Have Mercy

Tonight’s game reminded me of some of my worst games in grade school, playing catcher for the now-defunct St. Christopher’s softball team.  Picture summer in St. Louis and me in my catcher’s gear, sweating profusely, losing the drive to emulate Darrell Porter, and fantasizing about a post-game Mello Yello. Now picture a pitcher on the mound who cannot get the ball over the plate, walking in runs, throwing wild so I’m forced to keep getting up and retrieve the wild pitches.  These were times when I prayed for the mercy rule to be invoked against my own team, and sometimes my prayer was answered.  That Mello Yello sure hit the spot. 

Unfortunately, there’s no mercy rule in the big leagues, so I had to turn the game off tonight after Flores gave up 2 runs and Thompson gave up a 3-run homer.  It was too painful to watch all of Hancock’s bullpen mates get shelled.  The team looks listless, broken, haunted. 

I don’t expect things to get better tomorow with the Capuano/Reyes match-up.  It would be nice to lose by less than 10 runs, but I don’t expect the Brewers to be merciful.  They are clearly the class of our division right now. I do believe we can contend with them, but not this week.