As expected, the third seeded 30+ Mets advanced over the sixth seeded Rays rather easily on a cool, sweet August night. It was especially sweet for yours truly on the day after my 48th birthday as I too was reminded of exactly why I play this game...
As Dr Brown's beautiful piece so eloquently states, we all have a myriad of reasons for why we play the game, but at the end of the day I'm pretty comfortable in saying I am personally still out there to win, not "just compete." I dunno about everyone else, but I have a LOT more fun winning than I do losing and in case people haven't noticed, I do my fair share of verbalizing myself while playing... I'm a talker and will talk to anyone and boy do we have some fun on my teams with our banter ~ both amongst ourselves and amongst anyone on the other team willing to banter with us...
And on this clear, cool August eve, it was the Friedman Brothers Band that choose to partake in part of the fun as again, we all play this game we love for a variety of different and often intimate reasons... Myself personally, it always seems more fun when our band of brothers from the opposing team also partakes in the humorous aspects of the game and verbalizes the obvious to anyone who will listen ~ or even just themselves as is frequently the case...
And so on to the game action itself!
Game One: Well, this was basically a blow out as we pounded out 20 something lasers, bullets, missiles, frozen ropes, or whatever other term you would choose to use in relation to baseball lingo for ripping the ball hard. I think every member of our line up had at least one (maybe even 2 apiece) as we literally smacked the ball all around the park, ran at will, and scored early and often... The final was 14-5 as we let up at the end and just wanted to get the brooms out so as to not to have to come back tomorrow and finish the job...
And so on to game 2! We did indeed take care of business as indicated, but it was a MUCH closer contest and included the sorrowful part of the game as our starting pitcher, Jeremy Barnes went down with a significant injury after picking a runner off at first and cracking his pitching arm... Hopefully he is ok and ready for next season... At the time of the incident, it was in the bottom of 2 and the Rays had a 2-1 lead with another runner on 3rd and 2 outs... As yours truly was 6-1 with a 1.03 during the regular season, it was kinda a no brainer to bring myself in to hold the Rays at bay and get the job done... I promptly struck the guy out at the plate and the threat of further damage was extinguished right there and then!
Thing was, Jeff Friedman was pitching a nice game in his own right and held the big Mets bats mostly quiet and the score remained 2-1... Well, at least until the top of the 5th it did anyways! And that's when yes, you guessed it, yours truly also came up B-I-G at the dish as well as on the hill and following a double by JP "Don't call me, I'll call you" Howard off the left center field fence and a walk to speedy "Frankie Mac". A smoked laser deep down the left field line plated the tying AND go ahead runs for the former Highlanders franchise! With a 3-2 lead now and obviously hoping to build upon it as I stood at second with still no outs, up stepped team Super-Stud Gary "Hosko" Bosko! All he did is do what he does, hit missles! It's basically all he does as if there's a better hitter in the league, I'd beg to differ to with whomever may have such an opinion... Unfortunately this one was right at the second baseman and while it almost killed him, it somehow managed to find the webbing of his glove and my arse was grass as he raced to 2nd to double me off... And right after "Gentleman" Jack Griffin just alerted me from the 3rd base coaches box to watch for the line drive... Though in my defense I will say that of all the frozen ropes we hit last night, that was actually the hardest hit ball all night and I doubt I could have gotten back anyways... Nevertheless, you know clean-up hitter Greg "Superman" DeMarco then of course ripped another solid single into left which would have scored me but didn't and so it was... Still 3-2 instead of 4-2 going into bottom of 5...
So it stayed that way with the Rays getting mowed down pretty easily and us threatening a couple times but some questionable umpiring calls kept us from opening the lead any further... And then came the bottom of the 7th!
Following a single and an error, the Rays had guys on first and second and no outs... After a wild pitch (my #7 got away from me on that one), they now had the potential game tying and even game wining runs in scoring position with no outs despite not having scored off of me for 5 innings... A long battle ensued with the #9 hitter Mr. Damion Jordan as after getting him 0-2, could not get anything else by him as he kept fouling pitches away until it was 3-2... Only to lose the battle to me as he ended up tapping it weakly back to me and I got the initial out after obviously looking the runner back to third... But as fate would have it, I then proceeded to throw a wild 45 footer (That one was #6) which got by our star catcher Josh "I LOVE me some porn" Mickalonis and allowed the tying run to plate...
Having little recourse but to bring everyone in, to include the outfielders, their lead off hitter Freddie Mac himself stepped to the plate. He musta been waiting on my #8 as he promptly launched a potential game winning fly ball to left field... But ohhhhh NO, holdddddd your horsies right there boys!!! NOT today fellas! NOT with the pitching star of game one for us now showing that same gun off in LF as Mr. Dan "I'm not a Rat" Finke timed his catch and throw to the plate PERFECTLY as he nailed Jeff J (JJ) with an equally great catch and tag applied by the aforementioned porno loving Joshster!
And so on to extras we moved!
Clean-up hitter Greg "Superman" DeMarco earned his nickname with yet another frozen rope to lead off the inning and then took his cape out to fly to second, scoring on Mr. Mickalonis' third tattoo of the night on another bang-bang play at the plate! Exciting stuff for sure... And with the hearts pumping we managed to plate josh as well following a Ray blunder and a perfect little nubber by Tracy "Don't drink outta My" LaFountain... And the damage was done >>> a 5-3 Met lead going into bottom of 8...
Starting to get a little concerned for my arm after just pitching 6 innings in the 45's on Sunday and working on only 3 days rest, there was nothing to worry about at all as the adrenaline took over at the point...
And the Rays went quietly into the night...
Maybe forever... Or maybe not... Who knows???
But what we DO know is that we (Mets) will be playing the 3-peat Champions and super talented Dodgers next week in what promises to be an exciting series as try and match our worthy foes with the same type of meshed intensity and yet fun-filled approach as we did in this short-lived series...
Good Luck to Mickster and his boys as while I've grown to love Ryno like he's part of my own family, I really feel some kinda way about having to take him out next week... But man am I and all of us looking forward to it!
Gotta say I really enjoyed joking around with the guys on the Mets last night. Those guys can really hit too. Wish we could have made the first game closer and the second game was a barn burner. My brother was pitching great even with a busted up thumb. Sadly he hit 3 guys with a combined speed of 45mph. JJ did a great job in relief and that game could have gone either way at several times. The Mets did what they had to in order to win and they were definitely having fun.
I can't believe my one strikeout of the year has to come in my last at bat at the hands of Marshall. Well played.
Most importantly, best wishes to their pitcher who hurt his shoulder in game 2. Hate seeing a guy go down and he was throwing well too.
Hats off to the Mets and good luck in the next round.
