Wednesday Weirdness

What can you say about that disastrous Mets loss to the Phils last night at Shea? In their 100th game of the season, the Mets gave their fans a bad acid flashback to last year's epic meltdown. As the back page of The Daily News put it: MEET THE MESS. The New York Post simply said NIGHTMARE.

The Flushing Nine's crippling collapse in the 9th, giving up 6 runs to blow a 5-2 lead, was their 2007  season in a cracked nutshell. In bas relief. In media res. In through the out door. And maybe Gabba Gabba Hey, but definitely not In a Gadda Divida. Ask your parents about Gabba Gabba Hey, and your grandparents about In a Gadda Divida.

With no Billy Wags available to close out the game for the Mets, and despite throwing only 105 pitches, Johan Santana never came out for the top of the 9th inning. Instead four Mets relievers combined to blow the 3-run lead, and the Mets got back only one run in the bottom half, and it was Adios Amigos and Katy Bar the Door. Ask your Spanish friends about the first reference and your great grandparents about the second.

To say this kind of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory may take a toll on the team psyche would be an understatement of near British proportions. I have no idea what that means, so it won't matter who you ask. But oh the humanity! You know Mets fans are already on the ledge, this kind of game will have them teetering on the precipice. And we know how painful that can be.

The Mets have some kind of bad karma going now. That 10-game win streak means about as much as an old New York subway token. That and a Metrocard will get you on the train. You know Willie Randolph must have enjoyed this fiasco. Probably broke out the wine coolers and put his feet up while he watched it again and again on Sportscenter. And who could blame him? The big hit in the 9th was a double by Jimmy Rollins that drove in the winning runs. That had to make it about six times as painful for Mets fans, seeing Rollins clapping his hands and then pointing to the sky gods while he stood triumphantly on 2nd base.

Or maybe Willie missed all that while watching his real ex-team take their 9th straight home game, an 8-2 win over Minnesota that put the gutsy Yanks just 3.5 games behind division leading Tampa Bay. They play two more against the Twins, then head north for a weekend tilt against you know who. The Yankees keep losing parts but find ways to fight back, like the Knight in Monty Python who gets his arms and legs cut off but still taunts his adversary. Losing Posada, Matsui, Wong are mere flesh wounds. Of course, eventually that Knight was decapitated, but still. He fought back, and that's a lesson for all the little ones out there.

We've got Richie Sexson now playing the hell out of 1st base. Baseball's hottest hitter at 2nd, Robbie Cano, batting over .500 (13-24) since the All-Star break. Jeter will get hot at some point in the second half, and A-Rod despite the Madonna bullshit will carry the team for a few weeks starting any day now. Yankees pitching is now 3rd in AL, behind only Bosox and the T.B. Rays. I think the pitching will hold up, but with a week left in the trading deadline, I would give up a young arm on the farm for a lefty bat. But all I'm hearing about is a deal for a starting pitcher, I assume to take Darrell Rasner's spot, because Sid Ponson has been pretty good so far, knock on wood. Ask a carpenter about that one.

It's Yanks-Twins playing a day game as we speak. Robinson Cano just got another hit! He's now 14-25 since the break. It's uncanny how he couldn't buy a hit the first few months and now no one can get him out. Unbelievably, Justin Christian, the 28-year-old Yankee rook, just doubled in two runs, giving Yankees a 2-0 lead. Christian's the guy who fell down the other night while trying to steal 2nd. This is his biggest hit as a Yankee, according to John Sterling, and since Christian was just 4-19 with 2 RBI going into the at-bat, all I can say is, Ya Think?!