A Dice-K Start Less Than 3 Hours?!

I didn't know it was possible, but apparently that's what last night's 6-2 win was. 2:45 in length in fact.

My flight from San Francisco landed into the low-clouded tri-state area, specifically Newark Airport, at 1:45 in the morning local time. Wanting to check the score, I turned off the airplane mode on my phone, but of course texting people first that I had arrived safely. Once that had been done, MLB At Bat made its way open.

As it was loading, which is rather quickly when the service is good, my eyes realized without seeing the score that I could click the MLB.TV button in the upper-right-hand corner and take off from where I left off, when it was 2-1 in the earlier innings. When I have time (or really even when I don't) I like watching the wins on the MLB.TV replay access, most of the time just going through the most important innings. The thing is, you want to watch the whole thing anyway because it's unbelievable how on their games Gary, Keith and Ron (and Kevin) are at all times, win or lose. One could argue the losses can be even more entertaining because of everywhere they go in conversations. So, I was happy to be able to avoid the score and listen to those guys.

I quickly found out the Airtrain I had planned to take to Newark Penn Station was being "critically repaired" since May 2, and there was a shuttle bus operating...only the last shuttle bus had taken off at 2 and wasn't taking back off till 4. I hadn't made it off the plane in time for that. There is an express bus, but that finished at 1 and wasn't starting back up till 4. So, whatever I decided to take, I'd have to wait in the airport till 4 (and I quickly decided the bus directly to town was worth the extra $3.50). At least I had a Mets game to watch. I had an hour and a half to kill, and an hour and a half left on the game.

That timeline got eschewed a bit, as my service kept freezing the video with the audio still playing, and yes, as I said above, I like LISTENING to those guys, but I wanted the video as well. Yeah, they inform us of things like this info from Gary in the 4th inning...

So, the Mets have now had the lead in 15 of their last 16 games, including tonight. They've had at least a 2-run lead in 13 of those 16 games, including tonight....And yet, here the Mets are sitting with a 6-game losing streak and feeling as though the world is falling apart. Why? Because they already lost 21 games this year where they had a lead, and they've lost 11 games this year in which they had at least a 2-run lead. Last year, all season, they lost 14 games in which they had at least a 2-run lead; and we're not even close to halfway through this season.

Though Gary, Keith and Ron tell the story as well as comment, let us not fail to give credit to the entire SNY team, especially the director who is editing the moving picture to those words.

So, I kept fidgeting with the app, scrolling 30 seconds back, skipping some seconds ahead, restarting the app, yada, yada, yada. The restarting worked, but the scrolling didn't really. The gist is, I was only at the 6th inning by 3:11am because I couldn't deal with just the audio working. (During all that, I was surprised to see that there was still a game going on in the Majors but wasn't curious enough to take a look. I wonder how that ended...)

I had checked the wifi situation earlier in my travels, but none open for Newark travelers.  I decided to check it again, and it turned out Dunkin' Donuts, which I had inadvertently made my way next to, radiated free wifi. So, I ditched the phone and headed onto my laptop to wrap up whatever I could of this game.

I arrived to the bottom of the 6th. Along with information Kevin delivered on Jeremy Hefner and his Tommy John Surgery rehab (he threw 15 pitches from a mound in St. Lucie yesterday, and has been keeping a diary every day during recovery) the Milwaukee pitcher Marco Estrada walked 3 batters in the inning, with a Daniel Murphy fly out and Chris Young strikeout sandwiched in. After Lucas Duda walked to load the bases with 2 out, the new guy, catcher Taylor Teagarden, headed to the plate in his first game as a Met, without the Mets atrocious bases loaded batting average on the season attached.

And in his first game as a Met, Taylor Teagarden is going to have a moment. 

--Gary as Taylor approached the plate

With a 1-0 count, the righty Teagarden laced it the other way into foul territory, walking up the line when Gary knew pretty quickly it would be hooking way foul. Then, Estrada dropped a strike onto the outside low corner of the plate. A perfect pitch.

Keith: It's a good strike right there. NOW, it's 1-2, he can do whatever he wants.

Gary: Bases loaded, two out...and Teagarden hits it out to right. Braun retreating, to the warning track, at the wallllll, IT'S OUTTA HERE!!!!!!!!

It was basically the same pitch, but raised. Estrada did not hit the corner this time, and Teagarden muscled it the other way, dipping the ball onto the other side of the right field wall, something we all want to see right-handed Mets hitters do more. 

I finished watching the inning, and skipped to the 9th to see if anything had gotten out of control, as it tends to do. I wanted to be done with the Mets before I got on that bus. The score was 6-2, and at that point, you have an idea things will go well for Jenrry Mejia and the Mets as the broadcast timeframe of 2:57 is in front of you, and it would have had to be quite the quick meltdown and lockdown by the Brewers for us not to exit with a Mets W.

So, with 10 minutes to spare before I had to catch the bus back into the city, I read up on Derek Fisher and the Knicks.

Now, I am going to go to bed.

BACK. IN. TOWN. NOW.

LET'S. GO. METS.

Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @convertedmetfan. For more from myself and others on the Mets, head over to Rising Apple. And for the latest on a Brooklyn Baseball TV Series I am developing, Like the Bedford & Sullivan Facebook page, follow on Twitter here, and listen to the research process here.