Another Bronx Tale

By Metstradamus
Posted Friday, June 27, 2008

Friday's forecast for the Dual Stadium Twinbill is for sunny skies and with temperatures upwards of 90 degrees, and then a small chance of showers at night. So most likely, both games will go as scheduled.

I'm kinda hoping one or both get rained out. Honestly, I'd laugh my ass off.

Look, I don't want to be a killjoy about this and go on and on about how the "Subway Series" has lost its luster, it's overhyped, it attracts not only the drunks but the super-mega drunks, it's this, it's that, bla bla blah. I believe all of that to a point. I also believe there are plenty of people who still enjoy this series as a nice little diversion from the grind of the regular season (and it has been a grind this season). So enjoy. And if you really want to enjoy the series, why not join Sam Borden in his charity walk from stadium to Shea Stadium between games.

But baseball got cute. They wanted this two-stadium doubleheader to happen, to the point that they discarded the idea of a normal Yankee Stadium doubleheader within the next day or two when the initial game was rained out. Yet, they didn't want to schedule it from the beginning of the season. They hoped for a rainout and got it. Thus, the split stadium doubleheader. Joy.

I think it would be absolutely freakin' hilarious if one game on Friday got rained out. I mean, they say you don't mess with Mother Nature. Major League Baseball has basically manipulated Mother Nature for its own gain. So I think that Mother Nature should strike back and teach baseball the lesson that you truly don't mess with Mother Nature.

Outside of that, here's what I'm hoping for: three Met wins this weekend.

No wait, screw hope. As a Met fan, you should demand three wins from this team.

On paper, the Mets are mediocre. They're 38-39, and thanks to a Phillies slump, they're only 3.5 games out of first. Fine. But on the field, the Mets don't pass the smell test. They're under .500 against last place teams, and they're 2-7 against Atlanta. That's disgusting in itself. Add in all of the ancillary stuff that has happened to this team, this season has been forgettable. But you want to make Mets fans start to forget about the first half of the season and start to be hopeful the rest of the way?

Three wins. There's no excuse to not take three out of four this series. Dan Giese, Sidney Ponson, and Darrell Rasner have to be hit hard this series. I know I know, the Mets like to fall back on the "you know, we really haven't seen these pitchers too much lately/at all" excuse ... much like the "we've flown to the west coast so much" excuse. The second excuse is over. The Mets have to obliterate the first excuse, starting today.

And in the Saturday game, when the Yankees throw out Andy Pettitte, the Mets counter with Johan Santana. Santana's numbers are pretty good this season for someone who's not a first half pitcher, but his WHIP of 1.22 is the highest that he's ever had for a half a season, as is his batting average against of .249. Good numbers, not Santana numbers. And while Johan has drawn a lot of tough pitching matchups this season, the Mets traded five players for him for the very purpose of not only matching up against other teams' aces, but beating them. Santana hasn't done that nearly enough. Andy Pettitte would be a good start in rectifying this.

This is the first chance in what is starting to become a series of last chances. Win three games, move on to the next last chance to prove that they're more than a .500 outfit. Anything less, then it mind as well rain until October ... to match what surely will be the mood around Shea Stadium.

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Metstradamus isn't a gangster like Jerry Manuel is ... so he isn't going to cut you in plain sight. He will, however, slice up his finger in a freak meat loaf accident. So the more time he's reading your comments on his blog, the less chance he has to cut himself.