Carlos Delgado was 4-5 on Sunday with three RBI and recorded the 2000th hit of his career, but that was not enough to keep the Atlanta at bay as the Braves downed the Mets 7-6. 

 

Here is the recap of yesterdays game in Atlanta.  The Mets starter left the game after six innings only allowing three runs, the bullpen gave up four more runs (Aaron Heilman stinks, but then again so does Scott Schoeneweis, Pedro Feliciano, and Joe Smith) , the Mets left nine guys on base, after scoring four runs in the first two innings, failed to do anything until Carlos Delgado hit a two run homer in the ninth, but the final two batters struck out to end the inning.  Pretty much par for the course, pretty much what we read about the Mets every night after they lose a game. 

 

The Mets bullpen blew its 29th game of the season.  As it turns out though, the Mets bullpen is not the worst bullpen in history; they will be spared that honor, but only because the bullpen is running of time to stink.  The worst bullpen in history goes to the  Rockies, that bullpen blew 39 saves in 1999.  Wow, now I’m starting to see our bullpen as a bunch of underachievers!  

 

The Mets completed their seven game road trip with a record 3-4 and after losing in Atlanta yesterday finished the season 1-8 at Turner Field, by contrast the Phillies were 9-0 in Atlanta.  Even though it is a different team, and a different year, it is so strange how the Braves still are a thorne in the Mets side.  The Braves seem to rise to the occasion when it comes to playing the Mets.  Now, while the Mets didn’t beat the Braves like they should, they did win the season series against the Phillies, but that might just be a moot point, because the Phillies are sitting in first and they have six games left to play, three with the Nationals and three with the Braves.  It would be hard to believe that the Phillies will struggle there at all. 

 

The Mets have the advantage (if you can call it that) of meeting a Cubs team that has already clinched the NL Central.  But, they can’t count on Pinella to rest his starters every game of that series, and even if the starters sit, the Mets can’t take for granted that the reserves won’t be playing hard.  And forgetaboutit-the Marlins are here over next weekend; they are a tough team to beat-you know they’d love to knock the Mets out of the playoff for a second straight year.

 

I am so torn about all of this, I really want the Mets to make the playoffs, but it is hard to believe that with the state of things right now, namely the bullpen, that New York would get past the first round.  In all actuality, I don’t think anyone believed that the Mets would figure into the playoff conversation given the way they played at the beginning of the year.  And here we are now, cheering for them every day, waiting for them to quiet the critics who want so much to label this a collapse like 2007.  This whole thing is different, this is not the team that fell apart last September.  This team is a team that has been fighting all year, when we thought they were out of it in June, they fought their way back in.  When we thought that Carlos Delgado was done, he fought to prove us wrong.  If the season ended today, the Mets would be in the playoffs, they wouldn’t be division winners, but they’d be in the post season.  Look, nobody thought the Giants would beat New England right?  The Mets holds all the cards, they have the talent, they can make this happen.  Question is, will they?