Closers blow saves.
It's what they do, all of them. (Even you, Lidge — regression to the mean is going to be a bitch.) They have bad games, bad luck, miserable stretches in which they lose their feel for their pitches and get pounded for the equivalent of a start or two, only for the closer “a start or two” means three or four wins gagged up over an agonizing week to 10 days. This information ought to be affixed to the closer's picture on the Diamondvision, like the label on a pack of cigarettes: WARNING THE SURGEON GENERAL HAS DETERMINED THAT WATCHING CLOSERS LEADS TO PERIODIC DISAPPOINTMENT AND DESPAIR AND HAS BEEN SHOWN TO CAUSE SECONDHAND DISAPPOINTMENT AND DESPAIR IN CHILDREN.
Everything came out all right, thank goodness, despite Frankie Rodriguez throwing ball after ball and slipping on the mound and repeatedly going to the curve on 2-0 and doing something to antagonize Bill Welke, who wasn't wrong but was sure awful picky, particularly since Brandon Phillips was doing the kind of assheaded thing that doesn't usually inspire umpires to check for dotted i's and crossed t's in the rulebook. (When baseball is played this stupidly this consistently by a team, you just know you'll find Dusty Baker somewhere on the premises.)
Stupid or not, it was all terrifying, down to Laynce Nix's cloudscraper (add the stray “y” for “yikes”) turning Ryan Church around and sending Carlos Beltran drifting slowly back to and then into the warning track, you weren't sure whether in confidence or dismay. Don't say I didn't warn you when one of those doesn't stay in, and K-Rod is ridden by the ghosts of Billy Wagner and Braden Looper and Armando Benitez and John Franco and everyone else initiated into the Brotherhood of Boo at one point or another, which is to say all of them.
Though perhaps there were other ghosts afoot. Certainly the mound was haunted. Mike Pelfrey was awful, Edinson Volquez wasn't much better, Mike Lincoln and Pedro Feliciano took aim at their own feet in a rather pathetic shootout at the Oy Vey Corral, J.J. Putz got cuffed about a bit, and then it was time for Frankie's drama. (Arthur Rhodes, of course, was serenely untouchable as usual. Please keep him out of the NL East come summertime.)
Yes, once upon a time this looked like a thoroughly encouraging Met performance, Pelfrey aside, what with Red fielders crumpling in the vague vicinity of balls, Luis Castillo and Brian Schneider saving Big Pelf's bacon with an awfully nice play by two generally derided players and Carlos Delgado launching a ball that might actually have landed in Kentucky. But by the time the four-hour mark loomed, this was one to close your eyes and endure, like the banshee shrieks of the Lady Fan from Hell. (Thanks for pointing her out, Keith — once you did that I would tense up every five seconds waiting for her to do it again.) Would it be a wipe-your-brow game that you could excuse as a win with some extra dramatic tension? Would it be a killer loss to cast an early-season pall over 2009? Turned out to be the former, but we all know in a lot of alternate universes it was the latter.
Man, he's a closer. He's got a limited selection of super-awesome pitches that he's not afraid to use, and if he gives you a heart attack with a potential grand slam pop fly off Laynce Nix that's a mile high and three feet shy, that's just added awesomeness. That's why he's Frankie fuckin' Rodriguez (which really should be his New York nickname) and Braden Looper is playing for the Brewers.
The lady fan from hell was even worse on the radio. How in God's name did she manage to keep that up for the whole game? Didn't take very long to realize that Frankie will give us the same ulcers that all closers give fans. Let's just hope he will be able to close in big spots, you can keep Armando's and Wagner's regular season dominance, only to blow games in September and October. What I want are those clutch saves!
Bobby Cox must be haunted too. His team blew and 9-3 lead including four walks with the bases loaded. At least there was no mighty swing by Mike Piazza or he might have exploded.
“Frankie fuckin' Rodriguez ”
I love it!!!
I've had K-Rod on my Strat team for years, so I follow him pretty closely. You haven't seen anything yet. No save is ever in the bag with him. He will tease, taunt, madden, befuddle and drive you to hurling projectiles at your plasma screen, and that's when he's pitching WELL.
I'm also rather fearful for his elbow ligaments with the thousands of sliders he's thrown in his short career. Last year, he added a changeup that doesn't put as much strain on his elbow, but when he really needs a strikeout, he'll go to the slider, which starts in the strike zone and ends up at the hitter's feet. One too many of those, and he's off to the James Andrews Clinic Of Doom before you can say “Luis Ayala”.
Anything else, Cheerful?
Even though Castillo played brilliant defense top to bottom, I'm sure he'll still be generally booed harshly on Monday barring a 45RBI weekend in which he rescues a kitten from a tree while rounding third.
Hey, it wasn't me who signed him. He's got a lot of upside, but his downside is why the Angels let him walk. In Strat, I don't have to pay him more than anybody else, and I don't have anybody to replace him, so I keep him.
Gutsy performance by KRod on a night he obviously didn't have control of his pitches. And don't forget his performance was hampered because he had to get four outs due to Delgado coming off the bag too soon.
Not so upset that the Met pen allowed Cincy to inch it's way back into the game since last year's squad would have easily turned those inches into yards. But on a night when they weren't at their best they stayed in the dugout for the rest of the game to root their comrades on. After Green left he sat and cheered on Putz; when Putz left both he and Green remained to cheer on KRod. When did you ever see that before? Gotta love the attitude these new guys bring not just to the bullpen but hopefully to the entire team as well.
Amen, Joe. There's been something in my gut the last 2 or 3 weeks…'sbeen tellin' me this year is gonna be special.
Man, our comments here are the perfect microcosm of Met fandom. We're 2-0 and DOOMED. Except we're not doomed — we're THRILLED!
I love being us, craziness and all. :-)
Such is life at the Oy Vey Corral.
If only we could get Ponderosa Steak Houses to sponsor the Mets bullpen.
Hey, it wasn't me who signed him.
If I hear Jerry say this, then I know we're in trouble.
LOL
I hope everyone gives him a chance this year. He lost, like, 20 pounds, and he looked great in spring training. I was at last Saturday's exhibition game, and when Ollie got booed off the field after doing that Tom Glavine impersonation in the first, I sort of smiled and thought “wow, this new place IS going to keep that pressure cooker atmosphere!” When a bunch of people booed Dillon Gee and the Buffalo Bisons after Varitek's homerun in the sixth, I thought “wow, a bunch of our fellow fans are still morons!”
Great minds think alike, right Charlie?