Of the Mets’ disheartening 4–3 loss Wednesday afternoon to Florida, Faith & Fear In Flushing’s Greg Prince wrote, “What can you do with a game in which Santana is plenty good (if not otherworldly), we get twice our daily allotment of triples, a disputed home run call goes our way and we are presented with a surprise (shocking, really) appearance by the backup catcher at the very last minute?” Though Greg forgot to mention thrice our montly allotment of sacrifice bunts (though sadly, not one from the struggling David Wright with two on and none out against Matt Lindstrom in the 9th), it’s that Omir Santos cameo that lingers in the memory long after the booing of Wright or the Aaron Heilman-esque effort of J.J. Putz.
The monumental diss to Castro aside, Jerry Manuel opting to bring in a career minor leaguer — albeit one removed from the first grand slam in Citi Field’s short history — to face Lindstrom with the bases loaded, two out and the Mets trailing by one in their final frame left many in attendance scratching their skulls. Had only we remembered it was Omir Santos’ birthday! From Amazin’ Avenue’s James K :
Jerry Manuel wanted to give Santos a birthday present. Happy 28th Omir. That sprint underneath the stadium from the bullpen while wearing cleats sounds treacherous.
Castro: you messed up by being born on March 1. And also for having a .723 career major league OPS (nevermind Santos’s career .652 minor league OPS).
The Star Ledger’s Steve Politi has dubbed Wright “the face of panic”, and as WFAN’s Benigno & Roberts were quick to point out today, the Mets’ third baseman is striking out at a pace reminiscent of Ryan Howard, sans the home runs. Wright is catching crazy heat for that oh-so-capital WFAN offense of Not Coming Thru In A Big Spot (copyright 1993, Chris Russo Enterprises) and assuming the Mets aren’t going to be any better than a 4th place club the rest of the year, can we just consider this phase a prelude to this former fan favorite turning heel? There’s a rich NYC history Wright can draw upon (spraying bleach at reporters with a supersoaker, under -tipping at Hooter’s, etc.) and even if he never gets another clutch RBI, I look forward to whatever happens next.
Don’t forget firecrackers.
Is it the end of April or August? My calendar must be screwed up.
Omir is in danger of becoming the next Francisco Cabrera. After that dude got the big hit in the NLCS, it was a big frigging deal every time he came up to pinch hit thereafter. I guess Omir will become the Grand Slam Guy. Every time the Mess need a grand slam, they’ll plug in their grand slam go-to guy and watch him strike out. It’ll be just like 1993.