Corey Hart

Game 108 - Mets

Mets 12, Brewers 4
Record: 61-47

Man, am I glad Corey Hart wasn't the story yesterday. His two-homer, three-hit day carried his club . . . to a 12-4 drubbing. All hail the Metbats.

The Mets' hitting was something of an evolution this series, a worthless lump of clay in Game 1 and a masterpiece by the time Game 3 concluded. Of course, the brakes-cut Dodge charger careening downhill into the crevasse that is the Milwaukee Brewers ballclub helped things a bit. That's an overstatement, but the Crew looked to be righting the ship after Tuesday night -- then after miscues galore, pitchers putting them on tees, and dugout in-fighting yesterday afternoon (in the face of suddenly sharing first place with the Cubs), it's bad times in Beertown.

Meanwhile, there was much rejoicing in Metville. Damion Easley's inside-the-park ridiculousness was a pivotal game-turner . . . that became a mere novelty once the Brewcart wheels came detached. Dee-Dub crushed the ball at every turn, Alou had some key knocks, and the Mets notched 18 hits. Everyone was hitting . . . except my new favorite punching bag, Luis Castillo. 0-for-6, with several pop-ups in key moments when the game was still close.

Luis Luis tell me now
Is there something I should know
Is there something I should say
To try to make you come to play

As important as any aspect of this game was that out-of-nowhere starter Brian Lawrence kept the Brewers in check. 3 ER through 5 IP -- we will so take that. Scott Schoenweis almost got through the 6th (listen to the beginning of "Sweet Home Alabama" for what you'll never hear during one of his outings), but the suddenly-Rolaids Jorge Sosa put his finger in the dike (keep it clean, TJ) and the slim lead was preserved.

Then all heck (it's the midwest) broke loose in Barleyville, with a combo of pitching and fielding woes raining down on the Brewers. J.J. Hardy appeared to have applied neatsfoot oil to his hand instead of his glove, and even Sosa himself racked a double. By the time Johnny Estrada went after Ned Yost, apparently for some misguided "CHiPs" reference, it was a laugher.

Well, not for the Brewers announcers. Uh, Extra Innings programmers -- any chance we get to hear the soothing sounds of Gary, Keith, & Ron any time soon? Bastards.

And so it went -- Hart jacked a blast off Aaron Sele in the ninth because he never surrenders, but the Mets cruised. Off to Chi-town, where it's been all Cubbies all the time for a month. "Stay hot" is one of the dweebier exhortations to gain popularity, a Michael Kay blurt if there ever was one, but alas, it mirrors my sentiments now. We'll say "Remain calefactory" and ratchet up the SAT-word quotient a touch. Whatever . . . keep hitting like that against Carlos Zambrano today and it'll be a breeze in the Windy City.