My first trip to Citi Field this season was a huge success. I went with Squawker Lisa, who was excited to see the new Braves – Melky Cabrera, Eric Hinske and Jason Heyward, in that order.
It was a night of historic firsts:
* Ike Davis hit his first major league home run. And it was not a cheap shot, but a 450-foot bomb that went over the bullpen and almost reached the Shea Bridge.
* Jose Reyes batted third for the first time. So far, so good for the new lineup, which produced five runs (with the help of four Braves errors).
But the most important lineup change made this week was replacing Mike Jacobs with Davis.
* Hisanori Takahashi got his first major-league hit. All right, nobody besides Takahashi cares about that, but he did save the game after Maine left with an injury, going three good innings and striking out seven.
I’m glad Maine’s not seriously hurt, but if he does have to miss a start, I look forward to a more important historic first from Takahashi – his first major-league start. Maybe Maine will end up in the bullpen, where he and the Mets might be better off.
As great as it was to see Davis’s first homer, it was almost as great to see Chipper Jones make two errors – misjudging a foul pop in the sixth and dropping a pop in the seventh.
What was particularly satisfying about Chipper’s drop was that Lisa did cheer for one Met tonight – Luis Castillo. Every time he came up, Lisa reminded me about his dropped pop in last year’s Subway Series. She suggested that Castillo donate his glove to the new Met Hall of Fame.
So when Met arch-nemesis Chipper dropped his own pop, helping along a Met rally, suddenly all seemed right in the world.
Tonight was Ski Cap Night, which led to the final historic first – Lisa wearing a Met hat! Rest assured that she fussed with the cap to make sure the Met logo didn’t show, eventually just turning it inside out.
But it was brisk in row 11 of the upper promenade, so another questionable decision by the Mets – scheduling Ski Cap Night in late April – actually turned out to be a good one.
The best decision the Mets have made in some time, however, was bringing up Ike Davis. It’s not all him, but it’s not a coincidence that a team that won only four of their first 12 games before he arrived has won four of five since Davis joined the team.
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