Nowhere Fast

"Is this some kind of bust?"

"Very impressive, yes."

Well, that was a letdown of extreme proportions. Everything fell into place for my co-blogger and me to watch this game, and everything fell apart in Boston. For all of the hubbub in the sporting world, not to mention Rob's living room, that wasn't a game I want to see any part of ever again. Pedro was tense, Lastings was lost, and once again the whole club looked like they'd been throwing back shots over on Landsdowne Street for a few hours before the game. Dammit, boys, that's my job.

As Rob mentioned, it wasn't very long into the night until discussions strayed away from the game being played at Fenway. As noted, at first it was Mets/Sox trivia, but quickly enough it was Rob pointing out that there are more teams left in the World Cup who speak Portuguese than there are who speak either English or Spanish. Then it was me drawing a parallel between ESPNews's grating anchor Kirk Gimenez and the SNL skit with Jimmy Smits and Bob Costas where everyone is over-accentuating their Spanglish. Later, we held an extended discussion with late arrival Buck on decades-old country music. Readers, who's your pick -- the Gatlin Brothers or the Statler Brothers?

Milledge cost his team yet again with some hideous glove work. The Monster seemed to be in his head the whole time, unnerving him to the point where Carlos Beltran had to save him later with a Kelly Leak play. The kid helped turn the game into a joke, so he'll just have to endure the wisecracks at his expense. And remember, he who laughs at Lastings, laughs best. On the plus side, I was disappointed that I didn't get to see him play when he was down here in Norfolk, but I may well have a second chance. Not that a couple of errors -- even ones of this magnitude -- automatically signify a demotion, but between the return of Cliff Floyd, Willie's penchant for enacting the steady payment of dues among youngsters, and an obvious margin for improvement, I can see it happening.

Meanwhile, David Wright and Jose Reyes have made the Boston folks wonder what all the fuss was about. Garbage time solo shots appear to be the best the Mets hitters can muster. Carlos Delgado seems to have crept out of his slump and into a pattern of whiffing in key spots and homering to lead off an inning after the fact. But the offense isn't even the problem right now. As my brother-in-law called to groan, "Now is when we formerly confident fans start to really worry about this pitching staff."

We just need to get through the weekend until the Mets can start preying upon the hapless clubs in the National League again, I guess. The problem is that I very much need a win tonight for my own reasons, and losing in the Bronx is irritating as hell for all of us. So sack up, lads, it's time to give Schilling a shelling and induce Big Pop-Up all night.