Worse Loss

I described to a friend of mine today that a two-run Met lead is really more like a one run lead at best. "Or", he said, "Is it sort of like they are actually DOWN two runs?" I said that things weren't that bad, but when the Mets 4-2 7th inning lead became a 7-4 deficit by the end of the 8th, I am all too unhappy to concede that my friend was probably right. Another bullpen disaster had crushed the Mets today, reducing their lead of the the Brewers to 1.5 games for the National League wild card. A two run homer by Carlos Delgado in the top of the 9th cut the Braves lead to 7-6 but went for naught when Carlos Beltran and Damion Easley struck out back to back to end the game. So, 10 games into their final 17, the Mets record in those games now stands at:

4 Wins

6 Losses

Mets head home now, staring at 7 tough games to close out the season. 4 against the Cubs starting Monday night and finishing up with a weekend season against the Marlins. Brewers will be hosting the woeful Pirates and then finish with the Cubs. It will be interesting to see how the Cubs set up their pitching rotation for each series and how well they play as they bide their time before the first round of the playoffs. Mets best chance at hanging on and making the playoffs is that the Brewers are playing even worse than they are now. That could change early this week, though, and that would spell big trouble for the Metropolitans.

Good grief.

Bad Loss

Mets lost 4-2 last night. Pedro Martinez looked uncomfortable on the mound, but after his patented bad first innings in which he gave up 3 runs, he settled in nicely and put up zeroes until the sixth. He also came up with the Mets' only big hit of the night, a two out, two run double. Rest of the offense remained silent all night. Bummer. So, their record after 9 of their last 17 games is now:

4 Wins

5 Losses

Thanks to the Reds, who beat the Brewers, theMets maintain at 2.5 game lead in the wildcard race and fell back to a half game deficit to the Phillies.

Big start by Pelfrey is essential today. Enjoy the game everyone.

Back in First Place!

Big night for my beloved Mets last night. Before the first pitch of their game was thrown the Phils and Brewers were training early and hope was high that the Mets could gain some ground last night.

Well, it wasn't easy, but they got the job done with a 9-5 win. I'll highlight a couple of unlikely heroes. First off, Aaron Heilman got a huge out in the 7th with the tying and lead runs in scoring position. Next bullpen hero was Brian Stokes who came in to start the 8th. After giving up a lead off single he got the next 3 guys out and, in a nice stroke of managing by Jerry Manuel, Stokes came back out to start the 9th and to the delight of all Mets fans he had an easy 1-2-3 inning.

So, after this win, their third in a row, the Mets are now 8 games into their final 17 games and their record in those games is now:

4 Wins

4 Losses

Running Tally

Backed by strong performance by two former Washington Nationals, Ryan Church and Brian Schneider (2 HR's), Johan Santana led the Mets to a 7-2 victory over those pesky Nats. With this crucial win the Mets record, so far, in their final 17 games of the season is now:

3 Wins

4 Losses

The Mets now hold a 1.5 game lead in the wildcard standings over the Milwaukee Brewers. (2 in the loss column.) The Brewers who are in a serious free fall, lost what had to be their toughest game in a looooooooong time. Up 6-2 going into the bottom of the ninth, Brewers closer Salomon Torres got the first two outs in the inning before the Cubs started an improbably rally that saw them tie the game in the 9th and eventually win it in the bottom of the 12th on a two out base hit by Derek Lee. As if that is not bad enough, the fact that the Brewers had men on 2nd and 3rd with no one out in the top of the 12 and DID NOT SCORE, has to have that team questioning just about everything.

More on the Mozart Find

The afternoon press conference in Nantes has yielded some more information on the the discovery announced earlier today. Here is an udated version of the AP story. Enjoy.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080918/ap_on_re_eu/eu_mozart_discovery

New Mozart Composition Discovered

According to an AP story by John Leicester, a new, previously unknown composition by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was discovered in a library in Western France. The single page is a sketch of a piece, just the melody, but is nonetheless a clearly huge discovery. See the link below for further details. I look forward to seeing the page and hearing this melody in the near future. Will comment further on this when more information is available.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080918/ap_on_en_mu/eu_mozart_discovery

Running Tally

When Luis Ayala struck out Roger Bernadini, who was representing the tying run, the Mets got a much needed, and unnecessarily tense, win. Their record 6 games into their final 17 games is now:

2 Wins

4 Losses