ESPN Buster Olney Blog

The wife immediately recognized the blood-curdling scream as the voice of our 4-year-old son Wednesday afternoon, and with her maternal instinct sounding with five-alarm fear, she rushed out of the living room and ran to the stairs. "Is Jake OK?" she yelled. "What happened?"

"Sheffield took a slider for strike three and the Mets lost," I replied.

Ol' Jake wailed for another 10 minutes before his body finally stopped shaking.

He's got a problem. He's got some Steinbrenner in his personality: The kid just hates to lose in a way that probably cannot be cured.

It's not that he's a Mets fan; in fact, if you were to force him to pick one team, it would probably be the Pirates, stemming from a day when he watched the Pirates beat the Brewers last season. It's just that he's absolutely enraged if any team that he expects to win winds up losing.

When he joined me in watching the Mets' game against the Braves on Wednesday, Jake decided he wanted the Mets to win, probably because he knows the Mets are from New York, just like he is. Or maybe he just likes the letter M more than the letter B. Regardless, time after time in the late innings, the Mets kept putting themselves in position to finish off the Braves, and they kept blowing those chances, and Jake's face just got more and more red.

We are accustomed to this, actually. He decided he wanted the Steelers to win the Super Bowl, and for three quarters, the kid was giddy, almost dancing around. When Kurt Warner hit Larry Fitzgerald over the middle, however, and the Cardinals took the lead, ol' Jake just absolutely lost it. Screams. Wails. I kept telling him how silly he was being, how ridiculous his reaction was, but he wasn't hearing me. He just kept looking at the score and crying, and he worked himself into such a frenzy that he fell asleep. The next morning, he came down the stairs glumly, the Steelers' defeat clearly still weighing on him.

"Hey, buddy," I said. "Remember how the Cardinals took the lead last night?"

He started crying again, tears plummeting down his cheeks. "Stop," I said. "Do you know what happened after you fell asleep? Roethlisberger threw a touchdown and the Steelers wound up winning."

With tears still flowing, Jake started laughing. His whole world had turned around. His whole perspective had turned around.

I try to talk him off this emotional ledge all the time, and so does the wife. I try to prepare him for the possibility of losses all the time. We watch games in our house every day, for a lot of the day, and he'll come in and no matter who's playing, he decides who he wants to win, and about half the time, the poor guy is overcome. And the other half of the time, he is frighteningly happy.

"Hey, Dad, guess what!???" he yelled to me this morning. "The Yankees beat the Blue Jays 8-2! They won!"

It will be a good day, until this afternoon, when he joins me to watch one of the afternoon contests. He doesn't turn 5 until next month, and he's already worn me out.

This was a big win for the Braves, as David O'Brien writes.

Bob Klapisch wonders if the Mets are playing with fool's gold, because there are several issues that cannot be overlooked. The Mets went 6-2 on the homestand, but Bill Madden has his doubts -- among those concerns the decision-making by Jose Reyes on the bases.

• Frank Francisco always had issues with throwing strikes, at least until a teammate inspired him. On Wednesday evening, Francisco recalled watching Eddie Guardado pitch last year and thinking, "If he can do that with his fastball, I can do way better with my fastball." After talking with Guardado about how he commands his fastball so well, Francisco began concentrating on keeping his fastball down and away from hitters. When he played catch daily before batting practice, he'd aim the ball down and away. When he threw in the bullpen, he focused on keeping the ball down and away. When he pitched in games, his aim was to keep the ball down and away.

"When I got to camp, it was a lot easier," Francisco said. "I could do it without even concentrating on it … To me, commanding my fastball is the most important thing."

So far this year, Francisco has issued just four walks in 14.2 innings, and still hasn't allowed a run. His arm began hurting last week and he has been shut down for a few days, but Francisco believes he will be back in action soon.

Francisco might be back Friday, says Ron Washington. You can't stop the Rangers, you can only hope to contain them: They won again, on an extra-innings hit by Hank Blalock, as Jeff Wilson writes.

• Watched a lot of Dontrelle Willis' return to the Tigers on Wednesday, and if you feared Willis might be a complete mess, then his performance provided some relief. He walked a couple of hitters and sometimes struggled with his command, but he wasn't missing the strike zone by feet as he did last year. He pitched with a lot of energy, and with more confidence. His fastball reached 93-94 mph.

On the other hand, Willis had almost no command of his secondary stuff, his breaking ball or his changeup, and the Twins essentially sat on his fastball. The Tigers could walk away from Wednesday's outing with some hope that Willis can rebuild his career, but on the other hand, Willis has to pitch much better than he did against the Twins to be any kind of help to Detroit.

Willis was so-so, said the Free Press.

In the end, Joe Crede ripped out the guts of the Tigers, in the 13th inning.

Dings and dents

1. Adam Jones, who has been ridiculously great this year for the O's, injured his hamstring in Baltimore's loss.

2. A specialist is going to check the neck of Pat Burrell, as Marc Topkin writes.

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