Mini-Report

Wild night last night. When my guts started telling me, as mine did when I saw Gregg warming up in the bottom of the 8th, that this wasn't going to end well, it's almost surprising to see it fall into place exactly as I feared. The end was so tantalizingly close - Gregg had them two out, nobody on, and an 0-2 count on Castillo. Eight pitches later came the grand slam. And one pitch later came the pop-up that I wish came eight pitches before.

And yet the Fish almost pulled out the win in the bottom of the ninth, which made the atmosphere at the ballpark so fascinatingly exciting that it made the Gregg-tastrophy almost, but not really, worth it. To see Mets fans reveling in their happiness and then about ready to take a dump in their pants a few minutes later was enjoyable. The Cantu at-bat against Ayala particularly was one where it seemed inevitable that Jorge was going eventually to find a pitch to drive, and Mets and Marlins fans alike were just waiting to see where he was going to hit it (unfortunetly not over the fence like that foul ball a few pitches before, but he got the Fish to within a run).

And then poor Wes Helms. Helms made some great plays last night to prevent Mets runs (catching the pop foul while falling into the Mets bullpen was the most spectacular) but he stunk at the plate, going 0-5, leaving Hanley at third in the 1st inning and hitting into a double play in the 8th. When he came up after Cantu with two out in the ninth I was hoping some of that Cantu mojo would still be floating like a cloud over the plate so that Wes could snort it in; but no, it was a weak grounder to short and that was the game.

STADIUM-NOTE: Finally the Marlins are selling scorecards seperately, and not just bundled up with the expensive program. It took them 15 years to come up with this little innovation that probably every other team in the universe already does.