Reds 4 Mets 2

It was a nice night at Shea. We saw a good pitcher's duel and had a pleasant evening other than a brief rain shower. I think it has to rain every time I go to a game. The loss drops my season record to 3-3 but two of those wins were Opening Day and a walk-off against the Yankees. Those outweigh a loss to the Reds.

The game got off to a good start as once again the Mets scored in the first inning. Reyes doubled, and scored on a Beltran grounder after a Lo Duca sacrifice. I have no idea why Willie insists on sacrificing in the first inning. You cannot play for one run in the first inning. He needs to let Lo Duca hit and hope he can get him over with an our, or start a big inning with a hit.

The Reds got the run right back after Kearns singled and stole second, one of three successful steals by the Reds against Mike Piazza, I mean Paul Lo Duca. Phillips walked and Ross (the best catcher in the NL this season) singled home the run, moving Phillips to third with Arroyo coming up and one out. The Reds tried a suicide squeeze but Arroyo popped it up and El Duque caught it. But Brandon Phillips refused to be tagged. He walked all the way home, hid behind the umpire, then pushed off him and tried to run back to third. He was called out as soon as he stepped out of the baseline. El Duque tagged him anyway, then flipped the ball to Phillips, who tossed it into the stands behind Cincinnati's dugout



Things went quickly for the next few innings, Arroyo was rolling and El Duque was getting into and out of little jams. Until Ken Griffey Jr led off the 6th with a solo home run. That was the 548th of his career tying him with Michael Jack Schmidt for 11th on the all-time list. It also gave him and his father a combined total of 700. If not for injuries maybe Barry Bonds would be chasing Ken Griffey.

After a leadoff single by Chavez in the fourth Arroyo retired 10 straight Mets. In the 8th Reyes got a hit but was forced at second on a great double play turned by Juan Castro (no relation to Ramon) who was brought in for defense. That earned a star in my scorecard. Delgado also earned a star for a grounder he fielded in the fourth.

The top of the 8th was where the bullpen let us down. Feliciano started the inning with an out. He had not given up a run in 11 straight innings. But he gave up singles to Dunn and Kearns and he hit Hatteberg to load the bases. Bradford came in, having allowed only 1 of 24 inherited runners to score (Claudia and I were right, Dad was wrong), but now it's 3 of 27. The first batter, Brandon Phillips doubled down the right field line to make it 4-1.

Beltran led off the top of the ninth with a blast, foul. It hit the small scoreboard on the facing of the loge section knocking out the top half of the letters B-A-L-L. On the next pitch he straightened it out for a homer, making the score 4-2.

Then Delgado came up. With the Mets needing a base runner he refused to bunt, or check swing to hit one to the left side with the shift on. I don't understand this. Teams shift to try to persuade power hitters to settle for singles. In this instance a single was as good as a homer down two runs. Swinging for the fences, Delgado struck out. Wright singled by Valentin, his dyed moustache and Xavier Nady could do no good.

A pretty good start overall from El Duque. An encouraging 9th inning from Wagner.

Arroyo was great though. I don't remember him being this good with Boston but tonight he threw 116 pitches in a complete game victory. He is now 9-3 with a 2.47 ERA and if the season ended right now he'd be up there with Webb and Glavine as Cy Young candidates.



Learn Spanish with Professor Reyes: Perro Caliente is a hot dog. Some people had trouble rolling their Rs.
Met's Make a Deal: Guy traded in a Tom Glavine wall clock for basket #2, an xBox. Can't confirm if it was a 360, that seems rather generous.
Mets-terpiece Theater: Steve Trachsel said "Life moves pretty fast sometimes, if you don't stop to look around every once in a while you might miss it."
I didn't catch the name of the segment but they asked some Mets a question in this case it was "who on the team is the best tipper?" Cliff Floyd and Steve Trachsel were the most common answers. And Carlos Beltran said he frequently eats by himself.




After a 9-1 road trip the Mets are 1-3 at home.