The Freak ain't Wright

Tonight (Friday night) I made the annoying trek up to San Francisco (made annoying by the frustratingly poor mass transit) because my Mets are in town to take on the Giants. What made this even better is "The Freak" Tim Lincecum was pitching, and it was one of my goals was to be able to see him live.

Quick explanation on why he's the freak - if we stood next to each other Tim and I are the same size, he just has longer hair (as Steve pointed out). Give us each a baseball and ask us to throw it as hard as we can - I'll wind up and hit high 60s maybe low 70s on the radar gun. Lincecum will herk and jerk and go into a crazy motion and then blaze it in there at 98mph. Then he throws a nasty curveball that basically mimics Willie E. Coyote chasing the roadrunner off a cliff , one second he's at eye level then realizes there's no ground below him and just drops.

So back to the game. Lincecum gets in some 1st inning trouble and gives up a run, however he's bailed out by Carlos Beltran getting thrown out at 3rd on David Wright's RBI single. Bottom of the inning, the Giants get 4 runs off Livan and it looks like it's going to be smooth sailing for the Freak. Bottom 2 the Giants get a solo homer so now the Mets are down 5-1 and you figure the chances are done. I turned to my friends and suggested that the Mets strategy will be to up Linecum's pitch count and get to the Giants nameless/faceless bullpen. A couple hits here, a couple there, striking out on 6 pitches instead of 3 and by the 6th inning, Lincecum is over 80 pitches. In the 6th they touch him for 2 runs and it's 5-3. We all figured that the Freak was done with his spot in the order coming up, but the manager let him hit for himself and he drove in a run but got thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. We were still shocked that he left him in. Top 7, 2 walks and the Freak is gone. I love it when a plan comes together. I broke out the rally towel (compliments of Lauren Campbell), 3 runs in the innng thanks to David Wright and we're tied 6-6.

Take us to the 9th and closer Brian Wilson, who gave up 3 runs to the Mets the night before is in. Now Wilson is on one of my fantasy teams, and one of the ones that I actually care about, but at no point did I wish him success. Actually my eyes lit up when he was announced and I clutched the towel knowing that this guy had nothing. They kept showing clips of Wilson saving games and doing his patented arms crossed at the chest, index fingers pointing out. I then devised my mock. Wright got the rally going and after the Mets took a 7-6 lead I crossed my arms and turned my wrists so that my thumbs pointed down. I thought it was clever. Another run in and it's 8-6.... K-Rod time! To inspire or motivate the crowd they showed a "classic" Giants comeback on the jumbotron. One problem - the highlight was from August 10, 1987. That's my birthday, which makes me a direct link and grants me the ability to cancel out whatever mojo they were going for. Flyball, groundball, and one embarassing looking strikeout later - Mets win, good night, game over, get home safely.