Ya gotta be careful with the idea that there's such a thing as a good defeat, because the next morning you're looking at what that meant in the standings and in time off the calendar, and suddenly it's awfully hard to see the good. But still, I shut off the TV a few minutes after all was said and done and felt like I could hold my blue-and-orange head high. (On the other hand, if I heard the “Surrender” song from that Absolut ad one more time, my frontal lobe was likely to implode.)
Great ballgame. We didn't do anything wrong except be the ones in the field when a ground ball hit a pebble. I even found myself cheering Tom Glavine, though maybe “exhorting” is a better word for what I was barking at The Manchurian Brave. First came the fifth, with Francoeur on third, McCann on first (by the way — who are these guys?) and Smoltz at the plate with one out. In so many previous games against the Braves, Smoltz would have blooped a hit or worked a walk or somehow added one more straw worth of Braves-Mets horror to the pathetic, splintered collection of camel vertebrae that is our collective psyche. (I can see Jay Payton getting thrown out at third as I type. And Brian Jordan connecting against Benitez. And Gerald Williams trotting home. And Shinjo positioned wrong in the outfield. And, and, and…) In so many previous Glavine starts, he would have found a way to lose right there. “Come on, Tommy!” I was shouting. “Don't you fuckin' give in! You can do this! You can become one of us!” And let the record show that he didn't give in.
And again in the sixth. Furcal on third with one out, Giles, Andruw and Julio Franco coming up, and we all knew the script. Time for some play not made, a couple of doubles, a Glavine exit and us for mutter that that 8-2 loss was a pretty decent game until it came apart in the sixth. Only Glavine, once again, refused to fold.
Ditto for the eighth, with Roberto making a terrific play on Franco's hard comebacker to get us out of trouble — at least until Wilson Betemit hit a ground ball with evil intent. Then, of course, it was our turn to hit into ya-gotta-be-kidding-me double plays. It was great to see Jose Reyes come out with his split finger and single off Kolb to get us started — at least for the five seconds before Cameron hit a Baltimore chop that somehow turned into a DP. Just as Cliff Floyd's leadoff single off Reitsma in the ninth was hard-won and clearly marked the turning of the tide, as did the hard smash Piazza sent up the middle — right to Marcus Giles. Of course David Wright hit the final pitch of the game 356 feet to a part of the park that's 358 feet deep. How could it have ended any other way?
Good defeat. Nothing to be ashamed of. Someone had to win, just wasn't us. My head's held high.
Remind me of all that when I look at the standings tomorrow.
The game was everything it should have been, with the obvious exception of the final score. So few games live up to the hype, and this was one of those rare ones.
The first 2 games of this series have been classics I expect to be aired over and over again in the offseason. Excellent baseball games.
Oh and Jace… THANK YOU for being driven as crazy by that Absolut commercial as I am. Must they air it like 75 times every night, sometimes twice in the same commercial break? It's also on everywhere else… the only part of having MLB Extra Innings that's worse than the price tag.