Then stuff happened.

When you are a sinkerballer, the worst thing that can happen, besides the sinker not sinking, is that grounders find holes (which is what happens to Sampson, usually, when he gets hit) and singles happen.

So in the 4th, Bourn hit a screaming liner to first, then Tejada (thankfully back in the 2-hole instead of Keppinger) and Berkman hit ones that got by, then (although I was dreading the usual GIDP) Carlos singled to right and Tejada scored from second - Lance went to third on the bad throw, which SHOULD have been to the cutoff man.

Yes, Evelyn, the cutoff man is a VERY important man. You see, he is supposed to be positioned in such a way that he can make the decision of which base is best to throw to, as he has had the second of 2 to concentrate while the OF has gone to GET the ball, and then, because the distance is much shorter from the IF to a base, he SHOULD be able to make a short ACCURATE throw (unlike Miggy last night to Blum - they SHOULD have gotten Adrian Gonzalez out by 15' had the throw been good) which would hopefully either ensure an out, would prevent a runner from going, say, first to third on a single AND prevent a throw from going, shall we say, astray.

Where was I?

Oh yeah. Men on first and third, 1 out. Pitcher needs an easy GIDP, right? And it is Geoff Blum, who should be able to oblige. Which he does, except that the ball comes right at the first baseman, who doesn't glove it well and the ball, which should have been a nice 3-6-1 GIDP goes into into RF - Lance trots home and it's men on first and second, 1 out.

Pitcher must be besides himself - 2 runs in on 3 crappy singles, a bad throw and a botched GIDP ball. He then gets Pudge to FO to shallowish right - Clank CERTAINLY can't get to third on THAT ball. So he needs only ONE more out to get out of the mess, right?

Well, the home plate ump didn't help him much because with The Gritmeister and his sub .200 OBP up, he called the 6th pitch Ball 3, instead of the strike 3 it actually was (the ump was erratic all night - and it was Chuck Merriwether, who is usually good...)

So then it's bases loaded, 2 out and Kaz Matsui hits what SHOULD be an inning ending grounder to the SS, who kind of juggles it before throwing, and instead of being an error, it's an IF hit, a runs scores, and it's STILL bases loaded, 2 outs and the pitcher, Moehler, who is no Hampton at the plate, is up.

And sure enough, he hits a nice easy ball to third. Now, when you have an old, slow pitcher running to first and you have grabbed the inning-ending grounder, and the pitcher is 40' from the base, you just set yourself and fire a strike to your Gold Glove first baseman (and yes I know he stole that GG from both Pujols and Berkman.) But no. He kind of looks around, wonders if he should step on third or fire to second, and by the time he gets him mind made up to throw to third, he hurries the throw, fires the ball past Gonzalez and runners keep coming around. The RF, Venables, wasn't backing up the play (guess he couldn't believe that the third baseman could botch SUCH an easy out) and Gonzalez had to go and get the ball himself.

When he reaches it, Matsui is running home from third and is a GOOD 30' from the plate. So all Gonzalez needs to do is fire a strike to the catcher, who is waiting and in position and Matsui is a dead duck. But no. Gonzalez throws WAAAAYYY past the catcher and the ball bounces off the dugout, Matsui is safe and Moehler goes to second on the throw (why Gonzalez wasn't given an error on that throw I don't know.)

And there is the poor pitcher, 6 runs scored on 4 piddly singles, a walk which SHOULD have been a K, 2 botched plays and two (sorry, it was) errors which led to three runs.

Stuff happens.

The pitcher was kind of shell-shocked, understandably, although he managed to get Bourn out, and he was pulled for a PH the next inning. The kid actually threw VERY well and not a single Astro actually hit the ball hard, only 2 even reached the OF.

Now, I went through this entire Unfortunate Event just to demonstrate that good fielding is essential and that even very good fielders like Adrian Gonzalez can allow their concentration to lapse. I think it has to do with that mysterious, unmeasurable Thing in baseball that the players call "confidence." And I think that when your team goes down by 6 runs in 1 inning on essentially a bunch of piddly singles, errors, misplays and a missed Strike 3, well, the game is essentially OVAH. It is somehow different when the 6 runs down happened because the pitcher gave up doubles in the gap and homers because that was HIS fault alone and somehow, it doesn't see to affect the rest of the players the way geting piddled to death does...

It's funny - I wouldn't have said that Moehler pitched "well" but I look at my scorebook and I see that he only gave up a solo homer, a double, 2 singles, 4 walks, 1 run over 6 innings and got EIGHT Ks. Let's just say that with the exception of Adrian Gonzales' walk in the 4th (and Ball 3 was actually Strike 3) Moehler got more than a few pitches outside the strike zone called as strikes (the most egregious was strike 1 to Chase Headley in the second - that pitch was a GOOD 2" outside.) Yes, I know that it was OUR pitcher who had the advantage today, but I object in principle to pitches not in the strike zone being called strikes and pitches in the strike zone being called balls and different ball strike calls for different pitchers.

Fair is fair.

And this afternoon it is Wandy vs Kevin Correia (yes, the ex-Giant swingman) and let's hope that Wandy has the curveball working.  

This is an honest question. Instead of me writing a blog today since I am super busy at work, I want to know what you think has happened to the Tigers bats? Pratically shutout by some no-name stiff and the bullpen in Oakland last night. Handcuffed by mediocre pitching all weekend in Houston and we did not exactly light up the Cubs either.

With the Twins on the horizon something needs to give. Can anyone explain to me why the bats have gone silent? We hav enot exactly been lighting it up for much of the year either but lately scoring has been a challenge. Magglio's hair cut does not seem to be helping either as he has looked lost, almost searching for an answer why. Maybe it is just THAT time for him, who knows?

Lets turn it around and build that lead back up....

It's close to midnight and Roy Oswalt is dealin on the mound
Under the floodlight, the fans hear only swishing sounds
You try to hit, but that fastball has some wicked movement
You start to freeze as curveballs seem to be right at your eyes
You're paralyzed

'Cause this is Roy-O's thriller night
And no one's gonna save you from his throwing yet another strike
You know it's thriller, thriller night
You're fighting for your hits inside a killer, thriller tonight

You hear the door slam and realize there's nowhere left to run
You see the slider and wonder if he'll ever hang just one
You concentrate, and hope that Roy will finally lose it
But all the while, he's getting better by the pitch
You're out of time

'Cause this is Roy-O's thriller night
There ain't no second chance against the curveball you can't hit
Thriller, thriller night
You're fighting for your hits inside a killer, thriller tonight

Darkness falls on Padre land
The 9th inning is now at hand
Last chance at comeback has gone today
Cuz A-Gon didn't hit that FB, away...

Yes, I know it was the Padres, yes I know it's a pitcher's park, but the fact is that Roy had, for the first time this year, complete command of the curve and it made all the difference. And he gave up a run because The Pest leaned into a pitch and eventually came home on a "WP" - a curve in the dirt that Pudge didn't block. But giving up 2 doubles, 1 walk, 1 IBB, 1 WP, 1 GIDP for a complete game 2 hitter is simply awesome. Hope he pitches just as well at Telephone Park in SF.

He even got 2 hits himself, he was so confident up there. Unfortunately, he had no opportunity to drive in any runs, and no one drove him in, so it went for nothing.

In news, Backe decided not to go to Round Rock, so he can try to hook up with a different team. I doubt he would be immediately slotted into any ML team's rotation because he has pitched so few innings this year, but he might could decide to go to some AAA team whose pitching coach is good, so as to restore his stuff. And no, he'll never be a #2 guy, but the fact is that every ML pitching staff has 5 starters, NEEDS 5 starters, and the 5th guy is significantly worse than the #1 guy. There aren't ANY pitching rotations which consist of 5 aces, contrary to fan expectations. There aren't even any 5 man rotations in which all 5 guys each have an ERA+ of 100.

The Astros are going to have a 6 man rotation, according to Cooper. He can't bear to go without Brian Moehler. If you check his stats, omitting April, when he was hurt) here is what you get:

10 GS over 57 IP - average of 5 2/3 IP/GS - 1 CG (vs Pirates), 1 7- inning game (vs Padres), 3 6-inning games, 4 5-inning games, 1 3-inning game. 64 H, 32 R/29 ER, 15 BB, 36 K, 11 HR - 4.58 ERA/1.39 WHIP, basically his stat line from last year with a few more homers.

Hampton: 12 GS over 67 IP - average of just under 5 2/3 IP/GS - has had 4 QS, 3 vs PIT and 1 vs the Reds. 70 H, 8 HR, 27 BB, 43 K, 35 ER - 4.70 ERA/1.45 WHIP.

Neither one is particularly impressive, that's fer sher...

WHY???

Ortiz is at 90 pitches, not tired, throwing well. I mean, he just had him hit in the bottom of the 7th, and then pitch to 1 guy in the 8th???

Is this Coop's usual unspeakably stupid crap about the lefty/righty thingy? Who knows? Why not let Ortiz finish the game? WHY won't the reporters EVER ask Coop questions like that???

And with 2 out, and a 1-2 count, Valverde decided to replay the Brad Lidge Albert Pujols debacle and goodbye ball game. Yep, Inge sent that ball over the railroad tracks, just like Uncle (proving yet again that you don't have to be a large man to hit a ML fastball a LONG LONG way...)

So, with no further ado (with apologies to R Kelly) what I think I just might could have heard Mr. Lidge say to Mr Valverde:

"But you are not alone
Though I'm not there with you
Though we're far apart (Thank God)
And you got took over the tracks
But you are not alone

Earlier tonight
I thought I heard you cry
Oh NOOO, not AGAIN
The second in 3 GAMES
I can hear your prayers
Your burdens I understand

Everyday I sit and ask myself
How did that pitch get away
Let me whisper in your ear and say
Like, dude, you are SOOOO screwing up your trade value
Throwing mid plate belt high FB
They get hit far away
And you'll be there to stay..."

Of course, I should also note that the Astros were darn lucky to get 3 runs off 6 hits, a sac fly and no walks.

sigh

Valverde has given up 4 homers over 16.1 IP (17 games), saved 6, blown 4 (and lost 2 of those.) 

Oh. By the way, the Cards went out and traded for Mark DeRosa, who is REALLY good and can play bout any position except pitcher and catcher. And all they gave up is a crappy middle reliever. We could have offered them Maysonet and Towles, seeing as how Cooper and the Astros regard them as about as good as a bucket of warm spit - something they should be reserving for Michaels and Kata.

Gerry Hunsicker would have been ALL ovah that. Of course, he wouldn't have been signing/using the likes of Kata and Michaels in the first place, neither.

We're off to play the Peavy-less Padres and game times will be starting at 9, so no writeups until the next day. Sorry. I GOT to get to bed earlier these days because I got to get up when it is a nice, frosty 75 degrees out to get stuff done because you know you GOT to be back inside before 9 AM. 

"You can't win
You can't break even
And you can't get out of the game
Leyland keep sayin'
Things are gonna change
But the pitches look like
They stayin' the same

You swing at em
way over your head
And you only got yourself to blame
You can't win Tigahs,
You can't break even
And you can't get out of the game

You can't win
The fastball keeps movin'
And you're swingin' far behind
Teammates keep sayin'
Things'll get better
Just to ease your state of mind

You can't win,
You can't win no way
If your story stays the same
You ain't winnin,
No, no,
But it's nice to see you
Awfully glad you came)
Bats are cool it 'cause
Paulino ain't about losin' "

Well, I asked the boy to Show Me Somethin Goooood (OK, so that one isn't Michael's..)

He had a bit of luck on his side because HP ump Tim Welke called accurate strikes and had an extremely consistant strike zone, the SAME strike zone for both pitchers. So he was able to throw the high FB consistently for strikes and he changed speeds and location well. He also had the slider working and threw it for strikes. He gave up 2 singles and a solo homer, NO walks and 9 Ks, 8 swinging.

Fulchino and Wright both pitched a scoreless inning and Wesley pitched to THREE rightys and struck out 2 of them, including Miguel Cabrera, who couldn't touch his slider.

Will be interesting to see who gets sent down when Hampton comes off the DL. Maysonet, about as used as a splintered bat on this team, has already been sent down in favor of old and awful Matt Kata. That is the trouble with this team - even when they DO manage to create a useful minor leaguer, they throw him away in favor of some icky veteran. ESPECIALLY when the manager has made it MORE than plain that he doesn't want to have anything to do with rookies (Towles says hello, too...) 

Will also be interesting to see what happens with Backe. I know that the fans are very hostile to him after last year's terrible September and his inability to come out of the bullpen every 8 days and perform well, but fact is that the Organization didn't prepare him for a role in the pen and didn't keep him fresh in any way. If he has any sense, he'll go down to AAA, let the pitching coach straighten him out, and then get his agent to work overtime to wangle a trade.

And kudos to the hitters - everyone got a hit except Keppinger, and even though he did hit into another DP, he did walk twice, drove in one and scored one.

This afternoon, it's Russ Ortiz vs Edwin Jackson (no relation to Michael)

Edwin was drafted in 01 at age 17 and made the majors at age 19, throwing 22 excellent innings. Trouble was that everyone kind of expected him to be the second coming of Doc Gooden, and he wasn't. He didn't do real too good with his callups the next few years, so the Dodgers gave up on him at age 21 and traded him to the Rays for relievers Danys Baez and Lance Carter. He threw a couple of innings in relief, then became a full time starter in 07 and uh, struggled, having a Backe '08 like year, but the Rays stuck with him and he improved in 08, throwing 31 games over 180 innings with a 101 ERA+, his first good year.

The Rays, overloaded with starters (poor them) traded him to the Tigers for a 24 yo OF who is being used as a 5th guy, sort of like a Maysonet. Jackson has been an absolute ace - he has started 15 games over 101.1 innings, with 79 H, 7 HR, 29 BB and 79 K for a 187 ERA+ and a 2.40 ERA/ 1.06 WHIP.

It's amazing that we have already taken the series against the Tigres. A sweep would be crazy...

Friday's game was not the first time the Tigers had faced Pudge since he moved on to less awesome things-- they played the Yankees once after the '08 Farnsworth/Pudge Swap o' Surliness. But that was just a makeup game. This was the first time the Tigers and Pudge came face to face at the start of a proper series, having spent the entire season thus far apart. DUN DUNNNNN.

--Pudge looks exactly the same. I don't think he's actually aging. Also, Rod and Mario claimed that Wandy Rodriguez was the first Rodriguez he had ever caught in his career (making for a Rodriguez-Rodriguez battery), which is kind of remarkable if true, but I am WAY too lazy to fact-check them on that.

--Miguel Cabrera's homerun was enormous. Vast. Gargantuan. It hit the back wall of the stadium, on the edge of the windows. Placido Polanco also homered in this one, although it was not nearly so jaw-droppingly magnificent. He compensated by hitting his with two men on base.

--In his return to Minute Maid, Adam Everett had only one hit, a double. He looked awfully relieved after he hit it, though.

--Late in the game, Josh Anderson stole second off of Pudge. Oh my holy cats was Pudge angered by this. He very plainly thought that he had thrown Anderson out (it looked like the throw beat Anderson, but the tag might not have gotten down fast enough), and he uttered a few choice words when the ump called Anderson safe. Ballsy of Josh Anderson, especially since he's been vaguely disastrous on the basepaths in the last few games.

--According to Rod and Mario, Magglio's hair was weighed after it had been cruelly shorn from his head, and it was found to weigh TWO POUNDS. I am not sure that I believe that, because HOLY CATS TWO POUNDS. But, if true... well, it could definitely explain his at least temporary hitting bounceback. Imagine losing that much weight from your scalp all at once! Didn't help today, though, as Maggs stranded something on the order of seven billion Cats on base.

--Verlander was back to his early-season inefficient ways. Very disturbing to see, I kind of felt like I was having some sort of hallucinatory flashback. He threw 118 pitches in 5.1 innings. Wandy Rodriguez wasn't that much better (106 in 6), but I just found it particularly worrying to see Verlander regress like that, you know?

Quoth Justin: "I'm not gonna adjust until I have to." Oh, OK.

--Polanco made a brilliantly good turn on the 6-4-3 double play that ended the 6th. Michael Bourn slid directly at him, but he held his ground and managed to get the ball out of his hands about a millisecond before Bourn upended him. The kind of play that makes you love double plays a little bit.

--The Return of Tim Byrdak! He struck out Donnie Kelly and walked Curtis Granderson. He was not wearing pitching goggles.

--JOEL ZUMAYA. We need to have some STERN WORDS here.

At one point Zoom hit 105 on the Minute Maid radar gun (not the FSND gun, they don't take it on the road, they just use the readings from the local stadium gun), and he was throwing in the triple digits for pretty much the entire 8th inning. Now, I would suspect that the Houston gun was running a little hot, because 105? Really? REALLY?

But there's no denying the fact that Zoom was leaning HEAVILY on his fastball tonight, and he was pumping it up as high as he possibly could-- it doesn't really matter if that actual speed was 105 or 100 or 99 mph. We have discussed the fact that Zoom tends to get in trouble when he relies on his fastball too much. That happened here. He wasn't locating it, but he just kept going right back to it.

Zoom, darling, if you can't control your fastball at 99, the solution is not to pump it up to 103. Throw a different pitch. I know you love the fastball like most people love their children, or their pets, but some days your kid is gonna be an unrelieved brat, and some days your cat is going to be all hairballs all the time, OK? And that metaphor is going to get convoluted pretty soon so I'm going to abandon it now, but you know what I mean.

The blown save and the loss both belong to Zoom here. Double-whammy. I can't say that he didn't deserve it tonight, though-- Justin was in position to get his 9th win, a respectable number of runs had been scored, the winning streak was in order, Fernando Rodney was not likely to pitch. All seemed well. Alas, alas.

--G-Money got hit in the nuts on a backswing. He went down like he'd taken a bag of bricks to the face, and it looked like he was crying (or screaming) into the trainer's shoulder for a bit. He stayed in the game though! And people say baseball players aren't tough. A soccer player would have milked that for 8 thousand years.

--Mario made the obligatory Darin-Erstad-was-a-college-football-player mention, but Rod spiced it up by immediately mocking him for calling a punter a proper football player. We were then treated to a story about how Rod used to perform all manner of football kicking duties when he was in high school, except he was terrible at field goals.

--Saturday's game will be Alfredo Figaro vs. Felipe Paulino. Felipe isn't related to Ronny Paulino, right? They're both from Santo Domingo and they're a couple years apart, but I just don't know.

I remember a while back one of my aunties telling me about the time she was watching MTV, back when they did those spring break shows with a bunch of almost nekkid crazy almost drunk 20 year olds, and she looked at the TV and said - this is SOOOOOOO stupid. And in that second, she realized she was actually an adult, that it wasn't that she had made any conscious decision, but she found out she had just somehow changed and was seeing the world with adult eyes.

I guess i got hit the same way yesterday, when Michael Jackson died. I was just a toddler when "Billie Jean" first came out and really smashed the MTV barrier to African-American artists, just a small child when he hit a homer offn Pedro '99 a good 600' over the CF fence with his Moonwalk on the 25 year Motown special, too young to really remember the release of The Thrillah, the first ever MTVideo movie.

But the album got a lot of play in our house, my brothers taught me to moonwalk and I even had a sequined Glove and a Michael hat, and when "Bad" was released, I danced around with my brother singing "WHO'S BAD???"

Michael sort of did a reverse steroids thingy over his career, changing himself from a cute skinny Black guy with an endearing smile singing happy-sounding upbeat songs to, well, an, um, shall we say, "Off The Wall" freak. By the time that "Rock My World" was released in, what, 01, he had lost his dance moves, innate grace, his figure (check out the paunch), his color and his entire face. He appeared to have, while alive, turned into one of the zombies from "Thriller" - I couldn't understand why on earth the Girl in the video, upon seeing Michael's absence of face, didn't scream like Ola Ray and run away. Of course, by that time, I was far too preoccupied with other things (such as my Husband) and other musicians to do anything but shudder.

It was painfully obvious that Michael had long since lost his talent, his moves and his mind (last good song was "Blood On The Dance Floor" and even then, he was hardly moving at all), but I kind of just dismissed it and him, shaking my head sadly, much as baseball fans must have done back in '73, watching what used to be Willie Mays try to play baseball.

sigh

Yesterday, BET, MTV and VH1 were all running the old Michael Jackson/Jackson 5 videos. Sort of reminds me of a HOF baseball career - rookie year (Off The Wall) to a stupendous, unrepeatable MVP year (Thriller) to HOF career (Bad) to unexpected peak-fluke year (Black Or White video) complicated by, uh, ahem - "roid suspiscions" (its original BIZARRE ending) to late career fluctuations (the videos from HIStory - especially "Scream") to last gasp respectable year ("Blood On The Dance Floor") to just flat out Frank Thomas 2008 Clogging The Bases (Ghosts/Rock My World.)

I hear older folks (ballplayers, TV announcers, fans) mourn the loss of "The Golden Age Of Baseball" which, I guess, was during the perfect 50s when there were only 16 teams and the center of the Universe was where it belonged, in NYC, where all the money and good players resided, and The Game was perfect (hey, Mickey Mantle was sac-bunting, along with the pitchers) and every pitcher threw 150-200 pitch complete games every 4th day and ended up with 300 innings and there were no Designated Inning Specialists.

smile

If you actually bother to watch any of those old games, the few that were televised and the tapes kept, you will see that most guys couldn't hit for spit, almost nobody took pitches, the game moved a LOT more quickly, as hitters weren't allowed to Derek Jeter prolong the AB and pitchers worked quickly. The pace was better, but the pitching and hitting weren't.

Just like watching Michael's old videos - like Willie's catch at the Wall and throw - Billie Jean is dated, but unrepeatably great; Reggie's 3 homer game in the WS was a Thrillah. But like watching crappy banjo hitter after crappy banjo hitter. Michael's moves became unoriginal, repetitive and boring (especially the signature crotch grab.)

But, he certainly ushered in The Golden Age Of Videos and maintained it for 12 years, a bonafide HOF career. (And being an Old Person my own self, getting on the bandwagon about how things were so much better Back In The Good Old Days, I sure miss MTV and VH1 actually showing videos all day instead of the horrible boring cheap crap "reality" stuff they poison the airwaves with all day long...)

So, in honor of Michael Jackson and The Good Old Days, I am going to have Michael Jackson Week in which I am going to tag every single game with a MJJ video.

to the game:

Wandy are you OK
Are you OK Wandy
Wandy are you OK
Are you OK Wandy

You been hit by
You been hit by
A
Smooooth Criminal

Meaning that the HP ump was NOT giving the same strike zone to Wandy as he did to Verlander. But Wandy kept Clemens Cool, adjusting and walking guys if necessary to avoid hits. He hung a curve to Miggy Cabrera who hit it out, and Polanco hit a good pitch,- a FB at the knees, outer third for a 3 run homer. And Wandy shrugged it off and shut them down the rest of the way, including inducing a nice inning ending GIDP after an IF single and another single (play not made by Keppinger - who by the way, should NOT be hitting in the 2-hole.)

Arias, Byrdak and Sampson wedged the door SHUT and LaTroy locked it DOWN.

Verlander wasn't his usual super-ace self - gave up 7 hits, walked 4 and gave up 3 runs. He SHOULD have given up more, but he overpowered Hunter Pence with 3 FB down the middle to end a bases loaded threat in the first.

Actually, the Tigers pitchers are proof of the old saying - it ain't the speed, it's the motion. No matter HOW fast that baseball is going, ML hitters will usually hit it if it is down the middle and has no motion to it. Joel Zumaya throws 100 MPH, but he walked 3, gave up a hit to Matsui on a 101 MPH pitch down the middle, and allowed the GW RBI to Tejada.

Bourn snapped his ofer 10 failure to get on base streak and went 2fer 3 with 2 walks - and both of those walks were 8 pitch jobs and he didn't swing at a single pitch outside the strike zone. Berkman singled and walked 3 times, but unfortunately didn't score once. Carlos Lee had a bad game, coming to the plate each time with at least 1 man on and not driging in a single run. Pence also had a tough night, driving in only 1 and stranding the other 5.

Astros pinch hitters actually came through, with Kata singling in a run and Erstad restraining from swinging at pitches outside the strike zone and getting a walk. Meanwhile, Maysonet was perfecting his high-5s, after Cooper told the media that he wasn't up here to play, the veterans were.

Tonight Paulino is pitching his first start since coming off the DL. I STILL have absolutely NO idea why the Astros Organization decided that no matter what, he WAS, like Zeke Astacio a few years back, Designated For Pitching In The Bigs. I keep waiting, and so far, his stuff has most DEFINITELY not impressed me in the least. And unlike a whole lot of people, I am not real too influenced in my judgement of "stuff" by the speed the baseball travels. I really REALLY hope and I keep hoping Paulino proves me wrong.

The Astros have, of course, DFA'd Backe, who was used sporadically, and didn't do well. I wouldn't be that surprised if he gets picked up by another ballclub and all I can say is that I hope he doesn't turn into Fernando Nieve, who is pitching lights out with the Mets, looking as good as he did when he first came up in 2006 (and, by the way, he's already beaten the Yankees, the Rays and the Cardinals, giving up a couple hits and walks over 6-ish IP each outing...)