basebrawl

what an exciting first series. i'd say the mets won the series 2-1 over the nats, but really the umps won 2-1. on opening day, mets catcher paul lo duca got away with dropping the ball while tagging alfonso soriano out at the plate. he hid it well just like any other catcher would've and the nats lost 3-2. on wednesday, the mets started a minor leaguer who no hit the nats thru 5 innings. the dam finally broke in the 6th when nick johnson hit a three run homer to get the nats within striking distance at 4-3. in the bottom of the 9th, the nats' rookie sensation ryan 'dutch' zimmerman hit a full-count game tying hr off of billy wagner - yes, that billy wagner. when the game went to extras, the mets had already used 3 of their best relievers so the nats scored 5 runs in the 10th to win 9-5.

then came last night's game. the first game for pedro at shea. pedro has thrown a total of 7 live innings in 2006 and it showed as he walked 5 batters and hit 4 batters. tempers flared, bases cleared, and when the nats tried to retaliate for the 4 hbp's - and 6 overall in the series - they were the ones who got ejected. the umps came into play again in this game (well, besides allowing waaay too many hbp's to happen) in the 4th inning when there was a runner on 1st and 2nd and the mets batter hit a grounder that actually went directly off our pitcher's toe and high into the air and was caught by dutch. all the runners had incorrectly advanced and it should've been a triple play, but the umps thought the ball just had to have hit the ground first - even though it didn't. so the bases were loaded and a few batters later all three had scored. if you take the runs away, the mets would've still won 7-5, but can you tell me the game wouldn't have been played differently and the relievers used differently if the nats were up 5-2 in the bottom of the 5th?

ok, i know you don't come here for baseball recaps and i know i don't intend for this place to turn into a baseball blog, but this is how i've spent my spring break week and it's very fun to have games on every night again. i made a scorebook for the season yesterday (got it bound at kinko's) and i've been having fun keeping score.

oh, and we're heading down to knoxville for the weekend (saturday morning instead of tonight due to impending thunderstorms) to see the family. jake will be going on his first easter egg hunt while we're there. have a blessed palm sunday!