Round One: Mets

Game 1 of the NLDS, bi-coastal edition, has come and gone and the boys in blue find themselves down a game. The Dodgers tallied more hits than the Mets (and more strikeouts), but not a whole lot of timely hitting. It was an odd game, though, with one play recording two outs at home, and Brad Penny coming in on relief and losing the game.

First off, let's look at that play in the 2nd. As far as the cheese can tell, and he had to watch the replay about 20 gagillion times because the Yankee-Tigers game was cancelled, there were four specific mistakes made:

1. Jeff Kent thought about tagging up. As soon as Martin hit that ball, it seemed apparent to the cheese that Shawn Green weren't catchin' it. Kent, for whatever reason, looked unsure and did not immediately leave second base, thus costing him a few seconds on his way to home.

2. Donnelly, the third base coach, either didn't see Drew right behind Kent, or didn't adequately signal the second runner. This seems to have led Drew to believe he should head home on the heels of Kent.

3. Drew had his head down while rounding third. Even if he did misread the sign as he rounded second, Drew could see how close he was to Kent, it might have occurred to him that maybe the go ahead sign was for the guy IN FRONT OF HIM, and maybe he should have looked up at the third base coach once he got there, but he didn't.

4. Kent attempted to slide into home. After rounding third Kent clearly looked up and saw Valentine fielding the cut-off and turning to throw home. It was evident he wouldn't beat the throw. Now Lo Duca's no pushover, but Kent's got like 5 inches and 50 pounds on him. One would think that Kent might try and take Lo Duca out, maybe knocking the ball loose in the process. Instead, he tries to finesse slide around the tag. What the fuck is that? He's not Juan Pierre for christ's sake, he's a 39 year old, slow, not very agile white guy. Run into the catcher already. Plus, if he had taken down Lo Duca, then very likely Drew would have scored anyway.


Now, about the whole "Brad Penny in relief thing." The cheese response to seeing Penny come out of the bullpen went something along the lines of "What the fuck is Grady Little thinking?" On the one hand, the cheese understands the rationale. Penny might not be able to pitch is a start situation, but he's possibly good for an inning or two so you throw him out there and hope he hits his spots. He does, after all, know what it takes to pitch, and win, in the playoffs. He was throwing hard, but got beat up a bit and took the loss.

Honestly, it was a pretty well played game. The Mets scored some runs on the longball, the Dodgers on the single and double. Tomorrow may go better, Kuo dominated this team just a few weeks back. And if the Dodgers can split the games in NY then the series is definitely still up for grabs.