Because the ninth belongs to us…

Hey, Braden Looper isn't permanently damaged by his world-ending implosion Sunday night. All saves aren't created equal, but all saves have their place in the course of a season, and it's good to see Loop ain't dead yet.

Maybe we are, maybe we aren't, but there was fun today. Pedro as [...]

In the bottom of the second, with Mike Piazza at bat, Phillies' catcher Todd Pratt didn't like Alfonso Marquez calling a ball on what Tank was sure was strike three. An instant after expressing his displeasure, he was ejected.

“Todd Pratt,” judged Fran Healy, “must've said the magic words.”

Shoot, take the magic words out of Todd [...]

Because Kaz Ishii can't.

Ishii will fool you with the occasional decent outing, but when he blows up it's so spectacular he tends to take the whole bullpen with him, which is not what we need before a day game.

Time to face facts: Ishii has had 11 starts and seven of them have been out-and-out bad. [...]

Whoa.

Gary Sheffield for Mike Cameron is the hot rumor, advanced here by Joel Sherman of the Post and here by Bob Klapisch in the Bergen Record.

The two accounts differ on other players: Klapisch says Cairo would be going back to the Bronx and that the Mets would want financial relief; Sherman just notes additional [...]

Goodness does Victor Zambrano drive you insane. Man could he be good.

Most of the time it looks like he's internalized Dr. Peterson's lessons about pitching to contact and letting the natural movement on his pitches move the ball just up or down from the sweet spot of enemy bats. But then something goes wrong or [...]

It's never mentioned as meriting inclusion amid the subterranean pantheon of terrible Mets trades. It may not be down there with Otis for Foy or Ryan for Fregosi let alone Scott for Heep or Brogna for Borland & Jordan or Isringhausen for Taylor or Bay for Steve Reed or Cone for Kent & Thompson or [...]

Yes and no, I saw it coming. Yes because one is conditioned to expect the worst particularly where these contests are concerned. No because a three-run lead is a three-run lead in the seventh and a two-game winning streak over the team you're playing should be a more immediate indicator of your fortunes than all [...]

…that team sure did suck last night. They just plain sucked! I've seen teams suck before, but they were the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked!

– Homer Simpson

Truth be told, you could see this one coming. Heilman came out looking frightened, immediately balked, gave up a run-scoring single to Jeter, got a gift when [...]