Misery Loves Company: Two Guys Watch Baseball

Games 156-157 - Mets. Who are those guys?

Mets 1, Pirates 0
Mets 5, Pirates 3
Record: 65-92

Maybe if the Mets had a rotation of all Al Leiters (15-9) and Steve Trachsels (16-10), they might have had some hope. Maybe in this series the Mets just want to leave the fans with a slightly lessened sour taste. Maybe this is a split-second flash of what might be next year. Maybe the Pirates just suck, maybe even as bad as the Mets do. Yep, that's probably it.

In consequential equivalent of a spring training game-- no, make that an Old-Timers game, the Mets have given me a little dollop of the enjoyment that I have seen all too rarely this season, especially this month. Al Leiter throws a complete game shutout and Steve Trachsel wins his career-high sixteenth. (Had it not been for Armando & the TNT bullpen early in the season and Trachsel might have aspired to greater numerical peaks.)

The Mets finish up against the Pirates tonight, then head to Miami for three against the wild card-leading Marlins. Despite the wins against the Bucs, hear me now and believe me later: The Marlins will coast into the playoffs on the New York Mets. I knew we'd screw the Phillies somehow, it just wasn't via beating them in baseball games.