Joey's Small Bites: Things I Noticed On Opening Day

Greetings, Mets fans! This is your fav'rit roving reporter/culinary expert Joey Beartran. Welcome to the first semi-regular installment of "Joey's Small Bites", where I present my opinions on anything Mets-related. However, unlike my "Joey's Soapbox" series, these will be abbreviated opinions, or "small bites" if you will. There's also a chance I may be having a snack while sharing my thoughts with you, but I will probably be taking bigger bites out of those.

In today's first installment, I will discuss my thoughts on last night's season opening loss against the Marlins, which looked as if it should have been Game No. 163 of the 2010 season.

Last year, Mike Pelfrey gave up two earned runs in the entire month of April. Last night, he gave up four runs on one swing of John Buck's bat. This is the same John Buck who had a .243 career average in seven seasons entering last night's game. I see Pelfrey is already in mid-season form, and by mid-season form, I mean last year's mid-season, when he finished with a 10.02 ERA in his five July starts.

David Wright said he was going to embrace being the team leader this year. He led the team all right; led them in strikeouts, that is. Wright struck out in each of his first two at-bats against Josh Johnson en route to an 0-for-4 evening at the plate.

The two Rule 5 picks (Brad Emaus and Pedro Beato) made their major league debuts last night, and both performed reasonably well.

Emaus reached base once in three plate appearances and did not follow David Wright's lead (Emaus didn't strike out). It was Emaus' walk on the seventh pitch of his at-bat that ended Josh Johnson's night, after Johnson took a no-hitter into the seventh inning. He also made a fine defensive play in the sixth inning, sliding to his left to prevent the runner on third from scoring.

Beato pitched two scoreless innings, allowing a long double to the first batter he faced (John Buck, who apparently wants to win the batting title this year) before retiring the next three batters he faced, then giving up two singles in his second inning of work, sandwiched around a timely double play. Oh, did we mention that Beato was also born on the same day the Mets last won the World Series (October 27, 1986, just like teammate Jonathon Niese) and lived most of his life in Queens, growing up in Woodside, home of Donovan's Pub, which serves the best burger in New York? No, seriously. Take a look at the photos below and see for yourself.



On a positive note, Carlos Beltran made his first start in right field and showed no signs of pain or discomfort. He went 1-for-4 at the plate, driving in the first run for the Mets on a seventh-inning double down the right field line and scoring the second run on a groundout by Ike Davis. He also played flawless defense and prevented a run from scoring by charging a ball in right field and throwing a bullet to Josh Thole at the plate to hold Omar Infante at third base.

Also welcome to this bear's eyes was Mookie Wilson wearing his familiar No. 1 as he made his return to first base coaching duties. When Mookie wore No. 51 in his first stint as first base coach in the mid-90s, it was because Lance Johnson was wearing No. 1. Of course, Johnson produced one of the best seasons in franchise history in 1996 (.333 batting average, 50 stolen bases and a franchise-record 227 hits and 21 triples), so he earned the right to wear No. 1 temporarily. But the last wearer of the number didn't earn a thing. Because Luis Castillo wouldn't give up his No. 1 to Mookie when the Mets legend was re-hired to coach first base, the Mookster had to wear the ungodly No. 53.


Castillo was eventually released before the end of spring training and Wilson got his familiar number back. On a night when not much else went right for the Mets, seeing Mookie wearing No. 1 was enough to make me smile.

I seemed to notice a lot on Opening Day, despite the fact that I was enjoying the game with one paw on the sliders and the other paw on the waffle fries. Yes, it was a tough loss, one that was reminiscent of many losses in 2010. After all, the Mets gave up 12 grand slams last season without hitting any, and last night, Pelfrey was victimized by the bases-clearing blast and the Mets didn't even come close to homering. But it was only Day 1 of a long season.

CLICHÉ ALERT! CLICHÉ ALERT!

Baseball is not a sprint. It's a marathon. The Mets and their fans have to take it one game at a time. One loss does not make or break the season. They'll be back in Game No. 2, and will do their best to win the ballgame.

END OF CLICHÉ ALERT! END OF CLICHÉ ALERT!

Tonight, Jonathon Niese hopes to build on his fine rookie season. Of course, last year the Marlins were a thorn in his side, as he went 1-4 with a 6.49 ERA in five starts against them.

Although I'm cautiously optimistic that Niese will be able to end his Marlin meltdown in Miami, I will be ordering an extra plate of sliders just in case. Considering all those fat, juicy pitches opposing hitters keep hitting for grand slams, I should have something fat and juicy myself.