The Showcase
It wasn't poetry out there. It wasn't, we should hope, the team's best game of the year. Everything from the elements to the play on the field seemed a tick off.
The weather was lousy. Johan wasn't his sharpest. The lineup could hardly string anything together.
But in the end, with the bullpen logging 3.1 scoreless innings of relief including dominant innings from J.J. Putz and Francisco Rodriguez, Game 1 of the 2009 season was the perfect showcase for everything the Mets couldn't do in 2008. And as such, it was the perfect showcase for everything we hope will be different in 2009.
* * * * *
There are many important questions left to be answered. A big one -- is Mike Pelfrey for real -- takes center stage tomorrow night in Game 2.
But yesterday at least things turned out positively even if the steps along the way weren't all pretty. Johan didn't dazzle, but even that's saying something. He went 5.2 innings, allowed 1 run, and got the win, but still we all know it was kind of an off day for him. That's a good thing.
David Wright had an opener to forget, unfortunately. Sometimes I worry about his head -- he wants so badly to be great that I worry he takes failure too hard. Really, I shouldn't worry -- he's had a hall of fame start to his career after all. But still, I'm sure he's heard all the "unclutch" chatter this offseason, and stranding Reyes at third in the first didn't help his cause.
But these are quibbles. The story yesterday was that the bullpen did what it was supposed to do. After all that futility last season and all those dollars spent this offseason, we needed Putz and Rodriguez to come through that first time. It would have been really classic -- really Mets -- if one of them had blown it, but we'll take progress where we can get it.
* * * * *
After the game, after Blondies, I came home and cooked dinner for me and my girflriend. Baseball was back, it was a great feeling.
- A.F.O.M.G.
The weather was lousy. Johan wasn't his sharpest. The lineup could hardly string anything together.
But in the end, with the bullpen logging 3.1 scoreless innings of relief including dominant innings from J.J. Putz and Francisco Rodriguez, Game 1 of the 2009 season was the perfect showcase for everything the Mets couldn't do in 2008. And as such, it was the perfect showcase for everything we hope will be different in 2009.
* * * * *
There are many important questions left to be answered. A big one -- is Mike Pelfrey for real -- takes center stage tomorrow night in Game 2.
But yesterday at least things turned out positively even if the steps along the way weren't all pretty. Johan didn't dazzle, but even that's saying something. He went 5.2 innings, allowed 1 run, and got the win, but still we all know it was kind of an off day for him. That's a good thing.David Wright had an opener to forget, unfortunately. Sometimes I worry about his head -- he wants so badly to be great that I worry he takes failure too hard. Really, I shouldn't worry -- he's had a hall of fame start to his career after all. But still, I'm sure he's heard all the "unclutch" chatter this offseason, and stranding Reyes at third in the first didn't help his cause.
But these are quibbles. The story yesterday was that the bullpen did what it was supposed to do. After all that futility last season and all those dollars spent this offseason, we needed Putz and Rodriguez to come through that first time. It would have been really classic -- really Mets -- if one of them had blown it, but we'll take progress where we can get it.
* * * * *
After the game, after Blondies, I came home and cooked dinner for me and my girflriend. Baseball was back, it was a great feeling.
- A.F.O.M.G.
posted by A Friend of Mr. Glass' at 9:52 AM
2 Comments:
"[I]t was the perfect showcase for everything we hope will be different in 2009."
The perfect showcase would have involved driving in a few more of the 12 runners left on base. Not criticizing the team, or overreacting, or even concerned, but yesterday was far from the perfect showcase of anything.
Nails:
I think you need to read the sentence in it's entirety -- you cut off the "And as such" which links the thought in the sentence you quote to the one that came before, which reads like so: "But in the end, with the bullpen logging 3.1 scoreless innings of relief including dominant innings from J.J. Putz and Francisco Rodriguez, Game 1 of the 2009 season was the perfect showcase for everything the Mets couldn't do in 2008."
To me (and, I thought, to everyone) the failure in 2008 was most directly attributable to the bullpen. Yesterday the 2009 bullpen did something the 2008 bullpen never could (or seemingly never could): hold a 1-run lead over 3.1 innings (or any amount of innings). In that sense, yesterday was the perfect showcase for what we hope will be different in 2009.
Now, a perfectly played game would have featured more clutch hits, fewer runners left on base, Johan going deeper, things like that. But I'm not sure you could have had a better showcase for the offseason moves we made.
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