Man, you gotta feel for the Texas Rangers. They had this whole “claw” thing happening last year. Made it an international phenomenon on their way to the World Series. And what is the fruit of their labor? They get to see the Mets come in and claw all over the place. These guys must have been sitting in the dugout wondering, either “how the hell is this team knocking us around the park”, or “did we patent that claw thing like Pat Riley patented ‘three-peat'”?
If that was the case, then the Mets did enough hitting to bankrupt ownership as they followed up a 14-5 win on Saturday with an 8-5 win on Sunday. Dillon Gee, who had about as many family members watch him in Arlington as Dennis Quaid did in The Rookie, bounced back nicely from his last outing after a first inning which had me wondering whether he skipped regression and went right to cliff diving toward the mean. But Gee settled in as he usually does after shaky first innings (6.55 ERA in the first inning going into Sunday), and the bats and gloves (along with some well timed Ranger errors and perhaps some help from the umpires) took care of the rest.
And now it’s on to Detroit where this team hopes to claw its way into our hearts. The Mets have reached .500 for the second time since starting 5-13, and they’ve done so by taking two out of three from the reigning A.L. champs. Not only that, the Mets will luck out in the Detroit series as the two doomsday scenarios will happen in the same game: batting against Justin “I Only Went Two Innings Against Those Bastards Last Season and I Want Revenge and Maybe Some Blood Too” Verlander, and sending Mike Pelfrey out to the mound on the road. If those were two different games, the Mets would be kinda screwed. But at least there’s an outside chance that Jose Reyes and the rest of the lineup can keep the claws, er … clawing against Rick Porcello (.365 average against in Porcello’s last three) and Phil Coke (1-7). If so, I can take a 24-3 loss on Thursday.
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