IN Game 19 the Mets played, well, it is difficult to say exactly how they played. Since they played well enough to both win and lose.
You can be encouraged Roger Cedeno drove in two runs, unless you saw exactly how feeble his hits were. You can say Mo Vaughn delivered a two-run, seventh-inning single to break the game open or that he committed two ghastly errors, the second of which had helped put the Mets behind in the sixth. You can see Roberto Alomar reached first on a wild pitch following a strikeout in a key fifth-inning sequence or that he did so despite running half-heartedly the first 60 feet to nearly get thrown out.
Even in victory, and the Mets did actually beat the even more bumbling Marlins 7-4 yesterday, this club hardly inspires. They won ugly, lucky and – in many ways – in spite of themselves. The way things have gone to date, they will take their triumphs however they get them. Beggars – and last-place teams – can’t be choosers. But no one should be fooled, most notably the Mets, to think they can play like this and win with regularity.
“A lot of everything happened today and we can laugh about it now because we won,” said Tom Glavine, who knocked first base ump Eric Cooper down pursuing one of Vaughn’s errors.
Even the pregame was disturbing for the Mets. With Cliff Floyd, Timo Perez and Mike Piazza nursing aches, Art Howe fashioned the kind of lineup – Ty Wigginton third, Tsuyoshi Shinjo fifth, Vance Wilson seventh – that used to bring talk-radio hell for Bobby Valentine. But, like with everything else, simply not being Valentine is a blessing for Howe. Look, he promised un-Valentine-like lineup stability and that he would not bat Alomar leadoff, and he has had14 lineups in 19 games, the last four with Alomar on top.
Howe also grew prickly about a string of questions concerning problems besetting Armando Benitez and Cedeno. But that he did it without a gritted-teeth smile and without any inflection that he created the game will make it all right. Unless, of course, his team turns out to be the same kind of money pit Valentine’s final Met club was.
Is it? The early read is not heartening. And, again, even yesterday’s victory was cautionary. Because it was filled with enough bad stuff – Cedeno’s offense, Vaughn’s defense, Alomar’s questionable desire – that probably won’t get much better.
Cedeno was booed in a Bonilla-esque manner after striking out in his first two at-bats. His RBI bloop to left in the fifth was so flimsy that shortstop Alex Gonzalez played it and would have had an out at the plate, except pitcher Josh Beckett had the ball jarred loose when he swipe-tagged Rey Sanchez’s helmet. His go-ahead RBI in the seventh dribbled about 15 feet and hugged the first-base line.
Cedeno got a chance at his fifth-inning RBI because, after Alomar whiffed for what should have been the third out, Ivan Rodriguez could not find the ball at his feet. Howe said, “Robbie really hustled down the line.” But unless jog is now a synonym for hustle, that is not true. Alomar only ran quickly the final 30 feet when the fans’ boos for his strikeout and initial loafing were replaced by encouraging yells to move quicker. The tie created by Cedeno’s first RBI lasted until the top of the sixth, when Vaughn’s horrible throw to second after Glavine picked off I-Rod helped Florida to its third run.
That the Mets won fortuitously, Howe said, is a sign, “we’re finally getting breaks.”
Maybe they are. Maybe winning a game like this really will incite the Mets to better things. But, for now, the best thing that could be said about this win is the Mets played well enough to keep Benitez in the bullpen.
