At the end of April, I was ready to give up on them. Then May brought good play and fortune, and I was beguiled. By the end of the month, the local baseball pundits were praising their resilience, noting their ability to beat good teams even with players like Delgado and Reyes sidelined by injuries. But June brought something that rhymes with it, and it ain't moon or tune. My wife, the Red Sox fan, knows all about it. The June swoon. It started with their getting swept in Pittsburgh by a below .500 team. Now they've moved on to Washington, to play the worst team in the National League. Last night, I checked in and saw a one-all tie going into the bottom of the ninth. I just knew what was going to happen: the Nats would score and bye-bye. So, I averted my eyes, and didn't check again for about twenty minutes. To my delight, I found that David Wright had scored two runs in the top of the tenth, and Rodriguez had notched another save. Tonight, however, the Mets have returned to swoonland, with Maine, who I now fear may be next to join a D.L. that looks like the aftermath of Chateau-Thierry, yielding seven earned runs.
I take some comfort in the Rays, who also have had a spate of injuries, having beaten the Yankees, and that the opening of the Brooklyn Cyclones' season is less than two weeks away
Update: Sunday brought a 7-0 win, and so a successful series against the floundering Nats. Next up, though, are arch-nemesis and division leading Phils, followed by the hated and now hot Yanks. Reasons for hope: Ryan Church is back in the lineup and got two hits last night, and Livian Hernandez has been awesome in his past two outings.
hernandez has a career avg 97 era+ and is 34 (also, cuban, so could be older). pinning hope on him will only end in sadness. sorry.
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