Reliever Wilton Lopez, who seemed out of place on the Astros by virtue of his 5-1 record for a soon-to-be 40-88 team, was on the mound. But with one towering fly ball off Ike Davis' bat, Lopez doubled his loss total. Davis' walk-off homer just above the outstretched glove of rightfielder Ben Francisco gave the Mets a 2-1 victory in the game and the series.
But that wasn't the top story in the game. The top story occurred just seconds after the ball left the yard. I'll just let the photo below tell the story for me.
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| As Tropical Storm Isaac churns in the Gulf of Mexico, the Mets' own Isaac twirled at Citi Field. |
Ike Davis, who plays for the Mets, a team that puts players on the 60-day DL for getting a paper cut, decided to score Baryshnikov-style. Inexplicably, as he reached his joyous teammates at home plate, Davis did a pirouette/cha cha cha move, carefully covering his mouth so that no one would see his white man's overbite.
He did this to celebrate a game-ending home run against a team that had won as many games as the 1962 Mets, a team that had already been mathematically eliminated from the NL Central race before the end of August.
I get that Davis was happy to win a game with his bat before the 25,071 in attendance and the 17,000-plus empty seats in the house. But did he really have to bring back memories of 2002 with his home plate histrionics? Did he really have to go all Timo with his team?
You know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the Timo Perez home run celebration from August 24, 2002, almost ten years ago to the day.
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| This is tame compared to what Timo did on August 24, 2002. |
On August 24, 2002, the Mets went into their game with the Colorado Rockies as the losers of a dozen straight games. The team loaded with former superstars Roberto Alomar and Mo Vaughn, along with veterans Mike Piazza and Edgardo Alfonzo, had not won a game in two weeks and appeared to be on their way to a 13th consecutive defeat. The Mets were down to their final out in the top of the ninth inning, trailing the Rockies, 2-1. But a two-out walk to Joe McEwing gave the Mets some hope. And with one swing of the bat by Timo Perez, that hope was realized.
Perez hit a drive that went over the Coors Field wall, giving the Mets a 3-2 lead. Despite the fact that it was not a walk-off homer, as the game was being played in Denver, Perez lifted his arms high in the air as the ball left his bat, celebrating that he had given the Mets a late lead (probably forgetting that Armando Benitez was going to be given the ball to protect the lead). Fortunately for the Mets, they tacked on two more runs in the inning, giving Benitez a three-run lead to protect, which he did.
The 12-game losing streak was over, but the celebration by Timo Perez at the plate had just started to get the Rockies' blood boiling. After all, Perez's non-walk-off homer had just helped defeat a 61-68 Rockies team that was out of contention. That was then, this is now.
Like Timo Perez, Ike Davis was clearly excited after his ninth-inning homer defeated a poor team. At least with Davis, his home run actually ended the game. Oh, and here's one more eerie similarity about both homers. Davis' ninth-inning homer and happy dance lifted the Mets' record to 59-69. What did Timo's homer help improve the Mets to? You got it. 59-69. Here's the boxscore to prove it.
It just goes to show that you can't script baseball. But I sure wish Ike Davis would have scripted his spin move a little better. That white man's overbite? Even Timo Perez was shaking his head at that.
Editor's Note: For an even better story on Ike Davis' happy dance, please read today's post by the one and only Metstradamus. You'll be glad you did.
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