A Day for the Downtrodden

It was a day for the downtrodden. It started in the morning when a tough young woman named Gisela Dulko took the measure of Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon. Then in the afternoon, the incredible U.S.A. soccer team beat the best soccer team in the world in the Confederations Cup. It continued into the evening when the under-manned Mets just trounced the Cardinals and the Yanks won with the help of an unlikely home run from catcher Francisco Cervelli.

It’s hard to not just enjoy the heck out of seeing great performances in very unlikely places. It gives us all hope. If these yahoos on TV can do it, then we can do it too, whatever our particular “it” may be. Or, if you’re one of those superstars who really doesn’t need any more hope, well, Mazeltof.

Anyhow, the Mets were great tonight. After seeing them do absolutely NOTHING the night before, how great was it to watch a very unlikely Fernando Nieve pitch the Mets to within a game and a half of the Phillies, this despite playing without Carlos Beltran, after having already lost Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, J.J. Putz, John Maine, Oliver Perez and some others too.

Just winning by 11-0 is nice. And winning with three Fernando’s has got to be pretty special too. If there was anything I didn’t like, at first anyway, it was Ryan Church and Brian Schneider, who I’ve just killed in this column every time I’ve had the chance, who did the most damage at the plate, just socking the ball all over the place.

It makes you think maybe the Mets really can withstand all these hurts and ow-ies. Just replace Delgado with Murphy, Tatis and now Evans. Just spell Jose Reyes with Alex Cora. Just put Reed in center to try to replace Carlos. Put Nieve on the mound for Maine (or Perez, take your pick). Try a few relievers out to see who wants Putz’s set-up job.

If Church and Schneider can continue playing well, something they’ve never been able to sustain over any period of time before, and if so many others chip in in a little, players like Omir Santos and yes, even Gary Sheffield. And tonight it was Nick Evans, bringing back that hot 2008 duo of Murphy and Evans. Evans was great tonight, and maybe his return will give Murphy a little shot in the arm, not that he’s needed one lately.

It really does take a total team effort when you’ve lost so many players. And, incredibly enough, the Mets are getting it, over and over. Even when they’ve lost, they’ve played pretty well; they just haven’t hit. Another thing that made tonight’s win so good was that they managed to hit a sinkerball pitcher after having been totally shut down the night before by a sinkerballer…..in the most boring exhibition of baseball I’d seen in a long time.

So Mets fans can be happy for another day or two. It really doesn’t make much sense to look too far ahead. Just trot out the uninjured and see what happens. And, so far, it’s working nice and easy, a tribute really to the composition of the original team. The backups almost everywhere are pretty good, it would seem. They can play baseball, all of them.

And let’s say this about Joba. He was great tonight. Well, maybe not great, but pretty good for sure. He didn’t face many batters, started the game well and actually got better as he went along, striking out 4 batters in the 4th and 5th innings, and he pitched well into the 7th inning.

That the catcher was Cervelli was especially sweet, after having to witness the embarrassing Posada singlehandedly destroy Joba’s confidence last time out. His insistence on controlling the game seems to be tiring out a lot of Yankee pitchers. After seeing that throw he made from his knees to second base the other night, I’d just sit him down for a long while.

Oh, and Arod came through with a hit in a big situation. That’s been missing, and while I can’t really root for him, maybe it’ll quiet the detractors for a while. The team really hasn’t been hitting though, and they’re now 5 games out, tied with the Blue Jays for 2nd. Boston keeps rolling so the Yanks will have to roll a little too. Maybe they can do that if Arod chips in, if not as the Arod of old, just as a major-league third baseman, somebody who can produce home runs and rbi’s.

Maybe the most heartening victory of the day was the incredible U.S. victory over Spain in the semifinal round of the Confederations Cup. The U.S. goalie, Tim Howard, stopped shot after shot and Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey scored to keep the heat on a team that had won 35 matches in a row. But everybody dressed in white today looked pretty good to me, and to Spain too. Not too shabby! It’s comparable to the U.S.A. hockey team victory over the Russians so many years ago. It was great to see Landon Donovan have a good day too, not to mention the coach Bob Bradley.

On the beautiful lush green that is Wimbledon, everybody expected Maria Sharapova to beat Gisela Dulko, especially after she came back in the second set to win about 5 or 6 games in a row. It certainly appeared that Ms. Dulko was quitting, but then she came back and it was the much taller Sharapova who was wilting a bit at the end.

Of course, Sharapova has been having her share of hard luck with injuries lately too, so it was good to just see her on the court again. If she can stay healthy for a stretch, I think we’ll be hearing from Sharapova again before the 2009 tennis year runs out.

So in baseball, soccer and tennis, it was truly a day for the downtrodden. We should have more of those.