Todays Game....3/9

Today we welcome the Houston Astros to tradition field on a very special day, Guy Conti's birthday! John Maine will start for the Metropolitans as for the 'Stros Jack Cassel, The lineup is as follows....

METS

1. Jose Reyes SS
2. Endy Chavez
3. David Wright
4. Ryan Church
5. Oledo Saenz DH
6. Angel Pagan LF
7. Jose Valentin 1B
8. Ramon Castro C
9. Anderson Hernandez 2B

ASTROS

1. Erstad – 1B
2. Manzella - SS
3. Pence - RF
4. Wigginton - 3B
5. Newhan - 2B
6. Abercrombie – LF
7. Gorneault - CF
8. House - DH
9. Quintero –C

Should be a good one for a couple of reasons, the young Hunter Pence is playing today and is very exciting to watch. He’s a weird looking dude, lanky and tall, but somehow someway, the man can play great baseball. A former Met and an Ads favorite Ty Wigginton is also in the lineup for the Stro's. As for the Metropolitans, Jose Valentin is back in the lineup, nice to see him be able to play some first base in lieu of Delgado.

Since I am writing this after the opening pitch, I have a few game notes. Jose Reyes was nice enough to start the game with a lead off HR, beautiful swing; he just drove the ball right over the right field wall. David Wright got things off to the Wright start too, hehe with an arguable triple, could be an error, but never the less strong drive to deep center field. Later in the second there was what I like to call a "scrub rally," where the lesser known players were Angel pagan was able to get a double out of a single and eventually able to score. Exciting stuff.

Also, Kevin Burkhardt is announcing the game which is kind of fun. A change of pace I guess, but he’s still needs to work on a few of his mechanics, I guess this is his spring training too. He did have a good quote though, "If John Maine can keep his stuff low in the zone, he’s gonna be a beast." This is very true. John Maine is most defiantly a force to be reckoned with. Especially if he puts up the same first half numbers as last year. Like Burkhardt said, get low Maine, get low....