You have to think the New York Mets are feeling beyond confident right about now. They have won their second consecutive series from the Atlanta Braves. They are tied with the Chicago White Sox for the best record in baseball as of this writing. They are one of only two who've won eight of their last ten (the other: the resurrective Arizona Diamondbacks). The only thing standing in the way of their sweeping the Braves is John Smoltz.
And they decide it's Lima Time.
By the time you read this, Jose Lima will be one of two things. Either he will be the man of the hour after performing a death-defying stunt on the Shea Stadium mound; or, he will prove to have been a sacrifice to Smoltz when the Atlanta bellwether comes in at something less than his full power.
Lima will be many things, none of which include dull. Flying or fading, whether pitching over his head with the 2004 Los Angeles Dodgers or under his head with last year's Kansas City Royals, about the only way to keep Lima down is to chloroform him. But no team for whom he has ever toiled would even think of that last option. There have always been men worth having on a club even if they stink up the joint on the field or the mound. Lima has been one of those men.
When the National League West-winning Dodgers let him walk after the 2004 season, a few flags were flown at half mast. When the Royals sank into that epic losing streak last year, that was Lima you saw keeping the bravest face even during his own contributions to that streak.
The Mets must be thinking Lima doesn't exactly have to put on his bravest face against Smoltz come Sunday. Smoltz is working on short rest, three days, following a 109-pitch outing in Philadelphia. He looks remarkably mortal on short rest, which he hasn't pitched since 1997. Lifetime working short, Smoltz is 6-7 with a 5.17 ERA. Lifetime pitching in the National League, Lima is 59-47, 4.67. Seems almost like a fair fight.
Cheer up, Mr. Smoltz. You'd rather another dose of Pedro Martinez on short rest?
With rookie standout Brian Bannister down with a barking hamstring, and originally-scheduled emergency starter John Maine down with a middle finger injury, Lima got the incontrovertible word Thursday. How incontrovertible? He was pulled from his start for Triple A Norfolk after two perfect innings. The Tides, in Columbus to play the Clippers, were under orders to pull him after two no matter what, and Lima was under orders to be ready to fly to New York.
It gets even better. Lima could find himself hanging around at least to pick up what would have been Victor Zambrano's scheduled start against Milwaukee come Friday. Where he goes beyond that, assuming he pitches well enough, is open for speculation. He could end up sticking with the Mets. He could end up a trade trigger if the Mets begin seeking a little pennant race insurance.
Whatever he ends up, Lima could also end up a happy memory in Shea Stadium. Mets history is reasonably filled with players whose irrepressibility charmed the audience even when the Mets were something less than charming between the lines. It is also filled with players who have been known to unfurl career games at the least expected hours. "He's always been one of those guys that seizes the moment," said Willie Randolph.
Seizes it? Lima bastinadoes it, holds it hostage, and squeezes a hell of a ransom from its relatives before he gives it up.
Lima has done that sort of thing before. There are said to remain echoes among the ghosts of Dodger Stadium from Lima's last known appearance there. Some of them include a few St. Louis Cardinals' voices, usually exhaling variations upon a theme of, Wha' happened?!? Their should-have-been National League Division Series sweep of the Dodgers was rudely interrupted by the smiling Dominican with chutzpah where his best stuff was supposed to be.
He may have been the only man in the park who knew he'd still be there, in Game 3, walking out to the mound for the ninth inning, his 4-0 shutout threatened only by Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen, and Jim Edmonds. Maybe he and Shawn Green, who supplied some of Lima's insurance policy that night with a pair of home runs under either side of the bleachers. "Every time we've needed the big win," Green said after the game, "he's given it to us."
He gave Pujols a strike, something to turn into a foul pop, a waste pitch outside, and then something good enough only to sky to deep right center. He gave Rolen a pair of high sliders, a fast-ball right down the pipe for a called strike, and then something to hit on the switch and right into Steve Finley's leather in center. He gave Edmonds a strike on the ceiling and then something good only for popping skyscraper style toward third base for the game.
And he gave the audience his usual post-game, post-win (his own or any other of his team's wins) routine. Hugging, high-fiving, fist-pumping, skip-dancing, smooch-on-the-cheeking with teammates, windmilling the crowd arms open wide ramping up the racket, planting kisses on the cheeks of his pitching coach and team trainer, bounding in and out of the dugout, playing more to the crowd, the kid who just landed the keys to his own chocolate factory and a prom date with the number one dream girl in town.
You thought the Johnny Damon Red Sox were a bunch of happy-go-lucky Idiots? Lima makes those guys resemble clinical depressives. You almost wish the Mets would pencil Lima in for a start when interleague time comes and they have a date with the Johnny Damon Yankees.
"The fans deserve this," Lima whooped, after that unsinkable NLDS shutout, still recovering his breath, the human 'toon who has just snuck a stick of dynamite into the opposition's evening picnic feed and slipped out of sight two seconds before it went kaboom. "I love everybody. I'm pitching with my heart because I know they deserve it."
He feels that way whenever he pitches and his club wins. He also feels that way when he doesn't pitch but the club wins.
And if the club loses? That will be Lima looking to light up the party room, anyway, not because losing is a riot, but because he's learned the hard way that dwelling on it does nobody any favors except the other guys. And as far as he's concerned, the fans deserve every pleasure they get from a game. Even if his only role is cranking up the rooting.
Even if the Mets only get him for a week and two starts, Met fans are going to love it when the clock strikes Lima Time. Even if the Braves and the Brewers ring his chimes.
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