Tonight I witnessed my favorite team give a batter an intentional walk after the count was 1-2 in the 12th inning. And it was done because the manager was scared that because his pitcher hung a curveball, that he shouldn't pitch to that batter. Never mind that if that happened after every hung curveball, no baseball game would ever end.

Tonight I also witnessed the Mets lose a 15 inning death struggle to an awful Marlins squad with their best pitcher on the mound after they had one run leads in the ninth and the fifteenth innings. It's nights like this that I wonder why I didn't grow up interested in muscle cars or optometry as a hobby. No. I had to love baseball.

Tonight's matchup between the Flushing Nine and the Miami Lorias is being billed as the phenom matchup ... Matt Harvey vs. Jose Fernandez. While this is true, remember that only one of these pitchers has been lit up in his last two starts. And it's not the one that wears blue. (You know, real blue ... not what the Marlins call blue.) The problem is that it only seems to be the Mets lineup that has problems with young pitchers like Fernandez, or Jonathan Pettibone, or somebody who walks in off the street. But the good news is the Mets' side of the probable pitcher column. The guy who hasn't been lit up yet this season. What's better is that he's facing the Marlins, who should slink away meekly as long as Giancarlo Stanton comes to bat three times with the bases empty. (Considering who's batting leadoff in front of him, it's a distinct possibility)

But with David Wright not in the starting lineup Monday, I'd be ready to settle in for a long 0-0 game ... at least before the bullpen takes a sledgehammer to everybody's nuts. Maybe David Wright is merely making a statement that Harvey Day should be a national holiday. He may have a point.

(Or, he could have a stiff neck.)

Dear Doug Sisk,

I'm sorry.

For all the boos, for all the "Doug Risk" jokes, for my fellow fans who slashed your tires and put used condoms in your car (so I've heard), for holding that whiskey party when you were traded for Blaine Beatty and Greg Talamantez. For having a laugh at your expense when I saw you give up a grand slam to Jay Buhner in person.

Truth is, I didn't know how good I had it with you. I mean ... you weren't very good. But instead of taking the time in appreciating what you did well ... which admittedly wasn't much ... I was busy rooting for you to make your living somewhere else. What I should have been happy about was that you played on some very good teams that only had one of you, instead of rooting for a team that has, at any given time, six of you.

You have Jeurys Sisk, still learning. You have Robert Sisk, getting bombed on a daily basis since his recent call-up. Brandon Sisk is starting to pretend he's back on the Astros. Even the outs that LaTroy Sisk gets are hit hard. Scott Sisk spend 14 seasons in the minor leagues, and now he's being used as if he's been in the majors for 14 seasons. The dependable one was Grandpa Sisk, who finally got his initial whacking as he was brought in to Sunday's game to face a pinch hitter, who happened to be Ryan Howard, who broke a 1-1 tie with a pinch double and sent the Phillies on to a 4-1 win and a sweep of the series.

Sure, the manager could have stuck with his starting pitcher, but he was stiffening up after 117 pitches. Now back in your era, there wasn't as much of a need for relievers. And when there was, Davey Johnson had plenty of options to go to so that you wouldn't be exposed to those mean, nasty National League batters. See, Terry Collins is kinda handcuffed. He has six pitchers who, quite frankly, wouldn't match up to you on your best day.

And, get this: We had a seventh Sisk ... Bobby Sisk. But he seemed to have shed his Siskdom for the moment. Problem is, this team can't get it to the seventh Sisk because the first six screw it up before it can get to the rehabilitated one. Imagine ... seven of you. And I'm convinced it's because I didn't fully appreciate, or was fully able to put one of you into proper context. And now I'm being punished with six of you. Really, 24 of you if you count past Sisks such as Aaron Sisk, Guillermo Sisk, Shingo Sisk, and all the rest. I couldn't just live with one of you.

So I apologize. Regardless of the fact that the latest debacle involving your former team could have been avoided if our catcher had just caught a foul pop at the very beginning of the seventh inning rally, Sunday made me realize that I should have appreciated one of you. Instead, I'm longing for the days where all we had to worry about was one of you.

I'm sorry.

"This exact lineup must never see the light of day ever again." -me, yesterday.

"Go f**k yourself, blogger." -Terry Collins, practically.

To be fair (which is what I like to do because I'm a Libra), the general can't show signs of weakness just because his lineup was shut down by Kyle Kendrick. So he went with it again on Saturday, and it worked out better ... but it was still a 9-4 loss which you couldn't pin all on the lineup. If Collins wants to die by this lineup then by all means, let him die by this lineup. Besides, why not let this lineup roll again against a guy who is making his second major league start in Jonathan Pettibone?

Well, here's what's apparent: It doesn't matter what lineup Terry puts out there. He can pick it out of a hat and it isn't going to make much difference. First off, because when they let Jonathan Pettibone off the hook with one run after having the bases loaded with one out in the fourth, even after pinch hitting for the pitcher with Justin Turner (who obviously ran out of magic leprechaun dust), then you knew that they would live to regret it, no matter what lineup you throw out there. And if Terry thought this lineup, or any lineup, would break through with a ton of runs off a guy who had made one major league start, then he obviously hasn't watched a lot of Met baseball over the last 50 years.

Second, when you immediately, and I mean immediately spit the bit with your bullpen after "Super Lineup 2.0" failed you in the clutch, then what's the damn point? Shaun Marcum, after it was said that he needed to be at 90 pitches to come back effectively, was pulled after 71 in an attempt at immediate gratification in the form of a big inning in the fourth. Collins was managing to win the game, and that's commendable. It's something he should have done on Thursday by bringing in Bobby Parnell to start the ninth instead of Scott Rice. But managing to win is much, much tougher when relying on your bullpen to get fifteen outs is like asking Jeff Wilpon to walk straight to his office without photo bombing a Harlem Shake video. A good bullpen would have made that decision a hell of a lot easier. The Mets' bullpen makes that decision into one that's between diving into a bathtub full of tacks and drinking corrosive substances for fun. And you saw this first hand when Robert Carson got lit up in the fifth as if he was the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

As for Marcum in his first start of the season, it was encouraging. His struggles in the third couldn't have been too much of a surprise as he's coming back from multiple ailments. But his pitches were dipping and diving and at least there's a base there that we can be encouraged with. This team badly needs Marcum to be a guy who can go six or seven innings a night to take innings away from that bullpen. Bad enough that volatile group will have to eat three or four innings from most Dillon Gee starts since he can't survive the sixth inning, and from a good portion of Jeremy Hefner starts since nobody knows what to expect from him on a start to start basis. The worst bullpen in the National League can't be expected to take major innings three out of every five starts.They'll die of exhaustion and I'll tie of shards of television glass piercing my skull when I put my head through it.

Baxter. Tejada. Murphy, Wright. Duda. Buck. Davis. Valdespin. Gee. Marinated in Lefty/Righty goodness, this was probably the first lineup that I can remember that received close to universal praise on Twitter. If you're around Met fans a lot these days, you know that we don't universally praise anything. This lineup though was universally praised and anticipated before the game.

Gigli was also highly anticipated. Sadly, I don't think tonight's Met lineup would have fared any better if Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck were the corner outfielders. And they couldn't have been much worse in the field either. Remember when the Phillies wore the all maroon uniforms in 1979 for one game and then burned them? Yeah, this lineup should be burned. All lineup cards should be burned. I want no proof that this lineup ever existed. Three lousy hits off Kyle Kendrick? Since when did he become Hyun-Jin Ryu? This lineup might have been crafted with good intentions, but never again do I want to see it. Even if there's just one simple change to it ... I don't care what it is ... this exact lineup must never see the light of day ever again.

(Maybe the lineup was written wrong because the Mets actually thought Davis was Buck.)

To continue with that theme, Dillon Gee must never see the sixth inning again. In 2012, his ERA in the sixth inning: 7.53. His career ERA in the sixth going into Friday was 7.98. And it's going up after a four run Phillie sixth inning, which included Ryan Howard's fourth home run in 12 at bats against Gee, doomed him to the depths of hell. So while the Dillon Gee that can't get out of the third inning has seemingly retired (though it might be one of those "Brett Favre retirements"), the Dillon Gee that can't get out of the sixth inning without being hammered has made a Michael Jordan type return (the Bulls comeback, not the ridiculous Wizards stint). Maybe it was because SNY showed highlights of the brawl between Roger McDowell and Gregg Jefferies in that half inning. Glorious stuff ... I was at that game and I'm pretty sure this was the first time I had ever seen a clip of that fight since that night. It was weird because you want to cheer for Jefferies, but this was Roger McDowell. Think about the Carlos Quentin vs. Zack Greinke fight. Even in the digital age with Twitter, you could piece together what that was about, but you weren't sure. We didn't need Twitter in 1989 to know that this fight between two former teammates was personal. And everybody looked at each other and just smiled and said "wow". Because the curtain was peeled back for everybody to see and we were gleeful to watch it unfold.

I was not gleeful watching the sixth inning unfold. I was not gleeful watching this entire game turn into Kyle Kendrick makes the Mets sit, stay, and roll over. I would have rather watched The Adventures of Pluto Nash. Or the Butt Fumble on a loop for 12 hours. But here's the McDowell vs. Jefferies fight for posterity:

If you remember, I made a plea to vote Kirk Nieuwenhuis into the 2013 All-Star Game for various reasons. Now I don't really have a vote total for you, but I do want to let you know that I'm not the only one with the hair brained idea to completely alter the All-Star vote to make a statement. I'll let Scott from Daily Stache take it from here:

This system is so broken, that we Mets fans, on our own soil, must take down this monster. Let’s take control of a system that rewards players for merely playing in a city that is hosting the game, rather than outstanding accomplishment.

I ask all of you to stuff the ballots like maniacs and vote in our entire outfield. That’s right, vote in Lucas Duda (who may actually be All-Star worthy at this pace), Mike Baxter, and Kirk Nieuwenhuis. Those are the three Mets who are on the ballot this year. Duda is obviously the only starter on that trio. And what better way to make a mockery of this system, than to vote in two backup outfielders?  

See, I'm not the only one that sees this All-Star American Idol sham for what it is, and is perfectly willing to exploit it. Bravo. Brav-freaking-o.

Here's what I fear with voting everybody in: Let's say the fans make it a point to do this, and seven or eight Mets are starters. It would be so easy for Bud Selig to get on his perch and decree: "ballot stuffing", and rescind the voting and then nobody from the Mets starts the game, then MLB can forget about it and nothing gets done to alter this stupid system. But if one perfectly healthy AAA outfielder gets voted to start the Major League All-Star Game, and Bud decides to void it for "good of the game" reasons or whatever self serving phrase he decides to use, it becomes personal and Bud looks like a villain for doing it to one person. Frankly, I don't think he would do it because he doesn't have the stones. Now, he might have somebody from Park Avenue call up Wally Backman and say "hey, you might want to check his hamstring for a mild strain." Or maybe they go full out and pull a Victory and break Nieuwenhuis' arm to escape embarrassment. But even then, if Nieuwenhuis is "injured" you know that the Internet conspiracy theorists will have a field day with that.

All this, of course, contingent on this being pulled off, which admittedly is a long shot. But I'll still be voting and I hope you'll join me.

(P.S. If you do join me, let's be sure that a healthy shortstop gets in from the American League. I had previously voted for Jose Reyes for sentimental reasons. But I was reminded by a wise man that the powers at MLB would probably find a make Derek Jeter a part of this game, if only because the game is in New York and they'll probably already be honoring Jackie Robinson and Mariano Rivera because heaven forbid the Mets are in any way honored during an All-Star Game at their Stadium ... and yes, I know this is a baseball event and not a Mets event. So if Reyes is voted in and he's replaced by Jeter due to "special baseball dispensation" or something, I'll never forgive myself. So let's choose a shortstop and go with it. Jhonny Peralta is having a good season, Elvis Andrus is a good player, and hey, Ronny Cedeno is batting .333.)

So here it is, very simply: You have Nick Punto, Adrian Gonzalez, and Matt Kemp up in the ninth in a tie game. Two righties, one lefty. Scott Rice is already in the game having pitched a third of an inning. Do you stick with him? Or to you go to your closer who is having a very good season?

Terry Collins chose option A: Roll with Rice. And when he did so, I cringed. And I was right to cringe. Rice gave up a double to Nick Punto, got Adrian Gonzalez on a groundout, then after intentionally walking Matt Kemp, gave up a single to Andre Ethier to give the Dodgers the lead. Then Parnell came into the middle of the inning and gave up an infield single to Juan Uribe to seal the game for the Dodgers, as they won 3-2 to take the series.

Even as lefty-righty matchups go, it was a strange move to keep Rice in, as the first three hitters consisted of two righties. But to me, when the heart of the order is coming up in the ninth, give me the closer instead of a guy who just spent 14 seasons in the minors. It's like getting beat with their fourth best pitch. They got beat with their third of fourth best reliever. Who knows what would have happened if Parnell had come in the game in the ninth. I think there's a better chance of Parnell getting the game to the bottom of the ninth still tied at 1-1. Of course that means that Ike Davis doesn't face Brandon League and who knows if he still hits that home run, and I could still be at Citi Field watching Ike Davis' 14th inning of relief work. But I sure would have liked to have found out.

They say Christmas comes but once a year. But we know better. We here in Flushing get to watch Matt Harvey, and every start has been dubbed "Matt Harvey Day". It's a little dangerous, considering that Harvey can't very well go eight innings and give up one run every game.He can't be dominant every night, and we learned that in his latest start against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday. But if this is Matt Harvey when he isn't dominant, I'll take it every time.

Matt Harvey, on a game in which he allowed five base runners in six innings and struck out seven: "In my mind, I sucked tonight."

— Ted Berg (@OGTedBerg) April 25, 2013

In this age of pitch counts and arm protection, all you really want out of your starting pitcher is to give your 25 man roster a chance to win. It's clear that Matt Harvey does that every time he steps on the mound. This could only mean that you can have 30 Christmases a year. There can even be Christmas when Harvey gives up a two run HR to Matt Kemp, a smudge on the ledger for which there can be no shame in. But there was a question as to whether there were going to be presents under the Harvey tree this time around. Four main factors ensured that there would be. There are, in chronological order (sort of):

The Bullpen was Halfway Decent:

When Matt Harvey has a quality start by the standards of mere mortals, and not a quality start in his own eyes, other people have to pick up for him, plain and simple. And the deservedly maligned bullpen got the job done, as LaTroy Hawkins, Scott Rice, Scott Atchison, and Bobby Parnell gave up two walks in four innings. That's it. The other good part is that the guys who Terry Collins didn't want to use, Brandon Lyon and Jeurys Familia, didn't have to come in ... even in a ten inning game.

Terry Collins is not Jerry Manuel:

One out, second and third in the sixth, Justin Turner comes up to pinch hit for Matt Harvey. Don Mattingly sends out Ronald Bellisario to come in for the lefty, J.P. Howell. The booth wonders aloud whether Collins would counter with a lefthanded batter. My immediate thought: burning a pinch hitter for lefty-righty matchups in a game where you know you're going to have to use everybody except the other starters is asinine. How do I know?

Jerry Manuel was the king of the "burn two bench players on one pinch-hit at-bat" move. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) April 25, 2013

That's how. And whether it worked or not it was stupid. Whatever is in Snoop's handbook should be burned during a ritual which in some way includes the blood of Jeff Kent. Justin Turner closed the deficit to one run with a sacrifice fly. And as you'll see later, both lefthanded batters would be needed, proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that Snoop would have lost this game.

David Wright is a Beast:

Mike Baxter, one of the left-handed batters that Snoop would have totally wasted for a lefty-righty matchup in the sixth inning, came up in the ninth and hit a sinking liner that Carl Crawford turned into a flashback that some would call Post Traumatic Red Sox Disorder. Then, after Jerry Hairston Jr. made an incredible play on Daniel Murphy's foul pop for the second out, David Wright strode to the plate as the Mets' final hope. You might have seen on Wednesday I implored you to vote Kirk Nieuwenhuis into this season's All-Star Game. If you join me, I hope that you would also include David Wright on your ballot. Because if he does not start the Mid-Summer Classic in his own city, that's totally our fault as fans for not righting a wrong that was committed last year. Wright wasted no time, said screw this, and lined the first pitch into right center to tie the game.

The Dodgers Lack In Common Sense:

So the tenth inning comes, and the Mets load the bases on a single, a walk, a sac bunt, and an intentional walk. Up comes Jordany Valdespin, who had pinch hit for Juan Lagares earlier, but wouldn't have been able to do so if Snoop Manuel had used him in the sixth. Mattingly employs five infielders and two outfielders. It rarely works, but it's like pulling the goalie in hockey with under a minute left. At that point, there's nothing to lose. And in much the same way that the team pulling their goalie might have their extra skater contribute to the tying goal, the team that employs five infielders might get a ground ball and get a home to first double play.

But there's no way in hell you're going to get a ground ball when you throw a fastball high and inside, which is what Josh Wall did. Why would you pitch for a flyball when you only have two outfielders? It's like waking up, checking the weather, seeing it's 80 degrees, and leaving the house in snow shoes. It's moronic. And JV1 took advantage of it by smacking one out for the first walk-off grand slam since 1991, in a game I am pretty sure I attended. (Though Robin Ventura might disagree.)

I wouldn't have thought about it with anybody else, but this was Jordany Valdespin. And the above moment was the one that I seriously thought that he was going to go into a cartwheel before being mobbed at home plate. What disappointed me was that Jordany didn't find a way to take a selfie while he was rounding the bases. (Would that have been a "Slamagram"?) I wish he would have done the cartwheel, just because he would have sent all of earth into a frenzy, and somebody's head would have exploded. As it was, Jordany's head almost exploded when John Buck assumed pie duties and almost put Valdespin in the disabled list.

Just saw replay of @johnbuck44 #pie & I think I'm gonna have to keep that duty 4 myself so no 1 gets hurt #RightCross #goldengloves #TKO

— Justin Turner (@redturn2) April 25, 2013

No word on Valdespin going on the DL because of a broken face, or Buck going on the DL with a broken finger. But the odds of that goes up with every walk off grand slam. 

MLB All Star balloting started today. And I'll get right to the point: I voted 35 times for Kirk Nieuwenhuis today. I believe you should too. Here's why:

If you're a Met fan, you should still be seething over the fact that David Wright didn't start the All-Star game last season even though he was clearly the most deserving statistically. Not to mention that even though it wasn't a voting issue, you should still be seething that R.A. Dickey, while clearly the most deserving pitcher to start the game, was denied that opportunity because f*cking Tony LaRussa lives in San Francisco and goes to Giants games. To me, if that's the way they want to play it, fine. What better way to get revenge on the whole system than to exploit it the same way Giants fans did to their advantage last season? And to vote in a guy that's currently in the minor leagues? If that doesn't teach people to vote with some modicum of common sense then nothing will.

If you're not a Met fan, you should still vote for Nieuwenhuis. Why? What better way to expose the all-star voting system for the sham that it is, and for that matter, what better way to expose the sham of having the league which wins the All-Star game host the World Series? To hear baseball pundits whine and cry over the National League losing the All-Star game because Kirk Nieuwenhuis played two innings? That would make me laugh. It should make you laugh too.

So I'm voting for Nieuwenhuis. 35 times a day, every day, until this is over. (I was going to vote for Scott Hairston, but he's off the team, and then I was going to vote for Collin Cowgill, but to vote for a guy who's on the ballot even though he's in the minors is a sham on to itself.) If I can get the majority of you to vote with me, then at least we can make some noise and cause some sort of revolution. So all you baseball fans who are sick of this All-Star stupidity and want change, join me. We may not be able to make a difference, but at least we'll have a few laughs along the way.

I hate games like this.

When Jon Niese was hit in the ankle in the third inning by Mark Ellis and had to leave the game on Tuesday, with Clayton Kershaw on the other side, I was thinking, "well, this game is shot to hell, so I'll save my angst for what the Rangers do against the Panthers, or better yet I'll save my angst for a double dose of explosion on Thursday for Jeremy Hefner and the manner in which the Jets screw up the draft."

But then the Mets rallied in the third inning against Kershaw, previously 5-0 with a 1.37 ERA against the Mets in his career. And Robert Carson, just called up to take over for the recently jettisoned into outer space DFA'd Aaron Laffey, was holding the fort down pretty well under unusual circumstances. The hope that maybe the Mets can steal this game started to ascend. The struggles of the $783 billion payroll of the L.A. Dodgers started to manifest before the eyes of the throngs of people at Citi Field. (Term "throngs" used very loosely ... it was more like one throng.) There was a distinct possibility that Don Mattingly would be fired by the sixth inning and replaced with Willie Randolph.

But then Carson gave up a home run to Mark Ellis. Then Brandon Lyon gave up a three run homer to ... F'ing Mark Ellis. Then Josh Edgin gave up a two run double to A.J. Ellis. Then Dock Ellis came in high on LSD and gave up a grand slam to Ellis Valentine while he was wearing that chin bar, and the game was over ... and I had to reserve some angst for the Mets after all. Point being, I wish Kershaw had just run over the Mets and pitched 8 shutout innings, I would have felt a hell of a lot better about things. Instead, players that had a job to do and weren't put too far out of their way to do it like Brandon Lyon couldn't get it done. Niese's injury isn't an excuse. Brandon Lyon came into the game in the seventh inning. He wasn't asked to perform this Herculean task or do anything that was out of his realm like, say, Carson might have been on Tuesday. He wasn't facing Adrian Gonzalez, Matt Kemp, and Andre Ethier. He gave up a hit to Justin Sellers, walked Juan Uribe, and gave up a three run HR to Mark Ellis.

And then Edgin in the eighth. He pitched a third of an inning and gave up two runs, and his ERA is 10.80. Terry Collins for one, is concerned.

"One of the things that I am just a little bit concern about -- and I've seen it before, and we've mentioned it -- is a young pitcher like that, last year he got into a lot of games. He had a lot of appearances. He had a lot of games he warmed up and maybe didn't get in. All of those can lead to the next year just not having your arm respond right away. I've been there before where I've seen that. And I'm a little concerned that might be what we're facing here."  

Yeah, Terry. I mean, who asked him to go into all these games after going from A ball to the majors in a span of 10 months? How dare he put himself into so many games and warm up when nobody asked him to. I mean ...

Oh wait, that was YOOOOOOOOOOOOU! YOU put him into all these games and are now wondering how something you've seen a million times before could possibly happen for the 1,000,001st time. Excuse me while I bang my head against the wall 84 times hoping that the 85th time will result in me winning Powerball.

So the Mets finally get to Clayton Kershaw, only to be taken to the woodshed by two guys named Ellis who aren't even related. The good news is that Matt Harvey starts tonight against L.A., but with Niese going down and all this chaos going on around him, you couldn't blame him if he started to feel like he was starring in Final Destination: Flushing. And give SNY credit, they know how to butter their bread. You have Matt Harvey "Next Start Tomorrow" graphics coming up on the screen during Tuesday's game like it was a 24 promo ubiquitously appearing during an episode of The Simpsons. And you also had a good chunk of the post game show hyping Harvey's start the next day. And guaranteed a good chunk of Thursday's pre-game show will focus on what Harvey did the night before, good or bad. It's almost like if you squint hard while looking at your television, Harvey actually starts three out of every five games. Oh how we all wish that could happen.