Franky Frank Stinky Stinks Applesauce: Marlins And Francisco Spoil Mets' Comeback, Ronny Cedeno Is Back, Chris Young Gets Positive Review

Meet the Mets

The New York Mets have made comebacks a habit early on in 2012. So when they scored three runs in the top of the eighth against the Marlins bullpen, it was natural to get excited and start thinking that this one could really be their twelfth comeback victory of the season (and fourth in a row). Unfortunately, this one was just not meant to be. An Ike Davis error on an easy Jose Reyes groundball, followed by an Omar Infante double, plated a run in the bottom of the eighth and Frank Francisco got hit around in the ninth for a pair of runs, as the Mets fell 6-5 to the Marlins in walk-off fashion. In some good news, Francisco fought out there and threw a ton of strikes, though in retrospect, likely a few too many. Giancarlo Stanton also hit one of the hardest groundballs I've ever seen against Francisco, a ball that rolled to the wall for a double. Let's not forget about Johan Santana, who got off to a slow start. Santana allowed three runs in the first, two on a solo home run to Austin Kearns, who surprisingly still plays in the major leagues. After that, Santana was excellent. He allowed just those 3 runs over 6 innings of work, walking none and striking out 7 over just 82 pitches. Oh well. Let's just get them tomorrow.

Choose Your Recap: MLB.com, ESPN NY, Star-Ledger, Bergen Record, New York Times, Daily News, Associated Press

The Mets and Marlins face off at 1:05 PM this afternoon in Miami. Ricky Nolasco heads to the hill for the Marlins and he'll face off against R.A. Dickey. You can catch all of the action on FOX and personally, I'm sort of hoping that Terry Collins starts a Dickey/Rob Johnson battery in this one.

Ronny Cedeno is back! The infielder was activated off of the DL and Vinny Rottino was optioned back to Buffalo. Prior to the game, Terry Collins said that Cedeno is the man at SS while Ruben Tejada is out.

Chris Young started for Class A St. Lucie on Thursday evening and threw five shutout innings. Dan Warthen relayed a positive review from minor league instructor Jon Debus, who watch Young pitch. Apparently, Young was sitting around 85 MPH and though that doesn't sound impressive, his fastball averaged 84.7 MPH in his four starts last season.

This game was the start of a grueling 20-game stretch without an off day. Terry Collins says he will try to strategically gives his guys days off when he can.

Savannah righty and burgeoning Mets pitching prospect Domingo Tapia sat down for a short interview with Toby Hyde. The 20-year old Tapia features an excellent sinking fastball that sits 95-98 MPH and touches 99 MPH. Toby's been talking him up for a while now and this sure looks like the start of a breakout year for the Dominican righty.

In the Times, Ken Belson takes a look at early season attendance figures and the Mets' ticket numbers are sitting around where they were a season ago. Of course, if the team keeps winning, you'd imagine that number rises some over time.

Around the NL East

BREAKING: The Phillies won a game! Yes, the Padres count as a major league team. In a minor deal, the Phils dealt Lehigh Valley outfielder Scott Podsednik to the Red Sox. In bigger TRAID rumblings, the Phillies spoke with the Blue Jays about Shane Victorino. Nothing seems to be on the table; it looks like the two teams are just checking in.

The Nationals beat the Reds 7-3 behind five strong innings from Gio Gonzalez and a Danny Espinosa home run. In stranger news, Bryce Harper needed 10 stitches above his eye after the game. The frustrated Harper suffered the flesh wound after taking out his anger on a clubhouse wall, which bounced the bat back off of his face. Ouch.

Jason Heyward's 12th inning home run defeated the selfish monster known as Carlos Beltran, as the Braves won 9-7 over the Cardinals.

Around the Majors

Josh Hamilton has come to play this week. After hitting two more home runs on Friday, Hamilton now leads the major leagues with 17 bombs and is just the third player ever to hit that many homers in 33 games.

Stephen Strasburg is also ridiculous. The man has a 1.59 ERA in 68 innings since returning from Tommy John surgery.

Scary moment for Marlins' catcher Brett Hayes, as a gunman walked past his car during some highway traffic.

Adam Dunn's historically bad 2011 seems to be a thing of the past. Dunn already has hit 11 home runs in 2012 (he hit 11 total in 2011) and is hitting a much more Dunn-like .243/.384/.586. Meanwhile, Chris Sale has lobbied himself back into the White Sox rotation. As it should be. Of course, Sale's agent is concerned how his client is being treated by the club.

The Blue Jays signed Vladimir Guerrero to a minor league deal but GM Alex Anthopoulos says he has no idea what they're going to do with Vlad.