Mets Morning News: Zzzzzzzz

Meet the Mets

The baseball season is a mandatory 162 games long, so that's sixteen more Mets games for those keeping score at home. Hopefully a few of them will be better than Sunday's contest against the Brewers. Moving on...

The Mets head back home to face the Phillies of Philadelphia. R.A. Dickey goes for his 19th win, which would tie Gio Gonzalez for the NL lead. Orel Hershiser thinks this is very important.

Mike Kerwick looks at the unexpected success of Dickey and the unexpected durability of Chris Young, brought to you by the number eighteen.

Jeurys Familia's scheduled start on Wednesday has been nixed, as the Mets want to keep him in the bullpen for the rest of the season. Collin McHugh and Jeremy Hefner are the leading candidates to take the start.

Aramis Ramirez did this after hitting a very long home run. I'm sure this violates some unwritten rule of baseball, but the Brewers and Mets don't face each other again this year, so whatever.

The Blue Jays and Buffalo have begun their long, complicated AAA mating dance, which makes the Mets shotgun marriage to Las Vegas look more and more likely.

Yesterday at AA

Brock Mahan brings you This Date in Mets History, brought to you by the number 20.

Or you can relive the horror of yesterday's game with either our short or longer recaps.

And in a weird twist, Yesterday in AA brings you the last week in AA. It's quite the intricate puzzle box.

Around the NL East

The Marlins fell in extras in their series finale with the Reds. Amazingly that is the only game in the series the Fish lost. Maybe Ozzie was right.

Hey, remember when the Phillies were making a run at the wild card? Well, they just lost three of four against the Astros. Yup.

And the Braves denied Gio Gonzalez his twentieth win in a rainy slog on Sunday night baseball, wrapping up a sweep of the Nats. Go Dickey!

Around MLB

Let's start off by getting you caught up on the rather chaotic AL playoff race.

The Yankees beat the Rays, but the Orioles matched them against Oakland. New York remains one up on Baltimore in the AL East, while Tampa is four back of the O's and five of the Yanks. Guess Joe Girardi's job is safe for another day. The A's loss knocks them three back of the Rangers in the AL West. Got it? Good.

Jose Valverde gave up two runs in the ninth, and a 6-5 lead turned into a 7-6 loss for the Tigers in Cleveland. That, combined with a White Sox win against the Twins, pushed Detroit two back of Chicago in the AL Central.

The NL isn't quite as complicated, but the Cardinals beat the Dodgers in extra innings to give themselves a little breathing room, while the Pirates continue to fade out of the NL Wild Card race. The Pirates have a band-aid for that gaping leg wound though, as they are removing James McDonald from the rotation.

Barry Zito might be making a playoff start for the Giants, because why not.

And finally, Bobby Valentine continues to do everything possible to get fired. This gives me an excuse to link to this clip though, since it also involves Jose Iglesias. Saw it live and still can't believe that throw.