My pessimism was unnecessary on nearly all fronts yesterday. First, the Mets bowed to the pressures of competition, swallowed the $2 mil or so they owe Sosa, and designated him for assigment, keeping Joe Smith on the roster.
Then they went out and won themselves a ballgame. Actually, my prediction was panning out pretty well--Maine reached 100 pitches in the sixth, had a man on and was one batter from getting pulled. But Randolph left him in, and Maine got out of it.
I was begging Willie to give him another inning, but of course he pulled him for a pinch hitter, which wasn't really a terrible move, given the game was tied. It turned out to be a great move, because pinch-hitter Fernando Tatis got a hit and scored on Ryan Church's double. Matt Wise gave up the requisite run in relief of Maine, but the Mets held on and won 6-3.
I have the utmost faith in Maine and Santana every time they take the hill. Believe it or not, I feel almost as good about Perez; he has the occasional meltdown, but more often than not he's kept it together . Pelfrey and Figueroa have even been good on occasion. In contrast, you never know what you're going to get from your middle guys. Schoeneweiss and Smith have been good, but they're situational pitchers--lefty/lefty, righty/righty. Sosa and Heilman have been disasters, and Wise hasn't exactly impressed in his brief trials. The middle-relievers' inconsistency makes it important that his team get seven innings out of their starters. To do that, Randolph has to ease up on the pitch count and stretch out his starters, let them work out of their own messes in the fifth and sixth innings, and give them the chance to at least start the seventh more often. It hasn't happened much so far, which is worrisome.
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