THE bullpen gate flew open and John “Punk” Rocker began his sprint in from left field. Some born loser who deserved to be arrested, jailed and worked over at the Shea Stadium holding cell rifled a bottle of water that just missed the outspoken closer.
See, nobody can hit this guy, not with bottles, coins or the only weapons that ever should be used at a baseball game: bats.
On this night, though, Rocker was less than perfect in a sweep-averting, 3-2 outcome that enabled the Mets to extend their season to today’s Game 5.
While Rocker came into the game with two outs in the eighth and the Braves leading 2-1, Roger Cedeno was standing on second base as Melvin Mora, the runner at first, made his way over for a chat.
Cedeno said he hasn’t been following the soap opera starring Rocker and even if he had followed it he wouldn’t have been thinking about it then.
Cedeno was locked on Rocker, catcher Eddie Perez and manager Bobby Cox having a conference on the mound.
He shared his interpretation of what he saw.
“The manager pointed at me and said, ‘Don’t worry about the runner, just get the hitter.’ I was watching to try to see what they were talking about and that’s what I thought he was saying,” Cedeno said. “I knew I had to take advantage.”
He also had to clue in Mora.
“I told Melvin to be ready to go in case I go,” Cedeno said. “I went on my own.”
He always does.
“I have the green light unless they give me the hold sign,” Cedeno said. “There was no hold sign and they weren’t paying any attention to me, so I went.”
Mora went with him. Rocker’s breaking ball was low and away.
“I knew they were going to double-steal there,” Cox said. “That was an automatic. It was a curveball down and away and we couldn’t get rid of the ball. We had a plan where to throw it. It was such a slow pitch.”
The plan was to try to cut down the runner at second and allow Cedeno to advance to third, but Cedeno had picked the perfect pitch to run on and John Olerud found two runners in scoring position.
Walt Weiss was double-switched out of the game when Rocker came in. Ozzie Guillen replaced Weiss at short.
Olerud bounced one up the middle and it glanced off Guillen’s glove. We’ll never know if Weiss would have made the play, but Guillen didn’t. Cedeno scored and waited for Mora to do the same. Then he hugged Mora, two kid brothers celebrating their first victory at anything over those bullies they have for older brothers.
Olerud knocked in all three runs, but if he was the star named Paul McCartney and Rick Reed was John Lennon, Cedeno at least was a secondary star, a Ringo Starr.
Cedeno contributed three singles, pumping his batting average for the series to .600. He stole two bases in the eighth, which was two more than he stole in the ninth inning the previous night in a Game 3, 1-0 loss.
He was stretched and ready to go into that game, but never got the chance. Bobby Valentine decided against having Cedeno run for Benny Agbayani.
“I was ready to pinch-hit, pinch-run or do whatever they needed me to do,” Cedeno said. “But that’s not anything I can control. I just try to help when they need me.”
They needed Cedeno or anybody else to get something started in the eighth and Cedeno obliged. He led off the inning with a single to center. After Rey Ordonez popped up a bunt, Cox replaced Smoltz with lefty Mike Remlinger. Bobby Valentine countered by having Benny Agbayani hit for announced pinch-hitter Matt Franco. Agbayani struck out.
“To stop the running game,” Cox said when asked why he lifted Smoltz. “Remlinger, generally, he’s almost impossible to run on. Cedeno is the best there is in the National League, I think.”
The best against the best. First base coach Mookie Wilson was in Cedeno’s ear and the baserunner made the coach a promise.
“I told Mookie I gotta steal here,” Cedeno said.
He did, then Mora worked a walk off Remlinger, then Rocker came into the game and the ball didn’t bounce his way.
This hasn’t been much of a series for the Mets, but it has been for Cedeno, who made a great catch in Atlanta.
Cedeno showed he cares about this team and this series when he rifled his helmet off the field after Ordonez flew out for the final out of the fifth.
He had a career season and he doesn’t want it to end.
“They have showed a lot more confidence in me here than the Dodgers ever did,” Cedeno said. “The Mets gave me the green light. The Dodgers gave me the red light. The Mets believe in me.”
And Cedeno still believes in the Mets, even though they are down three games to one and are facing four-time Cy Young Award winner Greg Maddux today.