What can you say? It was the Braves against a .500 team.
Trachsel was horrible early — how Andruw Jones didn't hit one of the several awful pitches he saw in the first inning to the moon is beyond me — then settled down and pitched quite well. Met For a Minute John Thomson was horrible early and then settled down. After that, well, pick 'em: If you're feeling superstitious, you can leave this one moaning that we played well but it's Turner Field, so the other guy broke on top. If you're feeling philosophical (like I am these days) you can say that we made the kind of mistakes teams that are still works in progress make, and those were enough to beat us. Two stuck in my craw:
1. Victor Diaz trying some ludicrous little pop-up slide in the seventh when the only chance he had was to try and steamroll Johnny Estrada. Not to be all bloody-minded, but the only play there was the football play. I don't blame Manny Acta for sending him, though — it demanded a perfect throw to get Victor, and Jeff Francoeur uncorked a perfect throw. A beyond-perfect throw. Uncle, Monsieur Francoeur — we've heard of you now.
2. In the ninth, Marlon Anderson works a 2-2 count against Kyle Farnsworth, who's just come into the game, and singles. So Jose Reyes, of course, POPS UP THE FIRST PITCH. It's too late in the season and Jose has come too far for him to keep making these stupid, overaggressive mental mistakes.
Funny aside from Gary and Howie: The Mets tried to get a call against Francoeur tagging up from second, and Angel Hernandez said no. Howie noted this, and Gary chimes in, “Either that or he wasn't watching.” God bless Gary and Howie.
Acta has actually been great for most of the year, but with Floyd on deck, and a guy with double digits in outfield assists in less than two months in the bigs (who uncorked a throw from the warning track on the fly to second base earlier in the game, just because he could), you gotta hold VD. You just can't let him get caught there at home.
Meanwhile, that little popup slide was just another fetid feather in the Mets' Cap O' Crap from this past week.
Finally, the other great aside from Gary and Howie was when they were talking about Matsui's suddenly newfound gold glove ability at second base. Gary: “You knew he had more range than Cairo, but what you didn't know was that he had more range than…Matsui.”
Re the Diaz slide and bloody-mindedness: As I saw it unfold, I wished that we had Ty Wigginton around for a play like that. Safe or out, Estrada would've been resting peacefully in the on-deck circle afterward.