Didja notice the advertising sign behind home plate in the top of the first? It advertised swimming pool enzymes, something, judging by what they build over their right field walls, that they apparently use a lot of in Arizona. The brand name?
Natural Chemistry [1]. On the off chance Jason Grimsley was watching his most recent former teammates soldier on without him, he must have turned off his set right there.
Without knowing what or if anybody was using, the Mets sure seemed to have natural chemistry going for them [2] Friday night. The batters drove each other in. The pitchers picked one another up. The standings aligned beautifully.
A tip of the cap to the tied-for-third Washington Nationals who defeated the second-place Philadelphia Phillies in twelve innings and dragged the Atlanta Braves down to their level in the process. The Braves were losing again to the Astros. They're nine behind us. They're closer to last than they are to Lastings.
Roofs were retracted all over the Southwest Friday night. Houston rolled back its ceiling and allowed more air to escape from the Braves' sagging balloon. Arizona allowed us a glimpse of the desert sky, and passing spacecrafts a gander of Met might, particularly that of Carlos Beltran — 4-for-5 with two big bangs. If you chalk up last year as a $17 million practice round, the guy may wind up being worth every penny we're paying him over the next 5-2/3 years.
Think the 'Stros are still smug about replacing Beltran with Willy Taveras? And, on a side note, whose press conference from January 11, 2005 seems like a better idea now: Carlos Beltan's or Randy Johnson's?
The other Carlos hit two out as well. He seems to have a lot to write about in his diary again. And we have plenty of reasons to not doze off despite these ill-conceived 10ish starts and 1ish conclusions. The West Coast and nearby environs are still a pain in the patoot for the nodding fan, but the 2006 Mets make us wanna stay up late.
Heck, any time's a good time to play at the erstwhile BOB. We've got a friend at Chase Maricopa [3]…an accommodating one. Do you realize we've taken eight in a row in Phoenix? It's some kind of Turned Inside Out Field for us. We go there and the home team is cursed. Brandon Webb could change all that Saturday night, given that we didn't touch him at Shea, but we didn't touch Miguel Batista there last week either. Yet Friday night, his pitching lacked poetry [4]. He couldn't even beat Steve Trachsel who was at his most disturbingly prosaic.
I don't know about sweeps or road records or anything. I just recognize a good foot and an available throat when I see it. No soft bigotry of low expectations for these Mets. Keep winning, fellas. Distance from Shea isn't killing you and a little more distance between you and the Phillies wouldn't hurt.