The New York Mets played a day night double header against the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday, losing the first game 6-1 and the second game 6-2.  Just when you start to think that maybe the Mets are heading in the right direction after their great weekend against the Yankees, the Mets let us down again and under perform and all that negative talk starts again. 

Tom Glavine started game one for the Braves, and in the first inning the Mets had him on the ropes, jumping out to a 1-0 lead off Luis Castillo’s first home run of the season.  The Mets loaded the bases but Moises Alou hit a line drive to Chipper Jones, and Carlos Delgado hit a long fly ball that was tracked down by right fielder Jeff Francoeur after that, Glavine retired the next 17 batters he faced.  Too bad Glavine didn’t pitch that well when he was with the Mets.   

The Mets offense was feeble once again, I know I’ve used that word before, but how else can it be described?  Seriously, the Mets got one run off six hits off Galvine in the first game, and in the second game, against Jorge Campillo, who hasn’t started in the majors since 2005, they got only three hits and scored zero runs.  The Mets did finally score two in the top of the eighth on and RBI double by Ramon Castro, and an RBI single by Jose Reyes.    

Mets pitching woes continue, where was the John Maine who pitched against the Dodgers last week?  Yesterday’s John Maine pitched just four innings, (but did face two batters in the fifth) giving up eight hits, four earned runs, three walks and two strikeouts.  To be fair the Braves did a good job in their at bats against Maine, and ran counts full, fouling pitches off.  However, Maine didn’t exactly put anyone away either.  It wasn’t just Maine though; Aaron Heilman pitched one inning giving up a two run homer to Brian McCann.  The second game wasn’t much better.  Claudio Vargas coming off that great start against the Washington Nationals started for the Mets, however, he didn’t quite pitch as well as he did last week going five innings giving up four runs on five hits with two walk and one strike out.  The Braves added two more runs off Matt Wise who gave up a two run homer to Mark Kotsay.   

Of course, this negative talk isn’t helped by the fact that Willie Randolph is whining to the press that he is unfairly portrayed by SNY-the Mets own television station.  He also made remarks that the way he is treated might be related to race.  He has since back tracked on the race thing, but still believes that he is misunderstood.  Here is the gig Willie, all that Mets’ fans understand is wins and losses, and if you are whining when you are losing you are not leading.  There is a reason why your team is not performing, and it is hard to believe that it doesn’t have something with you not doing your job.  Funny, you told Billy Wagner to keep things in the club house, but you neglected to take your own advice.  If you guys don’t do something in the next two games against the Braves and in your next series against the Rockies, you’re going to return home to one unhappy Mets crowd, and none of this is going to get easier.   

So, if things aren’t bad enough, Ryan Church was hospitalized after the game with a concussion, he hit his head on the knee of Yunel Escobar when he tried to break up a game ending double play.  Not great news as Church is the only starter who has shown any constancy for the Mets. 

Tuesday was a sad day for this Mets fan when ex Met Mike Piazza released a statement regarding his official retirement from Major League Baseball.  Piazza was the reason I started watching the Mets.  He brought an excitement to Shea Stadium that no one has yet to recapture.  Here’s hoping we get to see Mike sometime in the future, maybe on baseball telecasts.     

First pitch for Wednesday’s night game is scheduled for 7:10 p.m.  The Mets will send Mike Pelfrey to the mound and he will be opposed by Jair Jurrjens. 

Mets Blog