Step Back From the Ledge

"A brutally depressing game today. Talk me off the ledge guys." - Happy Will

No use sugarcoating it, today's 2-1 loss to the Braves was exactly what Will said it was: brutally depressing. Just when the team looked like it was going to pull off an amazin' 9th inning comeback off a pitcher who had been unhittable all day, the bats fell 1 run short.

Not only did we fall short, but on a day when our lineup featured exactly 3 good hitters (Carlos Delgado, David Wright, and .5 Xavier Nady and Jose Reyes), it was our two big boys who couldn't get that big RBI.

Worst of all, everyone's favorite Met was largely responsible for the loss today. Between the run-scoring error in the 8th and making the final out of the game (not to mention his other two errors and hitless day at the plate), Wright had about the worst game of his young career.

But the idea here is to talk everyone back from the ledge. It's not easy, but here are some positives from today.

1. Tom Glavine looked dominant.

And when I say he looked dominant, I mean he was wrecking shit on Gamecast. I didn't see the game so I couldn't tell you how he did it, but the results speak for themselves, and Glavine has now fashioned 4 impressive starts in his 4 appearances.

A win would have been nice, but one of the big question marks coming into the year is plainly fading. Glavine's second half resurgence in 2005 has officially carried over into 2006. He's been our best pitcher so far, and that augers well for the next 6 months.

2. This series isn't necessarily representative of Mets-Braves 2006.

Each team was missing two critical players. Certainly the Mets' lineup looked more punchless than the Braves' did down two starters, but that's not necessarily something we should lose sleep over.

It's easy to look at a team starting Jose Valentin and be disgusted, but just remember that he's not an everyday player. Next time we play the Braves, we'll have to contend with Chipper and Renteria, yes, but we'll also have Cliff Floyd and Carlos Beltran in place of Valentin and Endy Chavez.

Not saying those guys alone get us over the top, but just keep it in mind, and don't draw too many long-term conclusions from this series. Except, of course, that Victor Zambrano sucks.

3. At least by Gamecasting you got to miss the horrible Mets commercials this year.

Every year, certain commercials latch on to Mets games and never let go. One season long ago it was a Geico commercial featuring a mad scientist in black and white shouting at the top of his lungs something along the lines of "it's tearing at my brains! tearing me... haunting me..." -- it was really, really annoying.

Last year it was that incredible Geico commercial with the two cavemen, one of whom orders the roast duck.

So some years are better than others. This is a down year. The greatest offender is the anti-smoking ad featuring the 30-something who's got lung cancer.

Noble effort, don't mean to take anything away from an anti-smoking campaign, but god damn is that commercial depressing. Having now seen it a million times, it's depressing and painful.

The other commercial I've seen way too many times is the McDonald's commercial featuring the two guys marveling over the various menu items that are available for free.

Originally they bleeped out the word free, but they've stopped doing that, and the commercial is now infinitely more annoying. The god damn items are free, we get it, how many times do we have to be exposed to their shouting about it?

So you got to miss that today at least. Unless of course you were watching it live on television, in which case the game sucked a little harder for you than it did for me.

And if none of that cheers you up...

Try reminding yourself that the Mets are 10-4 and in first place. Things could be a hell of a lot worse.

- A.F.O.M.G.