In the first inning of last night's game against the Nationals, the Mets got a few things out of the way. Brian Bannister, making his first major league start, picked up his first career strikeout against Jose Vidro. He would not, however, get his first win as Billy Wagner had his first blown save of the season. It was also the first time Gothamist has watched a game on SportsNet New York - SNY and DirecTV finally reached an agreement on Tuesday. As an aside, it would have been our first game at Shea, but our lousy friends were frightened by "gross" weather.
Xavier Nady continued his hot hitting, by hitting his first home run of the season in the 2nd inning (though he did also pick up his first out of the season). Nady has already done something fellow outfielder Carlos Beltran was unable to do - win the hearts of Mets fans. Carlos Delgado also added his first homer as a Met in the 3rd inning. Everything went well for Bannister until the 6th inning, when he allowed 3 runs, but he had a solid outing nonetheless. In the 9th inning off of Billy Wagner, Washington's Ryan Zimmerman had his first home run of his major league career, knotting the game at 4. The game completely fell apart for the Mets in the 10th inning when Jorge "Don't Call Me Armando" Julio came into the game. Julio promptly gave up 5 runs (2 earned) in his debut with the Mets. The Mets went on to get their first loss of the season, 9-5.
And has anyone else noticed the newfangled batting helmets the Mets are sporting? They're two-toned, contoured, and with vents. It appears that they are a new product from Rawlings, with vents, and a whole bunch of other relatively fancy items. We're told that the helmets are on select teams this season. From what we saw, the Nationals didn't seem to have the new helmets. For Alfonso Soriano, the old helmet worked well enough in the 2nd inning when he was clocked in the ear flap.
Finally, a note to SNY - lets try not to talk no-hitter in the top of the 6th inning okay? We'll try not to jinx your coverage with stuff like "wow, they haven't gone off the air yet with technical difficulties."
