I was at the game last night. Some observations – you realize what errors can do to a pitcher when you see the pitch count on the scoreboard. Last evening, Jose Reyes bobbled a ball that could have been turned into a double play. John Maine threw another 10 pitches to get out of the inning. Damion Easley made two errors on ground balls in two separate innings. The first one was on a throw that would have made it two outs and no one on. Instead, that runner turned into the tying run as Ryan Zimmerman scored the go ahead run on a blast he pulled into the left field bleachers. Another error later in the game on a botched ground ball resulted in no runs but as with the previous error caused Maine to pitch an additional dozen pitches or so to get out of the inning.

The point here is that because of three botched plays, Maine had to hurl more than 30 additional pitches. Maine came out after six and did pitch very well in spite of the shoddy play behind him. However, with some solid support, those 30 extra pitches could have allowed Maine to pitch the 7th and possible the 8th inning. The by product of that would have saved the bullpen work too. It’s a team game. All of the disciplines must come together for a winning team to succeed. The Mets won the game and that is the most important thing. But they could have won with much more ease and in the long run, that would benefit everyone.

Citi Field is definitely affecting the flight of baseballs at Shea. The ball Delgado hit to the warning track would have been gone in years past. That ball off the bat was a homerun. It took off like a rocket. But you could see the ball get held up and fall short into Milledge’s glove.

Kudos to John Maine on drilling the Nationals’ lead off hitter Philippe Lopez. It was a nice quick retaliation for the antics of the previous night. After that, Maine got down to business. You want the staff ace, at the moment it’s John Maine, not Johan Santana. Maine has won his last 4 straight, each win coming after a Mets debacle. On April 26, Maine defeated the Braves after Pelfrey lost the previous contest 6-3. Then after that dreadful loss (13-1) against the Pirates a couple of weeks ago, Maine took care of Arizona winning 7-2 a couple days later in Phoenix. The Mets dropped the first two in Los Angeles when Maine again came to the rescue and pitched a gem winning last Wednesday 12-1. Finally last night, Maine worked hard but pitched extremely well in thwarting the Nationals who embarrassed the Mets on Monday night. Maine has only given up 7 runs over those last 4 starts.

With the new stadium lurking in the outfield, Shea Stadium looks very big. When there was nothing in the parking lot, it was hard to get a perspective of Shea’s humongous size but man is it a big ball park.  Citi Field looks pretty big herself. Her footprint is actually bigger than Shea’s but the ballpark portion is smaller. Height wise, the top row of Citi Field looks to be as high as a third to half way up Shea’s upper level. But of course and what is not as obvious from the outside, the new stands are closer to the field than the ones at Shea. The new light towers at Citi Field are very imposing. They are meant to evoke the bridge work around the boroughs with their arch style construction. The lights are actually much higher than Shea Stadium even though the canopy at the top of Citi Field is lower than Shea.

The Mets made the right decision in designating Jorge Sosa and Nelson Figueroa for assignment. Sosa was just a failure whose time had come. I give the team credit for eating the 2 million dollars left on his salary. It sends a message that the team will not keep guys around who are not producing. Figueroa was a great story but midnight came and he turned into a pumpkin. As I said, it was a great story to see the Brooklyn kid come home and get a victory for the team he loved as a child. But there is a reason Figueroa traveled the globe in search of place to pitch. I hope he keeps his dream alive but doesn’t end up on the Yankees to face the Mets in game 7 of the World Series.

The Mets have 10 days to trade the two pitchers or then offer them a minor league deal. If they refuse they can become free agents.