Saturday’s pitiful showing against the Cardinals could well have been Steve Trachsel’s final game as a member of the Metropolitans. Metsradamus is less than sentimental about the occasion.
For those of you (and you know who you are) who constantly ask me “Why doesn’t Steve Trachsel get any respect?” Game 3 was your answer. Tonight was Steve Trachsel’s first real chance at some playoff pressure. What does he do? Well, he gives up yet another 2 run triple by Soul Patch Spiezio, and a home run by the opposing pitcher. Five hits, five walks, five thousand remote controls that have flown across the room and cracked their television monitors…all in one inning. As far as I am concerned, Trachsel is done as a New York Met. I’m done defending him. He gets the benefit of the doubt no more.
And that’s win or lose. If the Mets go to Game 7, guess who I’m handing the ball to. I’m handing it to the guy that showed a little heart and a little guts tonight, Darren Oliver. Oliver was rumored to go in Game 5, but now Willie Randolph doesn’t have that option anymore thanks to…”One Inning From Hell”.
If the Mets get to the 2006 World Series to take on the Tigers…a scenario that I hate to say is seriously in doubt at this hour…then it’s “Dave Williams, come on down” in one room, and Tom Berenger as Bear Bryant handing the Malfunction Boy his bus ticket back home in another.
Of the two fateful hits by Scott Spiezio that Shawn Green failed to come up with the past two nights, the New York Times’ Lee Jenkins suggests (not in so many words) that Mike Cameron would’ve had ’em.
If Floyd wasn’t injured and Chavez was in right (he hit better than Green all season and is better in the field)…
.. or if Lastings was on the roster and playing right instead of washed up Green…
.. or if Traschel didn’t serve up pitches like he was pitching in a coed softball league (and I should know)…
All around, it was pathetic and I really hope Traschel doesn’t ever get to touch the ball as a Met unless the score is already at least an 8 run differential (in favor of the opposing team). Let him be the mop up guy for routs, because for all of his bitching and whining about being a starter and not a reliver, blah blah blah, he shit himself.
And, as all the Metsgeek.com posts wonder in tonight’s threads.. what exactly WAS Traschel’s “family emergency”? I don’t think we have the right to know anything, but the fact that he’s clearly got other things on his mind.. the club might want to say “it was a death in the family” or “Paul Lo Duca was in caught in bed with his 15 year old 2nd cousin”, so at least we can respect him a little more.
I’m crossing my fingers and hoping Oliver Perez pulls something out tomorrow. He’s shown moments of brilliance and Mr. Reyes isn’t exactly Cy Young with his 5+ ERA.
Marc,
considering some of Lastings’ adventures in the OF this season, we can’t presume he’d have caught either of the balls Green missed on Friday and Saturday. But I do think he’d represent a better pinch-hitting option than Anderson Hernandez.