Gotta go to Mo for 500th save - and first career RBI!

How sweep it is!

The Yankees made history a few times last night. Not only did Mariano Rivera get his 500th save (and his first-ever RBI!), but the Yanks' sweep of the Mets is the first-ever one in Citi Field.

Here was another historical moment last night - Squawker Jon and I actually agreed on something baseball-related!

As soon as Francisco Rodriguez started to intentionally walk Derek Jeter in the ninth inning to load the bases, Jon said it was a bad idea. I agreed - it made no sense, especially given that third base, not first, was the open base.

I also said to Jon that all it would take to add another run was for Rodriguez to end up walking Mariano Rivera. And that's exactly what happened, of course! How funny.

The game was also the first time Chien-Ming Wang won a game in over a year. Everybody, Wang won last night (everybody, Wang won last night!)

Anyhow, after that three-run first inning for the Yanks (which Daniel Murphy helped with his shoddy defense), I expected the game to be a blowout. But Livan Hernandez was surprisingly effective for the rest of the game, giving up only one hit.

While it's not like the Mets are a Murderer's Row right now, Wang still only gave up two runs.

And David Wright didn't get a hit the entire weekend. What's up with that?

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A few other observations from the game:

We got to the game early enough to brave the Shake Shack lines. But even 90 minutes before the game, the wait was still a good 15 minutes long!

Later on in the game, we shared fries from Box Frites. They were good, although I thought the Shake Shack fries were a bit better. And the Box Frites sauces were not very good. We've tried three sauces this season with those fries - the bacon, chipotle, and pepperoncini ones, and found all of them mediocre.

While I didn't bring a broom, another Yankee fan did. But it was confiscated - to the cheers of Mets fans - when he waved the broom around in the ninth inning.

Squawker reader Jennie stopped by our seats to say hello before the game. It was very cool to meet her.

Not much back-and-forth chanting at this game until the ninth inning. It would have been a run-of-the-mill game, until one closer walked another closer to walk in a run. How often does that happen!

I'm wondering where this game ranks for worst Met loss of the year. And to think that Jon and I were at three of the six Subway Series games, and the Yanks won all three. Whoo-hoo!

What did you think of last night's game? Leave us a comment!

Thriller! Brian Bruney uses hyperbaric chamber

Update: Obviously, I wrote this story before the untimely death of Michael Jackson. Bad luck and bad timing on my part. Best wishes to the Jackson family.

I don't know quite what to make of this story. The New York Post's George King reports that Brian Bruney is using a portable hyperbaric chamber on his elbow.

"I was in it for 1 to 1½ hours today," Bruney said yesterday. "I thought it helped my foot last year."

A hyperbaric chamber? I know it's a real tool in medicine these days (the oxygen helps healing) but what popped into my mind when hearing about Bruney in the hyperbaric chamber was Michael Jackson. Remember how Wacko Jacko got photographed in one of those devices? What's next - is Bruney going to buy up the Elephant Man's bones, too?

Anyhow, Squawker readers gave me grief last week for coming up with only one John Lennon pun for Nationals' pitcher John Lannan. So I wanna be startin' somethin' here about Bruney, no matter how off the wall it sounds!

Is Bruney going to challenge Francisco Rodriguez to a dance-off this wekend? Maybe the pitcher can use a Jackson song as his theme music. How about "Beat It"? Or "I'll Be There"? Let's hope Bruney's just not "Bad"!

What do you think? Leave us a comment!

My thoughts on the Francisco Rodriguez-Brian Bruney feud

There was a whole to-do this morning, with a pre-game confrontation between Francisco Rodriguez and Brian Bruney. The Mets' closer had to be restrained by teammates from going after the Yankees' reliever.

Here's the thing - until he looked like he was going to shove Bruney, I actually think Rodriguez was in the right. While I'm as sick of Rodriguez's "tired act" as Bruney is - the Mets' closer makes Joba Chamberlain look like a wallflower - I think Bruney should be concentrating on getting back on the Yankees, and not making unprovoked verbal attacks on Met players. And this quote was a bit much. Bruney said the following after Francisco (I'm still refusing to call him K-Rod) got the loss:

"[It] couldn't have happened to a better guy on the mound, either," Bruney said. "He's got a tired act. ... He gets what he deserves, man. I just don't like watching the guy pitch. I think it's embarrassing."

Rodriguez responded twice yesterday. First, he said this before the game:

"He needs to keep his mouth shut and do his job,” Rodriguez said. “If he was a big guy, I’d probably pay attention. If he was somebody big like Mariano, I’d respect that. But if I don’t know who he is, I just don’t listen.”

After Saturday's game, the Met closer, whose celebration - for once - was relatively subdued after the Mets' win, threw this high hard one at Bruney:

“Instead of sending a message through the paper, next time when he sees me at Citi Field come up to me and say it to my face. Don’t be sending a message through the media. I don’t even know who that guy is. Somewhere in Double-A? I believe he hasn’t even pitched one full season. He’s always been on the DL. That’s all I know right now.”

Even though he's my least favorite Met, I gotta give Rodriguez credit here. Both quotes are classic. He was able to make Bruney look dopey just with these rejoinders. And unlike Brad Penny's slam on Joe Girardi, Rodriguez didn't need to use profanity to get his point across.

Francisco should have left the situation at that. But instead, when Bruney went to talk to him today, as per his own challenget, Rodriguez got heated and had to be restrained.

Bruney may be a nobody, but Rodriguez losing his cool like that doesn't make him look good. The Met closer wasn't a good closer when it comes to this feud.

At any rate, this is one of the sillier contretemps of the year. But nonetheless, it is entertaining!

Whose side are you on - Brian Bruney or Francisco Rodriguez? Tell us about it!

From Soup to Putz

Squawker Lisa, I see you've named the new Yankee pitchers Alphabet Soup because they are CC and A.J. But the Mets also introduced a new pitcher Thursday, J.J. Putz., so you can't have Alphabet Soup all to yourself. Instead, how about these soup-related nicknames for your new pitchers: Chicken Soup for the always-ailing Burnett and Souper-Size for Sabathia.

And here's a nickname for Yankee fans after they shell out for tickets to the new Yankee Stadium: Soup Kitchen.

I also had some suggestions for numbers for the new Yanks, if only these numbers were not retired. Sabathia could have worn 3 for the number of years after which he can opt out of his contract. Also, his body type is similar to the Babe's. Burnett could have worn 10, for the number of times he has been on the disabled list.

And Lisa, I'm just fine with calling Francisco Rodriguez K-Rod instead of F-Rod. After all, Dwight Gooden wasn't called Dr. G. (That would have sounded like a weatherman or a dermatologist in subway ads.)

As for Sabathia saying he got chills when telling his real estate agent that he is a Yankee, I suspect it was really the other way around!

Only the Yankees could take the two biggest signings of the free-agent season in terms of contract size and combine them into one news conference. What, they didn't want to spring for a second carving board? Even the Mets had two separate welcomes for K-Rod and Putz.

If Putz sticks with number 40 (there was a report that he might try to get 20 from Howard Johnson), that number could have a couple of meanings. 40 is the number of saves Putz had in 2007, the year he made the All-Star team. And 40 is the number of games the Mariners were under .500 in 2008, when they went 61-101, and why I believe him when he says he's happy to be a setup man for a contender.

Finally, Lisa, thanks for ruining my night by letting me know that mlb.com's "Moment of the Year" was Derek Jeter's speech after the last game played at the old Yankee Stadium.

Look, even I think it was a special day, but did the 2008 Yankees really need to take a victory lap around the Stadium? After all, it was the last game only because they were missing the playoffs after 13 straight appearances.

I suppose we shouldn't take this list all that seriously, considering that second place went to something that happened in the Home Run Derby. But as long as the voters don't seem interested in things that actually happened during a game, goodness gracious, where's Roger Clemens testifying before Congress?

Francisco Rodriguez meets the press

The news conference introducing Francisco Rodriguez was held in a Citigroup building in Long Island City and started 20 minutes late. Citibank's computers were down this morning, meaning many customers could not retrieve account information. I just hope the delay didn't involve K-Rod standing in front of a Citibank ATM blinking "File not found" while Omar Minaya was trying to assure him that the stadium-naming deal was still going through and his contract was safe.

K-Rod handled the questions well, especially the one about whether he was disappointed that he did not get as much money as he had hoped for. But when he put on the number 75, I couldn't help but wonder if it would constantly remind him of the five-year, $75 million contract his agent had initially proposed.

Then again, when I see a free-agent pitcher put on number 75, I can't help but think of Barry Zito.

When Jerry Manuel helped K-Rod on with his jersey, he joked that 75 would be the number of saves he would get. I would take 75 over two years. Just keep that blown save number low.

My only complaint about the news conference came when Omar Minaya, in his introduction, said, "One thing we lacked last year was being able to close out the game."

I'm no huge Billy Wagner fan, but during the 2/3 of a season that Wagner played last year, the Mets did have one of the better closers in baseball. The problem was more in getting to Wagner.

Had Wagner stayed healthy last year, the Mets would have likely gotten to the postseason, but the rest of the bullpen and Wagner's struggles in big games would have doomed them in the playoffs.

Were Wagner healthy today, the Mets would not have signed K-Rod, though I hope they would have still made the J.J. Putz trade, giving them both a setup man and heir apparent closer. And if Wagner struggled or got hurt, Putz might have gotten the job sooner.

With Wagner out all of next year, this is all moot - these were moves the Mets had to make. But Wagner deserves acknowledgement that, when healthy, he was pretty good and sometimes great.

Still, I'm glad Wagner wasn't at the news conference, pretending to be happy to pass the torch to K-Rod. No need for a scene similar to when Derek Jeter was helping A-Rod on with his jersey, pretending to be pleased that A-Rod was joining the Yankees.

But I am certainly pleased that K-Rod is joining the Mets!

Will K-Rod live up to expectations? Tell us what you think.

Strategies of Omar Minaya and Brian Cashman

Jon Heyman of CNNSI and SNY is reporting that the Mets are going to get their man - Francisco Rodriguez - the only free-agent closer worth signing to a substantial multiyear deal. This is great news!

Some argue that Kerry Wood is a better pitcher, but he's so injury-prone he'd be lucky to last one year. Brian Fuentes lost his closer job only a year ago. And Trevor Hoffman is nearing the end of his career and is best suited as a setup man, if that.

The Mets didn't want to pay K-Rod the five years and $75 million he was seeking, and, fortunately for them, Omar Minaya read the market correctly and is now looking at a deal for half that amount over three years.

I'm so happy about getting K-Rod that I'm willing to forget for a short while that the Mets still have some other major issues to deal with. At least the top one is out of the way, and early enough in the winter meetings that maybe there will be more good news by the end of the week.

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If Brian Cashman were in the market for a closer, then judging by his strategy with CC Sabathia, he would have made a pre-emptive bid at K-Rod's original asking price as soon as the free-agent market opened. And Cashman, who has not had a long-term pitching contract work out since Mike Mussina, would have been on the hook for such a contract at double the price he could have paid a few weeks later.

Cashman has one strategy: We're the Yankees and we can pay more than anyone. But, unlike Minaya, Cashman seems unable to adapt to changing conditions. The pre-emptive bid for Sabathia should have had two purposes. The main one of course is to win his services. But the second one should have been to gauge Sabathia's interest in being a Yankee.

This is a player who supposedly would rather play somewhere besides New York. Now that the offer has been on the table for over three weeks with barely a mention of any other team, can there be any doubt that Sabathia would prefer an alternative to the Bronx?

The Mets are fortunate that K-Rod wants to be a Met, and at their price. But Cashman might not be so fortunate with Sabathia. He needs to have a Plan B.

When the Yankees lost out on Daisuke Matsuzaka, Cashman responded by paying $46 million (including posting fee) for Kei Igawa. Will Cashman have a better Plan B this time?

Mets' bullpen needs New Deal

An article in Sunday's Times argues that the Mets should not go after Francisco Rodriguez because he only ranked fourth in the AL this year among closers in a new stat, W.P.A. Also, a drop in K-Rod's velocity means increased injury risk, especially considering what happened to Billy Wagner this year.

The article makes some good points, and there are valid reasons for being wary of giving K-Rod a five-year deal. But I am tired of reading arguments that must come up with new stats with names that sound like they'd be more at home in FDR's New Deal while ignoring the basic facts about K-Rod:

• He has saved more than forty games four years in a row.
• He helped pitch the Angels to a World Series title in 2002.
• Even in a year in which, aside from saves, his statistics were supposedly off, K-Rod still had an ERA of 2.24 and a batting average against of .216. Even with his reduced strikeout rate, he still fanned 77 in 68 1/3 innings.
• He is only 26 years old.
• Oh, and by the way, he set the all-time saves record in 2008 with 62.

My favorite passage from the Times article ends up making a more telling point about the Mets' needs:

Even a healthy closer can have only so much impact on a team. If a team's top reliever is hurt, the manager can promote the club's set-up man - also a well-above average pitcher - to closer, ensuring that he will still have a strong hurler working the ninth.

It is clear that this writer did not see any Mets games in 2008. But as far as making a point that a good setup man is just as important as a good closer, he is on to something there.

If the Mets do sign K-Rod and call it a day with the bullpen, you can bet he won't be getting 62 saves again, because the Mets' bridge to a closer is currently more like a bridge to nowhere.

Another bit of "conventional wisdom" I'd like to see retired is the notion that the problem with the Mets' bullpen in '08 was that once Wagner got hurt, the other relievers were all moved into unsuitable roles.

Let's face it - for some of these guys, the unsuitable role was being on a big-league roster. And even when Wagner was healthy, nobody was laying claim to the setup role.

So the Mets need not just a closer, but a good setup man. Ideally, he would be someone with closing experience, but I'll be happy if the Mets get one closer, much less two, especially since they are already paying Wagner's salary next year. So instead of one solid high-priced setup man, how about two lower-priced good possibilities for the role? (Players like, alas, Matt Lindstrom and Heath Bell).

The Mets bullpen needs a new deal, and what better place to go for that new deal than Las Vegas?