The Closer: Quiet On The Mets ...

Notes from a day in baseball:

• 1. Mr. Met Is Printing Playoff Tickets (Quite Illegal, By The Way). The New York Mets are going to contend for a World Series every 20 years, whether we like it or not. The cry is already coming up at Shea: "1986!", and at least Keith Hernandez in the broadcast booth knows what that means. Oh, and Bill Buckner. Anyhoo, David Wright homered as the Mets won their seventh straight, beating the Phillies 9-3. New York leads the NL East by 8 1/2 over Philly.

• 2. One-Day Sale, All Big Units Must Go. Is Randy Johnson back for the Yankees? Um, jury's still out. He was pitching well on Wednesday when bam!, he got tossed for throwing inside to Cleveland's Eduardo Perez. And New York won, 6-1. We love beanball wars: Derek Jeter almost got hit by Jason Johnson ) in the fifth, and Jorge Posada and Jason Johnson exchanged words after the catcher was hit by a pitch in the sixth. Both benches emptied on that one. No punches thrown.

• 3. 'Oswalt Is Oswalt.' Roy Oswalt returned from the DL in a big way, earning his first win since May 3 and also getting a pair of singles to lead the Astros over the Cubs 5-4. That prompted this quote from the Cubs' Matt Murton: "Oswalt is Oswalt. I don't care what day it is. He's not won all those games by luck."

• 4. A Dunn Deal. Adam Dunn may have snuck up on you, but we've always been watching him with a wary eye. Dunn has homered in four straight games, including Wednesday's three-run shot in the 11th that gave the Reds a 3-0 win over the Brewers. That's 23 for the season, if you're counting homers these days.

• 5. Something Goes Right In Florida For A Change. Let us now lift our goblets and speak of happier times, and of Wes Helms, whose two home runs as a fill-in player for Mike Jacobs (sore ankle) helped lift the Game Fish to a 6-5 win in 10 innings over the Braves. Huzzah!