In Saturday’s game, the Honolulu Sharks pounded Yankees 2007 first rounder Andrew Brackman for seven runs in 2.1 IP in the massive righty’s professional debut. C Jordan Abruzzo was 1-4 with an RBI and 2B Greg Veloz was 1-4 with a double. Josh Stinson gave up two unearned runs in three innings, fanning two without walking a batter for the win. Junior Guerra struck out four in two innings (good) but also gave up two runs on three hits (not so good) without giving up a walk (good). LHP sidewinder Roy Merritt fanned four more batters in his two frames.

1.  When the final out left Ryan Church’s bat in the bottom of the ninth, watching on TV,  I thought, with the fan side of my brain and hoped with my heart, that it had a chance to tie the game.

2. Carlos Delgado’s drive to left in the bottom of the eighth against Kevin Gregg was well struck, but like Church’s ball an inning later, 15 feet short.

Vs.

1.  Wes Helms off Scott Shoeneweis

2. Dan Uggla off Luis Ayala

With his 0-3 Saturday, Dan Murphy now has 130 MLB at-bats and thus has used up his rookie eligibility. Yup, no Rookie of the Year campaign in’09, and no place on top prospect lists this off-season. Odds of that mattering to Murphy on the final day of the regular season? Somewhere close to zero.

The Honolulu Sharks begin their season tonight. Here’s the scoreboard. Saturday, the Mets added RHP Scott Shaw to the roster.

Or brilliant. Or dominant. Or ace-like. Or Awesome. Ted Berg wrote a nice piece on Santana’s outing Saturday here at SNY.tv.

Apparently, in Jerry Manuel’s postgame press conference, Kevin Burkhardt asked the question every Mets partisan wished Manuel would answer in the affirmative, “Can Johan pitch tomorrow?”

Here we go 35 minutes late.

I love the Mets lineup Saturday.  Well played Mr. Manuel.

Santana on three days rest after 125 pitches hoping to make Oliver Perez on three days rest Sunday a big deal… And that’s a big deal to me. Would you rather have Niese/Knight (Sat) plus a fully rested Santana (Sun) or Santana and Perez both on three days rest?  Look, the Mets have to win both….

Micah Hoffpauir is one of the guys I root for, so with a Mets win safely tucked away, now I can pause and be happy for Micah. I worked for the Iowa Cubs in 2007, when Hoffpauir was one of the best hitters on the team. Through the first 82 games of the ’07 season, he had hit .319/.365/.552 with 24 doubles and 16 jacks. However, somewhere between second and third on July 2^nd in Albuquerque, Hoffpauir tore up his knee without contact with another player. It could not have come at a worse time. It denied him a nearly sure big league call up in the summer of 2007 and the payday which would follow. Instead, he was to be a six year minor league free agent after ’07 while recovering from major knee surgery. His wife was pregnant. So, he rebounded in 2008 to rake AAA pitching to a .362/.393/.752 tune in 2008 on his way to Cubs’ Minor League Player of the Year honors, and his well deserved big league debut. I was happy for him after his first homer, but after his second off Ricardo Rincon, I was pissed. My thoughts went something like “Ok, Micah, I know you can hit, but if the Mets miss the playoffs because of you, I can’t be so psyched for your first big league bombs.”