Have Faith... Every 5th Game

Why? Why does this team torture me so much? This entire season for the Mets has been up and down. One minute, they're the toast of the NL blowing everyone out of the water with hitting and terrific pitching. The next minute they're getting blown out by sub .500 teams and look worse than Gwyneth Paltrow in a fat suit. Seriously, the other night Shallow Hal was on and I turned the Mets game off to watch that. It's not something I'm proud of, just a fact. However as of late, it seems that when John Maine take's the hill, the team wants to win. Tonight's 6-2 win over the Astros was no exception.

John Maine > Cole Hamels

In Maine's last four starts, he and the team are 4-0 and have outscored their opponents 29-7. Maine has earned 6 of those runs in 30 IP and in 3 out of the 4 games he has pitched into the 8th inning. We need one of those machines from The Prestige that duplicates Hugh Jackman so we can use it on Maine. And through all of this, Maine has still gone completely un-noticed, which is just fine by him. Maine has come a long way from last years Hiroshima like explosions on the mound, he has now become a pitcher who is consistently determined, and is now the most reliable pitcher on the Mets staff. It may not sound like much given the personel on the staff, but it's a compliment. Trust me.

The point is, the Mets are just flat out better when Maine pitches, and those stats above are closer to his dominating begining of the year which earned him NL Pitcher of the Month honors in April. He leads the team quietly, and refuses to settle for mediocricy. In the 8th inning of tonight's game, Maine got taken out after giving up an RBI double to Carlos Lee or as his fans call him, El Caballo (The Horse). As Maine walked into the dugout and sat down, Rick Peterson came over and began to pat him on the back but Maine didn't look pleased. The man had just thrown 7 2/3rd's innings of terrific baseball but because of one RBI double he gave up with a 5-run lead, he was upset. He wanted to finish that inning unscathed. He wanted to go in for the kill, but couldn't. He was also probably angry because he gave up a double to someone who will later in life, be sold as glue. That's a legitimate pet-peeve.

Carlos Lee

John Maine's determination to finish off the game and get the win is what every player on the Mets needs to do. Instead, the team has been playing the way Keith Hernandez acts while in the SNY booth. In the famous 8th inning of tonight's game, Keith was shown without shoes and socks on, feet kicked up on the desk and slouched in his chair while doing the telecast. When Gary Cohen told Keith he was being shown on the air, Keith quickly threw his legs under the desk and looked more embarrased than pretty boy Brady Quinn after every team in the top 10 of the 2007 NFL Draft passed on him, including the team in most need of a QB, the Dolphins. Only Keithe didn't run and hide in the commisioners booth, he just sat there and tried to move along.

Is this not a parrallel with the way the Mets have played this year? It's like as soon as the team starts to take a dip and relax a little bit, they start losing and people are alright with it for the time being. But when it catches on and people are asking what the hell is going on, they quickly try and fix the problem and act like nothing had happened. Well no more emulating Keith and hiding feet under the desk, they need to emulate the Maine Event and play until the final out, and never play on cruise control. Cruise control is dangerous anyway, and only old ladies use it. But if the Mets haven't gotten the wake up call after being swept by the Rockies, I'm not sure they'll get one at all.

Unless us fans start to boo them...

...at 7am.