The Home News Tribune Mets Blog

Pack your bags. Change your bookmarks. I've moved.

The new URL for the Home News Tribune Mets Blog is pretty simple:

http://www.thnt.com/feitl

Or if you can't remember how to spell my last name, try:

http://www.thnt.com/steve

Either way should get you there and once you arrive, you should notice that we have better photographic capabilities on the new site. The interior decorating could use some sprucing up, but we're working on that. I hope you make the trip.

And thanks for reading these past seven months. It's been a lot of fun and I hope to continue the good times at the new site.

So I overslept today. Anyone catch a Mets score?

Seriously, I did oversleep today and when I came to, I flipped on the game and rubbed my eyes because I swore it looked like the score read "Rockies 6, Mets 0." That will teach me to sleep with my contacts in. So I looked away and blinked away the morning (afternoon) grogginess. I looked back and, wouldn't you know it, still looked like 6-0. Now it was just getting silly. So I got out of bed and moved closer to the TV and much to my surprise, yes the score actually read 6-0. Can you believe SNY put the wrong score on the screen...

OK, I actually believed it at this point. But you can understand my skepticism considering the Rockies had been struggling scoring runs and the Mets had been competitive in most games this season. Oh well, you'll have games like this in a 162-game season. Bring on the Nats.

Top Five Things Even Less Likely Than Endy Chavez Using A Drag Bunt To Win The Game:

Ahh, nevermind. What a win! The Mets needed one of these extra-inning thrillers. They proved to be incredibly adept at winning them a year ago. If this team is going to replicate the 2006 success, it's going to have to win these games.

Great win. Great sign.

UPDATE (11:34 p.m.) -- In my euphopria following tonight's fantastic win and my rush to actually get out a paper to you lucky readers of the Home News Tribune, I was actually kind of lax in my praise of Chavez's heads-up play. He read the fielders, took the chance and made the play to perfection.

Endy has a heck of a flare for the dramatic. He's made more of his few moments to shine than any Met reserve player since Todd Pratt and his playoff walk-off. He was already at the level after "The Catch." Tonight was simply another chapter in the occasionally glorious history of Mets role players.

Top Five Things Even Less Likely Than Damion Easley Tying The Game With A Pinch-Hit Home Run With Two Outs And Two Strikes In The Bottom Of The Tenth:

5. Mr. Met leading the Shea crowd in a Happy Birthday song for Jimmy Rollins.

4. Kaz Matsui re-signing with the Mets.

3. MLB and WWE joining forces to eradicate steroids.

2. The New York media ignoring David Wright's power outage.

And the No. 1 thing even less likely than Damion Easley tying the game with a pinch-hit home run with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the tenth.

1. Alex Rodriguez not homering in a game.

That's it. Those are the only things I could possibly expect any less than that Easley shot. Fantastic introduction to Shea for Mr. Easley.

John Maine remains unsigned in our Home News Tribune fantasy baseball league. I can't help but wonder how much longer that will last.

Maine -- also known as "This Blog's Most-Hyped Player" -- was damn near brilliant again tonight. Seven hits and one run over seven and two-thirds. As noted on the SNY broadcast, it was the longest a Mets starter has gone this year. With a couple of dinosaurs at the top of the rotation, the Mets could do a lot worse than to see one of their young guns stretch out his arm every fifth day. Maine is showing signs that he's capable of just that.

Other random thoughts on the game:

-- Jose Valentin appears to be rounding into shape. Carlos Delgado finally went deep. That leaves "The Kid" as the one Mets regular yet to get going.

-- In some ways, I think it's a good thing that David Wright's fake hit streak came to an end because it was camouflaging his early-season struggles. Here's a damning stat: In his last 15 at-bats, Wright has struck out 8 times. Eight. Unfortunately, this may be the story of the Mets' first half.

-- I hear Six Flags' new roller coaster will be called "Ambiorix." That was one tough ninth inning to watch.

-- Duque tomorrow with a mostly rested pen. This is what splitting up the old-timer's brings the Mets.

-- Do you realize if Mother Nature hadn't intervened, tonight's game would have been the Mets' 13th straight? They would have rung up 15 in a row before Thursday's off-day. Only two stretches on the schedule are longer. I'm sure the players are happy that it's warmer, but in retrospect, those unexpected days off might not have been such a bad thing.

That's it. I'm off to go sign Maine to the Uninsured Cavemen.

People get ready. It's going to be a long summer with the boys from the Dirty South.

The Braves took two-of-three from the Mets for the second time this season with a crushing 9-6 victory this afternoon at Shea. Was there a Mets fan alive that didn't think the Mets were sitting pretty when Jose Reyes was a human bobblehead doll at third base in the sixth? But the team in the other dugout was the Braves. And not the Braves from '06 -- that sympathetic bunch that was simply uncapable of defend Atlanta's decade-and-a-half-long throne atop the division. No, this team was the Braves from '05, '01, '98, hell pick any year you want -- this was that team.

Those Braves always found a way. Today was no different. Today it was Kelly Johnson, going deep twice, driving in four and scoring three times. But it could have been anyone in a Braves uni. The Atlanta division champs always got contributions from unexpected places.

So yes, the Braves are back. Chances are they plan on sticking around longer than they did last year.

But there's good news.

First of all, I think this Mets team is far better equipped to stare down the Braves than any of those late-90s/early-2000s teams.

And secondly, it's April 22. Take a deep breath and get ready for the Rockies.

OK, so perhaps that sweep was a tad optimistic. But the Mets bounced back nicely with a strong performance today to even the series with the Braves.

And no one deserves more praise for that rebound than Oliver Perez who was a completely different pitcher than the one that walked the ballpark four bullpen sessions ago. Of course, that's the knock on Perez: You never know what you're going to get. Today, the Mets got an impressive six and two-thirds where he struck out nine and walked none.

Rick Peterson takes a lot of flak in this town for making the regrettable "fix him in 15 minutes" declaration about Victor Zambrano. C'mon, that's like promising a bunch of Freehold residents backstage passes to a Bruce concert. It wasn't going to happen. Still, Peterson deserves some positive pub for this latest Perez turnaround. Let's hope this one sticks.

And while Perez was going long into the game, the Mets batters were going long into the stands. Ramon Castro, Damion Easley and Jose Reyes all went yard in a span of two outs between the fifth and sixth innings. How about Castro rewarding Willie Randolph's faith in him to put him in the No. 6 spot with a homer? I know it had more to do with no wanting to move Shawn Green up with the lefty/lefty matchup, but I still didn't expect to see Castro batting that high in a Mets batting order... at least not in a season that hadn't gone horribly awry.

Rubber match tomorrow. Leave your high-powered flashlights at home.

Tonight the Mets will honor Jackie Robinson prior to the game against the Atlanta Braves, five days after the 60-year anniversary of Robinson shattering baseball's color barrier. Of course it's a feat worthy of celebration and I can't wait to see what the Mets have on tap for the occasion.

But before you head out to Shea or tune into SNY to see the official tribute, read this piece by Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci, where he makes the case that the Mets have a walking, talking, base-stealing tribute to Robinson in their lineup every day in the form of Jose Reyes. It's a good read.

Enjoy the game and the celebration.

Everywhere I look I see sweeps. The Rangers swept the Thrashers to return to the New York sports landscape. The Mets completed a sweep of the Marlins tonight... and when it comes right down to it they swept that epic series of games in Philadelphia earlier this week. About the only place I don't see sweeping is in my kitchen... and believe me, it needs it.

But the Mets are playing really well right now. They're tearing the cover off the ball and getting the pitching Omar Minaya counted on getting when he passed on all the overpriced hurlers this offseason. It's 19 days into the season, so they have to keep it up a while longer before we pat Omar on the back. But right now things look good.

It's easy to forget that the Mets went into the rainouts last week not playing all that well. Any good team is going to have stretches of poor play. The real good teams keep those stretches short. We don't know what type of team the Mets are yet, but you have to like that the first hiccup of the season was awfully short.

I also liked how Willie Randolph was able to shuffle the lineup tonight with Paul Lo Duca out. It's always appeared Carlos Beltran is a real nice fit in that No. 2 spot. Of course, we know what happened the last time someone broached the idea of moving Lo Duca down the lineup. So I wouldn't count on this being a regular occurence. But I do like this lineup on the nights Lo Duca needs rest.

And all this good news is even better because the Mets' old friends, the Atlanta Braves, roll into town Friday and the Amazin's would do well to return the favor of two weeks ago and take two out of three.

Or dare I say another sweep?

It was a tough night to make the newsroom television. You had the Rangers going for their first series sweep since the year they won the Cup. You had the Devils and Islanders playing for their playoff lives. You had the Nets trying to slip into the sixth slot in the NBA postseason. You had the Yankees hosting the hard-hitting Indians. And you had the Mets facing their longtime nemesis Dontrelle Willis.

I have to be honest. The Mets weren't winning the battle.

That is, of course, until we figured out John Maine was flirting with Mets history. Through the wonders of the Internet, we are able to keep up with the games we aren't watching and somewhere around the fourth inning we noticed Maine hadn't allowed a hit. From there, the Mets had our attention... right up until the moment Miguel Cabrera ruined it in the seventh.

So John Maine can take pleasure in this fact. He didn't make history. But he did make our TV.

(And he pitched a heck of a game as well.)