Kaz / Effect

Game 40 - Mets

Mets 2, Reds 1
Record: 21-19

Okay, so I was wrong. Or, as Social Distortion sings it, "I was wrooooooooooooong." It wasn't Zambrano last night, as ESPN.com misinformed me. (But why I looked there for up-to-date info is beyond me; I'm starting to trust them with all the confidence I have in the weather people. And not to get on too tangential a tangent here, but what is it with the meteorologists these days? Doesn't it seem like they get worse, not better, at predicting the weather with every passing year? Seriously, as technology has improved, we still have no better a grasp on the five-day forecast than did the seers, gypsies, and rain dancers of the past? How is it in 2005 we can take pictures of distant planets, we can transfer text, photos, and sound in real time to any corner of the globe, and we can invent incredible rocket shooters that fire T-shirts into the upper deck of baseball games, but nobody can tell me with any degree of accuracy whether it's going to rain two days from now? How is that?)

It was Kaz Ishii starting, and he was brilliant, conceding just one run on three hits and a pair of walks through six. Four relievers came to Ishii's defense, and did surprisingly well at it. Mike DeJean actually took the win, Señor Hernandez and Mister Koo each recorded the forgotten stat of "hold," and B-Loop notched another save, retiring the last two batsmen after Mistake Koo, in a rare and ill-advised save opportunity, let two of the three batters he faced reach base. Seriously, Willie, "Mister" Koo? Dae-Sung Koo? "Rock & Roll Hoochie" Koo? In a save situation? No thank you. Despite Hernandez's recent pitching interpretation of a Jackson Pollock painting over the weekend, I'd rather see him in a game's final precious moments than Koo. Based on recent efforts, I'd even rather see Mike D. with his bad self running things in a save situation.

On the other side of the Kaz-a strip, Kaz Matsui continued to fight through a nightly chorus of boos and a depressing stat sheet, providing the only offensive spark of the night for the Mets, thanks to the Metly resurrection of Reds pitcher Ramon "NL = New Life" Ortiz. Ortiz looked as dominant as he was supposed to be in Anaheim for many years -- and wasn't, but the artist formerly known as Doormatsui touched him in the bad way for a two-run dinger that provided the difference. Mike Ness roars again on behalf of the Shea faithful, "I was wrooooooooooong . . . "

The Mets have a chance to squash the meager Reds in a sweep with a win today. It's Tom Glavine vs. Eric Milton in a showdown of "wow, this would've been a better match-up more than a few years back." The jokers from Queens have shown signs of prowess from time to time this season, but they seem to get caught up with too many of those winnable losses; may they break free of that entanglement today.