A Balk And A Blast

“You ask for a miracle, I give you…Armando Benitez.”

Between the beautiful day and the Perez/Lincecum matchup, I made am impulse decision to buy Mets tickets yesterday (even with the knowledge that Bonds wasn’t going to start), and it ended up being a good decision. It was a classic power pitchers matchup–every run scoring on a homerun except for Human Highlight Reel Reyes flying home from first on a double, and outside of Perez in the first inning both had terrific stuff. The old Husky Lincecum, if he stays healthy, is going to be a dynamite pitcher; not only a fastball in the upper 90s, but also a devastating curve he throws in the mid-80s. The game went to the 12th. In the top of the inning with runners on the corners, Delgado made a risky play by going for the DP on a groundball by touching the bag first. It was tempting because he was right there, but taking the force off [that was stupid on my part; see comments. I was thinking the bases were loaded when the ball was first hit, and didn’t make the adjustment after I remembered.] was crucial, as Vizquel slid under the tag with the go-ahead run. In the bottom of the inning, though, Reyes draws a leadoff walk–somewhat unnoticed, the formerly undisciplined Reyes has drawn 29 with a near-.400 OBP this year–and spooked Benitez into a balk. Endy bunts him over to third, but even Reyes can’t score on Beltran’s hard grounder. But Reyes bluffs off third and Bentiez balks again, bringing in the tying run. You can tell Benitez senses the inevitable now, and sure enough Delgado hits a 2-2 pitch for his second mammoth homer to right of the game to win it.

And then I get home and see that the Yankees have dropped to 14 1/2 back in a game involving crucial errors by Jeter and Slappy Rodriguez and a straight steal of home. Oh yeah. BTW, the idiots who claim that if you just watch Jeter you’ll see he’s great shortstop (if the only other shortstops you see play for your local high school, maybe) should have been at Shea last night, where a great shortstop put on a clinic; Vizquel is unbelievable. It looked like the Mets had the game won in the bottom of the ninth when Franco–maybe Vizquel felt extra young at this point–hit a hard grounder up the middle, but Vizquel ranged well to his left, speared the ball, and flipped it to the second baseman who barehanded it for the force. It wasn’t the only great play he made, either. These numbers ain’t a fluke; even at 40, Jeter couldn’t carry Vizquel’s jock as a defensive player.