Meet the Mets
Last night's game was better suited to MCU Park than Citi Field, as it was quite the roller coaster ride. In the end, a three run ninth of Heath Bell sealed a Mets win and another return to .500. The Mets struck early with a bunch of home runs, including Jason Bay's 200th. But Mike Pelfrey and the Mets bullpen got BABIP'd to death to put the Mets in an 8-4 hole. New Met Mike Baxter cut it to 8-5 with a 'double.' Queens' kids get the hometown scoring, I guess. (he's from Queens, in case you in a coma during last night's broadcast) After cutting it to 8-6, the Mets piled it on against Bell in the ninth, as the Duda bided his time before stroking a thirty hop walkoff single. Just the way they drew it up in March.
This play deserves its own paragraph. It was that awesome.
If you were wondering if Reyes' hamstring injuries might lower his value on the free agent market, well, maybe.
Terry Collins thinks Murph could be an outfielder next year. Terry, everyone knows Murphy doesn't actually have a position.
Here's a fluff piece on Mike Baxter. I am still bitter. Apparently he is from Queens or something.
More on Baxter as Toby Hyde breaks down all the candidates for the 25th man spot over at the Mets Minor League Blog. Oh, and I've never seen Anchorman, so you guys are on your own there.
Ted Berg continues his thorough and authoritative culinary trip through the sandwiches of Citi Field.
And Fear and Faith in Flushing takes on the New York Times. Come on, that is hardly fair to the Times.
Around the NL East
Shane Victorino will eventually serve a 3-game suspension for getting his underthings all in a twist. I will play the world's tiniest violin for him as long as I can then smash it over his head, Jeff Jarrett-style. Oh, some guy name Halladay won again for the Phils.
Hanley Ramirez is still having shoulder issues. And the Marlins fell to the Braves as Dan Uggla extended his hit streak to 29 games.
The Nationals game was rained out, so instead I will just remind you to leave Steven Strasburg alone, dammit.
Around MLB
The first place Tigers gave extensions to skipper Jim Leyland and GM Dave Dombrowski.
David Ortiz knocked four hits, including a tie-breaking single in the ninth, to beat his old team, the Twins. Fangraphs speculates about Big Papi's next deal.
The White Sox won their fourth straight, and are only five back in the AL Central despite being two under .500. They might also go from using a six-man rotation to a four man rotation.
Jonah Keri is now a fulltime writer at Grantland, which makes it almost worth visiting regularly. Here he writes about defense independent pitching stats. WARNING: Splash picture of Ollie Perez will anger up the blood.
This was on the main MLB page at SI.com, so I felt the need to link it. If only they could use it on Beltran to make him clutch, or just make him cluck like a chicken.
Beyond the Box Score gets a little meta.
At The Hardball Times, Chris Jaffe has all the 200 game winner facts you will need to impress women geeks at the bar geek convention.
And the Baseball Reference blog takes a look at the often vexing Rule 10.17(c).