It's always the Marlins...

Last night was tough. I'm not sure which part was worse - watching Maine struggle through 5 innings, being down 6-1, or losing 7-6 in extra innings. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that games like last night's are going to be the norm for us this year. The Mets were lucky Maine only gave up 4 runs since he was essentially putting the ball on a tee for Jorge Cantu (aka the newest addition to my baseball shit list). Maine was frustrating to watch and labored through his 5 innings - I suppose the silver lining here is that he made it through 5 innings. Also in his defense, he only walked one batter while striking out three. Other things of note from yesterday:

• Mike Jacobs is now 1 for 8 with 4 strike outs in two games. Remind me again why he is getting more at bats than Jason Bay, who was signed to be a clean up hitter?
• Alex Cora is also 1 for 8 from the lead off spot. At least he has an RBI though, which is more than we can say for Jacobs.
• Fernando Tatis still thinks he is a rookie. If you're going to try to make it home on a passed ball with 2 outs, bases loaded, and David Wright at the plate.... you better be 150% sure you're going to be safe. Fernando was not.

Anyway, the great thing about baseball is that there is an immediate chance for redemption. I'm excited to see what Jon Niese brings to the mound tonight. I have more faith in him than I probably should, partially because he's young but mostly because he really is an unknown entity at this point. With John Maine, you know what you are going to get: 5 somewhat shaky innings, after which the team is hopefully in a position to win. I'd like to see Niese go 6 innings - this will most likely depend on his pitch count though because it's not only his first start this year, it's his first start after a season-ending injury in 2009. Maybe Mike Jacobs will even get an RBI tonight to help him out.