213 Miles From Shea

There was a no-hitter for the sixth fifth time this season last night as Matt Garza for the Rays pitched a historic game, and it was historic for a few reasons. First, and fore most (now giving away the title of this article), it was the first no-no in Rays history. It was also the third time this year the Rays were involved in a no-hitter (two have been pitched against them) and 2010 now has the most no hitters since 1991 when there were 7, and there are still two months left in this season.

At the start of the season, there were four teams in Major League Baseball who have never had a no-hitter (Mets, Padres, Rockies, Rays). The Rays and the Rockies each have had their first one this season as the no no-no's club has become exclusive to two teams, us included. To some degree, its fitting in some sort of cosmic humor that out of the four teams on that list, the two of them that haven't had no-hitters this year are above and beyond the oldest with the Mets being established in 1962 and the Padres in 1969. The universe if laughing at us while the young recent expansion teams get to baseball history. For the Mets, and I'm speaking for myself here, I don't if any of you take this as personally as I'm starting to, it is like watching your friends at work or at school constantly get recognition. You are happy for them, and happy to be associated with the history, but it is getting to the point that even being humble is frustrating.

Actually, I think Nelson Figueroa has a great analogy for it. It is basically like the Mets farm system. The older players who should have been due a long time ago are being looked over while the young players who should get some more seasoning (to at least go through what the older players have) get called up too quickly. Ah the universe again, making a microcosm of the Mets not pitching a no hitter in our minor league system.

Maybe we will get one soon (doubt it), we've been close this season (Niese ftw).

Over the last month or so, I have focused a lot on Shea Stadium in this section and while I should probably stop doing that in order to give it some diversity, there are times I can't help myself. This is one of those times. Everything I've shown so far for Shea Stadium basically takes the item and keeps it to being a collectors showcase item. There really hasn't, unless you count the cup holder, much function of these items. Shea Stadium Chairs could function, but when you pay a huge amount of money for the chair, do you really want anyone sitting on it? Well marketing wiz's created this interesting item to give some function to Shea Stadium memorabilia:

(via MLB.com)

Yes, those are cuff links. The orange part is actually made out of the plastic from the Shea Stadium chairs. This is a fairly interesting idea because its a piece that doesn't scream Mets. In fact, you would either have to bring it up in conversation that they are Mets pieces or someone would have to prompt you to explain where you got those orange cuff links. The only downside to them are that they are about $150. That being said, its always interesting to see when products get transformed into something else entireley.

The Mets try to split the series tonight as they face the Dodgers for the last game in the series. After winning on Friday, the Mets couldn't get it done last night as they fought back to make it a 2-2 game, but fell completely silent until the 13th inning where Loney won the game for the Dodgers against Oliver Perez. The Mets will try to reverse their fortunes with RA Dickey on the mound as they try to take down Clayton Kershaw.

Dickey (6-4, 2.73 ERA) gets the nod this afternoon. He has two losses in his last two games, however in those games he has pitched 14 innings and has allowed only 4 ER (in other he has fallen victim to low run support, shocking). Dickey wasn't with the Mets the last time they played the Dodgers. Surprisingly, he has not faced the Dodgers. However the following Dodgers have these numbers against RA:

The Mets bats will try to channel Friday night against Clayton who is 9-5 this season with a 3.15 ERA. In his last three starts this season he is 1-1 with a 3.93 ERA. Last year Kershaw pitched against the Mets once and he picked up the win as he pitched a 6 inning shutout where the Mets only got 3 hits. The Mets have these numbers agianst Kershaw:

Lets Go Mets!

The New York Post after last night's loss:

(NY Post)

The Mets and Dodgers play the third game of the series this afternoon on FOX as the Mets try to repeat what they did last night and win a game. On the topic of last night, it was great. The Mets hit, pitched, and played great defense and took the game 6-1. This is an important game for the Mets for another reason as Pelfrey really needs to perform this afternoon. I'm not going to spend time looking into his recent numbers. We all know they have been terrible. Last year, he made one start against the Dodgers and it wasn't good as he allowed 5 runs, 4 earned over 3 innings against the boys from Hollywood. The Dodgers have these numbers against him:

The Mets bats will try to repeat last night against Carlos Monasterios. In his rookie season, Carlos is 3-2 with a 3.61 ERA. For Carlos this will be his first start since June 18th as he has been used in multiple roles this year. He did pitch two innings against the Mets in April where he allowed a hit and that was it. Oddly enough, it was Castillo that managed the one hit. For the Mets bats they need to do what they did last night again, score runs early and then have someone play the Jason Bay role with the killer hit late in the game to put it away for good.

Lets Go Mets!

With our ace on the mound, things returned to normal tonight as the Mets fired on all cylinders with great starting pitching, great relief pitching and great production out of the bats. Also, the Braves loss so the Mets can officialy start their climb back into contention.

In my opinion the star of the game has to be Santana as he threw 7 innings, allowed one earned run, walked one, allowed five hits while striking out 4. He provided exactly what the Mets needed tonight giving everyone else on the Mets a chance to help win this game. This also marked the 13th time this season that he has allowed one run or less in a start (and yet he has only 8 wins, which speaks volumes on multiple levels).

Ike Davis. He was given absolute junk up there and yet he sent that 53 mph pitch straight into the night. Bay helped his own cause (showing his worth) by driving in a huge double and ending up with 3 RBI on the night.

The Mets also showed the night that they want to win. All three outfielders tonight showed hustle as they all made plays where they risked themselves for the team. Thats exactly what you want to see in a team that wants to win. Hopefully these good feelings tonight in defense, pitching and hitting will carry on for a while now, as the Mets try to reverse their fortunes since the start of the second half.

The Mets are in a tailspin and they look to their ace, their stopper, Johan Santana to help them out again. Santana pitched the only game since the All-Star break the Mets have won, and has re-stated himself as the ace of the staff. Johan is 7-5 on the season with a 2.87 ERA. In his last four starts, Santana has pitched 31.0 innings with a 2-0 record and a 0.58 ERA while walking 9 and striking out 21 in that stretch. Johan picked up a win earlier this season against the Dodgers while he recorded 6 scoreless, 4 hit innings against the Dodgers while walking 3 and striking out 6. The Dodgers have these numbers against Johan:

The Mets bats will try to breakout of their collective slump against Vicente Padilla tonight who is 4-2 on the season with a 3.65 ERA. He has been very good in his last three game posting an ERA of 0.87 over 20.2 innings walking 6 batters and striking out 16. He didn't pitch against the Mets earlier this season. The Mets have these numbers against Vicente:

Lets Go Mets!

Sorry, I couldn't resist.
(In case you're dense, this is not the All-Star Game Logo…yet).