The Game

Mark it down right now: The Texas Rangers will be the team that foolishly overpays for Oliver Perez in the offseason (5 years/$60 million is my guess) and, after watching Perez’s dominant performance against the best hitting team in the AL on Friday the 13th at Shea, who could blame them? Well, anybody that’s had to endure the rest of his starts (i.e. us). The always perplexing Perez turned in a dominant performance amidst more front office chaos in the New York Mets’ 7-1 victory over the Texas Rangers last night.

According to multiple published reports on Friday, Willie Randolph’s tenure as Met manager is coming to an end. Though he was still calling the shots in the dugout on Friday night, could you really blame him if he already packed up his desk before the game started knowing that he was giving the ball to Oliver Perez? Perez might as well be the poster boy for New York’s roller coaster season thus far. Facing a potent Texas lineup, Ollie served up a first inning solo homer to ‘Feel Good Story of the Year’ candidate Josh Hamilton to give the Rangers a quick 1-0 lead. But, here’s the rub… Perez would not allow another run the rest of the night while only surrendering two more hits.

The New York offense quickly got to work in the bottom of the first inning against spot starter Corey, uh, Scott Feldman. After driving in Jose Reyes to tie the game at one, Carlos Beltran came in to score on a throwing error charged to Texas third baseman German Duran. This run was setup thanks to an un-Willie like double steal with Beltran and Carlos Delgado on the base paths. The score remained 2-1 Mets into the fifth when David Wright’s sac fly scored Reyes and stretched the Met lead to 3-1. Knowing full well that no lead is safe with their bullpen, the Mets tacked on four more in the bottom of the sixth thanks to a Marlon Anderson RBI single, a run scoring ground rule double off the bat of Endy Chavez, and a two run single by the omnipotent Oliver Perez. New York went on to win a 7-1 laugher and, for the time being, Willie Randolph was able to smile and relax. And, with all the ridiculousness that has gone on surrounding his job status, Randolph should just take on a ‘Who cares?’ attitude and become a loose cannon in his remaining days as Met manager. I’m thinking he should walk around with an old school boom box on his shoulder at all times with The Clash’s, “Should I Stay or Should I Go” playing on a loop. He should sit with a laptop in the dugout and make it obvious that he’s updating his resume while the game is going on. Heck.. Randolph, Rick Peterson, and Howard Johnson should all show up on Saturday and just start drinking beers and smoking cigars while reminiscing about the good times in the dugout while the game is unfolding. As ridiculous as these ideas are, I feel the way the Met front office has botched this situation is equally ridiculous. While I am not a huge fan of Mr. Randolph’s managerial style, he does seem like a stand up guy who deserves respect. Letting information leak to the press as he twists in the wind is the latest faux pas in a long line of blunders by the New York front office.

Pedro Martinez looks to make it two in a row on Saturday at 7:10 as he opposes Kason Gabbard of the Texas Rangers.

The Haiku

Oliver sparkles
Double steals and two-out hits
Mets, tonight, were fun

The Boxscore

The Win Probability Added Graph

The Credits

Recap by Chuck Buono
Haiku by Howard Megdal