The New York Mets lost 7-3 to the first place Florida Marlins on Tuesday night in the opening game of a three game series.  As the Mets took the field they knew that Willie Randolph would remain the Mets skipper but instead of going out there to back him up, the Mets played as if they wished he’d been fired. 

 I know the mantra, the manager doesn’t play the game, the players do, and until I watched Art Howe as manager, I agreed with that.  Willie was supposed to be the answer to the problems the Mets had under Howe’s tenure.  Willie grew up a New York guy, he was a Mets fan as a kid, and he played for the Mets.  Yeah-he also played for the Yankees and was a Yankee coach, but you felt like Willie had New York blood and he would get it done.  He worked under a hall of fame manager; he had to have learned something right?  While the Mets are not completely out of the race, the way they are playing now seems to indicate that they will be  out of it sooner rather than later if they don’t get it figured out.  In over 180 games the Mets are now under .500 and for that Willie has to share the blame. 

Mike Pelfrey continues to show that he is not ready to pitch in the bigs, how did this guy actually win a spot in the rotation?  Granted, Reyes booted a ball that should have gotten Pelfrey out of the inning, however Pelfrey did little to help himself out.  And so that was the theme of the night.  

Jose Reyes did hit two homeruns, but he also had two terrible plays in the field, one was game altering, just like what happened to the Mets in Colorado.  Last year at this time Reyes was the most exciting player in baseball, this year, not so much.  I was totally against trading him in the winter to get Santana because I thought he could only get better than he was last year.  Well, his bat has heated up and he has reached base in 20+ games but he also now has seven errors on the season.  If there was one thing you could count on from Reyes it was a good glove, but now that even seems to be in doubt.

There was a bright spot in yesterdays awful performances, Aaron Heilman pitched two scoreless innings for the first time since May 10th.  I wonder if the talk about sending Heilman to the minors had anything to do with his new found focus? 

It can’t be overlooked though that the Mets are getting no help from the bottom of the order.   Yesterday Carlos Delgado, Brian Schneider, and Nick Evan’s all had 0-fers. Evan’s is a call up and has only played in three games for the Mets;  but what is the story with Schneider and Delgado?   No one really expects Schneider to hit much, he hasn’t in the past, Mets’ fans understand that he is here because he is a good defensive catcher and he does a good job with his pitching staff.  But, what is Delgado’s problem?  Yes, he hit three homeruns this past week in the three consecutive games, but his average is a meager .215.  Is it safe to say this guy is done?

The Mets jumped out to an early lead, but failed to really capitalize when they had bases loaded and only one out in the bottom of the first, they came away with only two runs.   The Mets had nine hits in the game, and left seven guys on base.  Once the Marlins put four on the board in the top of the third, the Mets looked like they gave up, which is pretty much what they do every time they lose a lead.  This year, the Mets are 1-19 when trailing after 6 innings.  I think that stat tells you a little something about how hard these guys are trying.   The Mets record is 23-26, that means in 49 games, only one time were the Mets able to come from behind to win.  Now tell me they aren’t giving up.

Johan Santana will pitch for the Mets tonight, and I am headed out to Shea to catch the action.  I must admit, even though they are playing terrible baseball I am excited to see Santana pitch.  First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. 

Mets Blog