Joey's Small Bites: Be Careful What You Wish For

Last night I was at Yankee Stadium hoping to see the Mets take the second game of the Subway Series (and sampling some tasty Yankee Stadium chicken nachos, as you can see from the photo to the left). If you read my post-game recap, you'd know that I was complaining about how the Yankees can only score runs when they hit the ball over the wall. After all, they had scored more than half of their runs on homers. No other team in baseball based their offense on the home run more than the Yankees. (Arizona was second, scoring 38% of their runs on homers.)

I wasn't the only one to notice this, as today both SNY and the YES Network brought it to their viewers' attention. (Thanks so much for sharing that with your viewers, but I kinda beat you to the punch.)

So apparently the Yankees must have read my post last night. How else could you explain what happened in the seventh inning today in the rubber match of the Subway Series? Let's set up the situation in case you were doing something else like doing the math to figure out when the next "End of Days" was going to be.

The Mets were leading 3-1 going to the bottom of the seventh inning. On Friday night, the Mets held a 2-1 lead going into the seventh inning and went to their bullpen. Mike O'Connor, Jason Isringhausen and Francisco Rodriguez combined to retire all nine Yankee batters to face them to preserve the victory for R.A. Dickey.

Today, Terry Collins left Mike Pelfrey in the game to start the seventh inning. A few minutes later, the tying runs were on base with no one out. Did Collins take out Pelfrey there so that he couldn't lose the ballgame even if both runs scored? No, he left him in there to face Francisco Cervelli, who was trying to sacrifice the runners to second and third. Cervelli sacrificed his body instead, getting plunked by Pelfrey's first pitch near his left shoulder.

So did Collins take Big Pelf out then? No, he left him in to face Derek Jeter, who has the highest batting average against the Mets of any player in history. Of course, Jeter promptly singled up the middle to tie the game. A few batters too late, Collins popped his head out of the dugout and removed Pelfrey, but the damage was done. Actually, the damage was just beginning and some of it was my fault.

If you remember, I kept making fun of the Yankees for not being able to manufacture runs. Prior to the seventh inning of today's game, the Bronx Bummers had only scored one run all series without the benefit of a home run. Then came Derek Jeter's two-run single. That was followed by every bloop and bleeder you could imagine. By the time the inning was over, the Yankees had scored eight runs to turn a 3-1 Mets lead into a 9-3 debacle. It was enough to drive a bear to drink. And drink. And drink some more.

I have no idea what's going on.

So to recap today's game, the Mets had the lead for most of the game, the Yankees told me to "take my blog and shove it" and I'm about to throw up.

At least the Mets won't have to play at The House That Juice Built until next season. I don't think I could take another series of Yankee fans teaching us how to count to 27. (Yes, we know how many championships you've won. We're also aware of your IQ. You don't need to tell us both at the same time.) Let's hope things finish for the better when the Yankees visit Citi Field in July. Let's also hope I feel better by then. I might have to lay off the chicken nachos for a...a...HWAAAARRRRFFFF!! (Excuse me.)