|
okay, some thoughts:
The Yankees seem to play some questionable defense positions. Particularly it seemed like they were playing way in with two outs, first and third, and Josh Thole up. If the Mets had made more contact, I wouldn't be surprised if this had burned them.
I know it's accepted and 'part of the game' but I hate the tactic of spending 2 minutes on the mound pretending like you're discussing strategy only to return after the mound visit to make the pitching change. It reeks of the 'clock management' stuff that goes on in other sports. I wish umpires would speed these things up a bit too. Has it seemed like they're allowing longer mound visits this year than in recent years? Start awarding the batter balls and they speed up these things. That said, there is obviously value to it and I'm not totally against it but the Yankees seem to really push the envelope. For instance, Chris Young probably could've used 30 seconds to slow the pace down a little after Duda's error(s) out there.
Kept score last night for the first time this year. spilled beer on my scorecard. hey, at least it wasn't on my new "Duda-Bides" shirt.
With the exception of a couple of off-handed comments here and there (not shouted at the field, just commented out loud) the fans behaved fairly well. I made the occasional derisive remark against the Yankees too so all's fair I guess. (there was one fight after the game was over that I noticed.)
This is an aside, although I'm sure the game played into it. Traffic was horrendous yesterday. Worst i've seen it in at least a year. Got stuck in traffic driving from Jersey to Valley Stream/my brewery to start making Strawberry Kirk NieuwenWeiss. (traffic on the Throgs neck. Cross Island looked jammed. Clearview was jammed. exits for GCP and LIE were jammed. exit for hillside avenue was jammed. jammed!) Traffic going to the game from LI was bad too. Cross Island. Grand Central. horrible. they closed the gates right behind us into the main lot, so at least we got lucky in that regard. Got a drink afterwards in Bayside and still sat in horrendous traffic on the cross island (Throgs Neck bridge was closed. ) bleh!
Traffic in the stadium was better. Obviously lines were crowded but nothing I saw was that horrible. little bit of gridlock filing into the staircases to get out, but nothing crazy.
Murphy seems to be maybe coming out of his slump a little? Was hitting the ball hard, I was sure that last one was gone. (we were Promenade behind Yankee dugout, so really no way to judge how fast it was going) Presumably the Yankees turned on the tractor beam and kept in the park, and somehow Swisher got over there.
Is this game Ike Davis' fault? I feel like there were pinch hitting opportunities that Terry usually goes to for handedness that he didn't last night. short bench?
Did the Mets get overly power hungry? were they swinging too hard? a billion Ks and so many opportunities for a choked-up liner over/off the frequently pulled in infield would've been huge.
The homeplate umpire was soooo slow making calls. I know I have a bad tendency to look away at other things (although in this case it was my scorecard) but there were so many time I thought it was a K and he must've tipped it or something. so many times were I thought it was a ball and suddenly he's rung up. Maybe the Mets weren't power hungry, just failed to 'adjust' to a bad strikezone that was non-condusive to working counts?
| 
