Nah, it doesn't save Willie Randolph's job in my view — going one game over .500 since last May 30 isn't nearly enough for that, particularly when it comes on a night when Willie's reaction to a Met actually calling out a teammate for a poor effort was disappointment about it not being handled in-house. Fine in theory, but in-house ain't worked for 11 months, Skip. Better by far to tell Billy Wagner that having aired out Oliver Perez publicly, he's got about 20 more players left to discuss on his radio show.
That said, the Mets played the kind of game they're capable of playing [1], and it was fun to watch. There was Reyes running wild from the first pitch, playing good defense, paying attention and not getting himself killed at home plate after Sandy Alomar got a hair too excited. When the second triple came, I was downstairs comforting Joshua after a bad dream, and could hear this vague big commotion from the TV upstairs. Even before I did the lineup math I knew it was Reyes. Remember when you automatically knew vague big commotions from the TV upstairs meant Reyes?
And he wasn't alone. There was Wright turning in a key at-bat late, shoving the Mets into a more-comfortable lead at a point where too often his teammates have lapsed into sleepytime and awoken too late. There was Ryan Church, continuing to offer Omar some job security in trying times. (I still think exiling Milledge was very strange, but Church sure looks like the solid player we were told he was. And boy do I not miss Shawn Green chugging in to field yet another moderately struck pop-up on the first bounce.) There was the returned Moises Alou, which should be nice until sometime later this month, when he pulls/tears/strains something, is bitten by a shark, steps on a mine, or whatever will befall him. And there was John Maine struggling through another mildly confounding outing, but at least struggling through instead of letting the Diamondbacks into the bullpen after five.
And since Willie is in no realistic danger yet, whatever Tim Marchman and Brooklyn Met Fan [2] and I and a bunch of Faith and Fear readers and half of MetsBlog's commentors think, kudos to Willie for sending Maine back out there for the sixth instead of robotically following the book, and for putting Luis Castillo where he could damage the offense as little as possible. Please, for the love of God, just leave Church in the 2 hole.
P.S. Just heard a radio spot for a John Feinstein book chronicling the 2007 season as lived by Mike Mussina and Tom Glavine. No offense to Mr. Feinstein, but as a Met fan I'm going to skip that one. I'm sure I'll be forced to read it several thousand times in Hell as part of the All-Glavine Library, probably while “The Most Deranged Victory Calls of John Sterling” blares on continuous loop from a radio hardwired into the outlet and missing its knobs.