Sunday Night Special

Maybe I'm in such a good mood on this Monday morning because I had the fortune to be pleasantly surprised last night. Who doesn't like a good surprise?

I'm a naturally optimistic person, but when your favorite baseball team underachieves to a chronic .500 record for the better part of a year, makes you look silly every time you try to figure them out, and constantly loses the Sunday night game after you thought they showed you something on Saturday afternoon, you learn to be cynical. Just a little bit, as Willie Randolph might say.

So I was a little bit surprised last night. And while nothing that the Mets did over the weekend makes a lick of a difference until they can, say, win 8 of their next 10 or something like that, they definitely did look good. They hit in the clutch. Oliver Perez pitched well. They responded to adversity: first "f---ing shocker," then the nonsense in the fourth inning last night.

Everyone loves Derek Jeter and it makes me sick. I mean, it's all a little ridiculous. Like when Carlos Delgado rips a shot down the left field line in the fourth inning last night, where it bounces off the foul pole and richochets into the stands (on the foul side) for a three-run homer. Anyone who has ever umpired a little league game knows that that's still a home run.

Where's his Edge? I'm talking about his car, of course

Mike Reilly, the third base umpire and the only guy on the field with had both a good look and the authority to make a decision on the matter, hesitates for a second and then signals fair ball, home run. Derek Jeter argues. Everyone loves Derek Jeter. Mike Reilly begins to doubt himself becaues Derek Jeter said it wasn't a home run, then lets Bob Davidson, the home plate ump with a decidedly worse view of the play, overrule him, and the ball is called foul.

The replays clearly showed a home run. But we don't have instant replay in baseball: only Derek Jeter, whose word is clearly more valuable than an umpire's initial judgment. Willie Randolph argues a little bit, Jerry Manuel argues a little bit more and gets ejected, but ultimately the home run is nullified, and the Mets are still only up 3-0 instead of 6-0.

So what happens next? Does Chein-Ming Wang find his stuff and manage to strikeout Delgado with the reprieve he's been granted? Will Oliver Perez find a way to blow a 3-0 lead, where things might have been a little bit more secure if he had been given six?

Delgado makes us all feel a little bit better and gives a bit of an f-you to everyone by ripping a single through the right side. Ryan Church scores and the Mets are ahead 4-0.

It looks like things could still take a turn for the worse when Perez immediately gives two of thoes runs back in the bottom of the inning on a Jeter single and a towering home run by Hideki Matsui. Perez is pitching okay, but he looks erratic. What else is new, I guess.

But Perez gets out of the fourth, then puts up three and 2/3 more scoreless frames while the Mets put up seven more runs. Church, who also prevented the Yankees from taking an early lead with a nice sliding catch in right in the second, hits a shot out to center field in the sixth. 9 home runs for Church in the early going, 5-2 Mets. Two innings later, David Wright leads off with a double, scores on a shallow sac fly, and the Mets mount a two-out rally to score five more runs in the 8th and put the game out of reach. Jose Reyes caps it off with a three-run shot, then goes Fred Astaire all over the Yankee Stadium field.

Reyes was in a good mood after hitting a three-run homer in the eighth

So there you have it. We did look good this weekend. But we really can't infer anything more until the Mets come back from Atlanta and Colorado next week. With the help of a double header tomorrow, they'll play four games in Atlanta between Tuesday and Thursday, then go out to Coors Field for the weekend. I'd like to see the Mets win both of these series. Is that too much to ask? In any case, the next week is the difference between this Yankee series being another chapter in the Mets' adventures around the .500 mark, or a potential launch point.

Over the past year, I've learned to temper any expectations with this team, but the weekend showed once again how good they can be.

(Images courtesy orbitcast.com, mets.com)