Greatness in the Form of a Knuckleball

RA Dickey continued his excellence, stretching his scoreless streak to 24 2/3 innings. With a Lucas Duda 2-run bomb and a slump-breaking RBI single by Daniel Murphy, the Mets played  crisp defense behind the knuckler to take the must-win division match-up 3-1.

Is it any wonder that the Mets fared better this time out because they were on their toes behind the pitchers? There were a few times where the scoreless streak was in jeopardy, but double plays were turned and diving catches were made. After a couple days of knockin' the ball around with their gloves like a pinball machine, it was nice to hear (in my case) solid defense out there to support our knuckleball horse.

We are witnessing something real special with RA Dickey. For the first time in his life, Dickey has complete control of the command of his knuckleball. Terry Collins said yesterday that he has never seen one of his kind command the pitch the way RA does. And Terry has seen a lot of knuckleballers. I mean, we're talking about 3 or 4 different knuckleballs, which is unheard of. Knuckleballers normally just keep throwing the same slow knuckleball. RA Dickey has finally gotten to the point of dominance he dreamed about when the Texas Rangers first offered him $810,000.00. It might not be exactly how he thought he'd be dominant, but he feels it, and he does not want to let it go. He is holding onto the awesomeness and we're sitting back and enjoying the ride.

Chien-Ming Wang wasn't horrendous, but we had him on the ropes early with a couple innings of the bases loaded, but could not score. Even as that happened, I had a feeling this was our game. While Lucas Duda continued his power breakout, Daniel Murphy had a huge RBI single in the top of the 7th, which broke a 0-17 slump. After that 0fer and the bobblin' he had done the past few games on defense, Murph broke out in a big way with a great insurance run.

Big play by Omar Quintanilla to end the 8th with Bobby P. on the mound. Bobby has been having trouble lately locating his fastball, but he battled through there to get the ground ball we all needed. If it wasn't for a solo shot by Ryan Zimmerman in the 9th off Frank Francisco, this would have been a shutout. But a win is a win, and I was very glad Frank didn't let it get to him.

Tonight at the New House, the southpaw Johan Santana goes for the 1st time since that thing he just did. The righty Hiroki Kuroda will go for that team from the Bronx. Game time is 7:05PM. Let's show Dem Yankees what all the hype is about.

LET'S. GO. METS.

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