Lose One For The Gipper?

Last night was a painful night all around as a Met fan, at least it was for me. First of all, I was watching Pedro pitch and he clearly was not on top of his game. There are a number of reasons this could be including that he has not fully recovered from last year, the weather may not have been what he wanted and it was only his first start of the year. Still, the bottom line is, Pedro did not look sharp.

Then, Pedro goes down early with an injury. As of the last time I checked, they had not made a decision about him but you have to figure that he is going on the DL. Fortunately they did pick up Johan during the off season but still, what everyone hoped would be a strong one-two punch, something to get them going strong out of the box was not to be. Now there are a lot of questions as to what will happen. Do they go with a four man rotation until El Duque is ready (and can you count on him?) Do they bring up a minor leaguer? Do they move Sosa into the fifth starter slot? Sosa did look good in long relief for the Mets yesterday.

Of course there was the matter of the Met lose as well. After fighting back from a four-nothing deficit to tie the game, the Mets went on to lose in extra innings. Keith Hernandez commented (I think it was Keith) how, while he was not in the dugout, the game seemed to have a feeling of ‘win one for the Gipper’ after Pedro left the game. That would have been great but alas, it was not to be. The Mets could not scratch this one out.

Also, while it is too early to hit the panic button, I am a little concerned about Matt Wise. After getting the first two batters in the tenth, he gave up a homerun on a ball that was right over the plate. After running into trouble the first game of the season, he ends up losing the second game of the season. I hope this does not shatter his confidence and that he can show himself to be a strength in the Met’s Bullpen.

So, as I said before, all around, yesterday was a tough game, a tough loss.