(Andruw and Adam share a private joke about what their pitching staff gets up to in New York City)
A few observations from the Shea mezzanine section 551 on Tuesday night ;
1) Rick Peterson’s much ridiculed 10 minutes to straighten out Victor Zambrano (7 earned runs, 7 hits, 2 walks in 5 torturous innings) has now ran past 19 months. While Willie Randolph was quick to remind reporters after the game “this was only his second start of the year”, there’s little evidence to suggest Zambrano is going to cease falling behind hitters anytime soon. On the bright side, however, he’s looking every bit as dependable as Randy Johnson.
2) With all due respect to St. Louis’ ridiculously prodigious first baseman, it might be a tad premature to engrave Albert Pujols’ name on the NL MVP Trophy. Andruw Jones put the Braves on his back for much of 2005, and seems very capable of doing the same throughout 2006 (the difference being, he’s not off to a slow start this time).
3) Much has been written about the Braves’ loss of pitching coach Leo Mazzone. His replacement, Roger McDowell, can take pride in Tuesday’s complete game performance by 22 year old Kyle Davies (6 K’s, 1 walk, 3 hits, one HR allowed to Chris Woodward)
4) Jose Valentin’s showing thus far in 2006 (hitless and witless) raise the question of whether or not sending Victor Diaz down to Norfolk was the most judicious move the Mets could’ve made. Reliever Pedro Feliciano, called up this past Monday, was competent in 3 innings of mop up work. But it was hard to understand why Randolph had Feliciano hit for himself in the 6th inning — it seemed just a little early to be waving the white flag —is a 6 run deficit at home insurmountable, even without Carlos Beltran and Cliff Floyd in the lineup?
5) Congratulations to Jorge Julio on his scoreless 9th inning. I predict Julio’s tenure as a Flushing fan favorite will last at least another 10 hours.
Your Sick Looking Box Score Of Tuesday night : Houston 13, Brewers 12. Add Milwaukee’s Carlos Lee to the Albert Pujols/Andruw Jones list of guys you’ve gotta be crazy to pitch to.
Um, what happened to my comment? It was here last night…
Pretty good series, all in all. What are the odds that the Braves would go 11 games without a win from a starter (new franchise record), then get three complete games in five days? Here’s hoping for a great pennant race.
I did notice that after game one the Post recycled their “Brave New World” headline from a few years ago. Slackers.
sorry, John. Your comment was inadvertently erased while clearing up some comment spam. Said deletion had nothing to do with your expression of partisan interest, I promise you.