The Countdown - 14 to go

Sad to have this be my return to this blog, but here I am with enough time in my new home in Atlanta to start an journey that hopefully won't be a painful reminder of a season gone lost...

With 14 games left and your New York Metropolitans the only New York baseball team with an outside chance to play postseason baseball, I will provide you with my thoughts on each of their remaining games. Add to that, I'll add a little bit about what's been happening with me and my family over the past couple of months, what I'm doing now (like you care) and hopefully there'll be a report or two that include my up-close and personal view of the team I love when they arrive in Atlanta next week...

But before that, we start with Sunday's heartbreaking loss.

Atlanta Braves 7, Mets 4

At the beginning of the baseball season, I found $180 to pay for the Extra Innings package because I believed my team would be competitive, mostly because they would put a quality starting pitcher on the mound each night...

Well, with my prison sentence complete after five years in the penal colony that is Mississippi done thanks to good behavior, a desire to return to a city (any city) and my wife's inability to get a quality job in that podunk crap shoot of a state, I'm in Atlanta (Doraville to be exact, I'll get to that later...)

Being in Atlanta means I had to sell my house and in this market for selling homes being a touch barren, I'm waiting for the profit, which means I have to currently live in my two-bedroom apartment with broadcast instead of DirecTV.

Either way, I would have missed the first couple of innings of Sunday's game thanks to church service. Yes, I go to church with my family because they need it and they deserve that. That and when you marry a maiden from the Magnolia State, you marry yourself into that Sunday ritual.

We could get into a religious debate, about whether there was a Jesus and why women are belittled in the Great Book despite committing the first sin and the strangeness of hearing preachers talk about how everyone needs to conform to their beliefs and what would happen to the millions that believe something different and the billions that lived without Christ entering their lives another day...

Especially since the Lord seems to hate my team with a passion.

Saturday's doubleheader was a testament to this season. Johan Santana, who would have the Cy Young wrapped up if not for the bulk of the this blog's closing, pitched great for seven innings and despite getting little support from the boys behind him, was in line for another win.

Jerry Manuel (At least a top three finish for Manager of the Year) looked down the bench and instead of asking for the phone, with Johan having thrown 107 pitches with runners on base in each inning, sent the ace back out there...

Well, I could continue but you know the rest. Then the rookie, Johnny Niese, comes out in the nightcap and has to throw into the eighth because of...

Well, fast forward (or rewind however you want to look at it) to Sunday and Oli P (Who we'll probably have to overpay for in the offseason, but probably will be worth it with the recent free agent pitcher's market, the huge contract for Santana and the fact we'll have $10 to pay to Billy Wagner next year when he doesn't pitch for us at all).

Anyway, Oli P goes seven and Jerry has to reluctantly go to the pen, but Joe Smith would strike out two to end the frame after Scott Schoeneweis allows two hits. Bottom eighth sees two on and two out and Endy Chavez doing what seemed to be the affliction last year and has taken form this season as well - stranding runners in scoring position late.

The Mets did the same thing on Saturday and have done it for the past month - the offense scores early (They lead the majors in first inning runs), then goes dormant and hopes the starting pitching can hold on long enough for the bullpen not to blow it.

Well, Luis Ayala has been money. As money as you can be when you're a relief pitcher that Omar had when he was in Montreal, that missed the 2006 season due to surgery and was absolutely dreadful for the Gnats before getting traded to Queens.

I was driving back from Target after getting my wife some unmentionables and listening to the game on my XM radio when the ninth inning began. My complex has a fitness room with televisions that have cable and for some silly reason, I parked and went in.

When I finally found the game on Turner Sports South, I was just in time to see Ayala had allowed the first two Braves on base and Greg Norton (cue Berman in Bristol for a Honeymooners voice) up to bat. Ayala got two strikes and then left a change right over the plate that Norton fouled off.

Van Buren or Sutton or whoever was calling the bloody game said, "He just missed that one" and the replay confirmed that yes, when you throw a pitch right down Broadway to a major league batter, they will usually kill it or "Just miss it". Two pitches later, he didn't miss it and the game was over.

The fact that Wright and Delgado reached in the bottom of the frame, meaning Fernando Tatis had a chance to be the hero with one swing was just a way to tease fans into watching these last two weeks closely, even if it means following on MLB Gameday like I was in my apartment while pretending to watch my nearly-one year old daughter race around.

This Mets team has resolve and that's a credit to Manuel. But they are hot and cold like no other. We've got three guys with 100 RBI's (Wright, Delgado and Beltran), the NL hits leader with 101 runs and 50 stolen bases in Jose Reyes but still find a way to make guys like Jeff Bennett look like Goose Gossage.

Next up: Monday at Nationals
So do they make John Lannan (8-13, 4.09) look like Steve Carlton, especially with his former team hot on their heels? Philly, who will be tied for the NL Wild Card lead after tonight's four-game sweep of the Brew Crew, are on fire and will come here to take on Turner Field and its empty seats starting on Tuesday.

Our two-game sweep in Shea was an offensive explosion with Delgado making people believe he's a legit MVP candidate despite the old-grey mare sucking like a whore for the last 64 to 66 weeks before a 9-RBI afternoon at Yankee Stadium. Oli and Mike Pelfrey (Thank the Gods above and below he's not in Minnesota) got shelled and the later is a probable for Tuesday. However it's Pedro for starters and if you want to talk about old grey mares, we need this one to remember how to pitch for the next two to three starts.

Especially tonight. Especially with the Phillies playing like it's 2007 and there's 17 games left and we're seven games up...