For me, last night was all about heading out to CitField with my wife (no, that’s not her on the left) to watch the Mets. As I said in my previous post, I have a soft spot in my heart for games like this. Absolute garbage time at the ballyard where the game is a total afterthought. We actually missed the first half-inning shopping for “female” fan gear at the Alyssa Milano “Touch” shop. What a great place that was, let me tell you. You know the only thing it was missing? Alyssa Milano. Instead we got some rude ugly chick who told us to drop our beers before we came in. She didn’t ask. She told. Pointed to the ground and everything. I think if you’re going to have an Alyssa Milano store in your stadium, the least you could do is hire better looking girls to run it.
I’d have settled for polite, actually.

As for the game itself, gotta hand this one to John Maine. He shut down the Astros for 7 innings as the Metsies won by the score of 7-1. Maine’s season is sort of a microcosm of the entire Mets’ season. It seems almost impossible that the Mets were actually relying on him to be their #3 starter this year (or was that going to be Ollie Perez?). Either way, you get the point. Ineffectiveness gave way to injury for John, but it is sort of comforting to see him come out and spin a nice game. Even if it is October 2 and in a meaningless game against another washout team like the Astros.

Howsabout them Nats, huh? It’s actually pretty galling for me that they’re as close to the Mets as they are, and when they keep playing like this, it makes it that much worse. Especially since my fantasy season is hanging by a thread and I stocked my lineup with Braves to take advantage of their (supposedly) porous pitching. This time it was Livan Hernandez and his robust waistline shutting down the Braves for a 6-3 Nats win. That’s 5 in a row now  for them. Can’t say as I care about the Braves taking it on the chin, though. Not exactly my favorite bunch of guys. Larry, Larry, Larry and all that.

Finally, a word about the Phillies. Last night, they fell to the Marlins by the score of 7-2 and their chances of taking best record in the league got a little dimmer. It’s not that I’m a stranger to having the Marlins come in and pee all over the carpet, because they did that to the Mets the past 2 years and it’s gut wrenching. The Marlins are not a good team, but they’re just good enough at the worst possible moments to have you cursing them for weeks. Last night it was Cameron Maybin doing the bulk of the damage by going 4-5 with an RBI and 3 runs scored. Hamels on the hill today, but will he be enough to cancel the momentum of the spoiling Fish?