Mets High on Speed

It was a slow and boring game last night, eh? Or maybe that’s just how it feels when your team is getting shut out and the other club is embarrassing your pitcher who has a slow delivery to home. Five stolen bases for the Mets…three for Jose Reyes, who also hit one off the upper deck facing in right and drove in the other Mets’ run with a single. 2-0 Mets. Without Reyes and the glove of his buddy Carlos Gomez in left, this game could have gone all night.

Really, speed did kill last night. Gomez’s catch to rob Miguel Cairo of a potential three-run home run and Reyes just running wild was enough to suck the momentum away from the Yankees. In fact, after Gomez’s double play catch in the fourth (why was Matsui at third instead of only going half way? He would have scored either way if the ball landed safely…) the only Yankee hitter to reach was Derek Jeter who doubled in the eighth. Talk about a blow to the gut. This is why managers love defense so much.

Joe Torre talked about the Yankees being thrown off kilter by the Mets’ speed, but also maintained that one game is just one game. Still, you like to win the opener if you’re going to achieve the goal of winning a series.

Meanwhile, on the Roger Clemens side of things, the 44-year old hurler remained mum on getting all those bases stolen off him. He simply complimented Reyes and Gomez and talked about continuing to get in shape…all told, 6.1 innings, two earned runs and eight strike outs really isn’t that bad.

And now, a few random notes from the game:

*You know how the Yankees will play dramatic highlights of Paul O’Neil and then pan to him in the YES network booth? Ditto Bobby Murcer? Well, it’s only natural that after seeing footage of Tino Martinez that you would expect to see the former Yankee first baseman taking in the game from a luxury booth. Right? Wrong. After showing a full minute of Tino highlights the Yankees panned to a little girl in a pink Yankee hat. Strange.

*Once again, I feel it’s only appropriate to listen to the theme from Superman while Derek Jeter bats in the late innings of a close game. Yes, leave it on for the full at-bat. He doubled last night…

*Before the game the Rutgers women’s basketball team got shown off behind home plate and seemed particularly excited to get hugs from Jeter. They then sat in George Steinbrenner’s box for the game. Classy move.