10 Thoughts On New York Mets at Boston Red Sox (Games 41, 42, & 43)

Boxscore

Scores are for the final game of the series. I stopped doing this because I thought I was jinxing the team.

1) I can’t tell you how refreshing it was to see the Mets fans taking a huge chunk of Fenway Park. The Red Sox fans do this everywhere and it was awesome to see Fenway get a taste. I presume this is mostly because the Red Sox season ticket holders don’t sell their Yankees/Sox tickets, but were perfectly willing to make up a chunk of their ticket fee on this game. It’s a lot of fun when you have a split crowd. The dueling “Let’s Go Red Sox LETS GO METS” chants came across well on TV and the crowd was hot for all three games. Apparently Sox fans got a little douchey at the end — they’re not used to being challenged at Fenway, but after taking 2/3 I’m perfectly happy to here a “Go Home Mets” chant.

2) The ninth inning of Game 2 was the best inning of baseball I’ve seen the Mets play this year. Omir Santos was one of the most unlikely guys on the team to hit a 2-run go-ahead home run in the top of the ninth. In the bottom, the defensive play was some of the best stuff I’ve seen all year. It’s like the defense made a conscious “No Effin Way We’re Losing This Game” decision and played that way. Great, great defense to hold on to the win. And for the record — thank God for video replay. Without it, Santos gets a double, Razor Shines is called for interference against Gary Sheffield, and the game is over. And, here is my question — WTF was Terry Francona arguing? It’s a home run. The interference never happens.

3) Not to pile on David Ortiz but this was the first time I’ve got to watch him for consecutive games. Wow. He was only 1/4th of the way through his swing by the time Santos was throwing the fastball back to Mike Pelfrey. At this point, should there be any approach other than 3 fastballs? Some kind of weird “respect” thing?

4) I now understand the Yankee fans’ absolute hatred of Kevin Youkilis. I didn’t before, but holy crap is he an annoying player to watch. He’s got the Derek Jeter annoying tendency to dive out over the plate and get hit by pitches in the strike zone (and still get a base) and, on top of that, he’s never been thrown a strike in his career — only pitches that he deems “close enough” to swing at. On the other hand, Yankee fans, that’s what everyone other than you thought about Paul O’Neill. Johan Santana telling him to shut the Eff up and take his base is my favorite moment of the year thus far.

5) That said, this last game was going to be Tim Wakefield vs. Tim Redding. This was going to be coin toss. Wakefield could either throw a no-hitter or give up 15 runs. Redding the same. Besides, if you told me the Mets were going to head in to Fenway Park — where it’s generally impossible for road teams to win — and win 2 with 4 starters and 5 backups and injury replacements I would have signed up for it immediately.

6) Manuel taking out Redding in favor of Green in the bottom of the 5th on Sunday lives just on the border of his constant overmanaging. Like… really? Need to pull your starter against the 9-hitter who’s 0-2 with 1K for your 7.36 ERA, 1.9 WHIP reliever? One out before he qualifies for a win? Really? I’m thisclose to starting a wtfjerrymanuel website where we talk about Jerry’s insane managing moves. Could mention pulling Takahashi for Stokes for no good reason, too. Jerry Manuel — where 3 relievers for 1.3 innings happens.

7) What will come first? Dustin Pedroia qualifying for his first free agent contract or Dustin Pedroia wrenching his back and being out for a season. I’m not rooting for that, mind you. Pedroia seems like a good enough dude but my Lord. How long can he keep up that monstrous swing?

8) I’d like to thank Ken Takahashi for dropping the baseball in his wind-up and ticking off an item on the “stuff I’ve never seen in a Major League Baseball Game” checklist.

9) You really take a great defensive shortstop for granted when you have one. These last few games watching pathetic dribblers sneak by Ramon Martinez have been frustrating. The Jason Bay hit in the sixth that scored Pedroia and started the avalanche is an out with Reyes in the lineup. The Alex Cora injury — an incredibly underrated pick-up by Omar Minaya — has turned out to be huge. If one or both of Luis Castillo’s knees explode anytime soon, the Mets are going to be in terrible shape.

10) Speaking of the Alex Cora injury — Daniel Murphy’s surprisingly competent first-base play and the sudden decimation of the middle infield has killed the Nick Johnson trade talks almost as quickly as they arose. The problem is — who the frick are they going to trade for? We already have one of the better utility middle infielders on the DL. We’re going to trade for another? But hey, at least we’ll have 3 healthy catchers come next week.

Turns out –maybe doing this IS jinxing the team.