299

Last night I had the pleasure of being at Shea to watch the Mets offense perform exactly the way it is supposed to, see Aaron Heilman pitch two perfect innings (Just in time for the trade deadline no less) and watch Billy Wagner set aside the Pirates before "Enter Sandman" was finished echoing through the stadium. I can't say, however that it was such a pleasure to watch Tom Glavine take his final step before reaching the magic number, and I feel like I was definitely not the only one.

Obviously it was thoughts of his last start that brought about such feelings, where 299 was handed to him on a silver platter in the form of six runs in the first inning, and poor Tom couldn't go more than two-plus while giving every last run right back. To make matters worse, this was against the Dodgers who the Mets were looking to exact some revenge upon after being humiliated earlier in the season. I obviously wanted to see the Mets come back and win that game, but not just because it was the Dodgers or to prevent the Braves from gaining a game in the standings. I also wanted to see the Mets pull through just to stick it to Glavine.

Last night it felt like everyone was just waiting from Tom to implode, and it looked like we wouldn't have to wait very long after he loaded the bases in the first. To his credit he got out of the jam, and didn't let up any runs until the Pirates put up three in the fifth. All in all it was a good performance but it just didn't feel like one, or more to the point people didn't WANT it to feel like one. "Here we go again" was what the groans from the crowd sounded like to me with every hit, and certainly with the three runs surrendered. At the end of the game when 299 displayed on the scoreboard, the reaction wasn't even lukewarm, in fact there didn't seem to be any reaction.

Maybe fans still weren't over that last start against the Dodgers, or maybe some fans still can't look past the Braves pedigree. Either way, there was one fact that I took great comfort in last night, that Glavine's first crack at 300 will take place on the road.