ejections, head punches and more oh my!

Well, well, well. Last night was game 3 in the series against the Brewers, one of the best teams in the National League now at  40-27. Metsies lost 5-1 and I'd say this went down in "typical Mets" fashion.

The game started off rather well. Jon Niese was the starting pitcher for the Mets and despite giving up a homerun in the second, he pitched a pretty decent game. My main man Daniel Murphy brought in the only run for the Metsies in the bottom fifth and from there the game was tied until the 13th. Yes, another extra-inning game that to tell you the truth, really should have been over in the 9 inning. This game brought out that infamous term looming over the ball club, "missed opportunities". There were A LOT. In the 9th, David Wright had his time to shine, again, and win it for the team. Wright is at the plate, WITH runners in scoring position I may add, and all he had to do was get a base hit, ONE base hit, to drive in the winning run. Instead, he pops up the ball and boom! 3rd out, we're going to extras. He showed some anger over the situation by slamming his helmet against the helmet cubbies (yes, I said "helmet cubbies") in the dugout. 

After the 10th inning there was still no score, hence a 13-inning game. In the top of the 11th it was apparently the shortest rain delay in history. It lasted all of three minutes. It happened so fast before I knew it the team was off the field. But, the tarp was never rolled out and no one seemed to know exactly what was happening. So yes, after three minutes, everyone was called back and the game resumed.

Moving on to the 12th, here's were things got juicy. Let me just say it was a real "grab the popcorn" kinda moment. In the bottom of the 12th, it was Anthony Recker's turn to bat. Allegedly, all night long the home plate umpire Angel Hernandez had a "wide strike zone" and I guess Recker fell victim to it. On a pitch he thought was a ball, Hernandez promptly called strike three. --grab the popcorn-- Recker totally wasn't having it! He called the ump out on it and totally went off...which got him thrown out. It gets better! After a few seconds of yelling and screaming, he furiously walked into the dugout and broke his bat. This guy didn't just break the bat, HE SHATTERED IT! In one crack over his knee. That was actually pretty impressive.

 a photo of Anthony Recker all exasperated and what-not

from nj.com

The only issue I and I'm sure many others had with this whole fiasco is the fact that along with being a catcher, Recker is also a pitcher. This is an extra-inning game. You have no clue how long it's going to last and what if your team needed you to pitch in the 14th? 15th? They need you Anthony! Thankfully that didn't happen. Why? Because thanks to Carlos Torres he lost it for the team! YAY!!--blatant sarcasm-- Gosh. This was just painful to watch. Now, don't get me wrong. Torres is a pretty good pitcher in the Mets' bullpen. The problem is, this is not a multiple inning guy. He pitches amazingly for an inning and then he comes back out and starts giving up back to back hits. That's exactly what happened last night. After he gave up 4 earned runs in the top of the 13th, he was taken out of the game and replaced by Dana Eveland. Back in the dugout he totally took out his anger...on himself. He gave his head two brutal-looking punches...on each side, and then made one of the weirdest, most exorcistic-like (yeah, that's not a word) head twitches I've ever seen. Honestly, it was quite scary looking.

Please enjoy this photo by yours truly of said head twitch:

**YAY for photos taken off the television!

After all was said and done, the game amounted to 4 hours and 8 minutes. Jon Niese pitched seven and two-thirds with no decision as Carlos Torres took the loss for the team. Now the San Diego Padres are in town for a three game set at Citi Field and it's said that they are struggling even more offensively than the Mets are. I didn't think that was possible. If that's true then it should be a good opportunity for the team to pick it up and work their way back up to AT LEAST .500. It won't be easy since they've already lost 8 out of the last 9 games. We'll see how this goes.