Those of us that were not part of the mass exodus at the stunning conclusion of the seventh inning last night were rewarded in some small part yesterday, if not given the pleasure of a Mets win.

Not a Good Night for the Tenor

Often, at the MET, if a singer is feeling “under the weather”, an official comes out onstage prior to the performance to announce that so-and-so “is suffering from a cold but has graciously decided to sing and asks for your understanding.”

Those of us sitting in the orchestra pit have heard these announcements more than just occasionally and often joke to each other that, in spite of not having any good reeds, we will each nonetheless perform.

No such disclaimers would ever occur in baseball, of course:  announcing to the opposition that your starting pitcher might not be having his best day would be tantamount to forfeiting the game.  However, when your starter is not consistently getting his regular velocity on his fast ball, it doesn’t take an announcement over the public address system for fans to notice.

And such was the case last night with John Maine’s first outing of the season on “Opening Night 2010” at Citi Field.

While he wasn’t awful, last night’s performance did not actually inspire you, if you are a Mets fan.

Major Memory Lapse

If there was one lesson the team and, specifically, Jerry Manuel and the coaching staff would’ve taken away from last season, I would’ve hoped it would have been the need to address what were some terrible base-running decisions and lapses of concentration on the base paths.

While Razor Shines certainly cannot be blamed for last night’s seventh-inning fatal error on Fernando Tatis’s part, the sight of Fernando being thrown out at the plate in an attempt to take advantage of a wild pitch by Veras–with David Wright up to bat with the bases loaded–seemed a continuation of last season’s faulty judgements.

Ringing High Notes

In spite of the huge disappointment that was the end of the seventh, and the less-than-stellar outing by Maine, there were a few highlights worth the Yankees/Red Sox-length of the game:

• A triple by Cora:  an exciting start to the bottom of the first.
• An amazing catch by Jason Bay in the top of the fourth.
• The excitement of seeing Mejia’s (pictured, at right; speed pitch, photo below) and Tejada’s first Major League appearances.
• A Jose Reyes-like rattling of Marlins pitcher Nunez by Gary Matthews, Jr., invoking a balk.
• Watching a comeback–during which time a “We Believe in Comebacks” promo played on the scoreboard.  While the power surge did not result in a win, it did show a collective resolve and grit that I do not remember seeing much of last season.

Although I woke up this morning feeling tired and somewhat frustrated that I had stayed at the stadium so late with so little to show for it, I’m trying to focus on these “high notes” and hope the team will build on those.