Defeat the Empire

So, like my buddies in Baltimore tried to tell me, John Maine isn't any good. Can't win 'em all.

All Maine really did was fire 90 MPH fastballs at the plate. He really couldn't spot pitches, and he had bad control, as alot of fastballs seemed to sail on him way out of the strike zone. But the offensively-challenged Nats could only muster 4 runs off of him in 5.1 innings, which almost kept the Mets in the game.

If you watched the game, it's evident that Maine actually pitched worse than his finishing line indicates, which brings me to my next point. Sending him out there next Sunday afternoon against Atlanta could get pretty ugly. He seemed very nervous tonight in front of a relatively small crowd against a bad team; how will he respond when pitching against the Mets main rival with up to 50,000 in the crowd?

And Atlanta is getting back on track, and has closed the gap in the division to five games. (As has Philadelphia, but I'm not worried about them.) The Braves pulled off a comeback victory against surprising Colorado tonight at Turner, on the heels of a complete-game gem by Tim Hudson. Their pitching is getting in shape, headed by Smoltz and Hudson, and a solid bullpen of a bunch of effective no-names and Chris Reitsma.

The days of the 7-game lead are over. Not to say they won't ever be back; hell, we send Pedro and Glavine up against the worst team in the NL in the next two games and should sweep the miniseries. But anyone who thought Atlanta was just going to fade into the summer was severely mistaken. Atlanta will be in this thing to the finish. I still think they're going to end up winning this thing for a 15th straight time.

The one positive that came out of today's ballgame was the Willie got ejected. I can't remember this ever happening before in his seven months as Mets manger. He hardly ever shows any in-game fire (he probably gets this from Joe Torre, who sits on the bench like a log with a bat between his legs every game), but today he revealed he has a pulse.

It's gonna be a dogfight, Mets fans. Don't forget that.