Oakland Athletics Arrive

This weekend Oakland is back at Shea Stadium for the first time since August 20th of 1975. The Yankees won that game 3-2, the difference being an 8th inning Bobby Bonds home run. On an interesting coincidence, the Yankees this weekend are in San Francisco playing against Barry Bonds, who homered last night for the loss.

Oakland lost again last night, as the Mets again showed signs of breaking out of their month-long slump. Obviously one game isn't enough to proclaim it over, but it looked good. The Mets got hits with runners in scoring position, they tacked on runs throughout the game, Shawn Green hit a home run. Reyes made a great defensive double play and Glavine pitched into the 9th.

Starters going long is going to be important, as the Mets play a long stretch now without a day off, and have two games on Friday, both of which I'll be at in Philadelphia. Keeping the bullpen from burning out is important, and it looks like we'll get another shot at seeing Pelfrey on Friday. Probably for only one start, unless Sosa has actually run out of magic powder.

I don't want to wait until Sunday for this series to be over, and for what it's worth, the Mets are 5-7 in rubber games. The Mets need to go out tonight, while I'm in attendance, and slaughter the A's again. The Mets have 10 games left until the halfway mark, and I'd like to see them win at least seven of them, which would put their record at 46 and 35. That's back to a tolerable 11 games over .500 and on pace for 92 wins. I do think they'll win a handful more of that, but for now, lets start stringing some wins together. El Duque is due for a good start again. I'm predicting David Wright and Carlos Delgado back to back home runs tonight, be watching!