Thanks to my wife allowing me to use up all our airmiles, my trip to Shea this summer is nearly set up. I'll have three days, arriving Friday, visiting 'til Sunday, and then be flying home to England on the Sunday evening. I'm looking at the series against the Astros towards the end of August, and if the flights work I should be able to watch three games. Can't wait! We might even be playing well by then - if not, I figure I'll see us win at least once!!

While we look at being consistently inconsistent, it is reassuring to know that we can rely on one element of the team. The bullpen has never failed to ensure that we have absolutely no chance of winning games that have been relatively tight. As I sit here, Jorge Sosa has just given up a grand slam home run. I've lost track by mid April of the number of homers given up by the bull pen, especially in tight positions. Frustrating is an understatement - we have to face facts with this. we are not pennant material if we continually shoot ourselves in the foot in the seventh and eighth inning. 2006 has never seemed so far away....It's more like '96 than '06 at the moment.

Second day running, and the bullpen have succeeded in making it nigh on impossible to catch a slender lead. Jorge Sosa last night was a disaster - a 30 pitch inning? Why didn't Willie pull him before the Kelly Johnson at-bat - he was obviously thinking it, after the meeting on the mound with Rick Peterson. That ended that game... and here I am watching live as Aaron Heilman blows it again, after we had kept it tight. I know there 3 outs left, but let's face it, there is no run support today anyway, so a difficult pull back has just become impossible. Santana pitches well, leaves just 6 outs to go and watches the bullpen blow it. Is the reminding us of anything? Have the lessons of last year not been learned?

...so good.
Only other 90+ wins needed and we're there! I thought we were solid, without needing to be any more than that. And given what happened last time we played the fish, I am happy to settle for that. David Wright looks like he's starting this season in exactly the same way as he started last - continuing a hitting streak. Long may the doubles continue!

Hello from the other side of the pond! Got up today like a kid at Christmas - Opening Day 08, and at last, a chance to forget the train wreck that was last September and look forward to another season of quality baseball at Shea. It will be 9pm here when Johan steps out onto the mound and gets his 20 win season underway, and I'll be sat watching on the big screen, thanks to a digital projector and a broadband connection. All together now...Let's Go Mets!

Much better stuff today. Oliver Perez was particularly impressive, I thought, and hopefully points the way for Mike Pelfrey by showing you can have terrible games and recover it with some disciplined pitching work. Joe Smith looks fabulous, especially compared to Aaron Heilman's recent efforts. More importantly, David Wright is looking smooth again, swinging freely and hitting well.