Other Crap

New York Mets 2, St. Louis Cardinals 1 - in 20 innings, just short of seven hours of baseball.

The first 18 innings were pretty damned boring at 0-0, but then it got interesting in number 19. The Mets scored one in the top, but the Cards got it back with two out in the bottom, thus allowing the game to drag on.

The Mets used 9 pitchers, the Cards 10. The save went to Mike Pelfrey, a starter, but he was at least a natural pitcher, whereas the last three Cardinal innings were pitched by position players. Shortstop Felipe Lopez pitched the 18th, and held the Mets scoreless. He then moved over to third base, switching places with Joe Mather, who came in to pitch. That would seem odd enough to begin with, but becomes even stranger when you realize that Mather shouldn't have been at third base in the first place. He is a back-up outfielder! It's just that things were getting crazy toward the end of the game. Mather proved to be better at third base than at the pitcher's mound. He just could not find the plate. In just two innings he threw 38 pitches, 24 of them balls.

Despite batting against a utility player, the Mets could not score a run on hits. Both of their runs scored on sacrifice flies!

The Cardinals got 28 base runners (15 hits, 11 walks, two Met errors), but could only score one run.

This was the longest scoreless tie since 1989.

Santana, by the way, looked like his old self. In seven scoreless innings he fanned nine and allowed only four hits. He retired Pujols all three times he faced him. The relievers were not so successful. Pujols got on base every single time after Santana left the game - six times in a row, although two of those were intentional walks.