Brain Power

Yeah, my dog also hated it when I faked the throw.

Now Cameron Maybin is no dog … in fact, he’s dogged the Mets for the last week with two home runs against them (after a stretch where he had one home run between May 14th and August 11th.) But David Wright, after making a diving stop on a ball down the line, deftly faked the throw to get Maybin to round the base in a laissez-faire fashion (for those of you who don’t know French, that means “la-de-da”) and then tag him out before getting back to the bag. Very clever. And very smart of David Wright to realize that it isn’t faking the throw that’s the problem. It’s when David actually throws the ball when things get ridiculous. Brains are underrated in baseball.

All this happened after Wright gave Dillon Gee all the support he needed with a three-run dinger, and Gee did the rest with 6 and 2/3’s of masterful twirling as the Mets won a series at Petco Park for the first time, 7-3. Yes, the Mets have exorcised the demons of Petco Park. (Of course, meant sarcastically … hey, it’s not like it’s Turner Field. If there are demons at Petco, they’re like three surfer dudes that say “Hey, get out of this park! And go to the beach and catch some waves, dude. Party on.”)

Don’t forget about the bottom of the seventh where … are you sitting down … Manny Acosta saved the day by striking out Jason Bartlett with two outs and the bases loaded, then posing like he just won the Bassmaster tournament. And for those who think he should save those poses for Albert Pujols, we’ve been through stretches of weeks at a time where Acosta couldn’t get any major leaguer out. And guess what, Jason Bartlett is a major leaguer. Granted, one with a slugging percentage of .312, but a major leaguer nonetheless. So right on, Manny. Do a Charles Atlas impression for all I care.

Speaking of pitchers who can’t get major leaguers out, any chance that Nevin Shapiro can admit that he provided Ryota Igarashi with cars, money and strippers so Igarashi can be deemed ineligible to be within 100 yards of any sporting event in the country? No? Can’t I dream? Igarashi was given the simple assignment of protecting a six-run lead, but struggled to the point of making Jason Isringhausen warm up. If Izzy had blown out his arm warming up because Igarashi couldn’t get three outs, I think I would have been a little bit pissed off. Irrationally, yes. But pissed off still. Boy, you think Terry Collins is re-thinking his plan to give Swallows Man regular appearances out of the bullpen? Hell I don’t think he can get Nevin Shapiro out much less Jason Bartlett.

Not that there are a lot of options for a bullpen shakeup, and the Mets have one less as our old friend Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez plans to announce his retirement on Saturday. (Yes, he was still pitching for a major league organization as of last season.)  It was once thought that it was going down at the Bacardi Headquarters, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Too bad … a retirement at the Bacardi Headquarters would have been pretty interesting. Hernandez, after a few too many “free samples”, lets it slip out about how old he really is? Not to mention that this would be one hell of a retirement ceremony. This is an opportunity lost as far as I’m concerned.