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Mets lose to Brewers again, falling to a miserable 6-16 on the road. Good teams are not this bad on the road, so if you are harboring any October fantasies here, you can forget them unless this (among other things, frankly) changes. They have been pitching great recently, but didn't do it at all tonight, but at least we know that Fernando Nieve is not a regular member of their rotation.
Nieve was not good. He attributed part of it to excitement and "thinking too much" because it was his first start and part of it to falling behind. Jerry Manuel noted that he could not finish off either of the first two innings despite getting the first two batters out. Oliver Perez didn't do much in relief -- despite my prediction, cancel that order for Nostradamus T-shirts with my picture on them! -- and Manuel seemed say Perez had missed a chance to score some points with the brass. Oh, Ollie. What a disaster his season is.
As for Coffey's glove, here's what happened: Manuel noticed that it was close in color to the Negro League unis the Brewers were wearing and alerted umpires because he felt it could be deceptive. "It was too light, too close to the color of the uniforms," Manuel said. "I told them. I saw him warming up." The umps checked it out and apparently agreed, because Coffey had to swap out the cream-colored glove, which he's used all year, for one that was black. If it was gamesmanship on Manuel's part, it didn't work -- Coffey retired all seven hitters he faced and was the winning pitcher. "It is faded, kinda cream-colored now," Coffey said of the glove. "It was no big deal. I had the black one in my locker." Coffey usually does not have to worry about clashing with his uniforms, because the Brewers wear blue, gray or white.
Ike Davis discovered recently that he was not cocking his hips or bringing his hands to the right hitting position, so for six at-bats or so he "wasn't myself." That changed when he fixed things in batting practice and he hit his fifth homer. Until Davis' homer, the Brewers hadn't allowed one since May 19, a span of nine games.
Milwaukee's Corey Hart homered in three consecutive at-bats against the Mets, two tonight and his walk-off shot Friday night. It's the 15th time in franchise history it's happened and the first since Geoff Jenkins did it on May 21, 2003 against the Padres.
Tomorrow we have knuckleballer R.A. Dickey trying to salvage a game in a series pitting one of the worst road teams in baseball against the worst home team in baseball. Until then....
