Santana done for the day with a tidy 7 innings 100 pitch effort. Santana made just one mistake a HR to Josh Willingham but with a 6 run lead Santana did what your supposed to do throw strikes.

With a 4 run lead Willie goes to Matt Wise Interesting I figure no Heilman with a 4 run lead but I guess it’s a noce welocme to the team for Wise

I’m off to Little League to get my roster and equipment like I said today is like a baseball holiday All baseball all the time. 

Santana to start the 7th with Joe Smith warming up So far Santana through 90 pitches has a 60/30 K/B spilt.

Tom Gordon came in to close for the Phillies and got hammered 1/3 IP 4H 5R 5ER 1BB 0K

Break up the Nats and Nick Johnson who is back with a vengeance

Santana got in some trouble this inning giving up a single to Gonzo Castillio made a fine play on the ball but should have ate it as he had no play on Gonzo and Schineder made an outstanding play diving into the Marlin dugout to keep the ball from going in and keeping Gonzo from getting 2nd base.

Santana gets out of jam with a bulldog like performence striking out Jason Wood as a pinch hitter and making Hanley Ramierz looks silly on a third strike.

Santana still hitting in the low mid 90’s on the gun with his fastball and still low pitch count 75 through 5.

That’s why Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez are the best in the business as they take Fredi Gonzalez to task for not bringing in a righty ready to pitch to David Wright with the bags loaded and 2 out of course Wright ripped a three run double to the left center gap. Hendrikson was falling behind the count on all batters and he doesn’t have enough gas to throw a fastabll by Mets hitters.

So far the Pagan and Church (6 & 7 in the order) have come up big with RBI singles

Santana just served up a 2 run jack to Josh Willingham 6-2 Mets going into the top of the 5

Hendrikson still in for the Fish

So far so good with Santana 6 up 6 down the SNY gun has him hitting 92-93 mph on fastball as he is just going after the Marlins hitters.

Here is a quote from Cody Ross on facing Johan Santana today:

“It ’s be nice to welcome him with a loss but it’s going to be tough he’s an unbelievable pitcher”

One good thing with the Mets starting on the road, it’s been raining all day in NYC and the Highlanders-Blue Jays were rained out so the Mets are the only game in town today as it should be. So the boys in Blue and Orange need a big win today to grab the back page of the tabloids in the morning.

Gary, Ronnine and Keith are wearing the powder blue golf shirts on today and Mex has a Marine style hair cut. It’s kind of shocking looking at the Mex with the close cropped do.

Decent crowd at Dolphin Stadium loads of Mets fans as Santana got a huge hand as did the Mets team as a whole

Castillo walked, Beltran doubled as the ball fell out of Cody Ross’ glove leaving 2nd and 3rd for Delgado who went the opposite way but the blooper was caught by Hanley Rameirez. 3 outs

Sanatana time!   

Like I posted yesterday I am leaving the salt mine early today to get home for first pitch at 4PM and I will post some comments here during the game sort of a live blog if you will so this post will be short and sweet as I got to do some of the peoples business.

I was surprised to say the least that Fernando Tatis made the club over Brady Clark. I have to think  this was a Willie Randolph call as Tatis was an Omar fav but Clark worked hard all spring and I feel in Willie’ mind Clark grabbing a first basemans glove and working out At the right corner position showed the kind of initiative that takes a guy from non roster to 25th man. Congrats to Brady Clark.

Mike Pelfrey gets the 5th spot in the rotation by default but he must show he deserved it or El Duque old age and bad feet will snatch the job form Big Pelf.

Joe Smith gets a reprieve as well as Dirty Duaner builds up strength.

I watched the Nat’s-Braves game last and I have some observations:

The most relieved guy in the-park was Paul LoDuca who let a Jon Rauch pitch get past him for a passed ball that allowed the tying run to score with 2 out in the 9th inning, when Ryan Zimmerman launched his game winning homer in the bot of the 9th. LoDuca ran out on the field like someone stuck him in the ass with a hot poker as Zimmerman saved him from being the goat.

The new ballpark looks great and we Mets fans can only imagine what’s in store for us next year. One of the features in Nationals Park that I hope the SkillSets pick up on is they sell upper deck seats for 5 bucks day of game. At some point you have to let real baseball fans in the park not just corporate dickheads who wave at the cameras behind home plate with their cellphones. By the way that is why we have strict gun laws in NYC as those fuckers would have picked off by now if I could carry a firearm.

Can someone at the WWL do us baseball fans a real public service and terminate the contracts of Jon Miller and Joe Morgan? These two are beyond suckitude to the point they are distraction. 

Com’on 4 O’Clock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can’t think of any other event in life that we can’t wait to arrive and then can’t wait for it to end like spring training but tonight we get to see two of the teams on our enemies list the Braves and Nats from the new ballpark in DC and I can’t wait to watch this one tonight.

So the Mets have chosen versatility and pop over youth and quick bat as Fernando Tatis has won the 25^th spot on the roster over Ruben Gotay. If by some stroke of good fortune, Gotay clears waivers he can then sign a minor league deal and play everyday in “Nawlins. But if there is a team out there that has the stones to take a shot at a young man who can hit and have a little patients and work with on his defense (could centerfield be an option for Gotay?) who could have yourself a diamond in the rough .

Tatis had a lot of things in his favor, an ex-Expo, a guy who has had success in the big leagues. A guy who has worked hard in the bushes to get back to the Show. He played Winter Ball so even with visa problems he came in to camp in shape and ready to play and he had the good fortune of Gotay hurting his ankle.

All in all I’d much rather have Matt Murton or X-Nady on the team but I guess Omar feels the cheaper way is the way to go kind of like going with the lowest bid on a contract. That’s what the city did when it paid about a billion dollars for four brand new vessels for the Staten Island Ferry route. All four boats are pieces of shit and breakdown down regularly. The moral here is you get what you pay for.

SNY has a new gimmick where they take viewers phone calls during games. This has Classic Keith Hernandez Bloppers written all over it.

Billy Wags has signed on with 1050 WEPN and will be a guest of sissy boy Michael Kay ( a fucking pansy if there ever was one) and he also should make some kind of stupid statement by June. Also it’s kind of strange that Willie Randolph has not signed on with the Mets flagship station WFAN yet. I remember back a few years ago when Bobby Valentine (my favorite Mets manager other than the Great Gill Hodges) did a spot with Howie Rose on 620 WSNR Sporting News Radio Maybe I can work a deal with WNYC radio and Willie and I could do a spot each week? Now that would be compelling radio.

Tom Glavine still can’t shut the fuck up about last year and he still insults Mets fans intelligence:

  After an interview with two New York reporters ended yesterday, Glavine quizzed the pair about spring occurrences with the Mets as well as New York current events. When he broached the crane collapse on East 51st St. that killed seven people, Glavine suggested that was the type of event for which he reserved the word “devastating.” In recent comments, his unwillingness to apply that label to a baseball game - even one that completed a historic collapse and saw him charged with seven runs, seven hits and two walks in one-third of an inning - had irked fans.“It’s just that word,” he said. “The way I look at it, you get a phone call that tells you, ‘Hey, your son is terminally ill,’ that’s a heck of a lot different feeling than I’m going to have over a baseball game. That’s just where I was trying to come from.” 

One more time you dumb ass, we understand that losing a baseball game is not the same as an illness or death, stop making Mets fans out to be idiots you money grubbing phony. In a “baseball sense” the way the team lost was “devastating”. See we as fans and New Yorkers know all too well the difference between real life devastation and fandom devastation. Obviously you don’t you insulting shumck.

Bill Conlin takes his head out of an Entenmanns box to write a column on the pitching woes of the Phillies and the fact that Aaron Rowand will be missed in the clubhouse as take names and kick ass kind of guy.

Good thing she didn’t have something else pierced ME-OW

OMAR FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE GO AND GET MATT MURTON FROM THE CUBS!!!!!!!!! JIM HENDRY IS PUTTING HIM ON YOUR DOOR STEP LIKE YOUR THE BASEBALL VERSION OF A FOUNDLING HOSPITAL. WITH ALL DUE RESPECT OMAR, BUT FUCK FERNANDO TATIS AND HIS BROKEN DOWN CAN’T FIND MY VISA ASS DO THE RIGHT THING HERE AND BRING MATT MURTON TO THE METS.  WHAT?  YES I’M SCREAMING AND THERE WILL BE MORE YELLING IF FERNANDO FUCKING TATIS MAKES THE FINAL 25 MAN ROSTER.