April 6, 2004

Barry Bonds, for those of you who don’t know, is incredible. Some of you may not have watched the Giants-Astros game on Monday night on ESPN2. It’s a shame too. The Astros’ starter was Roy Oswalt. And he looked great.

Bonds, batting fourth, led off the top of the second inning. The Astros put on "the Williams shift", moving shortstop Adam Everett into short right center and third baseman Morgan Ensberg over to the shortstop position and pinched the left fielder Lance Berkman toward center. Bonds proceeded to hammer a pitch right through the normal third base position into the left field corner. He cruised in for a double. Edgardo Alfonzo flew out to right fielder Richard Hidalgo in medium right field, right on the foul line. Hidalgo was running away from the field, so Bonds tagged up and took third on a nice bit of baserunning. He was stranded there.

With two outs in the fourth inning, Oswalt pitched to Bonds again. Bonds hit a high fly ball to the warning track, bouncing it off the wall for his second stand-up double. Bonds moved the third on an Alfonzo infield single and then scored when A. J. Pierzynski singled to center.

In the fifth inning, after a Michael Tucker single, Oswalt walked Bonds on five pitches.

The Astros scored twice in the bottom of the seventh inning to take a 4-1 lead to the Giants in the eighth. Oswalt gave up a single to Ray Durham to open the inning. He then struck out J. T. Snow, who was standing on the plate, or so it seemed. As Michael Tucker, who is inexplicably batting third for the Giants, came to the plate, the announcers, Chris Berman, Tony Gwynn and Rick Sutcliffe, all wondered how much longer Oswalt would go. Everyone figured that Tucker would be Oswalt’s last batter faced, whether he reached base or not. Tucker singled, and out of the dugout came Jimy Williams.

In the Game Chatter, Jefferson smelled a tie game. I commented that I couldn’t believe Jimy Williams thought a LOOGY could get Bonds out (free hint – they can’t).

Down in the Astro bullpen, only Brad Lidge was ready. There was no LOOGY to be found. Williams patted Oswalt on the back and said, "go get him."

The score was 4-1 and there were two runners on. The baddest baseball player in the game today strode to the plate. Should you pitch to Bonds in this situation? Before anyone screams about putting the tying run on base, try to remember all the other baseball cliches that have been undone. Okay, it’s not a good idea, but this is Barry Bonds. Bonds had already seen every pitch Oswalt had. He had already hit Oswalt hard twice in the game, when Oswalt was much fresher than he was now, having thrown 97 pitches.

But Jimy walked back to the dugout alone. Red Sox fans across America giggled like schoolgirls.

Oswalt threw his first pitch, aimed low and away. The ball didn’t make it very low and didn’t make it very away. Bonds ripped a line drive to right field. The ball just kept going, like a laser, sneaking over the fence.

Hidalgo had almost gotten there and spun around to play the carom. There was none, except off the portly man’s meaty hands in the front row of the bleachers.

Oswalt, once the ball was in flight, took a couple of steps to back up home plate, but then began to attempt to "body-english" the ball to hit off the wall. As it cleared, he winced.

Bonds had homered, and the game was tied. Jimy stumbled back up the steps to get Oswalt. Once again, a National League manager and a National League pitcher did the "manly" thing and pitched to Bonds.

And they walked off the field losers.

It was a delight to watch.

The Mets are already in trouble and they haven’t played a single game this season.

Jose Reyes will open the season on the disabled list with a sore hamstring. That’s never good. If that doesn’t properly heal, his career path could be a hobbled one. That means Ricky Gutierrez and (big gulp) Joe McEwing will play second base for a couple of weeks.

Scott Erickson made the roster ahead of Jae Seo. Does that make sense to anyone not named Peter Gammons? I don’t know why. Maybe Rick Peterson doesn’t like something he sees. Seo was very effective last season – as far as I know, Scott Erickson was not. Okay, it’s the fifth starter, but should the Mets really be making decisions on twenty spring training innings? I hope not.

Kaz Matsui may not hit. My friend, Dave Cameron, went to spring training early, and saw Kaz. He told me on or about March 14 that Matsui had some issues with his swing that would have to improve if he wanted to be successful in MLB. He said there was a good chance Met fans would be pretty disappointed. A week later I asked another scout and he said the same thing. Matsui struggled all spring, ending up 15 for 78, with little power. That’s not a very good Japan-to-MLB translation.

There is some good news – Cliff Floyd isn’t injured yet.

The Mets open against the Braves. Tom Glavine got his head ripped off by Atlanta in 2003, and he’s going to give it another go in 2004. Just like riding a bike. Russ Ortiz will go for the Braves. That ought to even things out a bit.

The Mets lineup will probably look like this:

Matsui SS
Garcia RF
Floyd LF
Piazza C
Cameron CF
Phillips 1B
Wigginton 3B
McEwing 2B
Pitcher P

That’s terrible. If Matsui doesn’t hit for six weeks and Garcia doesn’t hit at all, the Mets will score about two runs a game (that’s hyperbole, sort of).

Yes, the less-than-glowing reports and the actual performance for Matsui and Reyes’ injury mean a great deal to the Mets. Now they have chosen to go with Tyler Yates and Scott Erickson instead of Jae Seo and Grant Roberts. These are not good signs.

Suddenly I’m seeing an early deficit in the standings, and hints that the Mets "meaningful games in September" are for the number one draft pick.