Centerfield

I'm thinking it might be Easley to protect his knee.

The explanation is obvious enough. In non-big spots, Heilman is great and mows down hitters. In big spots, he completely melts down and can't stop the bleeding.

You have a typo in there. You wrote "Kaz Matsui Doubles".

It may not be panic time, but a loss like last night's is certainly pissed off to the point you're flinging unprovoked expletives throughout the morning time. Fucking Ben Johnson not being able to catch up to fatboy's 92 mph fastball in the 9th. Fucking Schoenweis. Fucking Wagner. Fucking Noffense.

Easley must be unavailable for Valentin to be playing against the lefthander.

Ron Darling won yesterday. I'm guessing it's because of the clips they showed on SNY. Plus he was sitting behind the batter during the game.

Howard not only dove, he took a half-hour to get his elephant-like body off the ground.

I can't figure out why Gotay is not running on contact there. The infield was back, there were runners on 2nd and 3rd. If they play the infield back, you MUST make them throw you out at home. And even if you do, you still have 1st and 3rd with one out. And then they would have had to pitch to Reyes. That is a bad, bad job by Willie not to have him moving on contact. It's the same mistake Bobby made in Game 1 of the 2000 WS.

How many starts does Newhan get before we stop trying to jump-start him like Valentin and concede he's just going to suck all year?

The problem is that Franco isn't even the worst guy on our bench. Both he and Newhan are sporting OPS's lower than Glavine and Perez.

Farmer Ted wrote: I'm surprised Sabean hasn't taken a poll with the fans and decided to trade Correia, too. Fantastic.

It's weird. I feel like David had like one good week in this month and struggled for the rest of it. Amazing how many position players struggled in May and yet the Mets managed to keep winning despite it.

1. J. Rollins, SS 2. S. Victorino, RF 3. C. Utley, 2B 4. R. Howard, 1B 5. P. Burrell, LF 6. A. Rowand, CF 7. A. Nunez, 3B 8. C. Ruiz, C 9. J. Moyer, P 1. Reyes, SS 2. Easley 2B 3. Beltran CF 4. Delgado 1B 5. Wright 3B 6. LoDuca C 7. Johnson LF 8. Gomez RF 9. Glavine P

I can't even tell you how excited I am about his possible return. I really miss Pedro.

I believe that Charlie Brown actually does have a well-documented tendency to melt down in the worst of spots.

Fantastic. My favorite is #74.

There's this guy on the Cubs... Though I don't know if he exactly qualifies as "reliable".

I had thought James Baldwin was on that list but apparently he got 2 starts. Chan Ho is the stud on that list.

I thought Papi's ball in the 9th was gone. Oh well. 12.5 back is still not bad.

Isn't it funny how Jeter's two errors (without which the Sox would not have taken the lead) gets buried in the accounts of the game?

Randolph should hit in front of Franco.

Benitez had worked in 4 of the 5 previous games. In the two games immediately prior, he had come in in the 8th inning.

Wow, Benitez revisited. In 1999, when the Mets were in a dogfight for a wild card spot in September, Benitez was a big reason the Mets remained alive. Though I've long since forgotten the exact numbers, he was great during that run (you don't remember any memorable blown saves do you?). He had two scoreless appearances in two close games against the Pirates in the last weekend of the season. Both kept the game tied, both would eventually end up in wins. Had he given up a run in either of those games, or in any game that month, it would have been blown up and the media would have ripped him for blowing it at the worst possible time. It never happened. That post-season, he pitched 9 innings and gave up 1 run (he also allowed an inherited runner to tie the game in Game 4 of the NLDS.) That first run he gave up was in Game 6 of the NLCS in his second inning of work. Before that, he converted a save in Game 4 and didn't allow a run in Game 5 (the Grand Slam Single). Because of that one post-season run, he was accused of blowing it at the worst possible time. In 2000, Benitez was again, great in September. In the post-season, he had two blown saves in 4 opportunities. The JT Snow Game, and Game 1 of the World Series. Critics again said he melted down in the worst possible spot. Over the course of two post-seasons, he made 15 appearances with an ERA of 2.00. In 2001, because of the two memorable games against the Braves, Benitez critics changed their tune from "Benitez sucks in the post-season" to "Benitez sucks in big games". They ignore the success he had in September prior to that year and the success he had prior to those games. He picked up 5 saves after 9/11 and picked up the win in the dramatic Piazza HR game after entering the game in the 8th (he closed it out in the 9th). Even his biggest critics concede that had he blown a save at any point during that stretch, it would have been "at the worst possible time." So anything short of perfection would have contributed to this reputation. All in all, his "history of failure" can be boiled down to five games over the course of three years during which he was one of the most dominant relief pitchers in baseball. The Mets basically played with no safety net during that entire time and Benitez pitched well in countless big games. (For instance, does anyone remember that Benitez pitched 2 scoreless innings in the Agbayani Walk-Off game? Do you think they would remember if he did give up a run?) By comparison, Braden Looper had 8 blown saves in 2005 including one where he blew two separate leads to the Braves in one game. It's amazing, and sad, that Benitez has been so villified by Mets fans. His "choking" is as big a myth as Jeter's super-competitive-clutchosity.

What a crap game. Did we even get a runner to third?

And I don't mean to imply I'm somehow above this. I saw Armando warming in the pen yesterday and thought to myself "We can get to him." It's so strange. Anyway, how about the Mets against closers this year? Chad Cordero, Ryan Dempster, Valverde, the Rockies guy...all of them are our bitches.