i can see why met fans are so enamored of jose reyes; exciting player to watch, and still only 22 years old (he turns 23 next month). he has improved his batting eye this season, with 16 walks already (last year he drew just 27 all season), so i can forgive suppan for the two-out pass he issued reyes in the top of the 7th, which led to what proved to be the winning run. ditto la russa's decision to send suppan out there for the top of the 7th in the 1st place. jeff's last pitch of the 6th inning was his 93d, but he was still throwing it well and the bottom of the new york order was due up. give the mets credit; they created an opportunity and followed it through.
had the cards done the same, it would have been their best win of the season -- a nice comeback against a good team and a tough pitcher. they'll catch a break the rest of the series, facing a weak #3 (trachsel) and a weak replacement pitcher (jose lima) in the last two games.
speaking of players named reyes (ie anthony): the will-he-won't-he business re saturday night's start is vintage la russa, no? only tony can grapple for days on end with his options for a fill-in starting pitcher in a mid-may ballgame against the worst team in baseball. if it's taking this long for la russa to commit to starting reyes here (and he ultimately will, i'm pretty sure), what are the odds that anthony will be in the rotation this season in a pennant race? in the playoffs?
a peek at the minors: cody haerther hasn't had a hit in two weeks. he went 0 for 4 last night and is now 0 for his last 23. it appears to be simply one of those things -- he's not striking out an inordinate amount, and he's still drawing a few walks (4 during the slump). out of curiosity i checked his splits at the Minor League Spits Database; there are indeed some sharp splits there, but the samples are so small i wouldn't try to make anything of 'em yet. last night's oh-fer drops haerther's overall line to .229 / .294 / .404, an unfortunate dip; let's hope it's temporary. . . . . chris lambert got lit up in that game, by the way. he has now made 26 starts at double a and shows no signs of being ready for that level; his era there over the last two years is 6.20.