Behold, Chase Utley can play tonight! Never before has so much hubbub been made over a guy who hit all of .202 for the Dodgers this season.
Assuming Utley starts the game -- the 36-year-old infielder has been a part-timer with LA, but he has had some success against Mets Game 3 starter Matt Harvey, so it’s likely his name will be on the lineup card - -all eyes will be on him when he steps up to the plate for the first time.
Will Harvey bean Utley in retaliation for the hard “slide” (aka takedown) that took out Ruben Tejada on Saturday night? If it means getting tossed from the game, let’s hope not.
Whatever happens, Mets fans have to be excited about their team’s prospects, both for Monday's game and the series against the favored Dodgers.
Yes, New York let one get away the other night - -although you could say the umps had nearly as much to do with it as the Mets -- but still, the fact is that they left LA with the series tied after their starters, Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndegaard -- outdid two of the three best pitchers in the world in Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw.
Monday night at Citi Field, LA sends Brett Anderson to the mound. The lefty is incredibly average, as his 10-9 record and 3.69 ERA during the regular season attest.
After facing Kershaw and Greinke, the idea of taking on Anderson is surely about as daunting as playing slow-pitch softball in a senior citizens’ league.
U.S. & World
The question is, will Harvey deliver like his fellow Mets hurlers did in the first two games? Harvey, who seems to relish big moments in a career that has been pretty short of them to date because of injuries and his team’s relative ineptitude until this season, will have to do his best to keep the Utley sideshow from becoming too big a distraction.
In two starts vs. LA this season, Harvey looked more like Anderson than the Mets ace, going 1-and-1 while allowing 13 hits and 5 earned runs in 12 innings. The Mets may not need more from Harvey Monday given who they’re facing, but it sure would be nice if they got it, especially with the controversy surrounding Harvey in recent weeks. A star performance would quiet the critics, and, of course, almost certainly put the Amazins just one game away from advancing to the NLCS.
Will Utley get hit? I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t on my mind, along with just about every other New Yorker. But let’s hope it’s not on weighing too much on Harvey’s mind. He’s got a game to win.
