Miscellaneous Game Notes

I'm going to focus on some things that haven't already been blasted across the papers a zillion times. Everyone knows that Glavine pitched well and that Matsui was 3-3. I'm going to discuss some randomly less-covered items.

Karim "Abdul-Jabbar" Garcia

When the game starter I found myself annoyed that Karim Garcia was in the lineup. I have to admit, the "ex-Yankee who got in a bullpen fight in Boston and pissed on a pizza guy" thing had the best of me. But last night, I saw something from Karim that I have never seen from Roger Cedeno ... hustle, effort, skill and desire to win.

At the plate he was lackluster (even his nice single up the middle was boring), but in the field, he gave 100% and made two very nice plays. As much as the annoying sabermetric fiends would like to say it did not make a difference, I can tell you that Garcia's catches not only boosted the confidence of the Met on the mound, but they also took the wind out of the sails of would-be Brave baserunners.

Also, fantastic job by Garcia of getting back safely into second base on that Glavine line drive to Furcal. Could have been an easy double play for the Bravados.

Jason Phillips, Jacking?

I know that one of the things that Jason Phillips wanted to improve in 2004 was his power numbers. I also noticed that Jason hit around .250 in Spring Training with a bunch of homeruns. Finally, in last night's games, Phillips seemed to have added some uppercut to his swing.

While this could be a good thing, my heart tells me that Jason is trying to hard to be a first baseman offensively, and in an attempt to add power he may end up hurting his ability to hit. I hope he proves me wrong. As long as he keeps hitting the ball as far as he did last night, he should do fine.

Valent bores me ...

Next topic.

Looper and the Lumber Industry

Looper broke the bats of three consecutive Brave hitters. No matter what happens, you have to love that. His cut fastball was jumping in on the right-handers. Hopefully we see more of last night's Looper and less of the one we saw in Spring Training. Maybe he needed a little adrenaline to kick in. I'm sure it helped that he had a 7-2 lead when he came in.

Cliff Floyd is Already Pressing

Next topic ...

Matsui

How can you know the guy? 3 Hits, 2 doubles, a homerun, 2 walks, 3 runs. Well, I'm a punk, so I can knock him. I would like to thank Russ Ortiz for Matsui's big night ... For starters, he hung a breaking ball right over the middle of the plate on that first pitch. Matsui adjusted well, but that was a hanger.

After that, Ortiz tried following the "scouting report" on Matsui, which I personally think makes very little sense. Everyone is trying to bust him in with fastballs. From what I have read (and seen), the guy has very quick hands through the zone. With his propensity to strikeout and try to drive the ball, people should be throwing him junk away, making him drive it to opposite field, or pull the outside pitch.

Mike Cameron

He looks better defensively than Andruw Jones. Next topic ...

Mike Piazza

Crushed a breaking ball about 40 seats back in deep left center. Yogi or not, he still has his power. Go Mike.

Weathers

Great job by this guy. Had some zip on his fastball (was getting it in there up to 92 mph, nice job David), and the slider was working well on the inside corner.

Negative Comments:

With no errors, good pitching, timely hitting and smart baserunning, what the hell can I possible say that is negative?