Skid's 2014 Dream Season

APRIL 5th - GAME #5 vs Cincinnati Reds (1-3)
Opening day starter Dillon Gee (0-0) hooks up against Cincy's Johnny Cueto (0-1). Dillon has never beaten the Reds. In 82 career starts, Gee has gone at least 5.0 innings in 75 of them (91.5%), 43 of those 82 starts have been quality starts (52.4%). Thanks Mets game notes! Prior to today's game Eric Young, Jr. will be presented the Lou Brock Award for leading the National League in stolen bases last year with 46 swipes.

2-3

An exciting finish to an otherwise lackluster game. Curtis Granderson's first HR as a Met put Dillon Gee in line for a win with a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth. But we now have even more proof that Dillon Gee should not be allowed to pitch into the eighth inning. Terry Collins let him pitch to one batter too many. While pitching coach Dan Warthen was instructing Gee on where to serve up his late inning home run pitch I thought to myself "here is where the hit comes that snags the W from Gee." And it did. Surprisingly the bullpen did not make matters worse and with the help of winning a review challenge and Ruben Tejada's lack of bunting ball four in the bottom of the ninth, the stage was set for the weekend's back up first baseman to play hero. Parking Hoover's second pitch (a curveball) over the fence in right for a four run dinger, Ike Davis put to rest (for today) the struggles that have followed him during the last few years. Greeted by a mob of teammates at home plate after his walk-off blast, Ike downplayed the first base competition and his new role as bench player in the post game interview and endured a shaving cream pie in the face courtesy of Jon Neise.

I won't lie about being a huge Ike Davis fan ever since seeing him during spring training games in 2010. I am. I like Ike. It kills me to see him struggle at the plate game after game after game the last two years. While the first base "competition" seems to have been non-existent, what about the prospect of having two slugging first baseman that you can't keep out of the line up? Was I happy about Duda's two homers yesterday? Of course. But to win with a walk off Grand Slam and it be Ike doing the damage off the bench was pretty exciting. The season isn't even a week old and already Met fans have seen the lows and the highs that a baseball season can bring.