The "K" In K-Rod Stands For Kick-Ass

After today's 5-2 loss to the Washington Nationals, I was going to write a blog about Johan Santana temporarily giving up his lead role in Johan Santana and The Four Rainouts to become an honorary Rainout.

Then my thoughts turned to writing about Josh Willingham one-upping Willy Taveras by driving in all five Washington runs one day after Taveras drove in all four runs scored by the Nationals in yesterday's 4-3 loss.

Instead, this is going to be a positive blog. I know it's hard to say anything positive about the Mets after completing a 2-4 homestand against the Marlins and Nationals, especially when they needed as many victories as possible heading into a tough road trip in Colorado and St. Louis against two of last season's National League playoff teams.

But something interesting happened in the ninth inning when Francisco Rodriguez faced Willie Harris. Harris came into the game in the eighth inning as part of a double switch for starting leftfielder Josh Willingham. With one out and no one on base in the ninth inning, Harris came up to bat. After a called first strike, the next pitch hit Willie Harris. Both benches emptied when K-Rod and Harris exchanged words near first base.

To this, I say... IT'S ABOUT ROOTIN' TOOTIN' TIME!

Willie Harris has been a defensive thorn in the Mets side. On Saturday, for the third time in four seasons, a spectacular defensive play by Harris cost the Mets a potential victory when he robbed Rod Barajas of a potential game-winning hit with the bases loaded and two outs.

Although K-Rod will never admit it for fear of a suspension, today's incident was more than likely a message sent to Harris that the Mets were not too pleased with his continued game-changing catches.

I'm glad Frankie didn't watch the Shawn Estes Instructional Video on how to hit batters (available on Betamax only). By giving Willie Harris a figurative kick in the @$$, perhaps the Nationals' outfielder will be a tad slower the next a Met hits a ball that he has to race for to catch. At the very least, Rodriguez showed that the Mets were fed up with the bad karma surrounding them and took it upon himself to take action.

Maybe this will fire up the Mets on their upcoming road trip. Maybe it'll make Willie Harris remember that his last name isn't Mays when he takes the field against the Mets. Whatever the case, it's about time that someone took the initiative to send a message to the Nationals that they were done with being beat up by a team that's supposedly inferior to them.

K-Rod, I tip my blue Mets cap to you. You have just become one of my favorite Mets. Let's hope other players take your lead and get fired up so that the team can kick the @$$e$ of the rest of the National League.