Baseball is a wonderful game at times and cruel at others. The Nationals lost the games they were suppossed to win and are now losing the ones they are suppossed to lose. It just makes it that much worse when nothing seems to go right. These games are still not painful to watch like last year's team. I think this team is closer than some people realize, but at the same time further away than others realize. It really all depends on what happens with the injured pitchers and Adam Dunn to how close the team is. A bad trade of Dunn or a negative on the injured pitchers and this team has even further to go. I am also not very happy that I have to listen to Lovegame everytime someone calls me and all it got us was one measly win.
Mets vs. Nationals
The last road series the Nationals won was against the Mets, and it also happenned at a time when the time was riding its highest. It looked like the Mets were headed down and the Nationals' future was closer than everyone thought. As it turns out the Mets got things turned around and the Nationals just stopped playing well. I was watching Top Chef during the game last night and I was reminded of something. Get the little things right. Too many of the bad chefs on that show are just like the Nationals. They had to make a pie and the second some of them said what they were doing I just knew it wouldn't be good. You have to be able to get the little things right before getting ambitious, and honestly shouldn't flavor profiles be just as simple to top chefs as fundamental baseball to a major league team.
Thursday July, 1 Johan Santana vs. Livan Hernandez
Santana has not had a good outing for awhile. His last four outings have been terrible for a pitcher of his caliber. He simply has to pitch better if the Mets hope to catch the Braves. I am sure most teams would be overjoyed to see that Johan has struggled recently, but it seems as if the Nationals are not a team to take advantage of oppurtunities. Put an open door in front of a Nationals player and they would walk into the wall. Johan is a good pitcher and he might be distracted by off the field issues. He should be able to get right against the Nationals, but he did give up four runs to them earlier in the season.
Livan has reverted to being Livan. He had a blow-up in his last game but then a good game before that one. So this game should be good. Livan needs to just be Livan and hope the defense can play behind him. The big problem with a pitcher like Livan is the defense needs to be solid behind him, but he does give a couple advantages to the team when he is on the mound. He can field his position and handle the bat. Hopefully Livan can keep the game close and we get to see the bad side of the Mets bullpen.
Friday July, 2 Jon Neise vs. Luis Atilano
Neise has been one of many good rookies this season. He did not pitch very well against the Nationals the last time we saw him, but as it turns out he was hurt and we didn't get to see the best of Neise. The Nationals offense right now is one a pitcher should be able to deal with, but I am always more worried playing a cold team than a hot team because the cold team has to get hot at some point and you never want it to be against you. Maybe this pressure of not letting the Nationals get hot against him gets to Neise and he gives up a few runs.
If Atilano was on a better team he would also be a suprising rookie. As it is he is just a rookie. He had a decent start against Baltimore and it would have helped if he could have avoided the big inning. I wouldn't have minded the three runs so much if they had come in three seperate innings, but as it was it was a big inning and it tied the game. The defense didn't exactly help him out either, but it isn't likely to help anyone out.
Saturday July, 3 R.A. Dickey vs. Stephen Strasburg
This is the match-up I did not want to see. Dickey has been better than Strasburg this month and no one is talking about him for the all-star game. Dickey has had to fight and scratch for everything he has gotten from baseball. Lesser men in his position would have retired a failure when they lost their fastball, but Dickey learned another pitch and he faught his way back through the minors. He has made spot starts and been a replacement player, and now is his chance. This is a game where he can prove to the world that sometimes age, determination, guile, and guts can win over talent.
Have you been outside today? I am serious. It is really nice. Cool mornings. The afternoon heat doesn't blaze off the asphalt like an oven in hell. It is just comfortable to be outside. Kind of like San Diego weather. Kind of like Stephen Strasburg weather. In his last two starts he didn't have his best stuff and he lost. Forget about the offense for a minute and focus on Strasburg without his best stuff on schorching hot days. Now close your eyes and imagine the rage building within him at his two loses. He is the starter and he owns those loses. No one else is to blame but him. If he had done this just a little better and maybe then this would have happenned. He sleeps at night and sees these moments in his head, and knows he can do better. Now imagine him on the mound glaring down David Wright, a crisp summer breeze nuzzles the hairs on his neck, he stares at the catchers glove and lets the ball go.
Sunday July, 4 Hisanori Takahashi vs. Craig Stammen
I don't really ever want to have to spell that name again. He is another one of the suprises that have kept the Mets in this race far longer than they should have been. He is asian and thus has a funky delievery with a bit of a pause in it. Hopefully the Nationals can figure him out and get some hits off of him. At this point in time i don't really have faith in them to get hits off anyone, but this colection of starters, on paper, are not as good as what we faced in Atlanta.
Stammen might have had the best start of his season against the Braves. He dealt with some good hitters and was able to get them out. He looked like he was pitching out there and thinking about what each pitch meant and how to use it to set up his next pitches. He was moving the ball and changing speeds and not throwing that stupid slider. Stammen has a fastball and a sinker that can get major league hitters out. His sharp curveball is good when he throws it when he is ahead in the count and can disguise it well. Stammen is another one of these pitchers that has the ability, but just needs to work on the mental aspects. We all saw with Jason Bergman what happens when they just don't figure things out. Stammen is at the same crossroads.
X-Factors
The Mets top x-factor isn't even on their major league roster yet. The entire question surrounding this Mets team is when does Carlos Beltran come back and what happens when he gets here. Maybe it is a little bit of the Ewing effect with the Mets right now and they are playing better without their star player because they have to. If Beltran can come back and be Carlos Beltran then the Mets are a much more dangerous team than the Atlanta Braves, but right now the questions surrounding his return might be a distraction to the team.
So, can we call that guy that hit Nancy Kerrigan? Does anyone have that guys number? maybe we can direct him to the tunnel and give him a discription of Nyjer Morgan, but with our luck he would take out Bernadina instead. So, maybe that isn't the best idea. Hopefully Riggleman figures out that Morgan just isn't that good and we can all add him to the list of Wily Mo's and Nook Logan's. I would hope at some point a hot August and September would translate to a guy actually being good. It seems to happen for every other major league franchise. This is one team that doesn't need any bad luck but seems to get more than its fair share.
Final Thoughts
I wonder who hates Willie Harris more at this point. Mets fans or Nationals fans? This team is so filled with useless pieces it is hard to imagine them ever winning another series this entire year. Luckily this is a four game series and we can both not win and not lose. With the terrible way June went hopefully July can get off to a somewhat decent start. If anything I hope we lose the first game of the series and then either split or win the next three. I just don't want to hear Bob Carpenter talking about how this team is undefeated in the month of July. I think we can earn the split, but at this time it would be earning something just to tie.
