MET NOTES
The Mets couldn’t have been happier to get the winning runs in last night’s 3-2 victory in Game 4 while John Rocker was on the mound. Rocker had been almost perfect against the Mets all season, a “thorn in our side,” according to Darryl Hamilton after the Braves won Game 3, but last night he finally gave it up, sort of.
The Mets aren’t fond of Rocker anyway because he keeps saying how much he hates the Mets. So they didn’t care that John Olerud’s winning hit was a bouncer up the middle that Ozzie Guillen couldn’t reach, but that Walt Weiss probably would have gotten to.
“Is that good or what?” Hamilton said. “That’s what you call getting over the hump. That was huge.”
General manager Steve Phillips said he didn’t think Rocker would be affected by the loss, but clearly the Mets were starting to wonder when Rocker would fail.
“That was long overdue,” Turk Wendell said. “You can talk all the smack you want if you can back it up, and up ’til now he’s been able to. But nobody’s perfect.”
Said John Franco with a smile, “This game goes in full circles and things come back to haunt you.” *After failing to get to Olerud’s game-winning bouncer in the eighth, Guillen almost made up for it leading off the ninth inning against Armando Benitez. He hit a ball down the right field line that was deep enough to go over the wall, but it went three-feet foul. Benitez set the Braves down 1-2-3 for the save.
Bobby Cox said he didn’t think any of his shortstops, including Weiss – who made a brilliant game-saving play on a ball up the middle against the Astros – would have made the play. *Benitez has faced 24 Braves this year, and gotten them all out … Wendell on the matchup between the quiet and self-effacing Olerud and the loud and provocative Rocker: “It’s the North and South Pole.” *If Rickey Henderson really doesn’t show up today, as some players felt there was a slim chance of happening, the Braves wouldn’t be happy to see Melvin Mora in there.
“He’s good player,” Chipper Jones said. “He’s caused us problems in this series.”
Henderson was so upset with being taken out of the game for Mora as a defensive replacement that he showered, dressed and left before the final pitch, according to some players. But Phillips and Bobby Valentine said he was in the clubhouse after the game.