All About Expectations

What a gigantic lull in the sports schedule! It’s almost unprecedented. No baseball, no football since Monday, basketball a distant event on the horizon. If you’re not a soccer enthusiast or fanatic enough to enjoy “NFL Replay” past games, you could go absolutely bonkers.

Or maybe you’re one of those held spellbound by the side stories, Rush Limbaugh assigned to NFL limbo and Jon Gruden being considered for a couple of NFL head coaching spots. And then, of course, there’re all the side stories associated with the MLB Playoffs, the cold weather, the rain, the pitching assignments, and Mariano, Mariano, Mariano….makes a Mets fan sick!

Wasn’t it Mariano who blew the series with Boston back in 2004, a date that marked the resurgence of the Red Sox? He’s not infallible, Yankee fans. And maybe we’ll find out in this Angels series. We might find out a couple of other things too, like how stupid it was to get rid of Bobby Abreu. (A Mets fan can only hope).

The prospect of the first Yankee game Friday night seems to be casting a large shadow over the Phils-Dodgers series in the National League. There the story is, as you might expect, mostly about Manny Ramirez and Joe Torre, although you could make a case for the failures of Brad Lidge. The media loves failure, especially after a skein of successes.

So there’s really nothing happening but expectations. I had expected the Dodgers to be gone already, blown away by the Cards pitchers, Wainwright and Carpenter. That didn’t happen. Then the Phils dispatched the Rockies pretty handily, easier than I had expected given the Rockies newfound prowess in the starting pitching and relief categories.

It looked bad for the Phils in Colorado in that top of the ninth inning. Huston Street was just rolling along, striking out one batter and then getting a fielders choice grounder after a Jimmy Rollins infield base hit. He and the Rockies then just needed one more out to send the series back to Philadelphia.

Street just needed to deal with Chase Utley. Yeah, it was righty vs. lefty but still….and my recollection is that the count went to 3-2, but, in any event, Street walked Utley and then you knew he had to face big Ryan Howard, another lefty, and you started to feel a little nervous, and then, before you knew it, Howard put a big swing on a ball left out over the plate and the game was tied.

And then, just to put a punctuation point on the proceedings, Jayson Werth knocked in the winning run. Those Phillies were still the reigning World Champions, not the Yankees, not the Dodgers, but those tough guys from Philadelphia, and there were no tougher Philly batters than the ones Street faced in that fateful 9th inning.

But you don’t hear much about the Phillies. Expectations again. I guess the thinking goes, “well, the Yanks picked up Teixeira and Sabathia and Burnett and they still had Arod and Jeter and Damon and Posada and yada yada.yanka”. And for the Dodgers, it would be “their young guys like Kemp and Ethier and Loney have all picked it up in Manny’s absence and they’ve got all that relief pitching.”

Yeah, I guess so, but those Phillies sure looked pretty tough to me in that ninth inning in Denver. So I’ve changed my expectations. Until somebody knocks them out, my money (if I had any money) would be on the defending champions.

Yankee fans are probably saying that their team did the same thing against the Twins. Yeah, they did, and it was very impressive, Arod tying it up and Teixeira delivering the clincher. And they’d be right, but…..

Well, I know if I were a Yankee fan, I’d be getting just a little bit nervous about all this conjecture about the starting rotation for the next series. I mean, can they make it any more obvious that they only trust three of their starters? I guess that means they may have only three playoff-ready starters.

That’s Sabathia, Burnett and Pettite, of course. With Joba now a reliever, that leaves them with Chad Gaudin as the fourth starter. He’s been really pretty good this year too, with a respectable ERA and strong overall outings. But that brain trust is working overtime trying to figure out what the rain will do.

The rain may push back the opener but that will probably be the extent of it. The Yanks will still have to deal with using Sabathia on three days rest. Only the most optimistic Yankee forecast could expect better. You’re still left with facts. The Yanks only have three starters they trust, which means they only have three starters.

Hmm. The Angels have at least four. I say at least four, because a fella named Ervin Santana is listed at five, and he’s probably better than Chad Gaudin. The others are very respectable, John Lackey, Jered Weaver, Joe Saunders and Scott Kazmir. And those last two are lefties, just to change things up a little. Oh, and Brian Fuentes, their closer, is a lefty too.

Even knowing that the Yanks have right-handed batters, and guys who can be turned around, like Teixeira and Posada, it will still be helpful to throw a different look at your opponent. And Posada may not be catching all the time either. That’s another vaguely troubling thing for a Yankee fan, I would imagine. (even though I can’t really imagine the sheer horror of being one myself).

Another net difference from last year to this year is in the Yankee right field. And it’s a net loss, from Bobby Abreu to Nick Swisher. Bobby was one of those perennial .300 hitters with a hundred each year in both runs and ribbies. One thing he didn’t do in the Bronx was run into the outfield wall. Nick loves doing that, but that’s his only baseball advantage over Abreu.

You can expect a hell of a series, folks.

A Wonderful Day

Camden Yards! What a ballpark! Lots of history, even more atmosphere, and a tremendous ball game in the offing. At press time, it’s 4-2 Mets against the Orioles and Pelfrey’s just starting to get into trouble in the sixth, this after striking out Brian Roberts with the bases loaded to end the fifth. But Pelfrey induces the easy double play, Castillo to Cora to Murphy. Not exactly Tinker to Evers to Chance.

It’s a little difficult to get into this inter-league play, especially when it produces matchups like this one. Not that there’s anything wrong with the Orioles, but the names in the lineup don’t exactly roll off your tongue. (And here comes Manuel to get Pelfrey outta there).

Up north a hundred miles or so at the new Yankee Stadium, inter-league play gives us the scary-bad Washington Nationals versus the Yanks. Incredibly enough, halfway through the game, the Nats have a 3-2 lead off an Anderson Hernandez home run of the three-run variety. Mets fans will recall the light-hitting Hernandez and continue to wonder at the ease of stroking the dingers at the Yanks new digs.

So it’s a good night. The temperature’s around 60, but it feels like warmer than that, perfect baseball weather for a night game. It’s now 8:58 PM and it seems as if the sun just went down, slowly closing the shutters on what has been a beautiful day, especially for a guy who’s not in love with hot weather.

Back to the Mets game and the Birds are taking their starter out too. So rather than watch still another ad, I see it’s the 7th and C.C. is still mowing them down. Big man, Sabathia, especially on the close-ups. Big glove, big body, big stretch, and a big heart too judging from his performances over the years.

But as I can’t bring myself to watch the rest of the 7th-inning ceremonies, it’s back to the Metsies, who have now chased the horrible O’s reliever, the lefty who faced two lefties and put both of them on-base. So things look good in Mudville. It’s bases-loaded for Beltran against new reliever Danys Baez. But Beltran grounds into a force at home. Uh-oh, maybe another wasted opportunity in the offing. Maybe Wright can save the day…maybe not. Wright has now fouled a few into the dirt before popping one up.

But the Mets catch a Luis Castillo moment that works against the other side as the Orioles muff the pop-up. So it’s now 6-2 and that’ll probably be the end of things with Church up, and sure as the sun will shine tomorrow, Church grounds out to third.

Manuel is fielding my worst nightmare of a lineup tonight, with Church and Schneider both in the game at the expense of Tatis and Santos. What a bad trade-off that is, even if Church did manage an RBI earlier. Even Church can get a hit once in a while.

Back to the Yankees, they’re now up by a run and Robinson Cano, who’s 4-4 tonight, just drove in Teixeira with the go-ahead run. What a find Teixeira has been! Everybody talks about the return of Arod and with good reason. Teixeira’s been on fire ever since, and he now leads the American League in homers.

Back to the Mets and my other doghouse guy is up there, Schneider. Omigosh! He strokes a double to go with a single and a walk. Holy cow, I might have to revise my opinion a little. Santos can’t play every day, I guess.

It’s the 8th now at the Yankees bandbox of a field and Sabathia’s now outta there. Kaye has just asked whether the bullpen can save the game, and it wasn’t a rhetorical question, not in this context. The Yanks bullpen has really been awful, it’s too nice of a night to say they’ve stunk, so I’ll anxiously await the result. Hopefully, they’ll throw Bruney in there and, wonder of wonders, they do.

Whew! A 96 mph fastball gets by Zimmerman for strike two. But another fireball gets fouled into the seats, Zimmerman’s catching up. Then one out of the strikezone and then a ground ball that Cano races down in the hole. I must say Cano has been excellent tonight too. I haven’t really been in his corner all year but he’s making me sorry.

If there’s a theme to the night, it may be that I’ve been wrong about all these guys, Church, Schneider, Cano…..I hope it’s true. If so, the Mets can maybe climb back in the race, if not for the NL East crown, maybe the wildcard, as the SF Giants now lead four or five teams in the hunt for that fourth playoff spot.

As for Cano, the Yanks look strong enough to get some playoff spot, with or without Cano. My favorite Yankee’s up at the plate now, but he just took strike two on a pitch that was well outside the strike zone. So things don’t look good for the Swish.

Swisher just advanced Gardner to third. Maybe Melky will have some luck and get C.C. that insurance run. Of course, going into the 9th now, Mariano Rivera may not need it.

Back to the Mets again and, lo and behold, it’s Church up yet again with runners on first and third. But he fends off a tough outside pitch by flying out weakly to left. Hmm, maybe I’m not that wrong about him. He’s really been pitiful all year at the plate and shows very little real sign of coming out of it.

Bobby Parnell’s in there now for the Mets in the ninth. And Mora’s up, one of the more recognizable Birds. He strokes one to right that Church lets bounce in front of him. Now another base hit makes it two on with nobody out. Here comes K-Rod in what nas now become a save situation.

Put both games in the books. K-Rod comes through. It is a wonderful day.