Zzzzzzz

You ever talk to a less cultured sports fan and have him or her tell you that baseball is boring?  "Durr....NFL...durrr," is generally the response you get from the slack-jawed idiot staring back at you.  Well hopefully no one was trying to bring a new fan into the light yesterday afternoon when the potentially spectacular matchup between Johan Santana and Stephen Strasburg turned into a snooze fest.  I became so bored listening to the game at work I found myself caring about the New Orleans Saints coaching situation!  The game featured a combined 14 walks and 25 strikeouts and saw the Nationals score three of their four runs without ever putting the ball in play.  Johan got the ball rolling (literally) by throwing a wild pitch to score the first run.  Bases loaded walks in the 7th and 9th innings surrounded a RBI ground out in the 8th wrapping up a day that saw exactly zero run-scoring hits.

Player of the game: I am tempted to give it to Johan Santana despite allowing 13 base runners in 5 innings, but I will instead give the nod to Jon Rauch who seemingly miraculously managed to face two batters without walking either of him.  Yes, that does make him the only pitcher of the six (!) who got in the game for the Mets to not issue at least one base on balls.

Key moment: The Mets got runners on second and third with one out in the bottom of the first inning only to leave them stranded.  It was the last time a Mets base runner got to chat with Timmy Teufel at the third base bag.

Silver lining: It was the second start for Johan that featured him leaving the game without grabbing his left shoulder in agony, likely causing sports books across the globe to lose millions.

Inevitable downside: Despite showing signs of early season improvement behind the plate, Josh Thole waved at a Johan Santana wild pitch and was later charged with a passed ball leading to speculation that his defensive deficiencies are not yet a thing of the past.

Next up: The Mets have an off day on Thursday before heading to Philly Friday night to likely get swept by the Phils.

It was fun while it lasted

The dream of the undefeated season came crashing to earth last night at the hands of the mighty Washington Nationals.  Perhaps it was too much to expect the Mets to continue their early season dominance, especially against a team picked by most pundits to finish fourth in the National League East.  The real story of the game was the who's who of Mets playing the field, as in "The Mets have who playing where?"  I played the fun game of "name three Mets in the starting lineup tonight" in the locker room after a hockey game last night.  Between five people and eight guesses, they got three players.  The actual starting lineup is below:

     SS Ruben Tejada
     3B Ronnie Cedeno
     2B Daniel Murphy
     LF Jason Bay (no, really!)
     RF Lucas Duda (DOOOOOOD!!!)
     1B Justin Turner
     CF Scott Hairston
     C Mike Nickeas
     P Dillon Gee

When your cleanup hitter has been compared (well, by me) to an end-of-his-career Luis Castillo, you are probably in for a long night.  Predictably the make-shift lineup made Nationals starter Ross Detwiler look like an in-his-prime Johan Santana.  Meanwhile Dillon Gee and the Mets bullpen were undone by a solid combination of poor pitching and terrible defense.

Player of the game: Ronnie Cedeno who has a career .286 on base percentage (note: really, really bad) had a 3-for-4 day at the plate filling in for the injured David Wright.

Key moment: Danny Murphy booted a sure double play ball with one out in the top of the 6th leading to two additional runs for the Nationals.

Silver lining: After a rough first inning Gee actually looked pretty competent until he ran out of gas in the 6th.

Inevitable downside: News came during the game that x-rays showed a fracture in David Wright's jammed pinkie which will keep the slugger out of the lineup until he can hold a bat again.  Given the historic troubles of the Mets' training staff in seasons past, expect a botched amputation leading to the accidental death of the face of the franchise in the coming weeks.  On the bright side, they will probably give him some great tits for the funeral.

Next up: An intriguing afternoon match-up of once and future aces headlines the slate of games today as Johan Santana toes the mound for his second start against flame-thrower Stephen Strasburg.