Creeping back to Mediocrity

The Mets played yet another game down to the wire. They are certainly making a habit of this and playing some exciting baseball. Yesterday's victory brings them to within 3.5 games of the first place Marlins and they now have sole possession of 3rd place with the Phillies 2.5 games ahead of the Mets in second. So far, they are doing exactly what they need to do. If they can win today and complete the sweep of the Tigers, they will once again be at .500 with the struggling Cincinnati Reds up next. Cincy has lost two in row and is 3-7 in their last 10 games. With the Yankees looming on the horizon with baseball’s best record, the Mets need to do as much as they can with these last four remaining games and try and be 1 or 2 games above .500 prior to Friday nights' action.

Cameron was the star once again having the walk off hit for the second night in row. He is now up to .214 and looking like a completely different hitter. The Mets certainly got some help in the form of an Omar Infante error in the 8th on a ball hit by Jose Reyes who certainly provided that needed spark. On the ground ball hit to Infante in the 8th he was able to hustle to 2nd base on the error, which eventually led to the game tying run. Reyes also collected his 1st hit of season which set the stage for Cameron's eventual winning run in the 10th. Leiter went today and clearly did not have his best stuff. He allowed two runs in the 1st inning but closed the door and did not allow any more runs despite getting into trouble on a few occasions. His control problems are persisting and he walked four in six innings of work while striking out four. Out of his 123 pitches, 71 were strikes and 52 were balls.

Scott Kazmir was dominant in his start on Saturday for the St. Lucie squad. He went six innings surrendering four hits, no runs, two walks and K'd seven bringing his ERA down to 4.64.

Neil Musser continues to impress in Binghamton with a six innings, one run performance. He is now 7-2 with a 3.27 ERA.

No thanks to Scott Erickson, Norfolk walked away with a victory on Saturday night 7-6 vs. Pawtucket. He gave up four earned runs in seven innings of work, which actually lowered his era from 8.00 to 7.20. Victor Diaz contributed with his eighth homerun of the season in a 2 for 3 performance with three RBIs, two runs score and a double on top of it all. Redman continues to hit in AAA with a 3 for 5 day with 1 run scored, 1 RBI, and two doubles. Wright was hitless for his third day in row.

Newsday thinks Duquette may be targeting Barry Zito. I think everyone is targeting Barry Zito, and if they could pull this off, Christmas would certainly come early. I just do not see it happening and if there is shot of it happening, it would most certainly be in the off season.

Joe Morgan thinks that the Yankee success is about more than just money. While that might have been true in 2000 and years prior, now it is primarily about money. They have more double the Mets current payroll and double just about every team outside of the Red Sox and the Angles. Is it just me here? They just outspend everyone and take on huge contracts that no one else can and outspend anyone on big name free agents with no end in sight. Despite the 180,000,000+ dollar payroll, they are suspected to add another 20 - 25 million next year. To me it's all about the money. Thankfully, despite all the resources and all-star lineup they still are no lock to win it all this year.

Kevin Brown still might miss the first Mets series. He was due to possibly return on Saturday I believe, but that seems in doubt now. I can only hope we are lucky enough for him to miss the Mets the first time around.

Let's go for the sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!