One Down, 161 To Go
April 6th, 2010 by slangon
First of all, I know it’s only one game, and even though the Marlins have a lot of talent, they’re not necessarily the pride of the National League. For the Mets to get that first win under their belt was huge though, especially the way that they went about it.
Their Ace pitched like an Ace. The Face of the Franchise got that Home Run Monkey off his back early. The new guys contributed. The closer closed (even if it was with a 6 run cushion). They beat a pitcher who’s had their number forever. They actually took advantage of defensive miscues on the other teams part. All in all, they played a nice crisp game of baseball.
For anyone who isn’t a New York Metropolitan fan, being this relieved by one win this early in the season might seem unfounded, but believe me, it feels damn good after all the garbage we’ve been served by this team over the last few seasons. I’m also well aware that there’s still 161 games to be played and 80% of them will not be started by Johan Santana, and that certainly worries me. It just makes me feel a little better knowing that at least until tomorrow at 7:10, the Mets are in a three way tie for first and undefeated.
In a weird bit of coincidence, one of the guys I was most impressed with in yesterdays win was Fernando Nieve, who pitched a scoreless 7th and 8th inning. I guess I say that I was most impressed just because he’s one of the many question marks on this team so it made me feel better to see him get off to a good start. I mean, as impressive as Johan or K-Rod pitched, you expect that from them. As happy as I was to see Wright and Bay hit well, that’s what they do. Nieve had a very strange season last year, going 3-0 in his first three starts with a 1.31 ERA, while going 0-3 in his last 4 starts with a 5.06 ERA before he went down with a torn muscle in his thigh.
Anyway, the coincidental part was that when I got home last night, after thinking how I was impressed with Nieve’s outing, I found an envelope address to me in my handwriting postmarked from West Palm Beach. Inside of that envelope was this:
Nice looking autograph!
I was happy to see the Mets win — especially since they finally managed to beat Josh Johnson. I hope they can make it 2 in a row tomorrow night.