The Mets bullpen just imploded blowing their 27th save of the season-that’s right their 27th save of the season. Luis Ayala blew his second save in nine tries. He gave up three runs with out even ever retiring a batter. Not to be out done, Pedro Feliciano allowed two more runs for good measure. The Braves scored a total of five runs in the top of the ninth and won the game 7-4.
I really can’t even think of what else to say about this “pigpen” (The bullpens nickname here in the NY papers). I can write about the pigpen until my finger tips are bloody and in fact last week when I gave them a thumbs up, I said we knew we were a meltdown waiting to happen. I guess it just took getting the Braves to town to bring that meltdown about.
What are you going to do when not one guy in your bullpen can step it up and do their job? Night after night we watch starters go deep into games because the thought of turning the game over to the bullpen strikes fear in the heart of anyone involved with the Mets. It is outrageous that the Mets bullpen has been as putrid as they have been this year. There isn’t anyone in the bullpen you can trust. The Mets have blown 27 saves this season and you can “shouldda, couldda, wouldda” all you want, but if the Mets win even half those game-we wouldn’t even be worried about what the Phillies are doing.
David Wright hit two homers in the game and had four hits total. His 31 homeruns is the most that he has ever hit in a season. However, the Mets offense isn’t blameless in this loss, they still aren’t tacking on runs, they didn’t always get the big hit. Again today they failed to get runners home, and were hitless in 11 at bats with runners in scoring position. They left a ton of guys on base. And although they are scoring early in the game their bats are dead in the later innings. They have to figure out how to add on runs. They kill everybody early in the game and score all their runs the, but can’t seem to get anything going with the bats in later innings. If the Mets are going to overcome the pigpen troubles, then maybe one way to do that is to get some big hits in the later innings.
The Mets had a two run lead and needed only to get three outs and their bullpen couldn’t even get that done. The fact is this is the team we have. The roster has been expanded. We now know the truth about what has been going on with Billy Wagner and know we can’t count on him to come back. You would think that someone would be able to step it up. They are professionals after all. I am really unhappy about the Mets bullpen, but you just have to shake your head.
I must say that one bullpen guy did do his job today. Joe Smith pitched a big inning for the Mets. There again he was in to clean up someone else’s mess. But that is what you do when you are a member of a team-you pick the other guy up.
Also, wow-what a great job by the Brewers to play their best ball against the Phillies. The Mets hold a slim lead in the NL East and the Phillies are tied for the wild card. Which means that as the Phillies and the Mets continue to duke it out, instead of the wildcard coming out of the central, maybe it comes out of the NL East.
The Mets travel to Washington and will have Pedro Martinez on the mound. Game time is scheduled for 7:10 p.m.
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