“Big series, and that atmosphere of the big series. Then – boom – right away, this kind of — no offense to Ruben — it just kind of took the air out.” –Jason Bay
Why the hell is Nick Swisher giving you the high sign? Click the button that promotes reading to find out:
Being in the stands on Saturday when everyone realized Jose Reyes had been taken out of the game for precautionary reasons (translation: scared to death) after the first inning, I can confirm that Jason wasn’t just whistling dixie. People were in front of me on the beverage line lamenting the fact that they had dropped all this money on tickets and Reyes was gone. (Maybe they had bought those standing room only tickets released at the last minute for $45, less than my lower level ticket, in which case I’d be po’d too.) The robust “Let’s Go Mets” chants in the first inning were replaced by the ton of Yankee fans in right field who were cheering every time Nick Swisher so much as rubbed his spikes on a blade of grass … and Swisher responding by winking and pointing at his road fans as if he was a cheesy Las Vegas lounge act, or at the very least like he was in his home ballpark. For the love, Nick, save it for the Bronx dude!
And Danny Valencia was complaining about Brewers chants at Target Field on Saturday. Ha! Come play for the Mets, Danny. Against a third of the schedule, this is a nightly occurrence.
Not that the Mets could do anything to stop Swisher’s smiley faces. You knew it would continue on Saturday after Reyes was gone. But not only was the air out of the orange half of the crowd, it was out of the lineup. Bartolo Colon had his way with the Jose, Jose Jose Jose-less Mets going six innings and throwing nothing but fastballs. He didn’t need to throw anything else against this stunned roster, which just a few days ago was having their way with Tigers pitching (though it seems everyone is taking their whacks at them these days, kind of diluting the achievement). Didn’t help that the best chance belonged to Dillon Gee in the fifth with the bases loaded, where the one result you absolutely could not have was a double play … Of course that’s exactly what happened. No coincidence that the next inning featured the Yankees’ death blow (first inning and sixth inning have been Gee’s Waterloo this season).
And now the team that was looking great going into Thursday’s game against Justin Verlander is in danger of being swept by Ivan Nova, Bartolo Colon, and Freddy Garcia (oh, and Eduardo Nunez who I’m starting to intensely dislike). But the real danger lies in what shows up in Jose Reyes’ Sunday morning MRI. Could be that nothing shows up. Could be they can find an army of freedom fighters with machetes slicing up Reyes’ hammy. Could be everything in between. I’d bet it shows something closer to the freedom fighters.
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