Hey, look on the bright side. At least the Mets got out of Atlanta with less than 50 runners left on base in the Braves’ sweep, a trio of losses that should effectively end New York’s faint hopes of a playoff run. Since the high water mark in San Francisco 12 days ago, the club’s offense has largely disappeared, and Willie Randolph has shown little poise in his handling of the bullpen.
There’s only so much Randolph can do with what he’s been given —- it wasn’t the manager who signed Braden Looper (above), after all — but why leave the alleged closer on the mound to start the 10th after he was so narrowly avoided losing the game in the 9th? And why wait until Looper has loaded the bases with none out in the 10th before calling on Shingo Takatsu — or anyone else available, save for Danny Graves?
Still, I’ll give Looper credit for accomplishing the near impossible. He’s managed to make Tom Glavine seem like a sympathetic figure.
Skip Caray only told the same joke about Francoeur’s Franks “relishing” something young Jeff had done three or four times. There was also a confusing joke about adding Mark Lemke to a crazy e-mailing list, but frankly (ha, ha) there’s nothing funny about Operation Ore.
Fox Sports captured a guy wearing a Circle Jerks t-shirt in the posh seats, which was halfway impressive. I’d like to see him try that during Freak Week, though.
Writes David Roth,
I can’t believe that the best team in the AL started the season with poor, sad-faced, 51 year-old Shingo Takatsu as their closer. I don’t blame him, though. I can’t even be that mad at Looper. I can’t even be that mad.
Why the fuck not?
best team in the al or the team with the best record?
This is only going on the WFAN play-by-play, but could Reyes have let the second out in the 10th drop and gotten an easy double play? Announcer said the umps forgot to call the infield fly rule.
Not that that excuses: a) Looper or b) the manager who left him in
As unpleasant as last nights game was for Mets fans, nothing can top the Phils harrowing loss last night for sheer being kicked in the balls. David Bell boots the third out, Rollins fails to play in on Tavares, who beat out an infield single, and Wagner grooves a fastball to Biggio who parks it. This loss/sweep was crushing. A win last night would have been a boost, salvaged what had been a series of gaffes, choking and ummm “questionable†managerial decisons and would have left the Phillies 1/2 game back. They are now 2 1/2 back. The Phillies are a team that have dug holes for themselves all year and managed to crawl out of them before they get buried, so I’m not throwing in the towel quite yet, but after this series, they have lost whatever cautious optomism the fans had for them and as much as I may bag on Negadelphia at times, a series like this illustrates why Phillies fans are often fatalistic and spiteful.
Sam, I’m assuming had Reyes intentionally dropped the ball to start a DP, Cox would’ve argued and perhaps won.
Chuck :
http://cstb.wpengine.com/index.php?p=2873
In light of tragic events in the Gulf Region, can you really use a word like “harrowing”?