Getcha Clobber On!

Definitely a blowout. Something like a laugher. Never in doubt.

The Mets scored three runs before Bronson Arroyo threw 15 pitches. Then I drifted off under the influence of Coricidin Cough & Cold. When I woke up, the Mets were ahead, I think, 7-0. I missed four runs? I guess I could’ve been sore (and achy) that the Mets were clobbering an opponent without me hanging on every delicious swing, but if I was going to be sick anyway, and I needed to wake up to a score of some sort, Mets 7 Diamondbacks 0 represented quite the remedy.

And then, so I wouldn’t feel entirely left out, they put up a couple more runs. Ya can’t go wrong with 9-0. Well, you can brace for bad news from Jenrry Mejia’s blister and snarl through Kirk Gibson and Oliver Perez flashbacks, but only lightly. You gotta enjoy these romps through the desert when they come around.

The return of Kirk Nieuwenhuis brought with it predictable results: three hits, three RBIs, a two-run homer, some fancy catches in center as well. Did I predict Kirk would lay out a box score line as long as his last name? Let’s just say I had a sense he’d reintroduce himself with authority. He has a Don Draper thing going vis-à-vis what Dr. Faye Miller said to him in Season Four’s finale when he broke up with her to marry Megan: Kirk mostly likes beginnings of things. He comes up without fanfare, he conducts a symphony of power and defense in the face of initial indifference, he ascends to People’s Choice territory, yet he usually exits the stage sotto voce.

But he had superb stage presence Tuesday night. With Juan Lagares sadly unavailable, Nieuwenhuis spelled relief. And on the date everybody wore 42, you wondered for a while if the Mets would total at least half that many runs. They backed off after four innings, which Jackie Robinson probably wouldn’t have approved of, but these aren’t the Boys of Summer. They’re the .500 Mets, the statistical epitome of not half bad.

Which in itself is not half bad…or a whole lot better than I’m feeling with this cough & cold.