So if this is how it’s going to be the next two weeks without David Wright and Ike Davis, then maybe I should just take that two week vacation to the Middle East that I’ve been dreaming about. I’m sure it will be less stressful than Monday’s loss was.
At first, I thought it was the baseball gods deciding that this was the game to play with my head. I couldn’t have imagined that a game where the Mets intentionally walked a guy to get to Hanley Ramirez and get away with it in the top of the ninth, and then have Ramirez start off the bottom of the ninth with an error to put the winning run on second base to lead off the inning would end in anything else but a win. Because surely the baseball gods would have it out for Hanley after all of his trash talk about the Mets in recent seasons. But then Jason Pridie can’t get down a bunt. Then Terry Collins sends up the one guy worse than Willie Harris to pinch hit for Willie Harris, and that rally goes to pot. (Nick Evans was reportedly crying his eyes out at that moment, and he wasn’t sure why.)
Still, in the bottom of the tenth, when Justin Turner’s grounder went off Hanley’s shoulder, ah … must be those pesky baseball gods tagging Hanley with one final embarrassment to make sure that his tears sustain me. Instead the embarrassment goes … as usual … to me, as that bad hop goes right to Omar Infante who turns a double play.
Then, the Burke Badenhop at-bat. Who the hell knows why Edwin Rodriguez decided to ultimately gamble and let Badenhop bat for himself with two outs and runners on first and second in the 11th. But it started to make sense when Ryota Igarashi started throwing him outside slop to start … because that’s just what seems to happen all the time. It made more sense when Terry Collins’ said afterwards that he told Swallows Man to “not take Badenhop for granted.” And that was the mistake. Why would you psych out your pitcher in a big spot like that? Earlier in the inning Igarashi actually threw hard fastballs with life. Then to the opposing pitcher he throws outside slop like he was Mike Stanton? Then only when he is forced to hit the strike zone does he throw heat … except it was hittable heat even for a guy who went 1-for-23 in his career but “shouldn’t be taken for granted.”
Of course the bottom of the 11th was just another twist of the knife. Of course it’s pinch hitter Jon Niese who gets the triple (maybe he should have batted instead of Chin-Lung Hu’s on nothing but a minor league bus.) And of course it’s the best hitter on the team who strikes out to end it. Well played, evil lords of baseball. You’ve done it again. You’ve convinced me that there are unimaginable forces that are conspiring to make my baseball life miserable … again. Why do I never learn?
And don’t think you’ve placated me with the false hope of Nick Evans being up with the big club while Hu is back in Buffalo. I know it’s a tease … much like Monday.
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