Game One: Glavine dominates. Weaver surprises with his effectiveness. Good guys win.
Game Two: Carpenter sucks, and the Mets could roll over this team … but they do not. Cardiac-Cards come back to win. Mets fans still giddy because they should have won the game.
Game Three: Suppan dominates. D’oh! Trachsel sucks, but Darren Oliver becomes the secret weapon. Mets fans get anxious knowing Oliver Perez starts Game Four.
Game Four: Met dominate. Oliver Perez is good enough and endears himself to Mets fans for the forseeable future. The nature of the domination means Mets fans feel comfortable again even though the series is tied.
Game Five tonight.
Series is now best of three. And with the state of the Mets rotation, it’s certainly anybody’s series. Glavine has a bad history on short rest. Maine and Oliver or Trachsel for 6 and 7 are obvious question marks.
Middle relief has been a big theme in this playoff run, here’s a story about it in Slate, though I disagree that this has been a sudden or improbable ascendance. The Zumaya vs. The Yankees spectacle notwithstanding, the A’s/Tigers series was dominated by the Tigers, so MR didn’t matter much. Then you had the big Nationals/Reds deal at the deadline where the Reds gave up two young potential stars in Kearns and Lopez + more for a couple no-name but dependable middle relievers.
I really think Torre and the Yanks brough “shortening the game” to the limelight, when they had a solid set-up and then two innings out of Mariano.
Anyways, it looks likely that this NLCS will be a battle of bullpens, because while the Mets rotation looks shaky, the Cards are just as wobbly. And last night the Cards bullpen made Mets fans smile.
Of course if Carpenter is back to Cy Young form in Game 6, then who knows. Before the series, it was said the Cards have to win the Carpenter starts, but now that can be said for Glavine also, we need to win this one tonight.
All eyes on Tommy. Let’s Go Mets.
