The Daily Diatribe

OK...so last night's Ollie and Lincecum matchup wasn't the 1-0, dual no-hitters/unearned Run game. But it was damned good baseball. The issue of maturity comes up again, they both showed great strides and held their mistakes to a minimum. For Ollie, he pitched really well over 7 innings, limiting his mistakes to three solo home runs, and only 2 singles. If Ollie can hit his spot a little better on even 1 or 2 of those solo shots and make those a flyout, we're looking at a gem. The key was Oliver kept the baserunners at a minimum, walking 0, which is huge for Ollie as he has struggled with control over the last 2 years. He struck out 8, his slider was sharp once again and he had good velocity on his fastball getting a lot of swinging strikes. Once again, for Ollie to be successful, he has to get a lot of swinging strikes, strikeouts and infield flies to compensate for being a heavily flyball pitcher. He did that well on Tuesday and looks to have an impressive year for what's shaping as a juggernaut Mets team. If I was a gambling man (which I definitely consider myself) I would put money on the Mets to be the NL champion...As long as Jorge Sosa isn't needed for a playoff start, which means they need a healthy Pedro Martinez to round out. A rotation of Glavine, Perez, Maine, and Pedro could be really dominating come October. The outlook is not as good for the Giants. Although they own arguably the best rotation in the NL with Zito, Morris, Lincecum, Cain, and Lowry, they have struggled to score runs so far and will have trouble beating the pitching rich NL West if something doesn't change. They are in desperate need of another power bat to protect Barry (Ray Durham should be nobody's answer as a cleanup hitter, not even the Nationals). TLinc also pitched well with minimal mistakes. Lincecum spread 3 hits over 7 innings against a stout Mets lineup, hardly an easy task. He struck out 8 as well but walked 3. The major damage was in the 4th inning, when he walked Reyes to start the inning and then gave up a 2 run shot to Delgado. But other than that, he was unhittable save for a 1 run double in the 6th. Both pitchers combined for a lot of swinging strikes, looked dominant and limited their mistakes as flyball pitchers. I'm excited to see what these guys can do the rest of the year.