Metties

Calling Glavine "the goat" (ESPN and NYPost) is exactly what I disagree with - you can't blame him for yesterday's game, as discussed (or should I say "disgust"??) in my earlier post.

Wow, Glavine's not perfect. Shocking. Especially when ump is calling tight (and later in the game totally F'in arbitrary) strike zone. Glavine needs a wide strike zone to dominate. But 3 runs is not much, especially when we are facing Jeff "8-14 5.76 ERA" Weaver. Mets built this team around offense, not pitching. We knew that in regular season and postseason. This team lives and dies by the HR.

I'd like to see them play smarter, with different game plans depending on who the pitching matchup is. For example, with Glavine on the mound last night the Mets could reasonably expect to win with 4-5 runs. So maybe go for small ball, instead of trying to always have the big inning. Maybe have Lo Duca bunt in first inning with Reyes on. Or if not, at least in later innings in a close, low-scoring game, let's switch our approach at the plate. Try to manufacture runs, rather than relying on HRs.

Problems with this series, in no particular order:
1. Wagner 3-run 9th.
2. Trachsel.
3. Wright constantly hitting out of an 0-2 or 1-2 count. Every one of his appearances is: strike 1 looking outside corner, strike 2 swinging inside corner, ball 1, foul, fly ball out. He really needs to move closer to plate and adjust his mental approach.
4. Reyes regressing back towards last season, and not having patience to draw walks.
5. Trachsel.
6. Not counting pile-on runs in game 4, limited production from 5-9 slots.
7. Trachsel.

Mets are choking up for same reason as Yankees - not even considering possibility of small ball, but instead always looking for big inning. This is fine if we have a lead or a big inning type of situation (runners on 2nd and 3rd, 0 or 1 outs, etc.) But so far in this series, our highly vaunted offense has put up: 2, 6, 0, 12, and 2 runs. In 3 out of 5 games we've scored a whopping total of 4 runs.