All Good Things...

...come to an end. And so, the Mets froze the Yanks' winning streak at nine, beating Roger Clemens 2-0. Kudos have to go out to the Mets, Omar Minaya, (who grabbed up Oliver Perez after a couple of disappointing years in Pittsburgh) and Rick Peterson (who's worked with Perez, and restored him to being a very dangerous person). The Yanks couldn't get any traction against Perez all night, and Billy Wagner closed up shop in the ninth. The damage on offense was done by Jose Reyes, who seems to step up his game against the Yankees, eager to prove that he's the best shortstop in town. This time out he was 3-3, with a walk, a homer, three stolen bases, and both the game's RBI. That's a message, in any language.

Clemens wasn't bad. He pitched 6 1/3, had 8 Ks against one walk and seven hits--only Reyes's homer went for extra bases. The Rocket had huge trouble holding runners on base, and the Yanks played a little sloppy--particularly a play in the fourth when Miguel Cairo ripped a long fly ball to left field which was caught just shy of the wall by Mets rookie Carlos Gomez. Hideki Matsui, who'd been on second base, was caught too far off the bag when Gomez made his play, and was doubled off, ending the inning.

As the saying goes, the end of each winning streak is followed by the chance to start a new one. That's tomorrow, guys, Clippard vs. Glavine.

***

We had a meeting of baseball Methuselahs when Roger Clemens (44) faced Julio Franco (48). Rocket got the best of his elder in three plate appearances--fly to the warning track, strikeout looking, groundout.

The Diamondbacks were so distraught after getting swept by the Yanks, that one of them left the team's scouting report on Yankee hitters behind. I guess they figured fat lot of good it did them, with the Bombers getting 18 runs in the three-game series.

Kei Igawa has actually put together a string of good starts at Scranton, which means Tyler Clippard could be pitching for his job tomorrow against the Mets. The plot thickens.