CSTB Mets Fun Quiz! Put on your thinking caps, and read the clues below! Who am I?
-I look terrified.
-I “pitch” righthanded.
-I gave up five hits and three earned runs while getting only three outs tonight.
-My name is Spanish for “George Whythehellissomeoneelsenotpitching”
Yes, tonight’s Mets bullpen suicide hotline attendant, Jorge Sosa, served up a hot plate of awful in Florida en route to blowing a save, and then the game, in the Mets 8-7 loss to the Marlins. There was plenty of baseball played before then — Tom Glavine coughed up a three-run lead in the fifth; Lastings Milledge (above) got gully on the home plate ump in the seventh and earned himself an ejection and likely scolding from Wally Matthews, who never curses or gets angry; the Mets came roaring back against previously untouchable/bespectacled closer Kevin Gregg in the ninth thanks to a Marlon Anderson three-run triple — but what happened after Jorge Sosa came into the game is what mattered most. And man, did it ever suck.
With Billy Wagner unavailable — and not even in the bullpen at the end of the game — the mantle of closer fell first on Pedro Feliciano, then immediately on Jorge Sosa. No one in the bullpen even stirred for the rest of the game. Which was cool, because Sosa was lights out was nightmarish.
It’s kind of academic, at this point, to wonder why the much more accomplished Feliciano was pulled after facing only one batter in the ninth. (The obvious answer — lefty/righty match-up considerations — doesn’t seem satisfactory to me at the moment) Or why Sosa, who pitched two innings yesterday, was the guy Willie Randolph chose to close instead of Aaron Heilman (very effective, in the eighth inning). Or Philip Humber. Or Masato Yoshii or Tim Hamulack or Jaime Cerda or…okay. Okay. Sorry. The story, such as there is one, is what (if anything) is wrong with Billy Wagner. An injury to Wagner would be big news, but there’s no reporting on it yet. SNY announcer Gary Cohen announced that the network was “dispatching” sideline reporter Kevin Burkhardt to find out what was going on, but the game was over before he could report back. The SNY postgame show, as usual, consisted of Lee Mazzilli dispensing hair care tips and then cooking manicotti with guest Rocco DiSpirito. Or maybe not, I don’t know. I was too busy cursing to pay much attention.
Oh, and also: the Phillies win, 7-6. In a dramatic, team-of-destiny sort of way, naturally. Only one and a half games separate the Mets and the Phillies in the National League East.
UPDATE: America’s most trusted news source, Rotoworld.com, reports that Wagner was held out of the game due to back spasms. It also reports that he has a tired arm, which is interesting because his appearance in yesterday’s Mets win was his first in five games.
FURTHER UPDATE: The headline at Faith and Fear in Flushing is “Oh Good God.” Metsblog has a quote from Willie Randolph in which he explains that Wagner’s back spasms were known to him before the game and that Wagner was “too stiff to pitch.” An unusually snarky Matthew Cerrone then adds:
people are e-mailing me all upset that willie didn™t hold back heilman to pitch in the ninth¦i guess because, during the eighth, when heilman stepped to the mound, willie knew he would use his magic wand to get Marlon Anderson that three-run triple
Touche, dude. Although I still don’t get throwing Sosa out there in the tenth.
Nowadays, ‘tired arm’ could mean “I’m a pussy” or “torn labrum.” Who am I to speculate? I’m leaning towards ‘pussy,’ though. Too bad that Eric Gagne has already wrapped up that Vagisil endorsement, though.
still…a 90% chance according to baseball prospectus. if they do backslide all the way out this blog will be an amazing read.
cstb at defcon 84…phil mushnick has been moved to an undisclosed locale
Pedro pitches tomorrow…is he still on a pitch count or will Willie let him pitch until his arm flies off into the stands?
As updated above, it was definitely back spasms. Never having experienced that particular affliction, I can’t speak to Rog’s vagisil commentary. I will say that while I imagine Willie will try to get as much as he can from Pedro tomorrow, I’ll be shocked if he lets him throw much over 100 pitches. He threw 98 in his last start, and should hopefully be able to get through six or so innings at that count. This is, lest we forget, the fucking Marlins.
I wonder how much money David Wright’s error cost him in endorsements. $300,000?
I’m still upset about the Phillies’ loss on Wednesday myself. The different between “holy shit” and “they can’t possibly blow this” is still just one night’s action.
That, somehow, the Phillies have possibly been a better team than the Mets for all but the first 15 games of the season is both A) surprising, regardless of what Jimmy Rollins said in March and B) largely responsible for the feeling that the Mets blew something they already had in the bag.
Shhhh! You guys are talking about East Coast teams. You biased fools.
As far as Pedro, I think he’s destined to bust out a complete game or some crazy shit tonight. He’s gonna will himself to put this team on his ragged shoulders and will these fuckers into the playoffs. Either that, or he will be added to my Vaginas in Major League Baseball list.
re : Pedro pitching a complete game. Seems unlikely, but I was thinking at about 4am that short of the Mets scoring 15 runs, it’s gonna take 7-8 innings from SOMEBODY to win a game at this point. Not to excuse the fucking miserable performances of the Mets pen, but during a period where they are already overworked, we all know something very, very bad will happen if they’re expected to go 3-5 innings.
Rog, I am very pleased this forum affords you repeated opportunities to work out your issues with women. I’m confused why vaginas are considered synonymous with weakness, poor relief pitching, etc. particularly given the way some of this blog’s readership (and contributors) expend so much energy trying to get close to vaginas.
Still, we live in timid times, where few have the courage of their convictions to stand up and say what they really mean. It takes a special kind of person to proclaim their HATRED OF VAGINAS on the internet.
Because our traffic is low at the moment, here’s some young black pussy :
Work it.
This entire thing is a giant fucking nightmare, right? I’m going to wake up, the Mets will be in the playoffs, and I won’t be rocking myself to bed every night cradling a bottle of Jack Daniels?
At the risk of having GC beat me to death: Can someone offer rationale for why:
1. Pedro F was pulled after one batter?
2. Sosa was allowed to pitch?
3. Joe Smith, Phil Humber, Willie whateverhisnameis, etc weren’t thrown out there with a 3 run lead?
#1 is the real question, because I can understand (though not agree with) trying to milk Sosa for an inning instead of the rookies.. but for fucks sake, putting Sosa out there in the 10th after that shitty 9th? Are you kidding me?
I can’t believe I’m going to actually see a meaningful game at Shea on 9/28. And by meaningful, I mean a game where I get to boo — a lot.
Oh and as much as I think it is stupid to get ejected at this juncture in the season, at least SOMEONE on that team appears to give a shit.
Carlos Muniz was just called up by the Mets. AA closer. I hope they DFA Mota.
Pussy.
mets are down to 88% . YOUS FUCKIN DONE!
GO CUBS! Ha, this comment thread was just what I needed to read after a shitty day. Love the photo of the puss.