Reyes Wants You

From MetsStuff

Jose Reyes wants me to cut work on Wednesday to go to the Mets game in the afternoon. Now, he must not realize by how much he’s seen me in the stands that I’m currently unemployed, but I feel obliged to obey; I’ll be at the game Wednesday afternoon. And who wouldn’t want to be given how the Mets are playing? The last five games they won, they won at home, and against Pennsylvania. Winning front and center in front of Mets fans has, and will, go a long way towards making Citi Field home, and making these fans fall back in love with this team.

I was at the game at Saturday, and it was nice and comfortable being at what amounted to a laugher. I was more amused than annoyed at Maholm’s home run 20 feet to my right. I debated things like leaving Ken in to hit and pitch three innings so he could get the save, or if they should finally get Stokes some work (as they did), instead of if they should waste outs bunting or try to steal a base to try to get the lead. It was utterly enjoyable.

Also enjoyable were our seats. Section 103, row 4, seats 1-5. The seats were not completely unreasonable at $40 face value. They turned out to be (as seats 1-8 are behind the camera well in right field) front row seats by the right field foul pole. There were negatives, as we couldn’t really see the scoreboard behind the Pepsi Porch above us, and seats 1,2 and 3 had to contend with the foul pole in front of them, which led to a lot of leaning back and forth the whole game. However, there were plenty of plusses from the perspective. A couple of people in our section started really getting on the RF Brandon Moss. We had a really good view of all plays in RF, including Wright’s triple that Moss missed, and Sheffield’s sliding catch. We also had a very good view of plays at first base. We got to see all the flies to RF arc towards us, and got to judge fair or foul, see them bounce, see the RF range over to make the catch, or miss it.

Tonight’s a big game, not for the Mets necessarily, but for Omar. The chatter is all going to be about how he failed to get Derek Lowe by giving him extra money/years that probably weren’t wise. Oliver Perez struggled, and Lowe succeeded. If the Mets rough up Lowe, it won’t look as lopsided a decision, whereas if they lose, it’ll be all about how Minaya made a mistake. Luckily, Johan Santana is on the mound, and no one doubts that he’s better than either of ’em. Here’s hoping for 8 in a row.

Keep Rolling

Big two game series against the Phillies. Until the Mets are comfortably above .500 and pushing, every series is a big series. Time to put on your hitting caps and introduce the Phillies to Citi Field in hostile style. I know I’m looking forward to seeing Ryan Howard take his best swing and fly out to right field.

You’d like to see them win both games and really get some good feelings going. Last night’s sweep in Turner Field helped, even with the error, but four in a row over the Braves and Phillies would be a big deal. It was nice to see Chipper making outs and errors to help the Mets win, and I hope to see the Mets take advantage of the Phillies sloppy pitching and poor play to win some games.

The Phillies are really, especially this year, a one trick pony. We’ve got Santana going tonight, and Pelfrey tomorrow. We’ve got a good bullpen. Hopefully our good pitching neutralizes their one trick, their offense. I’ll be at the second game in the Pepsi Porch, and I’m looking forward to a good game from that location.

ESPN’s streak for the cash contest features this game: Will the Phillies have more hits than Santana strikeouts? I’m going with Santana.