That certainly was a text book slide by Ryan Church. Kids, don’t try that at home.

Last night’s game got me thinking. Win or lose, I can’t wait till this season is over. I’m trying to recover from a very bad cold. These games are not helping me feel better.

However, unlike the night before, the Mets came through. After Rincon gave up the three run bomb on his first pitch, I felt that this weekend would be a very sad for the Mets. Overcoming a 6-3 deficit late in the game is not the Mets specialty. But they chipped away and managed to tie the score on a flurry of base hits in the eighth inning. And let’s not forget that the rally began after Carlos Delgado hit a rocket ground ball into a double play.

When Cancel hit the ball through on the right side, Church looked to be dead to rights at the plate. But Ryan managed to run around the catcher, dive, and get his hand down on the plate before he was tagged. I wonder how close the umpire was to calling Church out of the baseline. But to my surprise that was never argued.

Many may criticize Lou Piniella for not having any starters in the game except for Jim Edmonds. But Lou likely did not want to risk an injury to key players in such poor conditions. And if anyone noticed, a fellow by the name of Micah Hoffpauir went 5 for 5, and hit two home runs, and knocked in 5 runs. He almost single handedly put the Mets where they did not want to be when the night was finished. The Mets did manage to score three runs off of Rich Harden, one of the Cubs aces.

This was a great win in that it put some destiny back into the Mets hands. On a very rainy Friday morning, The Mets are tied with Milwaukee (who also won again) for the wild card. The Mets remain one full game behind the Phillies. If the Mets can win their remaining three games, the worst they will face is a one game playoff with the Brewers. If they could run the table it’s also possible their fate would be even better. Winning the last three will be the key.

The Mets will open the final series in Shea Stadium tonight weather permitting. History will show that the first series was played with the Pirates in April of 1964. The last one is against Florida and is certainly much more important.

While the Mets play the Marlins, the Phillies will host the Nationals in Citizen’s Bank Park. The Brewers will play their final home stand against the Cubs. Gee, I hope Lou put’s in his A lineup.

The weather is going to play havoc all weekend with the Mets and Phillies. Rain, heavy at times, with wind is predicted to fall all day and all night long. It does not look much better for tomorrow either. It could be possible the Mets and Phillies may either have to play a double header tomorrow or extend the season into Monday.  This should make for quite a mess.

There will be some sort of closing Shea ceremony before the game on Sunday. SNY plans to be on the air at 11:30AM.