Thursday, August 21, 2008

Good Morning America

Games 119 through 127 - Mets

Mets 4, Nationals 3
Mets 12, Nationals 0
Mets 9, Nationals 3
Mets 2, Pirates 1
Mets 7, Pirates 4
Mets 4, Pirates 0
Pirates 5, Mets 2
Mets 7, Braves 3
Mets 6, Braves 3
Record: 70-57

[stretch, yawn, shake out cobwebs]

Good morning, guys!

For the New York Metropolitans, these are the salad days, as they say. A stretch that's rife with contests against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Washington Nationals, and, dare I say it, the 56-71 Atlanta Braves, is something of a briar patch for just about any ballclub of merit. That I can actually include the Braves in that trio is almost more pleasing than typing out the recent battery of Mets victories above. So gratifying.

Pitching and defense, quip the sages. Pelf acquitted himself nicely in the few jams he made for himself, while Jair "You don't pronounce it, son, you eat it" Jurrjens did not. Jurrjens let Daniel Murphy (the white-hot Mets hitter, not the guitarist for Soul Asylum) get the better of him for a couple in the first, and Chipshot left one a few club lengths short of first base on the next play, scoring two more. Another (smirk, chuckle) error and a (chortle, snicker) Mike Pelfrey RBI single later, and it's 5-0, Mets. Pitching and defense.

Heretofore unknowns continue to give the Mets the lift they were sorely missing in the spring. Guys like Murph, "Tater" Tatis, "The Braves" Argenis Reyes, and Nick "Error 505 Name Joke Not Currently Available" Evans have overachieved to a high degree -- and have made it fun for us. With the most popular descriptor for the Mets' farm system being "depleted" (among the experts; the most popular descriptor among folks in the Township is "uber-sucky"), the rise of the non-marquee players to better than serviceable status has been a pleasant surprise.

I've been sleepwalking through this season a bit. You're too kind, but I know you've noticed. I have actually watched most of the Mets' games, and I've had close to my usual amount of inane and spot-off comments on the club... I just haven't actually put fingertips to keys to share them. I'll attempt to rectify that slump in the coming weeks. Bear with me, I'm rusty. I'm mildly uninteresting today, but by mid-September, when it's really getting tense, that's when I'll be really damn uninteresting. Buckle up.

3 comments:

Nick said...

The prodigal son returns!

rob said...

'the braves' argenis reyes may require a pronunciation guide.

Whitney said...

A fair point. One of the first times I heard his name a while back, the announcer said, "The Mets' Argenis Reyes..." and I thought, "Not cool." Turned out he just pronounces it like that, and the guy wasn't saying the Mets are heinous.