a ridiculous .481 against lefties, best in the majors. That stat alone doesn't bode well for this AB.

1:24pm: Good thing Santana is the lefty Jackson had to face. He grounds out to Luis Castillo, 4-3. 3 out.

Top of the 2nd Inning:
1:27pm: TBS gives us a David Wright insert interview about last year's Mets collapse. Nothing new. When they hit, they didn't pitch. When they pitched, they didn't hit. Same ol, same ol.

1:28pm: Carlos Beltran is up, and his lack of hitting is super disturbing. He's hitting .208. At least he's drawing walks on occasion.

1:29pm: Not this time. Carlos Beltran goes down looking at strike 3. 1 out.

1:30pm: Moises Alou is up. TBS says he's 0 for 3, but I'm pretty sure he had a base hit on Friday. Everyone knows Alou is solid when he's healthy. Everyone also knows Alou isn't healthy often.

1:31pm: Haren strikes out Alou. 2 out.

1:32pm: Haren strikes out Carlos Delgado, striking out the side. 3 out.

Bottom of 2nd Inning:
1:35pm: Johan Santana makes Justin Upton look silly, striking him out. 1 out. TBS announcer Jim Kaat does an excellent job of explaining fastball/changeups.

1:38pm: Mark Reynolds reaches across the plate for ball 4 and hits it to leftfield for a single.

1:40pm: Brian Schneider can't handle a Santana inside pitch and Mark Reynolds takes 2nd on the Wild Pitch. Schneider throws down to Castillo but he can't handle the ball. It trickles into short center but not far enough for Reynolds to take 3rd.

1:41pm: Chris Snyder can't hold up on a changeup and goes down swinging. 2 out.

1:43pm: Chris Burke grounds out to Jose Reyes, 6-3. 3 out.

Top of 3rd Inning:
1:45pm: It's a Brian Schneider sighting! He's back in the lineup after sitting out for a couple of weeks with a staph infection in his thumb.

1:47pm: Brian Schneider draws a walk.

1:49pm: Luis Castillo hits a chopper up the middle fielded by SS Augie Ojeda who steps on 2nd but Luis Castillo beats the throw to 1st. 1 out.

1:51pm: Johan Santana lays down a nice sac bunt, score it 1-3. Castillo at 2nd. 2 out.

1:52pm: Jose Reyes scorches the first pitch from Dan Haren to rightfield for a single. Castillo scores from 2nd easily. 1-0 Mets.

1:54pm: Ryan Church flies out to leftfield. 3 out.

Bottom of 3rd Inning:
1:58pm: Dan Haren grounds out to David Wright, 5-3. 1 out.

1:59pm: Interview with Willie Randolph. This is the first time all season that the "real Mets starting lineup" has been together.

2:00pm: Chris Young walks. That's the 9th BB Santana has given up all season. Young is a huge threat on the basepaths.

2:01pm: Ojeda hits a grounder right at 1B Carlos Delgado. Delgado throws over to Reyes at SS but Santana doesn't make it to 1B in time for the double play. 1-6. 2 out.

2:03pm: The Rangers just lost. HALLE-FUCKING-LEUJAH!

2:05pm: Santana gets Eric Byrnes to strikeout. 3 out.

Top of 4th Inning:
2:08pm: David Wright launches a solo blast into the leftfield stands. 2-0 Mets.

2:10pm: Carlos Beltran hits a high pop fly into foul territory near the Arizona dugout but 3B Mark Reynolds overruns it. Will that be costly for the Dbacks? The way Beltran is hitting lately, probably not.

2:11pm: Of course not. Haren just racks up another K as Beltran watches another strike 3 go by. 1 out.

2:12pm: Moises Alou grounds to SS Augie Ojeda. 6-3. 2 out.

2:13pm: Carlos Delgado hits a rocket to deeeeep CF that just misses the yellow line by a couple of feet for a HR. So a 410-foot double for Delgado.

2:14pm: Brian Schneider hits a soft line drive at 1B Conor Jackson for the 3rd out.

Bottom of 4th Inning:
2:17pm: Conor Jackson grounds out to SS Jose Reyes on the first pitch. 6-3. 1 out.

2:19pm: Justin Upton hits a 2-2 pitch straight into CF for a single.

2:20pm: Santana throws his 2nd WP of the day which Schneider cannot handle. The ball gets away and Upton takes 2nd easily.

2:21pm: Mark Reynolds goes down swinging. 2 out.

2:22pm: Chris Snyder hits a laser that hits off the top of the leftfield fence and gets away from LF Moises Alou for Snyder's 1st career triple. Snyder just missed a linedrive HR by inches. Upton scores. 2-1 Mets.

2:23pm: With Dan Haren batting next, the Mets give an IBB to Chris Burke.

2:24pm: Santana throws another WP (his 3rd now) but it doesn't get far enough away from Brian Schneider for Chris Snyder to score. However, Burke takes 2nd easily and the force is gone. You still have to believe that Santana can get Haren out here.

2:26pm: Sure enough, Santana strikes Haren out. 3 out. If only Johan can stop with the wild pitches. 3 WP is his career-high in a game.

Top of 5th Inning:
2:28pm: Senator John McCain is shown on camera at the game. I'm still amazed that he's the best candidate the Republicans can come up with. It's almost pitiful, and yet people will vote for him.

2:30pm: Luis Castillo hits a chopper up the middle that SS Augie Ojeda gets to, spins and throws to 1st to get Castillo by a step. Nice play for Ojeda. 1 out.

2:32pm: Dan Haren strikes out Johan Santana. 2 out.

2:34pm: Jose Reyes strikes out. 3 out. That's 6 Ks for each pitcher now.

Bottom of 5th Inning:
2:38pm: Chris Young grounds to Jose Reyes. 6-3. 1 out.

2:40pm: Augie Ojeda singles to left-center.

2:42pm: The announcers note that Santana is about to throw his 85th pitch. He's pitching well, but not great. Those WPs aren't helping things.

2:43pm: Eric Byrnes hits a foul pop which Brian Schneider calls for but then looks at David Wright coming in on the ball and no one gets it. That was clearly Schneider's ball but maybe he lost it, which is why he looked at Wright for help.

2:45pm: Byrnes hits another pop fly but this time in fair territory to SS Jose Reyes, even though David Wright almost collided with Reyes trying to track it down.

2:47pm: Santana throws another ball in the dirt which almost gets by Schneider again, but this time he's able to stop it.

2:48pm: Johan Santana records his 90th pitch, and his 7th K of the game as Conor Jackson goes down looking. 3 out. Santana will probably go one more inning unless he gets in trouble. Joe Smith and Pedro Feliciano did not pitch yesterday, so I imagine they'll be first in the game before the likes of Heilman and Sosa. Sanchez was the one that got killed yesterday, but more often than not, he gets the job done in the 8th.

Top of 6th Inning:
2:52pm: Haren gets ahead of Ryan Church 0-2 before going full count. Church grounds softly to 2B Chris Burke, 4-3. 1 out.

2:53pm: Haren gets a little revenge on David Wright by striking him out. 2 out.

2:55pm: Carlos Beltran grounds out to Chris Burke. 4-3. 3 out. Beltran is now 0-for-3 today. At least he didn't strike out this time?

Bottom of 6th Inning:
2:59pm: Justin Upton goes down looking at a 2-2 pitch for strike 3.1 out.

3:00pm: Mark Reynolds grounds softly to Jose Reyes at SS. 6-3. 2 out.

3:02pm: No one is up in the Mets bullpen just yet, although this has to be Santana's last inning as his pitch count is over 100.

3:03pm: Chris Snyder scalds the ball into left-center field for a double.

3:04pm: Strategy time. The Mets give another IBB to Chris Burke, putting him on 1st, and forcing Bob Melvin to go to a PH for Dan Haren. Orlando Hudson is in to pinch-hit. I hope this isn't one of those instances where Johan gives up a longball.

3:05pm: 3-1 count to Orlando Hudson. This could be scary.

3:06pm: Santana walks Hudson, who cannot run. Pitcher Mac Scherzer is in to pinch-run. Rick Peterson goes to the mound for a conference. Joe Smith, mis-identified as Aaron Heilman by Jim Kaat, is warming up in the Mets pen. You have to figure Santana is still good enough to get Chris Young out. As long as he doesn't throw the ball away. 

3:08pm: After watching two 93-mph fastballs go by, on an 0-2 pitch, Young hits the ball to right-center but Ryan Church is able to run it down. Tragedy averted. 3 out. That'll be the end for Johan Santana. At least it's also the end for Dan Haren, although the Dbacks bullpen is tough in their own right.

Top of 7th Inning:
3:11pm: Lefty Doug Slaten is in to pitch for Arizona.Moises Alou hits a weak grounder to SS Augie Ojeda. 6-3. 1 out.

3:12pm: TBS announcers believe that Delgado may actually be coming around a bit, as he's 7 for his last 20. After that long double, I hope so.

3:13pm: Carlos Delgado goes the opposite way with a flyball to leftfield. 2 out.

3:14pm: Brian Schneider grounds the ball softly up the middle to SS Augie Ojeda who fields it easily, throwing out Schneider with plenty of time to spare. 6-3. 3 out.

Bottom of 7th Inning:
3:18pm: Jim Kaat notes that the Mets pen is 14-1 when the team has the lead. Chip Caray then notes that the team has been outscored 46-19 in the 7th and 8th innings. Interesting stats. Joe Smith is in to pitch the 7th.

3:20pm: Joe Smith throws a slider by Augie Ojeda for strike 3. 1 out.

3:22pm: Eric Byrnes can't hold up his swing and strikes out. 2 out.

3:23pm: Conor Jackson hits the ball hard past David Wright into leftfield for a single.

3:25pm: Smith is throwing all outside pitches to the dangerous Justin Upton, falling behind 3-0. He throws a questionable low strike called. Upton fouls off the next pitch. Full count.

3:26pm: Smith walks Upton. 1st and 2nd with 2 out.

3:27pm: Reynolds hits a broken bat single to leftfield scoring Conor Jackson. Alou unnecessarily throws to the plate, but the runners don't advance. Tie game 2-2. :-(

3:30pm: Smith is able to get the hot-hitting (today anyways) Chris Snyder out with a 1-2 slider. Strikeout. 3 out. Mets bullpen isn't able to preserve Santana's win.

Top of 8th Inning:
3:33pm: Luis Castillo foul pops out to 1B Conor Jackson. 1 out.

3:35pm: Switch-hitting Angel Pagan is in to face Doug Slaten. Arizona manager Bob Melvin goes to the bullpen to righty Juan Cruz, which merely turns Pagan around to the left side. Chip Caray notes that Pagan filled in for Alou a lot, but did not hit for any power.

3:38pm: Angel Pagan looks at strike 3 go by on the outside corner. 2 out.

3:40pm: Jose Reyes walks. For all of you who think Ryan Church is the 2-hole savior, here's his chance to be a hero.

3:42pm: Jose Reyes steals 2nd on ball 2.

3:44pm: Ryan Church takes an inside fastball for ball 4. 1st and 2nd with 2 out for David Wright who is hitting .177 with 2 out and RISP. Not good. But he did hit a solo HR earlier today so... we'll see. Plus, it's Chase Field...

3:47pm: Juan Cruz is visibly annoyed at not getting corner pitches, but the ump is making the right calls for the most part.

3:48pm: Cruz gets the next pitch by Wright, 2-2 count.

3:49pm: Full count on David Wright. Wright pops an inside pitch to shallow right, caught by 2B Chris Burke. 3 out. Wright fails to deliver in the clutch.

Bottom of 8th Inning:
3:52pm: Lefty Pedro Feliciano is in to pitch for the Mets. Chris Burke lays down a great bunt in front of the plate. Feliciano fields it, makes a terrible throw that goes into rightfield. Burke goes around 2nd to 3rd, Church makes a perfect throw to David Wright at 3B who tags out Burke. Bunt single, E1, 9-5 out. 1 out. I scream with delight.

3:54pm: Pitcher Micah Owings is in to pinch-hit for Juan Cruz. Owings' pinch-hit HR is replayed for your entertainment value.

3:56pm: Owings hits a soft grounder to Jose Reyes who throws to Carlos Delgado at first, but Owings is called safe, even though replays show he was out by a hair. Honestly way too close, so I can't fault the ump for that one. Willie comes out to argue but obviously doesn't win that argument. Robby Hammock pinch-running for Owings.

4:00pm: Jorge Sosa is now in to pitch to Chris Young with a man on 1st. *GULP*

4:03pm: Chris Young lines out to Moises Alou in LF. 2 out.

4:04pm: Augie Ojeda grounds out to Castillo, 4-3. 3 out. Sosa manages to do a good job, and Church may have saved the game with that throw to get an overexuberant Chris Burke. Still, the Mets only have 3 hits through 8 IP, and you can't win games like that. They're going to need to score in the top 9 or the advantage will strongly favor Arizona.

Top of 9th Inning:
4:08pm: Righty Chad Qualls is on to pitch the 9th against Beltran, Alou, Delgado. Normally that would be a threatening tandem, but not this year.

4:09pm: Holy cow! Carlos Beltran singles to rightfield, keeping his BA above .200. 

4:10pm: Alou singles the first pitch up the middle past Ojeda into centerfield. The Mets fans in Phoenix get noisy with a "Lets go Mets" chant.

4:11pm: Endy Chavez is in the game pinch-running for Moises Alou.

4:12pm: Carlos Delgado grounds to Conor Jackson in what should be a 3-6-3 DP, but throws the ball into leftfield. Carlos Beltran scores, and the Mets go up 3-2. Error 3. Still nobody out.

4:13pm: Brian Schneider lays down a bunt down the 3rd base line, sac bunt 5-3. Runners advanced to 2nd and 3rd. 1 out.

4:15pm: Qualls gives Castillo an IBB to load the bases.

4:16pm: Lefty Marlon Anderson is in to pinch-hit for Jorge Sosa. Billy Wagner will obviously pitch the bottom 9 unless the Mets break this wide open. Then they can use Heilman in a non-save situation.

4:17pm: Marlon Anderson lines the first pitch from Qualls into RF for a single. Endy Chavez scores. 4-2. Bases still loaded.

4:18pm: Jose Reyes lines the first pitch he sees to Eric Byrnes in LF. Carlos Delgado scores on the sac fly. 2 out. Mets now up 5-2.

4:19pm: Ryan Church strikes out. 3 out. If only Conor Jackson doesn't make that throwing error, the game is still probably tied 2-2. Good thing he blew it.

Bottom of 9th Inning:
4:21pm: Endy Chavez replaces Moises Alou in LF. Billy Wagner is in to close the game for the Mets. With a 3-run lead, things look good. Especially with Wagner's hot start this season. 0.00 ERA.

4:22pm: Eric Byrnes pops out to 2B Luis Castillo. 1 out.

4:24pm: Conor Jackson grounds out hard to 2B Luis Castillo. 4-3. 2 out.

4:25pm: Billy Wagner K's Justin Upton. Brian Schneider loses the ball for a second at the plate, but tags out Upton to end the game.

Mets win 5-2.

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So the Mets take 2 of 3 from the best team in baseball, although it is pointed out that the Dbacks are 17-5 against the NL West, and now 4-5 against the rest.

The Mets will now go into Dodger Stadium for a 3-game series against L.A., who just won 8 of their last 10 ballgames.

I will be at Monday night's game, rooting hard for the Mets in a sea of low-class scumbag Dodger losers. That will be fun, especially if the Mets win 15-0.  

Today is the day. With a record of 88-73, equal to that of the Philadelphia Phillies, the New York Mets are in a do-or-die situation against the Florida Marlins. The Mets must win in order to assure themselves a chance at the playoffs.

A Mets loss isn't necessarily the end of the season, although too many other game outcomes factor into the equation, and you don't want to let someone else control your own destiny.

Today's matchup is Dontrelle Willis, a notorious Mets-killer, against Tom Glavine, who has been struggling a lot lately in his last 3 starts with a 6.11 ERA over that time period.

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All times Pacific. I'm getting the FSN Florida (Sun Sports) feed here.

TOP 1:
10:11am: Hanley Ramirez leads off the game, so whatever hand injury he had yesterday, couldn't have been too bad. Glavine picking at the strike zone but hasn't gotten the close calls just yet.

10:12am: After confusion what the count was, Hanley Ramirez takes a leadoff walk.

10:14am: Dan Uggla grounds a ball to Luis Castillo at 2B, who tosses the ball to shortstop Jose Reyes for the sure out. 1 out.

10:15am: Jeremy Hermida singles a ball to rightfield, Dan Uggla to 3rd on the ball.

10:17am: Miguel Cabrera singles a ball on the ground past David Wright into leftfield. Dan Uggla scores, 1-0 Marlins.

10:20am: In a play that may be symbolic of the Mets collapse  this year, Cody Ross hits a double down the rightfield line. Two runs score, Lastings Milledge makes a weak throw to the cutoff man at 2B who throws to Castro at the plate but Castro misses the ball. Tom Glavine, backing his catcher up, grabs the ball and throws to 3rd trying to get Cody Ross, but the ball sails into leftfield, and then Cody Ross scores on the error. What a fucking mess. 4-0 Marlins and only 1 out.

10:22am: Mike Jacobs singles to leftfield, and Tom Glavine is awful today. Doesn't help that the defense behind him is shit again.

10:23am: Jorge Sosa is warming up in the bullpen, and Tom Glavine is having trouble hitting the strike zone.

10:24am: Glavine walks Matt Treanor. Rick Peterson coming to the mound. He should be fired after this season. The pitching has been the problem over the last 2 months, and Rick Peterson, deified as if he's Leo Mazzone or something, is the man who needs to be held accountable for this junk.

10:26am: Alejandro de Aza singles a ball to leftfield, and it's now bases loaded with Dontrelle Willis up. The D-train can hit. Someone stop the bleeding. Please.

10:27am: Tom Glavine hits Dontrelle Willis with an inside pitch, and has sealed his fate today. Marlins now up 5-0, and Glavine getting booed out of the park. He deserves every catcall and boo, as this is not the game to show your age. Willie finally making a call to the bullpen, but it could possibly be too late, even this early.

10:30am: The Marlins have now batted around, and Jorge Sosa is in the game now who is essentially the new starting pitcher, except down a LOT in the 1st. Hanley Ramirez now batting.

10:32am: Hanley Ramirez strikes out, temporarily re-energizing the fans at Shea who really needed to see something good happen in this game.

10:34am: Jorge Sosa has fallen way behind Dan Uggla with bases loaded, 3-0 count. Uggla is obviously taking next pitch.

10:35am: Dan Uggla thinks a high strike is ball 4. It's not, 3-1 count. Uggla rips a fastball into leftfield for a 2-run double, with the score now 7-0. Is it too late to start cheering for the Nationals? This is worse than what the Mets did to the Marlins yesterday.

10:37am: Runners on 2nd and 3rd with Jeremy Hermida up.

10:38am: Hermida scorches one into Delgado's glove who grabs it for the third out. Fina-fucking-ly. Yesterday the Mets raped the Marlins, and now the fish are getting their revenge fuck.

BOTTOM 1:
10:41am: Despite the 7-0 thrashing, the Mets fans are cheering "LETS GO METS" mostly because it'll be the last chance they have to unless some other miracles happen. Whether at Shea, or in Philly, or in Milwaukee.

10:42am: Jose Reyes flies out to Jeremy Hermida in rightfield. 1 out.

10:43am: Luis Castillo scorches a ball down the leftfield line for a 2-base hit.

10:45am: David Wright flies out to deep rightfield, which allows Luis Castillo to tag to 3rd. 2 out.

10:46am: The Marlins crew show a sign which was posted around the clubhouse of the fight from yesterday and accompanying copy which read "It's never a good idea to awake a sleeping Mutt! SOMEONE PAYS TODAY" The Marlins announcers note that it clearly didn't help the Mets cause to put that up.

10:47am: Carlos Beltran hits the ball about 10 feet in front of the plate, almost like a bunt, but beats out the throw to 1st. Luis Castillo could not move on the play.

10:48am: First pitch thrown to Moises Alou goes past catcher Matt Treanor, and Luis Castillo scores from 3rd. 7-1.

10:49am: Moises Alou hits a grounder to the left side past Miguel Cabrera. Hanley Ramirez fields it and throws but there's no strength on the throw, and even the slow Alou beats it out. Beltran gets to third on the play. The Mets fans are now awake again with 2 men on, and Carlos Delgado up, desperate for a 3-run boomshakkalakka.

10:50am: Carlos Delgado is hit on the arm while swinging at a D-train fastball, so it's a foul ball and a very hurt Carlos Delgado.

10:51am: Marlins announcers are complaining about the umps blowing calls on these swings/hit-batsmen, and they're right since the umpires have been consistently wrong. Hanley Ramirez definitely got hit by a pitch in the 1st inning but didn't get the call. Carlos Delgado clearly swung at this pitch, but gets 1st base. Bases now loaded.

10:52am: Ramon Castro is up. Ramon is a feast-or-famine type of hitter. He'll either blast one out, or strike out. I'd be shocked if he does anything else.

10:54am: Ramon Castro just misses a grand-salami by about 5 feet. A warning track shot but ultimately caught by Cody Ross in leftfield. 3 out.

TOP 2:
10:56am: Carlos Delgado is out at 1B, Jeff Conine is in. That ball must've really hurt Carlos.

10:57am: Miguel Cabrera goes down swinging. 1 out. The Marlins announcers are paying much respect to "Mr. Marlin" Jeff Conine, who is of course, now with the Mets. Conine still lives in South Florida and is very involved with charities and organizations in the area.

10:59am: Cody Ross strikes out. 2 out. Scott Schoeneweis is in the Mets bullpen at the ready.

11:00am: Jorge Sosa strikes out the side by getting Mike Jacobs. 3 out.

BOTTOM 2:
11:05am: Lastings Milledge works out a leadoff walk.

11:06am: Sandy Alomar Jr. pinch-hitting in Jorge Sosa's spot, which makes me wonder if Willie doesn't have any faith in Jorge Sosa to even bunt at the plate, or pitch more innings. Sosa certainly had a strong top 2 by striking out the side, and he SHOULD be able to go long relief. Curious choice. Looks like Orlando "El Douche" Hernandez will be pitching the 3rd for the Mets.

11:09am: Alomar Jr. hits a high shot into leftfield which seems to catch Cody Ross a little off-guard because of the sun, but he catches it. 1 out.

11:10am: Jose Reyes flies out to centerfield. 2 out.

11:11am: Luis Castillo walks. Runners on 1st and 2nd, but 2 out. David Wright coming to bat. Someone needs to be a super clutch motherfucker right now.

11:13am: Turns out that the clutch motherfucker was Dontrelle Willis, throwing a nasty slider by a swinging David Wright. 3 out.

TOP 3:
11:17am: Orlando Hernandez is now pitching for the Mets, although I kinda wish it was still Jorge Sosa right now based on the prior inning. The Marlins announcers tell us that they appreciate everyone watching, and even show some Marlins fans in the stands.

11:18am: Matt Treanor skies one to left-center field, but Carlos Beltran makes a sliding catch to track it down. 1 out.

11:19am: Alejandro de Aza ropes a shot to rightfield, but almost at Lastings Milledge. 2 out.

11:20am: D-train nails a first pitch curveball down the rightfield line for a triple.

11:21am: Hanley Ramirez fouls out behind the plate to Ramon Castro, who has just enough room to get it. 3 out.

BOTTOM 3:
11:24am: Carlos Beltran lines a hard shot to leftfielder Cody Ross. 1 out.

11:26am: Moises Alou walks. Willis is not pitching very well today, but he's getting out of the jams he creates.

11:29am: Dontrelle Willis walks Jeff Conine. Runners on 1st and 2nd, 1 out. Marlins pitching coach Steve Foster is out for a mound visit.

11:31am: Joe Smith is warming up in the Mets bullpen. Willis ahead of Ramon Castro 1-2.

11:32am: Dontrelle throws the high heat past Ramon Castro for the strikeout. 2 out. Dontrelle may put people on base, but he still gets out of these jams.  Logan Kensing warming up in the Marlins bullpen now.

11:33am: Bad news Mets fans. Phillies up 3-0 on Nationals.

11:34am: Dontrelle walks L-Millz on 4 straight, which is probably the right move since it forces the Mets to use another pinch-hitter and remove another pitcher. It wasn't intentional, but that's it for Dontrelle Willis. Marlins bring in Logan Kensing in relief.

11:36am: Paul Lo Duca is up with the bases loaded, and 2 outs. The Mets are probably not going to get many more chances to significantly bang away at Florida, so PLD needs some offense right now.

11:37am: Paul Lo Duca holds a .348 BA against Florida, 4th best among active players.

11:39am: Lo Duca, checking his swing, accidentally puts the ball into play, a short grounder to the right side front of the mound. Kensing fields it easily and throws to first for the heartbreaking out. That's twice in this game that the Mets had bases loaded and couldn't do anything. And we've only played 3. The Mets have left 8 men on base so far.

TOP 4:
11:42am: Scott Schoeneweis now pitching for the Mets. Be afraid. It's a matter of time before we see Guillermo Mota.

11:43am: Dan Uggla chops one to third, David Wright fields it and throws to 1st. 1 out.

11:44am: Marlins announcers note that home plate umpire Joe West is keeping a very tight strike zone, but consistently on both sides.

11:45am: Schoeneweis was behind 3-0 to Jeremy Hermida before coming back to strike him out. 2 out.

11:46am: Miguel Cabrera lines the first pitch he sees to rightfielder Lastings Milledge. 3 out.

BOTTOM 4:
11:49am: Jose Reyes fouls out to third-baseman Miguel Cabrera near the Marlins dugout. The Mets fans boo Jose a lot, as he has been slumping a lot. 1 out.

11:50am: Luis Castillo lays down a nice bunt in front of the plate and is thrown out by inches, but the ump made the right call. 2 out.

11:51am: David Wright singles a ball into leftfield.

11:52am: Carlos Beltran rips the first pitch he sees right into the glove of shortstop Hanley Ramirez. 3 out.

TOP 5:
11:55am: Carlos Delgado suffers a fractured left hand from the pitch earlier, and that will eliminate him for the postseason, if the Mets even have one.

11:56am: Cody Ross singles to centerfield to lead off the inning.

11:58am: Mike Jacobs strikes out. 1 out.

12:00pm: Scott Schoeneweis walks Matt Treanor. Men on 1st and 2nd, 1 out.

12:01pm: Alejandro de Aza hits a shot into left-center which Alou has to dive on top of to stop it from going to the wall. Cody Ross scores, Mike Jacobs to 3rd base, de Aza to 2nd. Willie Randolph pulls Schoeneweis and brings in Joe Smith. Marlins now up 8-1.

12:05pm: Todd Linden in to pinch-hit for Logan Kensing. Runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. Infield is in to stop any more runs.

12:06pm: Linden strikes out. 2 out.

12:08pm: Joe Smith gets Hanley Ramirez looking at strike 3. 3 out.

BOTTOM 5:
12:11pm: Florida announcer Craig Minervini is in the stands trying to interview two Mets fans wearing paper bags over their heads, ashamed to show their faces in embarrassment for what the 2007 Mets have turned into.

12:12pm: Justin Miller now pitching for Florida.

12:13pm: Moises Alou strikes out. 1 out. This team had their chances against Dontrelle and couldn't convert. It's not that the Marlins have a GREAT bullpen, but they're good enough today so far.

12:16pm: Jeff Conine skies a popfly to first-baseman Mike Jacobs. 2 out.

12:17pm: Ramon Castro's theme music is the Empire's theme (from Star Wars). That's simultaneously cool and ubergeeky.

12:18pm: Ramon Castro strikes out. 3 out. Just saw Guillermo Mota warming up in the bullpen. Abandon all hope.

TOP 6:
12:22pm: Dan Uggla strikes out. 1 out.

12:23pm: Jeremy Hermida strokes a double to right-center field.

12:24pm: Miguel Cabrera getting the intentional pass. Does it even matter at this point?

12:28pm: Joe Smith finally gets Cody Ross swinging at strike 3. 2 out.

12:29pm: Willie Randolph coming out to yank Joe Smith, who has done reasonably well today. With lefty Mike Jacobs coming to the plate, Willie goes to lefty Pedro Feliciano.

12:33pm: Feliciano gets Jacobs to K. 3 out. If the Mets don't score SOMETHING in the bottom 6, this game really is over. As is the season.

BOTTOM 6:
12:37pm: Lastings Milledge grounds out to shortstop Hanley Ramirez, 6-3. 1 out.

12:39pm: Renyel Pinto now pitching for the Marlins in relief of Justin Miller. Jason Wood takes over at first base as part of the double switch. Ruben Gotay pinch-hitting for Pedro Feliciano. Guillermo Mota will be the next pitcher. Oh poop.

12:42pm: Ruben Gotay flies out to leftfield. 2 out.

12:43pm: Jose Reyes is up and he gets booed. The game's most exciting player isn't very exciting anymore.

12:44pm: Phillies about to break the game open. Phillies just scored again, 4-1. And coupled with that, Jose Reyes fouls out to first-baseman Jason Wood, who reaches into the stands for the catch. Down 7 runs with 3 innings to go, this game is over.

TOP 7:
12:47pm: Guillermo Mota is now the Mets pitcher. The Mets are going to have to pay Mota $3.42 million in 2008, which would be a fair ransom to get rid of him.

12:48pm: Jimmy Rollins just tripled in a run in Philly, sending the Phillies up 5-1. It sucks that Jimmy Rollins was right all along about the Phillies being the team to beat in the NL East.

12:50pm: Matt Treanor flies out to short-left-center, into the glove of Jose Reyes. 1 out.

12:51pm: Alejandro De Aza strikes out. 2 out.

12:52pm: Jason Wood grounds out to David Wright, 5-3. 3 out. Mota pitches an inning without any damage being done. Maybe HE should've started the game. Tom Terrible. indeed.

7th-inning stretch, and boy do I need it.

BOTTOM 7:
12:56pm: Luis Castillo leads off by hitting a grounder right to Miguel Cabrera, 5-3. 1 out.

12:57pm: David Wright flies out to deep centerfield. 2 out.

12:58pm: Carlos Beltran hits a first pitch over the head of Hanley Ramirez into leftfield for a single.

12:59pm: Moises Alou flies out to leftfield. 3 out. The crying begins now.

TOP 8:
1:02pm: Hanley Ramirez grounds a ball past a diving David Wright but Jose Reyes fields it clean, throws to first. 1 out.

1:04pm: Dan Uggla grounds out to David Wright, 5-3. 2 out.

1:05pm: Jeremy Hermida singles to rightfield.

1:06pm: Miguel Cabrera hits the first pitch from Guillermo Mota to Lastings Milledge in rightfield. 3 out.

BOTTOM 8:
1:10pm: Ryan Howard just hit a solo HR in Philadelphia to pile on the Nationals now, 6-1. This whole thing is not working out the way it is supposed to.

1:11pm: Matt Lindstrom now pitching for Florida. Conine flies out to centerfielder De Aza. 1 out.

1:14pm: Ramon Castro pops out to 2B Dan Uggla. 2 out.

1:16pm: Lastings Milledge pops out to Dan Uggla in shallow rightfield. 3 out.

TOP 9:
1:20pm: Aaron Heilman in to pitch the 9th inning. Cody Ross grounds to Luis Castillo, 4-3. 1 out. A small "Fire Willie" chant can be overheard.

1:21pm: Alfredo Amezaga is in to pinch-hit.

1:23pm: Amezaga strikes out. 2 out.

1:23pm: Matt Treanor grounds out to 3rd, David Wright makes a nice pickup on the ball and throws onto 1st for the out. 3 out. Anyone call for a 8-run rally?

BOTTOM 9:
1:25pm: Marlins closer Kevin Gregg is in. The remaining fans at Shea desperately want a rally, but...

1:26pm: Marlon Anderson is in to pinch-hit.

1:27pm: Marlon Anderons pops out to shortstop Hanley Ramirez. 1 out.

1:28pm: Jose Reyes hits a weak groundout to Dan Uggla. 4-3. 2 out.

1:29pm: Luis Castillo is up. You can hear a lot of catcalls at Willie Randolph. Castillo strikes out. The boos are pretty big. Game over. Season over. Lots of stories will be written over the next couple of days as to where the blame lies for one of the biggest collapses in all of baseball, and I will have much to say on that in the next couple of days. BUt no in this blog entry.

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1:32pm: So I've just switched over to the Nationals-Phillies game, and the fans just see the score of the Mets-Marlins final of 8-1. It's the top 9 in Philadelphia, with the Phillies up 6-1. The place is going to erupt like a mofo when the game ends, and it's already ridiculously loud. Closer Brett Myers is on fire.

1:33pm: Austin Kearns flies out to leftfielder Michael Bourn. 2 out.

1:34pm: Citizens Bank Park is ablaze. Willy Mo Pena is up, and almost guaranteed to end the game on a strikeout...
And he does. 3 out. Philadelphia wins 6-1, and wins the NL East.

This collapse hurts, a lot. The Mets should never have even been in this position on September 30, having to fight for survival. On September 12, they led the Phillies by 7 games, and now go down in baseball history suffering the biggest regular season collapse since divisional playoffs began in 1969.

At least my Angels and Cubs are still in the playoffs, and I hope both go very far. I have a little more faith in the Angels doing so than I do the Cubs, who don't have a lot of solid pitching beyond Carlos Zambrano, who himself is vey erratic. The Angels face the Red Sox in the ALDS, which should be a very good matchup. The Angels lost to the Red Sox in the 2005 ALDS so they'll be seeking some revenge upon Boston.

A sad sad sad day for the Mets. The fallout will be very interesting.

Dodger Stadium. Where else can you see more painted-on eyebrows than the circus?

Dodger Stadium. The only place where in your very row, you'll find more guys named Carlos than in the Mets lineup.

Dodger Stadium. Where the fans have less class than high school dropouts.

Dodger Stadium. The place where when they win a game, they celebrate like they won a playoff series or something. Maybe Mexico won a soccer game. It's VERY hard to tell.

Except that hasn't happened in 19 years, and won't likely be happening again anytime soon.

But lets focus on Game 1 of the Mets-Dodgers series, their first meeting since the SWEEEEEP of Los(er) Dodgers in the 2006 NLDS.

The Mets got off to a good start, scoring 2 runs off a somewhat shaky Randy Wolf and a shakier Russell Martin, who committed a throwing error and passed ball in the 1st inning to help contribute to the Mets scoring 2 runs. It was almost as if the Bad News Bears had replaced the Bitches in Blue.

But that was all the Mets could do until the 4th inning, when they tacked on one more run to make the score 3-0. But Randy Wolf had settled down by this point, and Orlando Hernandez, brilliant in his last 3 starts with a 0.82 ERA over that span and pitched solid for 3 innings tonight, started to look bad. His velocity was down, the Dodgers were able to read his pitches, and they were able to put together 3 runs in the bottom of the 4th to tie it up.

It was very clear by the 5th inning that El Douche was done, but Willie let him pitch the 6th, perhaps a bad decision. Although the Mets' long relievers (Sele, Schoeneweis, Mota) have been quite bad lately, it's not like the options were all that great. Ironically, Schoeneweis and Mota DID pitch afterwards, and did their jobs without allowing the Dodgers to blow the game wide open.

The bottom 6 was a combination of poor pitching, and poor defense. Carlos Beltran nor Carlos Gomez were able to track down a James Loney double into deep left-centerfield. Gomez crashed into the wall, and Beltran couldn't pick up the ball, which allowed Loney to get to third on the error.

Dodgers third-baseman Tony Abreu tried a suicide squeeze play bunt, which resulted in Lo Duca tagging out Loney before he got to the plate, but then as Pauly tried to throw Abreu out at first, the ball sailed into rightfield, and Abreu ran all the way to 3rd on the error. Abreu later scored on a Wilson Betemit pinch-hit, and the Dodgers expanded the lead to 5-3.

The Mets couldn't do anything against the very solid Dodgers bullpen. Chad Billingsley retired them in the 7th, Jonathan Broxton blew away the Mets in the 8th, and closer Takashi Saito shut the Mets down in the 9th. I heard a stat after the game on the radio that when the Dodgers lead after 6 innings, their record is something like 26-1. Now that's a bullpen.

Tomorrow's matchup of John Maine vs Hong-Chih Kuo looks to be a little better off for the Mets, as Kuo is quite bad. Then again, in 5 starts last season, his lone win was a brilliantly pitched game against the Mets at Shea in which the Dodgers won 5-0. His opponent that game? John Maine.

What is quite troublesome is that the team is now 2-8 in June, the team ERA has ballooned to 5.10, Moises Alou isn't coming back anytime soon, Endy Chavez is out for a month, and Scott Schoeneweis is absolutely terrible. At this time a year ago, the Mets were on a tear, having a fantastic June. They took 2 of 3 from Los Angeles, swept 4 against the DBacks and swept 3 against the Phillies. By the end of the month, had built a 10.5-game lead up on the Atlanta Braves and had locked up the NL East by July 1.

As of June 11, 2007, the Mets have a scant 2-game lead on the Atlanta Braves, and the team is in a serious downward spiral that doesn't seem to be showing any signs of a turnaround.

The thing is, it WILL turnaround. This is mostly the same team they had in 2006 (except for Alou), and a worse bullpen. (They didn't sign Darren Oliver, but took Scott Schoeneweis? Ugh!)

One would think that since the team has played so well on the road over the first two months, that the games against Detroit, Los Angeles and the Skankees would do them some good. So far, 1-3.

Can the team rebound and have a winning record this month, if not the road trip? We'll soon see.