Jason Bay is eligible to come off the disabled list on Saturday. But it doesn’t look like he will, because he’s still not able to swing a bat.
But who cares, because Chris Young can swing a bat … swing a bat so well that he can single handedly knock Cole Hamels out of the Mets’ opener against the Phillies on Tuesday. Two hits against the Phillies in the third inning for Young, with a whole bunch of other hits in between (including one of David Wright’s four) and Cole Hamels was lifted after two and a third after having gave up six runs. In fact, he couldn’t wait for that inning to end. And lucky for him he didn’t have to. He was gone before it could end so he could get his beauty rest on his memory foam pillow and wake up refreshed enough to plan his next radio interview where he calls the Mets choke artists and lecture us on how other baseball players should act.
Sleep well, Cole.
As for Young, not a bad debut. Wouldn’t you say? Five and 1/3 innings with seven strikeouts and one run, with three hits to boot. One of them was even an infield hit which Young beat out with his ostrich-like speed. So he’s proven he can hit like Bay and run like Reyes. Which is good because there’s achance neither will be around in August. (Although Reyes had the kind of night that screams “keep me! keep me!” with two hits and a stolen base.) Some thought it was peculiar that Young came out to start the sixth inning after laboring in the fifth. Brian Cashman thought he was being abused. And sure enough Young didn’t make it through the sixth. But the bottom line is that Young was taken out by Terry Collins and not Mike Herbst.
The only thing missing from a spectacular Tuesday night was a Phillies fan getting tased, and that almost happened as one of their finest ran on to the field to hump second base. This after another Phillies fan cost his team an out by interfering with Carlos Beltran in the fourth. Yup, there’s your most loyal fan base in America.
Wednesday brings us Mike Pelfrey vs. Joe Blanton. And every time I say that the Mets should have no problem hitting Joe Blanton, he comes to the mound with a side of brisket hanging out of his mouth and one-hits the Mets over seven innings with a two-seam fastball with movement enhanced by barbecue sauce. So I’m shutting my big fat mouth.
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