Expos 5, Ty Wigginton 4

Okay, that's not entirely accurate. It's just how it felt from what I heard and saw of the game. I missed exactly half of the game, the first four and a half innings, as I was at the Ring Of Honor show in Philadelphia until about 8:45. A review of the show will of course be forthcoming in the next few days so I will just say now that the American Dragon is the Lord and Master of the professional wrestling and Paul London is his quickly-learning apprentice.

Anyway, baseball. It really is nice to be able to get WFAN all the way down in Philadelphia. Young Ty Wigginton went 2 for 5, raising his team-leading average to .353 and scoring one run, apparently on a collision at the plate. He also got two runs home that he won't get credit for, as they scored on a ball he hit sharply to first which Jeff Liefer couldn't handle, which was scored an error. I'm rather disappointed I didn't get to see the start of a game in which Timo Perez started in centerfield, but even without me watching, he went 2 for 4, while Roger Cedeno went 0 for 2 after coming in as a pinch hitter, including popping out with two men on to end the game. Unfortunately, Timo got hit on the hand with a pitch and didn't even get first base because it was ruled that he swung at the pitch for the third strike. I didn't see this one as I was still in my car, but the radio announcers, Gary Cohen and Ted Robinson, were claiming that it was getting hit in the hand that caused him to go around, and thus it was a bad call. He stayed in the game in the bottom of the inning, but was later pinch hit for by Jay Bell. Cliff Floyd also left the game early due to a strained achilles tendon. Hopefully both of these guys are all right. One of the silver linings of the game was that both Floyd and Roberto Alomar went 2 for 3 with a walk. Alomar also scored the 1,417th run of his career, breaking the late, great Roberto Clemente's record for Puerto Rican-born major leaguers.

The Mets' defensive woes continued, as both Mo Vaughn and starting pitcher Jae Seo got errors for throwing balls to bases that no one was covering.

Tomorrow, Al Leiter shows his face in the daylight to go up against Zach Day and the Expos. Hopefully Leiter can improve upon his sun lit performance from a year ago. And hopefully he'll have Timo Perez backing him up in center field, because if Timo is healthy, after his and Cedeno's performances in tonight's game, there's no reason to start anyone else.  ¶ joe | 11:44 PM |