Like It Never Even Happened

The peculiar, and frankly, great, thing about a baseball season is the incredible amount of games played over its course. People talk about the NBA and NHL seasons being long slogs and those are merely 82 games. And forget the emotional rollercoaster of the NFL season, where none of the 16 games your team plays is too important to overlook, unless you happen to be a Jet fan, like I do.

In baseball, the 162 games means that sometimes, even early in the season, you end up with a lineup where Carlos Beltran is the only recognizable name and you go back to bed because Tim Redding has already given up four runs and Josh Johnson is pitching. Four months from now, it will be like this game never even happened. Even if the Mets miss out on the playoffs by one game, no one will point to this game as the one that got away.

Not to say I'd rather the game didn't happen, because I'm always glad for baseball, especially as the weather heats up and the outdoors become more and more preferable. Anyone watching got to witness not just Fernando Martinez's first major league hit, but his first two. Maybe now Tim Marchman won't want to trade him for Mark DeRosa. Kidding, Tim, kidding!

And give this much to the B-squad: they showed some spark in the ninth when they had the whole night ahead of them to get drunk and chase tail. Bouncing the opposing team's closer always feels good, especially when he comes in to a not quite save situation looking to get some work in. Honestly, did anyone expect to win this game? I don't even think Tim Redding did, but if I were him, I would start practicing human sacrifice or even worse, look into The Secret, anything that will get him to control his fastball, before Nelson Figueroa or Jon Niese punches his ticket to the bullpen or the DL. Not to say he doesn't have time, what with Ollie getting more tendinits, coincidentally right after walking five guys in a Triple A game.

So tomorrow it's John Maine and the A team squad in a game we're back to expecting to win. It would be a 5-1 homestand and if Maine pitches a good game, you can probably finally stop worrying about the rotation and officially pencil it in as a strength. We shall see tomorrow.