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WASHINGTON NATIONALS (73-71, 33-39 away) at NEW YORK METS (71-72, 41-27 home)
Tonight 7 pm:
John Patterson (8-5, 2.74 ERA) vs Tom "Mike" Glavine (10-12, 3.89 ERA)
Patterson has the flu, and will not make this start. Considering the way Frank Robinson has managed his pitching staff recently (see "Who's Not?" below), I wouldn't be surprised to see Patterson start and only pitch one inning, or to see him throw Steve Rogers and Charlie Lea out there. Robinson's plan was to use a four-man rotation the rest of the way, but it looks like this is going to be a patchwork game. Glad to see he takes the Mets' offense seriously. If Patterson does come around and make the start, however... the Nats have lost all three of his starts against the Mets in '05, although Patterson has pitched well. Glavine is 2-0 against Washington in 2005, with two decent starts. Side note: Glavine was selected as the Mets' 2005 Roberto Clemente Award winner, so congratulations to Tom for all his hard work.
Tomorrow 7 pm:
Esteban "Stevie" Loaiza (10-10, 3.79 ERA) vs Kristin Margaret Benson (9-7, 4.00 ERA)
Loaiza has had a nice bounce-back season, somewhere between his great season with the White Sox in '03 and his bleh stretch with the MFYs in '04. The Mets beat him up a bit in April in Washington, but he struck out sixteen in fourteen-pluls innings in his next two starts against them. Benson's line in his last start against the Nats: 2/3 8 6 6 0 0 (L, 9-5).
Thursday 1 pm:
Livan "The Porch Light" Hernandez (15-7, 3.83 ERA) vs Jae "Weong" Seo (7-2, 1.98 ERA)
Livan Hernandez has haunted the Mets' nightmares the last few seasons, averaging 163 pitches and thirteen innings per game in his career agains them, pitching to a 0.52 ERA. He has never lost a game to the Mets. He plans to pitch this game left-handed "because those guys make it too easy." Side note: In August 2004, Hernandez also started in the only game I ever saw in Olympic Stadium, pitching six innings and taking the loss against Houston. Jae Seo declined to comment for this IGT. It is believed that he's still angry over the Cardinals' snub when he asked to pull down the ceremonial "10" from the Busch Stadium wall Saturday night in honor of Rusty Staub, who Seo credits as his favorite Met.
Who's Hot
** Rick Short. A career minor-leaguer, the 32-year-old Short is 3-for-9, with two home runs -- off Dontrelle Willis and John Smoltz -- since his callup when the minor league season ended. Short flirted with .400 this season, buying it a few drinks but never getting past first base. He finished at .383.
** Jose Guillen still has one of the most bizarre power splits, hitting 21 of his 24 home runs on the road. Shea Stadium is the only NL East ballpark in which he has not homered in 2005, despite 21 AB.
Who's Not
** Frank Robinson yanked starter John Halama from Wednesday night's game after just five batters. Only one run had scored. Halama had thrown only 24 pitches. "I didn't like what I saw," the manager said. "I wasn't going to sit there and wait 'til he threw the game away in the first inning. If you want to pitch for me, you have to throw strikes."
** Chad Cordero -- the last of eight pitchers in nine innings on Sunday -- allowed three ninth-inning runs, including homers to both Joneses, for his sixth blown save of the year. He leads the NL with 44 saves.
** The Mets' offense. 31 runs in 11 games in September. Ugly.
Playoff Implications
This week is the conference finals in my fantasy baseball league, but Jae Seo and Victor Zambrano will watch this one from my bench. Oh, wait, you mean the real playoffs? This series has no real playoff implications. Let's go with this instead:
Magic Number Watch
Mets Division Elimination: 8.
Mets WC Elimination: 14.
Nationals Division Elimination: 9.
Nationals WC Elimination: 15.
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