Castillo had the Mets game-winner                                             but Sheffield made it all possible   Photo by Jim McIsaac-Getty                                            Photo by Jim McIsaac-Getty

Joba Chamberlain is a better pitcher than he showed yesterday. He would have to be, wouln’t he? I hadn’t seen such tentativeness since Aaron Heilman. Did he throw any fastballs? It surely didn’t seem so.

The Yankees, my Dad says, are not a good team. He just doesn’t think they’re that good. Well, I guess I’d have to agree, given this little information. If they keep babying Joba and making him neurotic, it would appear, their chances are all that much slimmer.

Maybe it’s Jorge Posada that doesn’t agree with him. Posada had missed a lot of the Joba action last year. There were surely a lot of calls for breaking balls. And if a catcher can’t call a good game, it doesn’t really matter that he hits a little bit. One thing is for sure. If Joba has another game like this last one, I’m going to hide my Joba tee shirt. He looked that bad.

But the rest of the Yanks don’t really look that bad. I really don’t like Cano but he sure has been knocking the cover off the ball. Jeter looks really good too. Teixeira is starting to hold his own. Damon hasn’t been bad. Matsui has looked a bit off. Anyway, I’m not sure I agree with Dad on this one. The Yanks look pretty good to me, if the relievers hold up at all.

The Mets, what can you say? They did just enough to win last night, thanks largely to Sheffield, whose 500th tied the game late. It was a big big home run. And then Luis Castillo wins it for them with a slap to the left side, to deep short to score Delgado with the game-winner.

In one fell swoop, Omar looks like a genius. There have been no bigger targets of derision for Minaya than his acquisition of Sheffield and his retention of Castillo, or, better put, his failure to pick up another second baseman. Well, Castillo is hitting .387 and has fielded the position pretty well so far, better at least than Murphy has fielded his. And Sheffield showed what he can do at the plate. Big time.

Sheffield is now just 1 for 5 but that big knock should count for 3 or 4 hits. What a shot! And what a shot in the arm for our local heroes. I know Livan Hernandez was happy. He was off the hook after pitching really well and making one big mistake. Well, everybody was happy. I know I was happy.

So the Mets are even again at 5 and 5. They’ve lost three one-run games so far though. They haven’t been hitting in the clutch and were lucky to win last night, lucky that two old guys both came through when the game was on the line. If not for those two fellows, there would have been still one more one-run loss.

The Mets starters just haven’t been good enough. Livan has been pretty good despite his giving up that big homer last night. And Santana has been himself, which is to say….great. Then there’s Perez, who’s been himself also, which is to say….crazy. Maine and Pelfrey haven’t looked good at all, but not overwhelmingly bad either. And now Pelfrey’s a bit knicked up. Maybe it’ll help.

That relief pitching sure looks good though. Green, Putz and K-Rod. Jeez. It’s really kind of refreshing. If the starters pick it up even a little bit, I think the Mets will be in good shape. They can live with average performances from the bottom of the lineup, which in recent days had seemed like a long,long, long, bottom, starting with Church.

But last night they weren’t bad. Church managed to walk twice, Castro and Castillo each got a couple of hits and Luis had the game-winner. If they can pick it up a little on a more consistent basis, anything’s possible.

But we probably shouldn’t count on that core being so strong all the time either. Delgado’s been amazing, Beltran too but not last night, and Murphy’s been better than expected. Reyes is always a threat when he doesn’t over-slide the bags. (I pick on Jose because he deserves it sometimes).

So even with sketchy starting pitching, the Mets should be tough. They should be better than a .500 team as they are now. They have two more to play at home with the Brewers before taking on the Cards for three more in St. Louis. Those five games will help me guage just how good or bad they are as a team.

Time to wrap this up now. Santana just struck out Fielder and Reyes stole second. It looks like a good Mets start today, and if Castillo and Sheffield, who are both starting today, can continue to help out a little bit, it should be the beginning of a nice winning streak.

And Omar will continue looking good.
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