Joaquin Andujar, a quotable pitcher from a bygone era, famously remarked that his favorite word in English was “you never know.” Which is a good way to break down Sunday’s Mets-Indians finale:
* Daisuke Matsuzaka was good. No really, he was. Though as Scott Kazmir showed, that’s what happens when you’re facing a club that let you go — Matsuzaka was so amped up his curve was hitting 79. Ha ha.
* Justin Turner is a hitting machine. Turner homered, the second time he did so at Whatever It Is Field this series to go with the zero times he’s homered anywhere else this year. He jawed with former Met Joe Smith, giving us the odd spectacle of a beef between a) a guy who specializes in shaving-cream pies and Carly Rae Jepsen and b) a clean-cut submariner renowned as one of the nicer players in the game. It was like watching Archie woofing at Richie Cunningham, and no, the benches didn’t exactly clear. Turner also got tagged in the jaw by Asdrubel Cabrera, who mollified Mets fans by looking sorry though I’m still not sure what he was doing — Turner was out by a large enough margin for Cabrera to run to the dugout, get a Sharpie and write O-U-T on Turner’s uniform. I must confess that I’ve come around on Turner — he has no hidden virtues beyond playing hard and being moderately useful at a few positions, but these are qualities that shouldn’t be snarked at as much as they are.
* Frank Francisco got the win. Activated from the 180-day Malingerer’s List, Frank Frank promptly walked the first guy he faced, and some medium-sized part of me was looking forward to savaging him after his miserable failure. So of course he got the next guy to hit into a double play and wound up with the W. This may prove that the win is the dumbest statistic in a sport with no lack of them, but I was still awfully glad to see that W, even if it did wind up next to the name of the guy no one particularly wanted to return.
Mets win! And in crisp, taut fashion, no less! Like Joaquin said, youneverknow.
Like they say, every Dice has his day. I guess.
Me, I think I’m going to pay a little more attention to Vegas and Savannah in their playoff seasons. They’re the future. Dice-K, Frankie Frank and, alas, Justin Turner are the past.
Leave it to the Mets, even at this late date, to give us a brand new mystery, a vexing riddle to solve. I’m speaking, of course, of Why The F**k Did They Bother Bringing Back Frank Francisco?
Dave – don’t you get it? It’s called “waving the white flag.” Next, they’ll be bringing back Manny Acosta, Miguel Batista, and the immortal Chris Schwinden. Just like old times.