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So, Damien orders me to write about baseball in my blog, so write I must! Just saw my first Mets game of the season, having carefully avoided the first five losses, and I have this to say - Pedro Martinez is God. A two-hit, one-run complete game against the Braves is great pitching under any circumstances; when you're pitching against John Smoltz with 15 K's, no walks and no runs through seven innings, it takes character as well as skill. Eventually Carlos Beltran ended Smoltz's day and Pedro just outlasted him. The late offence helped, of course, but with Smoltz pitching like he was it would have been easy for the Mets to give up and fall apart as they do too often, and it was all about Pedro holding them together. Jose Reyes was also very, very impressive, he hit well and ran well and just had a great attitude to the game. Despite the poor start I'm hopeful about this season, if a few more key players can get healthy. There Damien, HAPPY NOW?!

Comments

jedikaos wrote on 2005-04-12 13:49:
We're getting there! The problem isn't necessarily health (it will be, soon) as the only starting player injured right now is Mike Cameron. And most players (not Piazza) seem to be hitting well (for a high average). Pitchers have been throwing them strikes, so when that stops, the walks will mount up and the averages will go down. That we're only 2-5 after such, shall we say, mediocre pitching in the first couple of series is not good, and we've got to face The Rocket tomorrow. Dammit. Jose Reyes has really impressed me so far, though, but again, his problem is that he's seen all strikes and hasn't yet taken a walk. When he sees pitches off the plate, he'll hack away and still not take a walk. The important thing this season for him is to develop plate discipline, so that when he stops seeing pitches over the plate, he can still get on base. As I've said, when he's healthy, he can HIT, but hitting is really all that he's shown he can do at the plate so far. He's a .300 hitter, but he's got to become a .300 hitter with a .350-.360 OBP before we can proclaim his development a success. As I say though, I'm impressed by him so far, coming back from the last two seasons worth of injuries. Look, Adam, now you've gone and got me started... :)