Ah, Phoenix.
That was a game to savor, one whose reversals just felt like plot points in a larger drama, even with Endy having struck out (for the first time!) in the ninth against Jose Valverde. The fences are just too close at the BOB or the Chase or whatever it's called today for a one-run deficit to feel fatal until the final flat-lining. And our recent history there is just too spectacular to overlook.
That was the kind of game that creates folk heroes — welcome to the inner circle, Damion Easley! And it was the kind of game that's so full of incestuous baseball connections that you just shake your head. Shawn Green, former Diamondback, gets on base thanks to a play not made by Tony Clark, former Met. Paul Lo Duca, widely expected at one point to be laundered into a Diamondback, follows with a walk. Easley, former Diamondback, puts down 415 feet worth of hammer for a 6-4 lead. (And then David Wright, who hopefully will never be a Diamondback or anything other than a New York Met, makes it a laugher.)
This was the kind of game we'd wanted to put on the 2007 ledger, so later we could smile at the memory of it and draw strength from it in anxious ninth innings to come — a game in which the Mets stayed cool, waited for their opportunity and then not only won but unleashed hell.
In the past three years, Bank One Ballpark became Chase Field and the Diamondbacks' uniforms changed from purple to red.
It's obvious: Arizona went into witness protection in hopes we wouldn't track them down and do what we're notorious for doing to them.
Didn't work.
Those uniforms….
Emily came home around the sixth inning, took one look at the TV, stopped and demanded, “What are the Diamondbacks wearing?”
Jason,
It was also the kind of game one tries but fails to stay up and watch to the bitter end. Darn Arizona for not switching to daylight savings!
AMEN!
Now, this one felt like 2006.
In the desert, the Mets can remember their name, 'cause there ain't no one for to give them no pain.
Not for a while now, anyway.
Before my eyelids closed I did get to see some great fielding by the Met infield. In one inning there was a high hopper up the middle snagged by Reyes with a great leaping stab followed by Wright's pick up of a grounder off Glavin's glove and subsequent 360 degree turn and throw to first. What poise from both of them!
Too bad we have to get up early on Saturday and probably miss the second half of tonight's game as well.
I am a huge Mets fan who recently moved to Austin, TX for graduate school and since it is finals time I have not yet purchased Xtra Innings so that I can watch the Amazins play. But I do follow the games online, and that game reminded me a lot of 2006. Omar signed a veteran infielder that wasn't expected to played (last years Valentin) and has played well filling in for injury (last years Matsui). It seems that these guys have become clutch in Orange and Blue. Three to four years ago we would have lost that game. I love how the culture of the Mets has changed so rapidly—we know we are never out of a game!
Same here. My husband and I thought it was some sort of ugly “Mercury Mets” like prank, especially with the stylized “db” on the shoulder. Shudder to think that the poor Diamondbacks will have to wear those for the rest of the year.
My thought about the unis was, “Did someone steal all the Snakes' garb and they had to borrow the Nationals'?” Hopefully this will go down as just one more Ugly Uniform Experiment, like those double-knit White Sox togs from the late '70s, and they'll come to their senses and put the purple (which some marketing soooper geeenius undoubtedly told their front office was a Girlie Color) back on.
The db I kind of like. Like two hands giving the “OK” sign.
Example:
It's OK. The Mets will come back in the ninth.