Yesterday I made my last trip to Shea Stadium, probably ever, and it was a day of mixed emotions. I am pretty lucky that yesterday was my second game seeing Santana pitch (I saw him in Washington on April 23rd), and he really was amazing yesterday. The few times he got into trouble, he got out of it. At one point he struck out five in a row. He was dominate…and some how it wasn't contagious. The bullpen fell apart again, the Mets left the bases loaded in the eighth inning and then again in the ninth.
I want to get away from the struggles of the team for a little bit. Living outside of Baltimore when the team is in a 10 year losing season streak, and living nearby to Washington, where support is hard to come by, despite a new ballpark, I am always amazed by Mets fans when I go to Shea Stadium. At Oriole games, very, very few people are wearing Oriole gear, let alone Oriole colors. At Shea, just about everyone has a hat, or a jersey or a T-shirt…that just doesn't happen everywhere else and it shows how deeply Mets fans care about baseball. The cheering as well is something thats hard to come by in a lot of other ball parks. If you go to small market or long time struggling MLB teams, you will see what I am saying here.
Anyway, back to the struggling Mets. The Mets have been a real story of when one thing goes right, other things fall apart so badly that the good gets so lost. The Mets have had very good starting pitching as of late. In the last two games, the Mets starters have gone 15 innings, allowed one run, and have struck out 18 batters. That one run, was an inherited runner that was allowed to score by Billy Wagner. Its also frustrating with how successful Wagner has been this season, to watch him explode right now. Something is going to have change, and lets hope its the Mets getting a spark to change the direction of this team.
