I haven’t found anyone that can explain to me exactly what happened yesterday from 4:10 until a little after 11 p.m., at least not yet. So, because of this, I’m going to try to explain what I saw. But, how can I even attempt to explain it when I can’t decide if it was the greatest game I’ve ever watched or the worst game I’ve ever watched? It has to be one or the other, a game like that cannot fall in between.

In order to properly digest all of yesterday/last night’s 20-inning fiasco, I’ll break it down into 20 thoughts that I had before/during/after the game. Some of these thoughts are positive, others are not-so-positive, and a few are just downright baffling.

1. Friday night’s performance from Oliver Perez. For some reason, watching him throw 6 scoreless innings against the Cardinals brought me right back to that night in October 2006 that I’ll never forget. Then, seeing Raul (Exxon) Valdes come in and blow his 1-0 lead with just a few pitches made me think of Aaron Heilmann on that night in October 2006 and then I pictured Yadier Molina circling the bases and pumping his fist, only this time it was Felipe Lopez and I got really angry for a few seconds. Then I realized that I just watched Oliver Perez pitch a good game, and that right there (as rare as it is these days), was enough to make me happy.

2. So, the pitching….I’d say we’re on the right track now? Perez tosses 6 shutout innings on Friday night, then our ace Johan goes out yesterday and throws 7 shutout innings (little did we know that there would be another 11 scoreless innings after he left the game). So, if you’re keeping count, that would make it 13 consecutive scoreless innings pitched by Mets’ starters. Pretty good. Santana had his A1 stuff yesterday, and if anyone in the Mets lineup didn’t suddenly feel bad about harming the baseball yesterday, the game likely would have been over well before it was. Not to mention the fact that the bullpen did not collapse at all throughout 11 extra innings of baseball yesterday/last night. If I would have told you a few days ago that the bullpen would combine for 11 consecutive scoreless innings in one game, you probably would have slapped me right in the face. UNBELIEVABLE! Right? Look: Fernando Nieve, 2.1 innings, 1 hit, 0 runs. Wow! Raul Valdes, 2 innings, 1 hit, 0 runs. It gets better! Hisanori Takahashi, 2 innings, 1 hit, 0 runs, 4 strikeouts! What a game from the bullpen. As sloppy as this game got at times, you absolutely cannot overlook how well the bullpen pitched for 11 innings. Almost unheard of in Mets Nation these days.

3. That catch. Hey, I know it happened when the sun was still out in St. Louis, but does anybody remember that catch that Alex Cora made in the stands along the first base line in the 10th inning? I do. Let me jog your memory. Bottom of the 10th inning, still no score (of course) and the bases loaded. Nieve had just come in to relieve Pedro Feliciano and gave an intentional walk to Albert Pujols. Matt Holliday came to the plate with two outs and Alex Cora was in at first base (an ever-so-helpful FOX graphic told us that this was only the 3rd time that Cora had ever played first base in his career). So, Matt Holliday swings and pops one up along the first base side, just beyond the dugout. Cora is in pursuit and at this point, I’m pretty sure that the ball is going to end up going foul. Then he drifts closer and closer to the railing and the first row of seats, and then Cora dives…he doesn’t just lean over the railing and stick his glove out, I mean this guy actually leaps head-first into the seats and into some Cards fan’s lap. There is a split second of uncertainty and I’m thinking to myself, “OH @%$&, HE CAUGHT THAT BALL!” And then he reaches his hand up, and what is he holding? The baseball. Following that play, I tweeted: “Wow. For someone who isn’t even a first baseman, Alex Cora may have just saved the game. What a catch.” As it turns out, he probably did. Who knows if on the next pitch Holliday wouldn’t have ripped one into right field and won the game right there? He very well could have, but thanks to Cora he never got the chance. The play was very similar to another great catch made about 6 years ago by a popular shortstop that plays for another New York team, though his name slips my mind at the moment.

4. Hitting with runners in scoring position? Hitting? Listen, I’m going to be perfectly honest here, normally when a team is heading into the 12th inning of a game and they have only mustered 1 hit up to that point, they really don’t even deserve to win the game. Seriously, it’s unheard of.  I mean, up until the 10th inning the Mets had only hit the ball out of the infield 4 times. How you can play 10 innings of baseball and only hit the ball past the infielders 4 times and still be in a position to win the game I will never know. This is a Major League Baseball team. Even further, as bad as that sounds, it probably sounds worse for Cardinals fans. Because despite how completely inept the Mets were at the plate yesterday, we still won the game! Amazin’! I even forgot that Jaime Garcia had a no-hitter through 5 innings yesterday.

5. Jason Bay, where art thou bat? 0-for 7. 4 strikeouts. Ouch. Every time he swung at a pitch in the dirt yesterday and walked with his head down back to the dugout, all I heard was a CHA-CHING sound. Where has all that money gone? I really hope he starts hitting soon. Like really, really, really hope. For his sake. If not, the wrath of the New York media will come down on him with the fire of a million suns and he will wish that he was back in Boston or Pittsburgh or anywhere but here. Please Jason, for the love of God, make contact with the ball.

6. Everyone in the Mets lineup yesterday, except for Angel Pagan, where art thou bats? Take in this statistic: Angel Pagan went 3-for-6 in yesterday’s game. Everyone else in the lineup not named Angel Pagan? 6-for-55. What? I promise you that’s not a typo. That is good for a .109 average. I have never, ever seen a team swing at worse pitches than the ones that some of our guys swung at yesterday (I’m looking at you David, and Jose, and Jeff, and Jason..). As my dad would say (and probably did say at some point during yesterday’s game), “They could hold batting practice in a hotel lobby and not break anything.”

7. Felipe Lopez. There was a Felipe Lopez that hit a grand slam on Friday night to put the Cardinals ahead 4-1 in the 7th inning. Then, there was a Felipe Lopez that shut down the Mets in the 18th inning, allowing only one hit and one walk. Here’s the kicker though: they are both the same person! That’s right, the Cardinals third baseman/shortstop/reliever, who started the game as the shortstop, ended up pitching a scoreless inning last night. Good for him. If he came to the plate in the bottom half of the inning and then nailed a homer to win the game for the second night in a row, he instantly joins Yadier Molina in the pantheon of Cardinals Players I Hope I Never See In Public.

8. Speaking of position players on the mound… I don’t want this to sound like I’m complaining, because I’m really not. I mean, we ended up winning the game, so I’ll take whatever I can get….but…we could only manage 2 runs off of a backup outfielder? Really? That kind of bothers me, and it probably bothers you a little bit too, you just won’t admit it. It took a sacrifice fly from Jose Reyes to squeak in the go-ahead run against Joe Mather. Just think about that for a second.

9. By the way… I still thoroughly enjoy watching position players pitch in really long extra inning games. I don’t think I will ever get tired of that. It’s just fun to watch. It reminds me of those long-ago days in Little League when anyone could pitch, just as long as they could reach home plate without bouncing it.

10. A standing ovation for the Slingbox. I left my girlfriend’s house at the start of the 10th inning, thinking that there would only be about an inning or two left, at the most. So, we got in my friend’s car to go out for the night and I took out my phone and turned on my Slingbox…and proceeded to be glued to the tiny 3-inch iPhone screen for the next three hours. I must say, the recent update to allow Slingbox streaming over 3G (instead of only Wi-Fi like it used to be) ended up being such a clutch move. The picture quality was impeccable, and didn’t break up once, even on a 45-minute drive down the shore. Greatest gift I’ve ever gotten. And that ends my Slingbox commercial that I didn’t even get paid for.

11. Good Slingbox, even better iPhone. Although my remote TV-viewing app was the star player last night, my iPhone had to be the co-MVP with its battery life. I had a full battery at the start of the 10th inning, but was dragging along at 15% by the 17th and thought I might lose the game at the worst possible time. So, I shut it down for a while and followed the game at ESPN.com. However, the little guy hung in there and delivered and I was able to catch the last two innings live. Three straight hours of streaming live TV is pretty impressive for a phone. Kudos to you, Apple. (Once again, I swear I’m not getting paid for this.)

12. After breaking everything down, I think I’ve come to a decision. Turns out that yesterday/last night’s game wasn’t the worst game I’d ever seen. It wasn’t the best one either. What it ultimately ended up being was a perfect microcosm of this 2010 Mets team. A few parts ugly, a few parts promising, and always intriguing. That’s what I took away from last night’s game. Atrocious hitting, remarkable pitching, and a lot of head-scratching moments that made you go, “What the @$%&? Did that really just happen?” Folks, these are our Mets, love ‘em or leave ‘em. And I love ‘em.

13. Turns out that 20 is a lot harder to get to than you would think. Whether it’s 20 innings or 20 thoughts about a game that went 20 innings, 20 is a lot, and since I don’t have 7 more things to say about yesterday’s game, I’ll leave it right here at 13 and hope that we can fill in the blanks after tonight’s game.