NY fans owe us a little something

After taking 2 games from Boston, the Yanks fans owe us something. Coming into the series, Boston was the hottest team in baseball, while the M's had lost seven straight. Taking two of four games might be the M's most impressive series all year.

I'm sure plenty of people are wondering how Ichiro will perform now that he is facing better pitching. No question he cooled off a bit with Boston, but we'll have to see if the trend holds. He still should break the record, and I'm not going to bet against him.

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I really hope the M's limit Meche's pitch count for the rest of the season. While it was nice to see Meche finish the game against Boston yesterday, in the big picture did it matter if we won the game?

First off, Meche showed a noticeable decline in performance last year as the season progressed. This year, while he may not have been on the club all year, he still logged innings in AAA. Running a pitcher out there and having him throw 130 pitches in a game is just asking for trouble.

Let's say you yank Meche and have a reliever finish the game. Meche still has his confidence, knowing his line was 8 scoreless innings. Meanwhile, he will save some strength for his next start. This is what happened with Bobby last week. So what if the shutout was lost in the 9th- he still had his 8 scoreless innings to build on.

Second, if Putz is going to be a guy making the roster next year, let's see how he does in a pressure situation in the 9th.

I see no point in runnng out any of our pitchers for late-innings in meaningless games. Let's keep the pitch counts down, and make sure Meche goes into this off season with a reasonably fresh arm and some confidence.

It will be interesting to see how Meche throws on Friday.

Meanwhile, I can't wait for the playoffs to start. If everything holds, NY against Minnesota while Boston takes on Oakland.

Should be great.