The Mets are having a twenty year anniversary of the 1986 Championship today with many of the originals coming for the ceremony -- Keith H. and Ron Darling are on hand already since they provide game commentary. The team is comfortably ahead after a great road trip in early June combined with Braves/Phillies collapses, and a sweep of the Braves serving as the final nail in the coffin. Thus, they can bear various injuries, including a season ending one to their eighth inning guy (taxi accident) as well as more time off for Pedro and Cliff Floyd. The latest is Valentin, the comeback kid who settled in nicely at second base.
The Sanchez season ending injury lead to the loss of Xavier Nady, a likeable decent outfielder that suddenly is so popular now that he is gone, and the return of Roberto Hernadez. RH is getting up in age, but had a good year last season. The Mets would have taken him back, but the Pirates offered him more time. It is unclear how much he has left, but before the injury, many noted it would be nice to get him back as an additional arm in the pen. Some even suggested the Yanks could have used him. Suddenly, some are so upset at the trade, perhaps because the Yanks got Abreu and Lidle from the Phillies for nearly nothing ... except for that major salary dump. People sort of ignore that part.
The over ten game lead allowed the Mets to accept only winning one out of four vs. the Phillies, which amounts to but two games off a fifteen game lead (back up to fourteen after last night's win). The Yanks, though their recent acquisitions and steady play helped a lot, had less breathing room. Coming into the Boston series -- a five game affair with a double header mixed in -- they only had a game and a half lead. This is fairly predictable in recent years -- the Red Sox is close on the heels of the Yanks etc., a some big series is a deciding factor. Last year, it really went down to the wire.
Who knows about this year, but the last three games were all so predictable. The Yanks won all three, in decisive fashion, the seven run seventh last night (longest ninth inning game in MLB history -- nearly five hours ... breaking the AL record, which the Yanks made vs. the Orioles a few years back) basically clinching it. The team was down 10-7 at the time vs. a tough reliever. Not last night. And, today, Josh Beckett did not quite look like the ace that did the Yanks in during the 2003 World Series. Still, come to think of it, Andy Pettitte is having a tough time of it in Houston these days too. Thus, with two games left in the much hyped series, the Yanks lead now by four and a half games.
With Kansas City making things tough (swept Oakland yesterday, gave the Red Sox fits), the Red Sox will have a tough time regaining those games -- easy wins are harder to find in the AL these days. And, the Sox pitching is questionable, especially when one of their top three (if three are consistently good) play like they did today. The pen is a bit of a mess, the extended use this weekend plus the lack of off days not helping either. Finally, they did not pick up a vital leftie during the trading heyday of the last few weeks, not really doing anything of note even as lesser teams at least made a show of improving themselves.
It simply is hard to respect this team ... the dog that had its day in 2004. It just has "second place" written all over itself, and with the tough AL Central this year, that might just not be enough this year. Anyway, so there was two long games yesterday. How about the double header vs. the Tigers in the late 1990s (yeah, makes me sound old when I go into these nostalgia moments) with the first game going seventeen innings? The Yanks lost, but Irabu (remember him?) pitched a clean second game for the split.
The Red Sox, after losing 12-4 seemed to be on the path to do something similar, but when your starter tosses about 100 pitches to get eleven outs, things don't bode well. Get some sleep guys ... the next game isn't to tomorrow night. Oh, try to give up less than double digit walks. That sort of hurts your chances.
Update: Toss in two pre-season football games, NY/NJ is seven for seven [three Yanks, two Mets, Jets/Giants] so far this weekend. The second Mets game was started by a Pedro fill-in, who pitched pretty well until leg cramps in the sixth. RH came in and gave up his two inherited runners plus one of his own, making it 4-0. He did manage to get his one out and finish the inning. After finally getting a hit off the Rockies' starter, the Mets went wild in their half of the sixth with help from misplays and walks.
But, per a rule I never heard of before, the "pitcher of record" when the Mets went ahead did so badly that they gave the win to Heilman for pitching the seventh and eighth. I heard of something similar when determining who gets the win after a starter doesn't go five (though if he pitches well, perhaps because he really is a reliever who only could go three or four innnings, why not give him the win over some reliever who pitched an inning or two ... I guess technically a starter might get the win in such a situation). Still, I never saw it applied in this way.
Fair though.