Dare I say we are probably the only pro-KazMat blog on earth that is not published in the Japanese language. Let me make one thing perfectly clear - without Kaz Matsui, the Mets would have lost this game. He singlehandedly kept us in the game with his inside-the-parker in a game where Peavy otherwise stifled our offense, and then amazingly turned the pivotal (rim-shot) double-play that stopped the bleeding and ignited the Mets offense.

I am furthermore led to believe that Julio Franco has built-in brotherhood with Kaz Matsui, due to his years in Japan, and when Kaz failed to even advance the runner, Julio stepped beyond his years to power one outside of Petco park.

I really don't think this is anomaly, and I know that Kaz has this type of play inside him and can execute it on a daily basis.

I'm not giving Kaz all the credit - Trachsel pitched a GREAT game and once the offense woke up, it WOKE UP. I'll I'm asking is that we embrace the poor bastard, absolve him, and move forward. The team seems to have, shouldn't we follow their lead?

Rafael Santana and Rey Ordonez be damned, I'm going to venture to say that a run saved in the field is just not equivalent to a run scored at bat. While you might save a potential baserunner by A Hern's defense, that may never show on the scoreboard and may not have the same impact as a a 3-hit, 1 run game going to 4-hit, 2 runs. That said, I'd rather have a .255 Matsui than a .200 A-Hern and that's just it.

Anderson H. has blown us away with his defensive range, but who remembers actually waiting for the kid to get his first MLB hit? And then again this season? Keith and others like to say that with this offense, we could afford to carry an A-Hern - well, if anything was proven the past 2 game, it was that this is emphatically wrong.

Now, the real question is, does our 25-man roster have room for a spot bunting specialist?