Two and a half weeks away ...

I was on vacation. In America. I should have been getting a full diet of baseball and loads of Met games, but somehow I didn't see as much of the Mets this time as I usually do. And because the scores are everywhere I couldn't do as I do here and listen to the full broadcast the next morning in ignorance of the result. Too many family commitments on this trip to get my full allocation of Met games.

I did get to two games - Aug 7 against the Padres and Aug 19 against the Braves. Both exciting wins. I saw the ends of quite a few games, but missed too many innings during the Mets' good streak of 9 wins out of 10 games. (I also went to see the Pawtucket Red Sox, which was a great night out while visiting SE Massachusetts.)

I was listening to the game from Philly on Wednesday night and after Delgado hit the second home-run I thought to myself, "Is Delgado the Mets' MVP? Could he be the League MVP? Yes, if this keeps up." Funny to read that Keith H mentioned it during the broadcast and then it was all over the papers the next morning.

Talk about enjoyable? I listened to last night's Phillies and Cubs game on WPHT and the Phillies blew the game in the 8th. Again. Two tough losses in a row. This one really hurt because Hamels pitched a great game for 7 innings.

Well the buzz we got from Beltran's 13th inning 'heroics' on Wedensday lasted a long time, huh? I'm not in a good mood today.

I found out early yesterday that the Met game was on live here. Midweek, prime-time Met games on t.v. are not a daily occurrence here in W. Europe. Unfortunately, I couldn't watch the game live because the rest of the family wanted to watch soccer. {And, truth be told, I didn't want to miss either of the games either. Croatia vs Germany was great stuff and I enjoyed the 1-1 game between Austria & Poland.}

So I set the VCR. It was about 10:30 or so when I started watching. And it was enjoyable. No? I mean Santana was pitching the way we all expected him too. Even those of us who weren't keen on the deal (I think that's pretty much me on my own) expected him to be this good on a fairly regular basis.

After he got through the 7th, I figured he'd be out for the 8th. Yes, 116 pitches and all that, but he's a big boy and even a tiring Santana is better than, well, pretty much anybody in the bullpen. But, no. Santana didn't. Willie hit for him in the 7th with Chris Aguila. I'm not even sure Aguila is a better hitter than Santana, but whatever.

Look, I know baseball has changed, but still. I doubt any manager ever hit for Seaver when he had a 2-0 lead. Definitely not when Seaver was in his prime as Santana is now. I don't care about pitch counts. Santana is supposed to be the team's stopper, their ace. He MUST pitch that 8th inning after a long game the night before. He MUST. So my sympathy for him losing the W is minimal. (I love the fact that Ralph was making the point about starters and their short outings earlier in the game.)

Wright popping out with one out and the bases loaded in the 7th was huge. I could handle the lack of offense against Haren, but the 7th was the time for the Mets to put the game away. Wagner should have had the day off.

As for Wagner. I never much liked him. I remember when he was with Philadelphia he was never one of those 9th inning guys who I felt meant "Game over" for the Mets when I saw him coming in. Now he's finally developing into that pitcher, only he's no longer with Philadelphia. Yeah, it's a slump. He'll come out of it. we hope.

Rained out in Atlanta

This was supposed to be the first game I could watch, but it's rained out. It's always a mystery here as to which coverage we'll get. It seems to me that whenever the Braves are involved NASN generally picks up the TBS coverage. But not last night. Nope. When I tuned in at 12:30 I saw Gary, Keith & Ron. Within a few seconds I realized the opportunity was lost and that the game had been postponed.

No televised baseball today thanks to the NCAA basketball. It now looks like my first televised Met game will be Thursday night's game against Philadelphia.