Wright Plunked, Mets Show Some Spunk

Saturday's Met game hurt on so many levels, none more so than the sight of David Wright going down after getting beaned on the head from San Francisco's Matt Cain, bringing back shades of the Mike Piazza incident years ago against Roger cleMEns. Piazza was never the same.

Cain's pitch seemed unintentional enough, but that didn't stop big-time gamer Johan Santana from making a statement in retaliation, throwing behind the Giant's Pablo Sandoval as if to say "no one hits one of ours". Sandoval hit the next pitch for a homerun. Then Johan nailed Bengie Molina to put an exclamation mark on his statement. Molina was to hit the game winning homerun in the 10th inning for a 5-4 Giants victory over Francisco Rodriquez (more on him later). The Mets sure showed them!, as the Mets comeback fell short trying to make it 2 in a row after a nice 3-0 shutout by Bobby Parnell the night before.

The old baseball adage that says there's no better revenge than hitting a game-winning homerun once again took aim at the Mets. Nothing can go right for this team this year it seems. Perhaps there really is a Citi Field curse. After all, the baseball gods don't like it when you build a stadium to honor a team that plays in Los Angeles; and they really don't like it when you build a stadium and remove any ties to a team's history and showcase the major entryway with a player who never played an inning for the team.

And that's the way it was this weekend. The Mets honored the San Francisco Giants by wearing throw-back Giant jerseys at a ballpark honoring the Los Angeles Dodgers. Who makes these decisions?!?! I've never been one for this whole "honoring the opposition" thing. I'd prefer the homefield advantage and try for the win instead.

Despite all the negative aura surrounding the team, the Mets managed to actually show some spunk in today's game, winning 3-2 on a 9th inning walk-off single by Daniel Murphy, the Mets first walk-off win since May - since MAY!!! Luis Castillo put the Mets on the board in the fifth with a 2-run upper-deck dinger (yes, you read that right - upper deck) for his first homerun of the season. Mike Pelfrey also looked good for a change, but all anyone wanted to talk about was Wright's condition.

Thankfully, he's okay and was diagnosed with a concussion. He left the hospital today and was immediately put on the 15-day disabled list, an excellent move by the Mets. It looks like they learned a lesson with what happened to Ryan Church. Wright's still the heart and soul of this team, so it's nice not to see him on a flight to Colorado or running sprints while working through it. Ryan Church should sue...

As for KRod... we may have a problem here. It's well documented that his ERA is approaching 8 since Castillo dropped the ARoid popup. Some good (and very knowledgeable) baseball people I know from California keep telling me the reason the Angels did nothing to stop him from leaving was their concern that KRod's arm is too frail to stay strong for an entire season. I'm beginning to believe them. He's looked awful lately and unlike earlier in the season, can't seem to get out of the jams he consistently puts himself in with leadoff walks and such. As Mets fans, we're not supposed to know about this longterm weak arm concern - but GM's should. I wonder if Omar did his homework on this guy, or was he playing checkers with the chess players again? The last time the Mets got someone without the other team doing anything to keep him was Art Howe. What does that tell you?

KRod's timing on this is perfect, since the Mets are out of contention and the team is in such disarray from top to bottom, no one really cares anymore. Plus, he's still not Philadelphia's Brad Lidge, who leads the league in blown saves. But if the standings were closer, I have a feeling we'd be talking about KRod the way we spoke about Braden Looper, Aaron Heilman, David Weathers, Mike Stanton, Armando Benitez, and Billy Wagner all before him. And it's not even September! So despite a Friday 3-run lead save (give me a break on that "save" stat please) and a vulture win today, KRod better get his act together.

And as for Matt Cain... we're okay with you hitting David Wright by mistake, but the tipping your hat curtain-call-type exit while the crowd is booing you mercilessly is a slap in the face - even if your opponents were wearing Giant uniforms at Ebbets Field! If I'm a Met player, I'm remembering that.

But of course this is all baseball, which is supposed to be entertaining. More serious matters are on our minds. Our wishes are with David Wright for a speedy recovery.