Mets 1, Nationals 0 (top of the 2nd)

In his first at bat of the 2nd game of the season, the Mets’ Carlos Beltran struck out with runners on first and second.

Beltran was booed. Heavily.

I’m sure the brilliant minds in attendence at Shea tonight have all sorts of documentary evidence to indicate that verbally abusing Beltran at the earliest available opportunity is just what he needs to turn things around.

(ADDENDUM : Xavier Nady, now 5 for 5 on the year, homered off to left off John Patterson to start the home half of the 2nd. I’m already anticipating some of the morning back page headlines if Nady were to continue this unlikely tear ; “The Joy of X”, “‘Let’s Put The X In Sex’ (Is The Worst Kiss Song Ever)” etc.)

POST-GAME WEEPY STUFF : Nats 9, Mets 5.

Is it too late to see if Baltimore will take Jorge Julio for Anna Benson? Far too early to be panicking about Billy Wagner, I suspect, but he might wanna reconsider the whole intro-music issue. An afternoon spent watching the director’s cut of “Some Kind Of Monster” should have Billy disassociating himself from anything James Hetfield-related for the rest of his days. Here’s an idea : how about “Der Ring des Nibelungen”? There’s an obvious namesake tie-in, and if anyone complains about length, connotations, etc., the Mets can just tap into their treasure trove of celebrity pals (Jon Stewart, Ray Romano, Jerry Seinfeld) and ask Larry David to vouch for the cycle’s redeedming qualities.

That’s the relief problems sorted, then.