(Alfredo Amezaga failed to make a diving catch of Jose Reyes’ liner in the 3rd, and just as you’d expect, the Mets’ shortstop ended up with a standup triple)
Before coming to grips with Thursday’s rout of the Fish — and my apologies for never quite figuring out how to work the phrase “dutch oven” into a discussion of Rich Vanden Hurk’s miserable outing — a tip of the New Era 100% Polyester cap to Zisk Online, for documenting Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez’ meditations on Sacha Baron Cohen’s most beloved comic creation. Then again, if I wasn’t watching the Marlins’ feed via satellite, I’d miss Florida’s PR guy insisting that Cheap Trick would actually be playing “Dream Police” on Saturday night.
As terrific as it has been watching the Mets so throroughly punish their divisional rivals, not much reasoning is required in order to conclude the’ll probably not maintain a .700 pace between now and the end of September. Nor do we have any reason to expect the entire every day lineup (save for Carlos D.) will still be batting .300 or higher by the Autumn. But it’s never too early to ponder how the Mets match up with the Braves. Atlanta — coming to a Shea for a trio of games this weekend — were victimized by one of Rich Hill’s finest performances on Thursday, as the Cubs starter held the Braves to a mere 4 hits while combining with Ryan Dempster on a 3-0 shutout.