What an Odd Game

I can't really describe last night. Just an odd game. No excitement. Nothing really interesting happened, except for Molina scoring from first on a triple (which must be a sign of the apocalypse). It was one of those games, you know?

But I take nothing away from Zito. He had everything working last night, that curve was dominating. So, the Mets suffered their first shutout of the season. Glavine pitched well after a shaky first inning. The first seems to be a bugaboo for him of late. Not sure why. Of course, the lack of offensive support isn't helping him in his march to 300 wins. He is still stuck on 295, making it two starts in a row. I think part of the problem is that he is being matched against the top pitcher on the opposing team a lot more frequently this year than last year. It was the same when he first joined the team, and his record suffered for it (of course, those teams kinda sucked, so that didn't help matters). Perhaps a re-jiggering of the rotation may help. Well, that and the bats decide to show up.

The only positive the Mets can take out of last night was that Mota came back, and was quite good. He pitched two innings (the 8th and 9th), and gave up 1 hit (and that was the result of an awful miscue by Carlos Gomez). But Mota got out of it, and pitched a 1-2-3 ninth. He also had two strikeouts. If he is indeed back to form (and I'm talking pre-last season and pre-whatever fucked up shit he was putting into his body), then the bullpen just got a hell of a lot stronger. The rest of baseball should be worried.

As for the Mota reception, it depends on who you listen too or read. Gary last night said the reaction was muted, but decidedly negative. The papers seemed to think there were some boos and cheers. I wonder what the Screaming Puppy will have to say about it. After all, he has been on his soapbox all week about how "the met fan cannot boo Bonds and cheer Mota." As someone wrote on Metsgeek yesterday, "hey Chris, how about getting on the Giant fan that cheers Barry?"

Tonight, El Duque vs. Matt Cain. Here's to hoping the boys are a tad pissed about being shutout, and take it out on Mr. Cain. And also that El Duque is his usual baffling self to the opposition.

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In other news, A-Rod is allegedly cheating on his wife. The Post went front page with it yesterday. Both the Post and News did the same today. Newsday was the only tabloid to stay out of the gutter. Now, I personally think A-Rod is a phony, and if he is cheating on his wife, then he is a tremendous douchebag. However, this is not news. This is not front page stuff. I don't give a rats fuck who, what, when, or where he is fucking. It is not my business. I said basically the same thing last year when the Post (notice a trend here) printed the stuff about PLD and his girlfriend(s). PLD was somewhat different, since he was in the midst of a divorce, but it was still bullshit that it was printed. The same holds for now. You gotta think A-Rod has now made his decision to opt-out at the end of the year. I hope he joins the Angels, or Red Sox, and haunts the Yankees for years to come.

Then again, the Yanks are in deep shit either way. Why, even some of their most loyal fans are leaving them, or are close to being done. Francessa conceded the division yesterday, though I wonder how he will react to their victory last night. To quote Michael Ray Richardson "The ship be sinking, and the sky's the limit". How apropos.

One thing A-Rod does need to watch out for is balls coming at his head during the next game against the Blue Jays. That bush league "I got it" yell to the Jays third baseman is liable to get him hit. But, what can you expect from Slappy?