I’ve had my share of memorable moments when the Mets have come into San Diego to take on the hapless Padres. The unassisted triple play in 2002, Zambrano giving up a slam to Giles in 2006, Piazza taking Pedro deep and me not sure of how to react, but nothing and the Joo means NOTHING compared to what I saw last night… no, not Scott Fucking Schoeneweis reverting back to the Schoeneweis I know or Bo Duke crashing into the Mets dugout while chasing a foul ball. This is much better. Willie “Small Wonder” Randolph actually showed a personality yesterday.
Mrs. Solly and I showed up early to catch some batting practice and hung out by the Mets dugout where we were greeted by the sight of Willie playing catch with Moises Alou. Willie acknowledged us, said hey, and gave us the peace sign and a Jeter-esque fist pump when his skills were complimented. Little did I know that two Willie flashed was how was many wins the Mets are getting in this four game set but more on that later. This brings me to the highlight of the day. I met Howard Johnson aka “HOJO” in the winter of 1986 in my hometown of Westfield, NJ. He was one of my favorite Mets so when he signed a ball Mrs. Solly gave him, I nearly shit myself. I posted a pic of it at the bottom of the post.
Now to the game. I’ve seen a ton of walk-off finishes. Walk-off HR, walk-off single, even walk-off walk (fuck off Mikey), but I’ve never seen a walk-off HBP and that’s what 28,000 were treated to last night at Petco Park. Up until then it was a pretty solid game. Mike Pelfrey gutted his way through 6 IP, giving up only 1 run on 8 hits, while walking 3 and striking out 1. The offense couldn’t touch Josh Banks (WHO?) so we went into the bottom of the 9th, tied at 1. Here came Scott Schoeneweis who got a quick 0-2 count on Scott Hairston before walking him. He had another 0-2 count on Giles but walked him too. Up stepped Adrian Gonzalez, the only hitter worth a damn in the lineup. Schoeneweis got ANOTHER two strike count before Gonzalez hit a grounder back to the pitcher but Schoeneweis bobbled it and wasn’t able to turn the easy DP, so he had to settle for the sure out at first. So instead of two outs and a runner on 3B, there was one out with runners at 2B and 3B. Schoeneweis walked Kouzmanoff to setup the DP and here was big bad Paul McAnulty, he of the .223 BA, not to mention a Riverwalk punk according to Mikey. A ground ball puts this game in extras so I’m hoping for an easy two-hopper to Reyes, especially when it’s a lefty-lefty matchup. First pitch hits McAnulty between the fucking numbers and there’s your ballgame. Of all the fucking endings… unreal. I can’t get too mad about a loss that should have been 5-1, given all the runners the Padres left on base, but when it’s 1-1 in the 9th the Mets offense should have showed up after Banks left the game. Hopefully Johan gets them back on track tonight.
As promised, the HOJO ball. Bask in the glory of it:
