Misery Loves Company: Two Guys Watch Baseball

Game 15 - Mets

Pirates 6, Mets 3
Record: 5-10

Everything right is wrong again, sang They Might Be Giants a long, long time ago. That's the feeling after re-reading my last post while reflecting on this latest game. In truth, there were some positives: Mike Piazza collected his first RBI of the season (his serving a 4-game suspension does not explain away his first RBI coming in Game 15!) with a homer to left; Big Mo hit his 2nd dinger; and the Pirates were the ones who were sloppy defensively, committing three errors to the Mets' none. But for each of the positives there was a corresponding negative: Piazza helped the Bucs manufacture a run by once again proving unable to prevent the stolen base; Vaughn's homer was garbage-time, down four in the bottom of the ninth; and the Mets only turned one of those three errors into a run . . . scoring when Piazza ground into a double play. Speaking of which, for all of the seemingly one-sided glovework, Pittsburgh turned three double plays while the Mets turned zero. And really, the most significant defensive gaffe of the night occurred when defensive replacement Shinjo took a bad angle at a deep fly ball in the bottom of the 8th. (A better play would have ended the inning and gone to the 9th with the Mets down one -- as it was, three runs scored. Not that Mo would have hit that tater off Bucs closer Mike Williams with the game on the line, but it would have been nice for the drama . . . )

How do you collect just 6 hits and 2 walks but leave 10 men on? How does a leadoff man have a .212 on-base percentage? How does a major league ballclub have a .212 batting average? How can you throw Daid Weathers out there every other night and expect his arm not to fall off? Can I write off my future psychiatry bills by simply sending the IRS this URL? Is it a bad sign when I used to flip over to the Tigers game to make myself feel better but now I get confused as to which game is which? These are the questions that keep my mind swimming, just 24 hours after the ship looked to be righted. Everything right is wrong again.