Game #60 (32-28) - Dare I say Jon Niese is Legit?

Wow, a hell of a performance for Jon Niese.  Tough to get a W in the 2nd game of the doubleheader after being thoroughly dominated in the 2nd half, tougher when you're starting career minor leaguers like Jesus Feliciano and Jesus Feliciano as your #2 and cleanup hitters.  Niese was completely masterful tonight, a 3rd inning leadoff double from Adrien Brody/Chris Denorfia the only preventing him from being the fourth pitcher this year with a perfect game.  This was the 24th complete game 1 hitter thrown by a Mets pitcher, and the first since (believe it or not) Aaron Heilman against the Marlins in 2005.  Niese did an incredible job tonight mixing his pitches, and getting chase swings from the Padres on 2 strike counts.  Easily the best performance of his young career, and a great way to follow up Monday's stellar showing against the Marlins.  If he makes a few more starts like this, well, he might have made a believer out of even me.

As always, here's some other notes from tonight's game.

• I'm not going to judge Jesus Feliciano from 5 at bats.  That said, based on the pitch selection he's showed in his first five major league at-bats it would appear there was a good reason he's been in the minor leagues for 13 years.  I don't expect him to be long for the major leagues.
• Four strikeouts today from Wright against righties today.  Atta boy David, way to keep that 40 percent strikeout rate vs. righties going strong into June.  Seriously, on a better team, he'd be borderline platoonable against righties.  Think a reverse Curtis Granderson at this point.
• I have to admit that Ruben Tejada looks completely overmatched at the plate.  That said, he plays a fantastic second base, and he helps to stand in the way of Alex Cora kicking in the option for next year.  As much as he's struggling, he's also still a better player than Cora, and there's no reason not to let him develop as long as he's the team's best option at 2B.  He's only 20, and he's continually hit right around .300 in the minors.  Considering the Mets have no better long term answer at second right now, and the free agent market at the position is thin, I'd like to see Tejada able to get comfortable at the major league level; at the very worst he can contribute out of the 8 hole next year, and at best, he could show the .300 bat he had in the minors by late summer.
• Worth noting that the Mets have now been involved in 3 triple plays in their past 100 games.  I don't have the desire to check on this, but I'd be willing to bet that's some kind of record.  They've also been involved in 2 in the last three weeks.  If I had an intern, we'd have Elias on the phone to figure this out right now.
• Was flipping between this and the fantastic duel between Halladay and Josh Johnson in Citizen's Bank Park.  Those two are flat out ridiculous.  It was a hell of a night for pitching in the NL East.
• Random fun fact.  On Tuesday, Mike Stanton became the youngest player since 1979 to have 3 hits in his major league debut.  The younger player who had 3 hits in his May 21, 1979 debut?  Former NBA All-Satr and current Celtics GM Danny Ainge, who went 3 for 4 with the Blue Jays against the Indians at the age of 20 years and 65 days.  Drop THAT knowledge on your co-workers tomorrow.  I'll allow it.
• Make sure to tune in tomorrow at 10 AM on ESPN for the start of the World Cup.  South Africa takes on Mexico - companies around the world will see a massive spike in off-site meetings at the same time.  Don't sleep on South Africa - four of the last five host nations have made the final four. 

Not much else tonight - it's hard to find negatives when the starting pitcher throws a 1 hitter and retires 21 in a row.  I know, trust me, it pained me to write that.  Don't worry, I'm sure I'll be back tomorrow with some more reasons why being a met fan sucks!

Game #56 (29-27) - Who is the Real Jon Niese?

The Mets won their NL leading 21st home game yesterday, and it was one of those rare days where it felt good to be a Met fan.  They looked great in all aspects of the game, and played well for all nine frames; in all, it was one of the stronger performances of the year.  Jon Niese gave 7 strong innings in his first start back after 3 weeks on the shelf, but to look at things pessimistically, it's become maddening to try and figure out exactly what the Mets have in Niese.  This was the 4th of his 9 starts this year in which he's pitched well, and probably right up there with his April 30th start at Philly for his best of the year.    It was similar in 2009, where 2 of his 4 starts were good, and the others were on the other end of the performance spectrum.  On the good side, Niese is only 23 with only 17 MLB starts under his belt, but he has yet to find any kind of consistent groove at the top level, and so for now he's still another question mark in the rotation.   We'll get a little bit more information on Niese when he makes his next start against Baltimore this weekend; he should perform well against the worst team in baseball, and if he doesn't it will only make the Niese question more maddening

Lots of positives yesterday, and I hate  to focus on them, but it was REALLY nice to see that kind of production from Davis and Wright in the middle of the lineup.  If they can find any sort of groove, the Mets could be on their way to a really nice little run, especially with another home series up next with the Padres, and then trips to see the two worst teams in the AL (Baltimore and Cleveland) before the rematch with the Yankees at the Stadium starting June 18th.   On top of Niese's effort, the Mets got extremely efficient work from Mejia and Nieve, only needing 19 pitches to get the final 6 outs, with only 1 hit.

I'd also like to make a quick note about a terrible column I read from Larry Brooks today in the NY Post.  The column advocates a trade for Cliff Lee, which I agree is a great idea.  What makes Brooks' column lazy journalism is at no point does he mention how the Mets should pull off said trade, what teams they'd have to compete with (and how the farm systems would match up), or Lee's financial situation for the remainder of the year.  Sportswriters so often criticize bloggers for being "lazy", meanwhile to read a professional piece like Brooks' that is so poorly fleshed out makes me wonder if we've reached a point where the amateurs have truly surpassed the pros.  Food for thought.

The Mets go for the sweep today at 1:10 PM with Takahashi-san trying to rebound from his poor outing Monday in San Diego against Ricky Nolasco.  Nolasco has made more starts against the Mets than any other team, going 4-6 with a 5.62 ERA and 1.46 in 15 career starts.  He is right-handed though, so when Wright goes 0-4 with 3K's against him, it'll be a nice reminder of why being a Met fan sucks.