Meet the Mets, Beat the Mets

This, ladies and gentlemen, is how they imagined it. With the veteran Randy Wolf on the hill, the Dodgers fought back from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Mets, 5-3, and provide a template that, they hope, will carry them into September and October. It's just a regular season game and both teams are struggling, but a total team effort against one of the best teams in the league cannot be overlooked.

Keys to the Game

1) Randy Wolf: Wolf has been absolutely crucial to the Dodgers' relative success thus far. After giving up three runs in the first and struggling to locate his curveball early, Wolf managed to go six innings with only those three earned. Against a lineup like the Mets', some would excuse a rough outing, especially after giving up three in the first. But Wolf got stronger as the game went on, progressively throwing more strikes and getting the Mets to swing early in counts. Having played the game for as short a period as I did, I can't claim to have any expertise on the matter, but I would guess that Wolf's ability to regroup after starting so poorly must have some positive effect on the team's morale.

2) Juan Pierre: After using so much of this space to point out Pierre's struggles, I am ecstatic to classify his contributions on Monday night as encouraging to quite encouraging. His line -- 1-for-2 with two walks, a stolen base and a run scored -- is exactly what Ned Colletti hoped he would contribute when he offered five years and $44 million to the aging, powerless center fielder. Pierre took pitches, legged out an infield single, and "set the table" for RBI producers behind him. A player who has always struggled to get on base via the walk, it is unreasonable to assume he will change drastically at this point in his career. However, it is not unreasonable to assume that the prospect of batting eighth (like he was on Sunday against Toronto), or losing playing time altogether to Matt Kemp, may be enough to make him take a few pitches, which is something everyone can agree should help the team.

3) Bullpen: Chad Billingsley, Jonathan Broxton and Takashi Saito combined for three no-hit innings to close the game. The trio's value to the team out of the bullpen can not be understated. Billingsley has emerged as the force everyone said he would, and, assuming he can make a transition to the rotation at some point, this experiment of using him as a reliever for the time being has turned out to be a successful one.

Broxton and Saito had two strikeouts apiece and looked especially dominant as they returned to form as one of the top setup man-closer tandems in the league. Broxton's struggles as interim closer behind him, he pumped out high-90's fastball after high-90's fastaball and mixed in knee-buckling sliders to hold the lead for Saito.

Luis Gonzalez, James Loney, Russell Martin and Andre Ethier contributed to the win with great at-bats and an RBI each. Gonzalez led the way with two doubles and continued to set the tone of consistency for young Dodgers. The other three, with disciplined at-bats in which they took what the pitcher gave them, showed that they are ready to lead the team into contention with teams like the Mets.

Oh My Darling!

As a former employee of Sportsnet New York, I am biased because I had to listen to and read the moronic, east coast biased words of the network's sportscasters. But there was a moment last night that could have, and should have, made any viewer, Mets fan or not, uncomfortable. Ron Darling, who is very candid with his commentary and deserves credit for that, got a little too sentimental at one point in the broadcast.

During a Luis Gonzalez at-bat, Gary Cohen made a comment about Luis being the face of the Diamondbacks' organization for years before essentially being told he was not wanted anymore. Darling, in response, offered that he had been in that situation before. I instantly cringed at the thought that Darling might be referring to his relationship with the Mets.

For the rest of the at-bat, which seemed to last an eternity, Darling mixed in sentence fragments with dead air and sounded like he was either crying or fighting back tears. Cohen was silent, put in the most awakward of positions. Not only is he charged with the task of filling nine innings of air time with only a partner and some graphics, but his partner had just accused their employer of mistreatment and was whimpering like an injured puppy. Their criticism of L.A. as a city was annoying, but this was downright lame.