Second Season: Day 3

Jason Michael Barker

Be honest -- how many of you had heard of Timoniel Perez before last night? I certainly hadn't, so when I saw his name in the Mets' starting lineup Thursday night I immediately set about trying to find out about him.

No listing in Baseball Prospectus. What about the STATS Inc. Minor League Scouting Notebook? Nope, nothing there either. The Minor League Handbook, which features all players who appeared in the minors but had no major league time last season? No listing for Perez there either, and he didn't appear in the majors last season.

I finally tracked down his minor league numbers this season -- he hit .357/.392/.517 in 72 games for the Norfolk Tides, New York's AAA affiliate in the International League. He only walked 16 times in 291 at-bats, which doesn't inspire much confidence, but when you hit .357 you must be doing something right.

Despite playing in just 24 games for the Mets this season, all in a September call-up, Perez made the most of his start Thursday night, going three-for-five and driving in the first two runs of the game. In the ninth, he fouled off pitch after pitch from San Francisco reliever Felix Rodriguez before singling ahead of Edgardo Alfonzo's two-run homer which appeared to put the game away.

Back to Perez -- I still don't know where he came from or where he played last season, so if any of you out there (Mets fans or otherwise) would like to drop me a line, feel free.

And now back to the game, which was one of the best I've seen this season. Alfonzo's homer put the Mets up 4-1, and with Armando Benitez ready to pitch the ninth New York appeared to have the game well in hand. Notorious play-off choker (that's a joke, Giants fans, honest) Barry Bonds led off with a double, which was followed by Jeff Kent's infield single.

After Ellis Burks popped up on the first pitch, Dusty Baker called up on J.T. Snow, who turned in what had to have been one of the most dramatic moments for the Giants and their fans this season. I was watching at home and have no rooting interest in the series, and even I was pumped up when Snow hit the game-tying home run. Was anyone else reminded of Carlton Fisk when Snow pointed the ball fair as it sailed toward the right field corner?

I'm still not sure why Baker didn't go to Robb Nen in the top of the tenth, choosing instead to stick with a shaky Rodriguez after he'd given up the homer to Alfonzo the previous inning. When you're playing at home and the game goes to extra frames it doesn't make any sense to "save" your closer, since a save situation will never come up, but you probably knew that already.

Rodriguez gave up yet another run, forcing the Giants to come back one more time in the bottom of the tenth. And they almost did -- Armando Rios reached second with one out before making a baserunner blunder that found him thrown out at third.

I said earlier I didn't have a rooting interest in this series, but I really was pulling for Bonds as he stepped up with the tying run on first and a chance to win the ballgame, even if only so he could perhaps shed his anti-clutch label once and for all. It was a classic battle of two great players: Bonds, probably the best player of my generation, and John Franco, who has been around forever but is still a quality reliever.

Give Franco credit -- there was no way he was going to give Bonds a fastball to hit on 3-2, so he threw him his best breaking pitch instead. Whether or not you thought it was a strike, you have to admit that given the situation, it was certainly close enough that Bonds should have been swinging.

With the series tied 1-1 and heading back to New York, my only hope is that the rest of the post-season can be as entertaining as Thursday night's Giants-Mets tilt was.

Much to my surprise, I didn't receive any angry e-mail from Yankee fans after Wednesday night's victory over the A's. Earlier in the week, if you recall, I said we were witnessing a changing of the American League guard (move over Yankees, here come the A's) in this series and that the Yanks didn't have enough offense to win the series.

They still might not, but the exact players I picked on in my column -- Tino Martinez and Paul O'Neill -- came up big Wednesday night. New York also got a fabulous pitching performance from a very good left-handed starter in Andy Pettitte, which is exactly what you need to shut down the likes of Jason Giambi, Ben Grieve and Eric Chavez.

I think I'll keep my big mouth shut for the rest of this particular series, but I will say this -- I can't help but get excited about the prospect of a post-season that doesn't feature the Yankees or the Braves for the millionth time.

We made a pact in the Strikethree.com office not to say anything bad about the Yankees and Braves. However, it looks like Jason Michael Barker didn't get the memo. Neither did the A's and the Cardinals, we guess. Why not tell him that it's not polite to taunt at jmb@strikethree.com.

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