Misery Loves Company: Two Guys Watch Baseball

Game 20 - Mets
L.A. Guns*

Mets 9, Dodgers 5
Record: 8-12

The New York Mets hit three home runs in a pitcher's park, rap out 13 hits, score nine earned runs against a (well, formerly) great pitching squad, and the bullpen doesn't -- quite -- blow it. I'm sorry, but I'm not biting on this again. I know the real Mets team, and there will need to be much more of this before I gotta believe.

Mike Piazza belted a homer to left in the sixth to finally tie Pudge Fisk's (such eerie symmetry on this site) mark for HR's by a catcher. Nice to do it in Chavez Ravine, where he jacked so many in Dodger Blue . . . looking much cheesier, but somehow much cooler. [Mike Piazza pulled off Cool Cheez so well, they should have named a Dorito or salad dressing flavor after him.] After he hits another dinger, it'll be interesting to see how many more times he's penciled in at the 2-spot instead of the increasingly more appropriate 3-spot in the field. When your catcher would be better off at first base and your first baseman is a natural catcher, you might not be operating at your fullest potential, right?

In the new era of indifferent cynicism -- I know, how indifferent can a guy be when he recaps 162 games? -- wins are inconsequential but still reasons to smile, a wildflower on the side of a congested, filthy, pollutant-run-off highway of a baseball season. Ooh, pretty.

*Today's segment was originally titled "Cue the Randy Newman," but editors feared my diminutive counterpart might take offense, believing it to be a "Short People" reference instead of "I Love L.A."