When the Mets Take First!

Every once in a while you’re sure a win is in the bag. When you’re a Mets fan, you can’t think that way. Just get a pitcher in there who looks as if he doesn’t want to be on the mound, as Jon Rauch looked yesterday, and all bets are off. Then again, with Wright on 3rd base and just 1 out, and knowing that all the batter has to do is make contact and the run will score, you feel confident again. But not when the batter is not that bright, or not that caring. His name of course is Hairston, a name of great renown in baseball circles, but we have the least of them in Scott. Hairston swung for the fences for strike two and just watched a fastball right down the middle for strike three. That at-bat, combined with his poor attention to baserunning, makes me want him off the roster. With so many eager young kids just itching to play in the bigs, why should the Mets care about a guy like Hairston? What’s he bring to the table? Can he swing a good bat once in a while? Yes. So do a lot of guys. Hairston can’t do anything else. And there are no shortage of relievers who can enter a game and give up three walks in a row as Rauch did. Was the umpire calling a narrow strike zone? Yes, undoubtedly. But most relievers would have figured that out after the first walk. In any event, it was a win that felt like a loss. I would hope to see no more games like that one. Francisco, the closer, was anything but last night, giving up the tying dinger to Carlos Gonzalez in the 10th before David Wright and Ike Davis bailed him out in the 11th. Wright was especially impressive by going first to third on Lucas Duda’s single up the middle before Ike Davis’s seeing-eye single through the left side. And, although Ramon Ramirez picked up the save, the likes of Marco Scutaro drove one to the wall before Hairston finally did something right by squeezing the ball into his glove for the last out. The Mets now take on Houston in Minute-Maid Park, finding themselves much in contention for the NL East lead. The Nationals looked awful out in San Francisco thus dropping into a tie for first with the Braves while the Mets are just a game back of the leaders. The Astros are one of several teams doing dreadfully, including the Marlins from the NL East. Since the Braves will be playing the Pirates and the Nats have to play a much tougher team in Arizona, either the Braves or Mets may find themselves leading the division by the end of the week. The fly in the Mets ointment can be the return of Andres Torres to centerfield. Nieuwenhuis was doing better than fine in center while Torres was hurt while taking a decidedly bad route to the ball and then having to turn on the speed to catch up to a ball that got by him. Meanwhile, Torres will bat seventh rather than first in the lineup, seemingly trashing the reason for his acquisition in the first place. Hopefully, the Torres addition will be a positive one but I wouldn’t bet on it. The more likely happenstance is that the speedy Nieuwenhuis will collide with Torres on at least one line drive in the gap, hurting either or both of them in the process. Meanwhile, the Carmelos will meet the Heat in Game 2 without any semblance of a point guard. The Carmelos will go down in four straight. Maybe Carmelo can find another team next year. I certainly hope so. Then I can become a fan again. Imagine a starting five of Lin, Shumpert, Fields, Chandler and Stoudemire. Imagine getting anything in return for the coach-killer. Try to imagine an offense running through a point guard and shots that go to the open man. Meanwhile, the NBA has become a joke, evidenced by Rondo in Boston pushing a referee and getting thrown out while in Memphis, the ridiculous Grizz gave up a 27-point lead to the visiting Clippers. How do you spell ignorance? I can only wish I had followed hockey all year. The Rangers and Devils are playing hard. Meanwhile, in the NFL Draft, my dreams came true. I had hoped for a running back for my Giants and they seem to have picked up a good one, a scatback too, one that can lend a little pizzazz to an offense that can seem very humdrum almost all the time. I can see the incumbent Bradshaw becoming the back everybody thought Brandon Jacobs would become, i.e. a straight-ahead runner, while David Wilson, the Virginia Tech scatback, gives the Giants a dimension the Giants haven’t had since Tiki. Hopefully, Brandon Jacobs will find a taker for his services. I understand the NJ State Troopers may be fielding a team. The G-Men also picked up a corner and a wideout, two positions a football team in today’s NFL can’t have enough of. The Jets disappointed me somewhat by not doing anything really stupid, at least nothing that hits you in the face. While their first pick was for a defensive end who only supposedly tries once in a great while, that lackadaisical attribute should let him fit in well with the rest of his teammates. Maybe he can get a locker next to Santonio Holmes. But nobody really knows how a draft will turn out. Some things will stand out though, such as Dallas moving up to grab a corner they desperately needed and the Eagles fortifying an already pretty strong defense. I’m pretty sure the G-Men will have their hands full next season. But enough about those secondary sports, let me get back to baseball and wonder when Cano will start hitting again and when Matt Kemp will stop. And when the Mets will take first.