Maine, Movement From Carlos, and "The Money Pit"

So, what if they threw a major-league baseball game, and only 8,766 people showed up? Yes, yes, you say, and what else happened in South Florida yesterday? Did a politician pander to the Cuban-American community? Did Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx show up to start shooting “Miami Vice 2: Cold As Vice?”

Actually, not this time. Given the right set of circumstances, even mighty Shea can look as empty as a busted gas can, and the stars aligned in that precise order Monday. Sunday's rain pushed a mostly meaningless series finale against the Phillies to an early (read: 12:10) start, the sky continued to look ominous, and few fans decided the juice was worth the squeeze.

According to the AP report, of 45,868 paying customers, fewer than 9,000 sat in their seats. It's called Weather-Induced Mets/Phillies Phatigue Syndrome (WIMPPS, for all you acronym hounds out there, and god bless all of you), and it broke out in a big way..

As a result, I wasn't alone in failing to watch the game live, and I've only caught snippets of it on the replay. Even so, a couple of things stuck out about the Mets' 8-3 victory (9 of 10, 15 ½ up on the Phils).

It was a big bounceback start from John Maine.

Great stuff against a tough offense. Five hits and two walks allowed in 6 1/3 innings on the hill, on a semi-efficient 108 pitches. Not spectacular, but he got out of a dangerous jam in the first and followed up with two mow-down innings.

Burrell tagged him on a 1-0 pitch in the fourth for a two-run homer, but those were the only two runs Maine gave up. Then, you had to love the way he responded, coming back to retire Dellucci, Coste and Nunez in order. Without blazing stuff or a killer strikeout pitch, Maine's going to have to minimize damage during slippery innings to remain effective in both this season and the future.

Plus, he was coming off the worst start of his MLB career. You probably recall as well that Maine was pointedly slapped around by Albert Pujols during his last outing, to the tune of a season-high 7 runs over 5 innings.

Well, against the highest-scoring team in the NL, he came back strong. A good sign.

Beltran steals a base.

Shoot, it'd been a while, eh? Well, Aug. 18, at least.

But before that, Carlos was on an 18-game steal-less streak. He had swiped a pair back on July 26 against the Cubs, but that had ended an even longer 27-game drought dating back to June 11. That's just not very much, especially for the most efficient base-swiper in the history of the game.

It's not like Willie's been shy about giving the green light. The Mets lead the Dodgers atop the NL Team Steals leaderboard by nearly 20. But Beltran's monstrous power numbers have largely supplanted, rather than complimented, his speed totals.

There are certainly some conceivable managerial reasons for holding Beltran back short of injury, including the relative merits of opening up first base with Delgado at the dish. But the spots have still been there, and they've consistently been passed up.

To some extent, you still have to think that Beltran's right hamstring, so troublesome back in April, is still something of a concern – that the Mets' top priority is keeping him healthy.

It's not affecting his fielding or baserunning choices, as far as I can tell. This is just a little something extra, an additional insurance policy.

That's fine as far as it goes. At this point, there's literally no stolen base Beltran could attempt that would be worth the risk of his injuring himself on the play, so there's no loss on the competitive front. Fair enough.

But you have to wonder whether or not his running game will begin make appearances as the regular season winds down, or whether it will return once the playoffs begin (um, should the Mets qualify, that is). Something that bears watching.

The rest of the game was nothing out of the ordinary – Ryan Howard homering, Wagner dominating in a non-save situation, Chris Woodward going hitless.

The Money Pit.

Meanwhile, the Yanks were off. This, of course, did not prevent a new Carl Pavano injury story from making the rounds. Apparently, Pavano got in a car accident midway through the month, and didn't tell anyone in the organization until this past weekend that two of his ribs were broken. Good lord.

The quote from Cashman, though, is just priceless: “There's a lot of words which would come to mind.” No kidding. I mean, who signed this lemon, anyway?

If it ain't one thing, it's the other. Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to Carl “The Money Pit” Pavano. Or, actually, don't. It will, somehow, hurt him.