Oh, the drama. When last we met, New York Mets closer Billy Wagner was slinging verbal arrows at starter Oliver Perez in an apparent attempt to motivate the young left-hander by involving the media.

Yeah, I'm not sure how that works either, but there it is.

Fast forward to Monday. Perez takes the mound against the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Mets lose, 5-1. Among other things, he gets plunked in the midsection by a line drive off the bat of Jeff Kent. What does Wagner have to say about all this? Well, let's ask:

He competed. He took a shot to the chest.

You can't make this stuff up, folks. I wouldn't have made the connection between competing and taking a shot to the chest on my own, so I guess we can all be thankful to Wagner for helping us out there.

As for Perez, he now knows what he needs to do to win the respect of his teammates. I wonder how plate mail would affect his delivery...