Irish Hammerin' Applesauce: GWRBI, UZRS, and other things Daniel Murphy collects

Mets fans, it is important to keep some perspective. There will be days to come when this team will drive you mad. The bullpen will blow games in ludicrous ways. There will be misplayed fly balls, too many BUNTZ and games where they can't get the runner in from...you know what, screw it. 162-0 BAYBEEEEEEEEEE!

Meet Love the Mets

While starting a line-up comprised almost entirely of homegrown players, the Metsies kept on winning, beating the Nationals 4-3 on a walk-off single from Daniel Murphy. The previous half inning saw Murph make a sweet diving stop to save a base hit, so game ball and orange slices for Daniel Murphy! The Mets and Nationals continue their three game set tonight as Ross Detwiler takes on Dillon Gee. Ted Berg previews all the Nationals pitching here. The Mets' line-up will be without Ike Davis, who has a scheduled Valley Fever check-up.

Kirk Nieuwenhuis hit his first career home run last night, a two run shot that tied the game in the fourth. It was not exactly down in the strike zone, but a hanging slider works, too. Kirk has looked pretty good out there so far, despite misplaying a ball off the wall last night, and flailing some against lefties.

R.A. Dickey held court on ESPN.com yesterday and chatted with Mets fans. He also stopped by the Baseball Today podcast. And he'll be signing books today in Manhattan, while I am stuck here at work. Boo! I know a bunch of AAers are going today, so have fun you guys.

Over at SNY.tv, Patrick Flood catches us all up with some notes from the weekend series with the Braves, Toby Hyde looks at why Matt Harvey was sent to AAA, and Ted Berg pens an ode to Bill Murray.

And at Faith and Fear in Flushing, Greg Prince is pleased that the Mets are rolling back the prices to 1962 levels.

Around the NL East

The Marlins and Phillies faced off, so unfortunately both teams couldn't lose. So we'll have to settle for Cole Hamels having a sad. If you really want to bask in the schadenfreude, here's a helpful list of players with more home runs than the Phillies entire team.

The Braves staked Brandon Beachy to a 3-run lead against the Astros. The Braves lost 8-3. Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

*wipes tear*

Moving on, more bad news for the Nationals, as closer Drew Storen has an appointment with Dr. James Andrews. That's not usually a good sign.

Ozzie Guillen is heading back to Miami to make a special second apology for his comments about Fidel Castro. If you can't keep track of all of Ozzie's gaffes over the years, Baseball Nation has a scorecard for you. Craig Calcaterra, on the other hand, just thinks Ozzie is a Bob Dylan fan. Well, at least this isn't turning into a cheap political circus.

Around MLB

In case you weren't already convinced that the apocalypse was coming in December, Barry Zito pitched a shutout at Coors Field. He joins Tom Glavine as the only lefties to shut out the Rockies at Coors Field in the team's history.

At FanGraphs, Dave Cameron takes a look at Felix Hernandez's disappearing fastball, while J.P. Breen delves into Jonathan Broxton's reappearing heater.

Yu Darvish made his MLB debut for the Rangers and was very shaky to start. In the end, he managed to work through 5 2/3 and pick up a win as the Rangers pounded the Mariners 11-5. I suppose I should make a joke here about Yu Darvish being Japanese for "Jack Morris" or something.

The Rangers have also reached an agreement on a 5 year, 75 million dollar extension with second baseman Ian Kinsler.

It's not all good news, as the Yankees did finally get off the scheid. Granted, they were facing the Orioles, so that should only count for like half a win. And this dude can finally relax, as the Red Sox rallied to beat the Blue Jays, and Alfredo Aceves has an ERA now.

C.J. Wilson's Angels debut went a bit better as he tossed seven sterling innings against the Twins.

Finally, Tom Milone is magic. That is a heck of a pitching line, Tommy.