Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

George: Is there a pinkish hue? Jerry: A pinkish hue? George: Yes, a rosy glow. Jerry: There's a hue. Seinfeld, "The Fix-Up" (original airdate February 5, 1992) Go figure that the Mets are heading into the All-Star Break playing a brand of baseball unprecedented in modern times (this 3 hits or fewer in five straight games thing). The Mets got "fixed-up" albeit in a different manner from George Costanza. And for all those bloggers that put together First Half Report Cards, those can be ripped up right about now. In that same episode, Jerry made this notation in the opening monologue. I tell ya, I never really understood the importance of the conductor. I mean between you and me, what the hell is this guy doing? Well, apparently ours is doing something right these days. Enough to give me both a rosy glow and a pinkish hue when thinking about the team for which I root. On to the minutiae about Saturday's game (our next post will come after the All-Star Break).

Reminder: A Mets Walk-Up win is a win in which the Mets score the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning. A walk-up home run or RBI is the one that gives the Mets the lead for good. The term "walk-up" is an offshoot of walk-off and is used to describe the process of scoring to take the lead, and then walking up the dugout steps and back on to the field for the top of the 9th. * Mets Walk-Up Win # 166 was the Mets second walk-up win of the season. It was their first since May 31, when they scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth to beat the Dodgers, 3-2. * The Mets have what you could call a walk-up imbalance. They have 7 walk-up wins against the Rockies, but only 4 walk-off wins against them. That's extremely unusual, considering that the Mets have more than twice as many walk-off wins (353) as walk-up wins (166). * Damion Easley's last two home runs against the Rockies have been a game-tying home run in the bottom of the 10th on April 24, 2007, and a wa

It seems timely to mention that this year is the 40th anniversary of what some might say is the best pitching performance by a Met in All-Star Game history. 1968 was the Year of the Pitcher, so it's not at all stunning that that year's All-Star Game had a final score of NL 1, AL 0, especially when you consider that the National League's first four pitchers are all Hall of Famers. The last of that quartet was the least experienced of the four, 23-year-old Tom Seaver, who had already made a name for himself by closing out the 15th inning of the previous year's Midsummer Classic. But in this instance, he bettered that performance. Check out these reviews, courtesy of a great article in the New York Times "Seaver was the toughest...he threw the hell out of the ball." -- AL manager Dick Williams "Seaver throws awfully hard," -- Boog Powell "He battled me and never gave in to me." -- Carl Yastrzemski What did Seaver do to earn their compliments?

They say good things come in threes, so here are three notes off Thursday's game. * The Mets held the Giants to 3 hits in each of the 3 games in this series. The last time the Mets allowed 3 hits or fewer in 3 straight games, we were too busy celebrating to notice. It was Games 161, 162, and 163 of the 1999 regular season (otherwise known as: Rick Reed's best game as a Met, the wild pitch heard 'round NYC, and Al Leiter's best game as a Met) * The Mets have allowed 3 hits or fewer in 3 straight games one other time- April 28-30, 1992- against the Astros. The wins in those 3 games were 4-0, 1-0 and 4-3. * 3 players that I'm liking a lot at this point... Damion Easley, who came off the bench Thursday. Did you know the Mets are 51-30 in games that Easley has started over the last two years? Fernando Tatis, who now has as many 4+ RBI games as a Met as Moises Alou (1). Argenis Reyes, who reminds me of Jose Oquendo (5 career walk-off hits, none for the Mets). True Metple

Balloting closes at 5pm for the Final Vote competition at MLB.com. Here are 5 minutiae reasons to vote for No. 5, David Wright. 1) He's a .367 career hitter with 22 RBI in 24 games at Yankee Stadium. He's 12-for-25 with 2 home runs there this season. 2) He's a .326 hitter in interleague play, with 14 home runs and 50 RBI in 59 games. 3) In the final man role, he's most likely to be used as a pinch-hitter or pinch-runner. He's a perfect 1.000 hitter as a pinch-hitter (1-for-1!) and is 87-for-108 career in stolen base attempts (80.6 percent successful). 4) He's got a walk-off hit against Mariano Rivera, whom he'd likely face late in the game, so he won't be intimidated by facing the AL's top closer in a critical spot, with home-field advantage on the line. 5) He has a sense of what's meaningful to Mets fans, having already previously homered against Kenny Rogers in an All-Star Game (joining Lee Mazzilli as the only Mets to homer in an All-Star Game

It's not my usual style to insult teams, but the current state of the Giants offense can be summed up in this manner. You could in one moment watch them send up a batter named Emmanuel, then within a few eye-blinks be watching them send up a batter named Lewis. They also happen to have a shortstop whose offensive skills would make Mario Diaz look like Babe Ruth (Trivia here: One of two calls to WFAN in my lifetime was a plea, about 15 years ago, that the Mets not trade Bobby Jones for Omar Vizquel...Howie Rose agreed, saying he'd be very "squeamish" about trading Bobby Jones. I still wouldn't make the deal, today :) ) This marks the first time in a LONG time that the Giants have a team without a significantly scary offensive threat. Your Giants of Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent, of Will Clark, Jeff Leonard, and Kevin Mitchell, even those of Jack Clark, and Chili Davis, are long, long, long, long gone. Of course, I say this, and they'll probably put up 40 runs in th

We can expect another one of these in a couple of weeks. Or maybe in this next series, since the Giants bring this kind of game out of us as well. The last time the Mets won a 10-9 game in Philadelphia was July 25, 1990, and if you've read your Metstradamus or Faith And Fear , you were probably reminded of how Mario Diaz (much like Bobby Richardson circa Game 7, 1962 World Series) was in the right place at the right time, snuffing out a potentially miraculous six-run Phillies rally in the 9th inning, with the catch of a line drive at shortstop. It brought an utterance of "damn" from Bob Murphy, probably the closest that the Hall of Fame announcer ever came to swearing on air. Slightly less than a month later, on August 19, the Mets and Giants played virtually a twin affair to that contest, on a Sunday at Candlestick Park. Much like Pedro Martinez, alleged Mets ace Dwight Gooden was struggling, coming off a two-start stretch in which he allowed eight runs in 11 innings. I

Visitors who came from MetsBlog...please check out the rest of the site: http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com Let's play multiple-choice trivia, since my plans for a couple lengthy essays were scuttled by a 12-hour workday. Which Sports Night character did the proprietor of this blog most resemble during Fernando Tatis's home run? No hints, other than to say that if you read my blog two years ago, you might recall the reference. A- Danny He was embarassing himself during a conversation with Hillary Clinton at the time of the Tatis HR. B- Jeremy He was playing sports trivia in a local bar with an adult film actress/choreoanimator at the time of the Tatis HR. C- Isaac He was in the bathroom at the time of the Tatis HR D- Dana He was at a showing of "The Lion King" at the time of the Tatis HR I'll keep you all in suspense...The answer is in the comments section. True Metnights know... Sports Night debuted on September 22, 1998, a dark day in Mets history, at it marked t