Brian Schneider -- who?

John Donavan, as baseball writer for Sports Illustrated, you should probably know who Brian Schneider is.

I understand he's not the best hitting catcher in the league, or even the best defensive guy. He's been tucked away in the Expos/Nationals organization for years, but as a baseball writer you should probably have some idea of this guy.

Guess not.

Stud of the Day

Brian Schneider -- who? -- belted a couple of solo home runs for the Mets on Thursday, which wasn't enough to get them back into first place in the NL East. But it did help them beat the Nationals and it did give them a little more breathing room in the battle for the NL wild card. It was Schneider's first multi-homer game since 2003. The Mets now have a 1 1/2-game wild-card cushion on the Brewers.

As I said last night, I don't expect power out of Schneider, so it's odd when he hits a home run. It's even more odd to see him belt two. But I'm not complaining.

Where the heck is Al Reyes? Redux

On Monday, I wrote:

Way back on August 20th, the Mets signed pitcher Al Reyes. He went to the minors to work back into shape before coming up in September to supposedly help the beleaguered bullpen.

Well, he's up, and he's yet to pitch.

And now he's gone.

The Mets released Reyes before he ever threw a pitch. Apparently, his performance at Double-A Binghamton before he was called up was sub-par, and the Mets decided not to roll the dice with their third Reyes.

It seems the Mets are happy using the same guys out of the bullpen, even if they are getting overworked a bit. Last night, with a five run lead in the bottom of the ninth, Scott Schoeneweis entered the game.

Why?

Where the heck is Bobby Parnell? In his one inning of work, he retired the side in order. Why not give him the ninth inning, with Schoeneweis up in the bullpen if anything goes wrong?

I love Jerry Manuel, but this is Willie Randolph-esque bullpen management. Give the kids a shot, especially with a big lead like they had last night.

Game Recap: Mets 7 -- Nationals 2

Broken helmet: 2-0.

Pitching Performance

Johan Santana as: The Ace. This guy is something special. Santana allowed eight hits over seven innings of baseball. He walked only two, and let up his only run in the seventh inning on a double by, you guessed it, Anderson Hernandez.

Santana matched the number of hits he gave up with the number of Nationals he struck out.

I'm so confident with him on the mound. Santana brought his season ERA down to 2.65. Two point six five! He should be in contention for the Cy Young if it wasn't for the sieve we call the Mets bullpen.

Joe Smith struggled a bit in the eighth, letting up three hits and one run. He also struck out two. Scott Schoeneweis and Pedro Feliciano combined to close it out. Schoe allowed two hits, but Feliciano was able to work out of trouble again.

No criticizing the bullpen tonight. Well done, guys.

Offensive Output

The bats are awake and unlikely sources are driving in runs.

Mets jumped on the board early, as usual, with a run in the first. Jose Reyes led off the game with a double, followed by a Daniel Murphy single to center. An error on Lastings Milledge allowed Murphy to trot to third. He was then stranded there.

After the first, I feared the Mets wouldn't score again. Thankfully, I was wrong.

In the second, Brian Schneider cracked his first home run of the night, a solo shot to right field. Santana helped his own cause, doubling to follow his battery mate's homer. Reyes proceeded to single him in.

These spurts of offense from Schneid are so unexpected. I'm more shocked then happy when he homers.

In the third, the Mets put runs on the board for the third consecutive inning. With two outs, Carlos Delgado walked. Carlos Beltran followed that up with a triple to right field, plating Delgado. Ryan Church then singled to drive in Beltran.

Keep on scoring, boys.

Four for four, as Schneider hit another solo shot.

Weird.

Five for five went the Mets, when Church singled home Delgado for the Mets seventh, and final run.

Good enough. I like what I'm seeing from these bats.

The Rest of the Story

David Wright: 0-5, K.

The Mets had six extra base hits. (3 2B, 3B, 2 HR.)

Game Ball: Johan Santana and Brian Schneider.

Out of seven relievers: Two were good, one was decent, and the rest just scraped by

If the Mets lost last night, it was going to be on the bullpen.

Good: Scott Schoeneweis and Pedro Feliciano.

Decent: Luis Ayala.

Barely got by: Ricardo Rincon, Brian Stokes, Joe Smith, Luis Ayala.

Stunk: Aaron Heilman.

Who do you trust, if anyone, in the bullpen? I'm with Jerry Manuel, who said he's going to leave Johan Santana in up to 170 pitches. Sounds good to me.

The Mets will make the playoffs because Damion Easley won't be on the team

Damion Easley has never played in a postseason game. If the Mets can manage to make the playoffs in 2008, it doesn't look like he'd be able to participate. The man is cursed.

Easley has played the most games in the league without playing in the postseason. My friend and colleague Andrew Beaton has a great post (two, actually) looking at Easley and his postseason-less run.

Easley may be out for a week, or even more with a tear in his hamstring. He suffered the injury legging out a double-play ball a few games ago, and hasn't made an appearance since.

What to do with second base? Well, it seems Luis Castillo has been delegated to the bench, so I guess he's not an option. Daniel Murphy has only seen limited time at second, and hasn't really impressed. That leaves the Mets with Argenis Reyes manning second for the stretch run and hopefully beyond.

Are you comfortable with A-Rey at second? He's a light hitter, like Castillo, but he doesn't look like he's in pain 99 percent of the time. He's quicker, and seems to have a good relationship with his fellow namesake Jose Reyes, as they can turn some pretty double plays.

The Mets will make the postseason in 2008, it's just too bad that Easley won't be able to participate. The curse continues.

Guest Post: Blame the Shave Zone

From The 'Ropolitans good friend, Mr. Ryan Punzalan...

I'm not sure if you noticed, but I have. Where is Giuseppe Franco? As much as that commercial is annoying, I think he's the one that has the winning magic for us. Not Jerry Manuel, not Mr. Met, not Ramon Castro.

It's Giuseppe Franco.

His "Procede" commercials clogged SNY for about 90 percent of the broadcast's commercial spot. His signature phrase, "I don't even know anything about it" was in our heads as we went along our daily routine.

Gary Busey's expression when he hugged Giuseppe and his crazy hair is still in our brains. But, the Mets were in good spirit and winning during those times, especially when it was played about every commercial break during Mets game.

Call it coincidence, but that tide has changed. A new commercial has appeared, and it's annoying as hell.

Enter, "Shave Zone."

The cheesy "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" tune in the background is really what makes me want to punch my TV. It was filmed in probably the late 90's to early 00's, but it feels like a low-budget 80's commercial.

There are two commercials, one featuring SNY's own Lee Mazzilli and some other sarcastic guy named Sean Garcia. His name is so common that when I try to Google "Sean Garcia MLB" I get something related to Freddy Garcia in a Tiger uniform.

Oh, and the line used in these commercials is something related to, "Hey tough guy, blah blah blah, you need to use Shave Zone."

They premiered this commercial probably at the end of August and slowly turned it into another Procede commercial, except it really is a bad commercial not because of it's repetition but rather because of it's quality. Now it's mid-September and I can't go without a Met game without whistling "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" or smiling while rubbing my chin.

The more times they played it, the worse the Mets looked. When they premiered it, I feel that the Mets haven't seen it enough for them to be affected by it. Now that they pretty much see it 24/7, it probably dug a permanent hole in their brains.

Sorry "Shave Zone." You're making our Mets play like a repeat of something we don't want to remember. This commercial is a cancer; it is hurting the team and it is hurting the fan base.

I thought I would never say this, but SNY, please put Giuseppe Franco and his steroidic (I made up this word) hair back on-air.

Game Recap: Mets 9 -- Nationals 7

Whewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

Pitching Performance

The bullpen must have given the poor guy a heart attack, but Brandon Knight earned his first major league win with five innings of baseball. Knight scattered six hits, walked four, and struck out five. He labored through a few innings, but allowed only two runs.

He looked good early, but struggled as he worked into the inning. Decent stuff. The bullpen wanted to hand this away, but thankfully the Mets scored enough runs to hold on.

From here, seven relievers struggled to get through the next four innings. Ricardo Rincon allowed a run on two hits and a walk. He got out of a jam thanks to a boneheaded play on the bases by the Nats.

Thank you, Nationals. Thank you.

Brian Stokes allowed a two-run home run to Elijah Dukes in his inning of work.

That ball was crushed. Crushed. Seems like the Stokes magic has run out too.

Aaron Heilman started the eighth inning, but was unable to get an out, as he allowed two hits before being removed. Scott Schoeneweis got the first two outs of the inning, striking out one. Joe Smith entered in a jam, and allowed a long fly ball to center field, but Carlos Beltran was able to track it down and escape the inning.

Aaron stinks. Simple as that.

Smith started the ninth, but allowed the first two runners to reach base, the first after a David Wright error. Pedro Feliciano came in and retired the first two batters, thanks to a nice play by Carlos Delgado and another by himself. Luis Ayala came on to get the final out of the game and seal the deal for the Mets.

These Mets are going to give me a heart attack. I swear.

Offensive Output

The bats woke up tonight.

The theme is back, as the Mets jumped on the board early. Jose Reyes led off the game with a solo home run to right field. A few batters later, Delgado homered deep to center field.

The beginning of a homer happy night for the Mets.

In the third inning, Reyes walked to lead off the inning. With Daniel Murphy batting, Reyes swiped second. Murphy cracked a ball to deep center, off the wall, and ended up with a triple, driving in Reyes. Delgado came to the plate and singled in Murphy. Beltran came up and connected for his first home run of the night, a two-run job, to deep right.

His swing is oh so sweet. I love it.

In the fourth, Reyes drove in Brian Schneider with a single to right field. After the Nationals tacked on runs and got way too close for comfort, Beltran put some distance between the two teams with his second homer of the night, a solo shot to left field.

It's about time the Mets scored some runs and won a game. Jeeeez!

The Rest of the Story

Wright is struggling with the bat and in the field. Somebody fix him.

I love Jerry Manuel.

My helmet is still broken.

Game Ball: Carlos Beltran.

The Wild Card doesn't seem like a good fit for the Mets

If the season ended today, the Mets would play the Chicago Cubs. Looking back to the beginning of the year, that wouldn't be a very good thing.

The Mets played the Cubbies twice, for one of those weird two game series on April 21 and 22nd.

Both of those games saw the Mets only score one run, losing 7-1 against Carlos Zambrano and 8-1 against Ted Lilly.

The way these two have been pitching, with Zambo throwing a no-hitter against the Astros last time out, and Lilly taking a no-hit bid into the seventh inning the next day, and the way the Mets offense has been hitting, I wouldn't be surprised if another no-hitter is in the stars.

The Mets have been making the Nationals starters look like Cy Young. John Lannan? One hit. Odalis Perez? Four hits. Shairon Martis? We'll see.

Chicago comes to Shea during the last week of the season, for a four game series September 22 - 25. It's the second to last regular season series at the old park, so hopefully the Mets can do something special.

If they can, they just might be able to get October baseball into the old park one more time.

So long, sweet lucky helmet

All thanks to Willie Harris and his ridiculous catch in the sixth inning.

Sixth inning, runners on first and second, two outs for David Wright at the plate. Crack! There goes a smoking line drive to deep left...

Back back back goes Willie Harris...he leaps...throws his glove up...and smack the ball lands in the glove and Harris lands on the ground. Wright slams his helmet down in frustration.

309 miles away, I echo Wright's emotions, slamming my helmet into the closest immovable object: the wall.

Oops.

I just stared at the helmet, nearly in two pieces, in my hand. There she was, the helmet I have worn for two years, thrown around for two crazy seasons, flung across the room on countless occasions, and she just couldn't hold it up anymore.

She's hurt, but I think she's salvageable.

My roommates are refusing to give me any duct tape to fix her up, but I will continue to wear her as the team struggles, falls out of the first place, and attempts to hang on to the wild card lead.

Maybe cracking it almost in half may be the best thing for the Mets. Maybe this will break some sort of curse that's been hanging over the Mets. Who knows?

Fernando Tatis out for the season

SNY is reporting that Fernando Tatis suffered a separated shoulder in the fifth inning of Tuesday night's game against the Nationals.

Due to the injury he will miss the remainder of the season.

He was plucked off the trash heap, and put up absolutely amazing numbers for the Mets. I would not mind seeing him back in the orange and blue next season to see is he can recreate the magic of 2008.

Thanks for this season, Fernando.

On a Mets level, are you really surprised? I mean, I keep asking what else can go wrong, and the Mets keep answering me. Nick Evans, Daniel Murphy and Endy Chavez, enjoy the remainder of the season in left field.