The Mets completed their three game series with the Yankees on Sunday afternoon with a 3-1 win behind Oliver Perez.  The Mets finished 4-2 against the Yankees this season and are the winners of the Subway Series. 

This win was all possible thanks to Oliver Perez.  Yep, you read that right, I said Oliver Perez.  Perez was amazing, I don’t think I have ever seen him pitch that well; he has been working with new pitching coach Dan Warthen and yesterday’s performance showed how much his work has paid off.  Perez has a new delivery and has changed his position from the third base side of the rubber to the middle; as a result Perez’s new delivery allows him to use his legs more and give him more force as he propels his body to the plate.  That force was apparent yesterday as Perez had good speed on his fastball yesterday being clocked in the 94mph range with consistency.  In his 7 innings of work, Perez allowed just three hits, while recording 8 strikeouts.  The one earned run came off a homer to Wilson Betemit in the seventh inning.  Here is the big stat, Perez did NOT walk anyone, he threw 106 pitches yesterday 72 of those were strikes.  In four starts against the Yankees Perez is now 4-0 with 1.54 era.  After the game, Perez said that that performance was the “Real Ollie” let’s hope so!

I must admit that when Billy Wagner gave up the single to Derek Jeter, I thought the Mets were in trouble.  I was having flashbacks to the three consecutive blown saves in early June, especially when it looked like ARod was going to tie the game with one swing of his bat, however, Endy Chavez made the catch on the warning track and Wagner went on to ritire the next two batters he faced and notched his 18th save of the season.

The offense did just enough to get by yesterday.  The Mets scored first in the bottom of the second on a bases loaded infield hit by Luis Castillo, and then added another run in the third when Carlos Delgado hit a bomb to straight away center, his third homerun of the series and his 14^th of the season.  The third run came off a sac fly by David Wright in the bottom of the seventh.  However, again the Mets had a chance to really stick it to Darrell Rasner early on; in both the first and second innings the Mets loaded the bases and scored just one run.  In total they left 11 guys on base and didn’t really get a big hit when they needed one.  David Wright, Carlos Beltran, Fernando Tatis all had 0-fors yesterday.  However, the guys did make some hard outs and while they didn’t score as many runs as you’d like but they did win.

So glad to see Ryan Church back out there yesterday.  In his return Church was 2-4.  Having his bat back in the line up can only be a good thing for the Mets!  I am keeping my fingers crossed that there is truth to the rumor that Moises Alou could rejoin the team in Philly!   

Also, what is up with Jose Reyes?  For those of you who missed it yesterday, Reyes made a play on a grounder by Melky Cabrera, Reyes’ throw sailed over Delgado’s glove and Cabrera ended up on second.  Yeah, we’d all like Delgado to field a little better but if Reyes was throwing his glove in disgust at Delgado, I would not have wanted to be in the clubhouse after that little temper tantrum.  I can understand Reyes’ frustration, and I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt and I sincerely hope that his reaction was because of his own bad throw, however Reyes should realize while Delgado should have made the play, he didn’t make an especially good throw either.  The Mets have to pull together as a team; this is not a time to fall apart.  I know a lot is being made of remarks by Johan Santana after his start against the Yankees.  He said something to the affect that he is doing his job, and that basically the other guys need to do their jobs too.  I know that you aren’t supposed to “call out” your teammates like that, but I get where Santana is coming from.  He should be mad; he isn’t getting the run support he needs, and has been the victim of some shoddy defense as well.  I have said that Santana hasn’t been as good as I thought he would be, and I realize that my expectations are unreasonable.  Santana has pitched very well, especially for a team that has given him little or no run support. The Mets offense didn’t even show up for Saturday’s game, and that has been the case when Santana has pitched.  If the Mets offense was doing its job he could easily be 11-3 on the season.

The Mets have eight games left going into the all star break.  In these next few games we are going to learn a lot about the Mets.  They play four with the Cardinals who are 47-36 and sit 2.5 games behind the Cubs.  The Mets then head to Philly for four, the Phillies have seen their 7 game lead in the division dwindle to one as they haven’t exactly been playing the best baseball themselves.  The Mets must have a great road trip.  I can’t even predict what will happen.  I’d love for them to go 6-2 but I have a feeling that 4-4 is more realistic.  Then again, with this team, anything is possible (and I mean that both in a good and bad way).

John Maine will pitch for the Mets tonight and the Cardinal have Kyle Lohse on the mound.  First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. 

Mets Blog

Mets won 8-2 on Wednesday night salvaging the last game of their interleague series against the Seattle Mariners.  Hopefully this win can propel them into a productive series against the Yankees this coming weekend. 

After the poor offensive output on Tuesday, Jerry Manual said that lineup changes might be in store for his team.  However, Wednesday night’s line up looked pretty much the same, the only changes were Marlon Anderson in left field and Fernando Tatis in right field.  The Mets scored eight runs on five hits, and all of those coming in the first three innings.  Jose Reyes was 1-3 hitting a three run homer in the bottom of the third; he also walked once and stole a base.  David Wright had a big night as he was 2-3 hitting two homeruns, three RBI and two runs scored.  Wright sat out on Tuesday night, missing his first start of the season and it seems that the day off did him some good. 

 The Mets are 17-8 when John Maine starts after a loss and Maine has a 13-6 record in those games.  On Wednesday Maine earned his 8^th win of the season, pitching well for the Mets when, according to catcher Brian Schneider they were faced with a “Must win” situation.  Having an early lead had to help, and Maine admitted as much in the post game interview.  Over six innings of work he allowed two runs on two hits, walked two and recorded three strikeouts.  The bullpen looked good, Aaron Heilman, Joe Smith, and Duaner Sanchez all pitched scoreless innings in relief.   

Better game for the Mets on Wednesday night.  You had to figure they would play better than they did the night before, than again with the Mets you never know because it seems that the one knack this team does have, is finding ways to lose ballgames.  I know, this is going to sound like I am hard to please, but it is frustrating that the Mets always seem to coast.  For example, the Mets jumped out to an early lead, chased starter Miguel Bautista from the game after just 2 2/3 innings, and granted they scored 8 runs early, but they didn’t have another base runner past the third inning.  It seems like they get ahead and then just go through the motions for the rest of the game.  And forget it when they fall behind it is like the game stops there for them, they just can’t wait for it to be over; they don’t really fight their way back.  This season has been strange and unlike any other season I’ve seen from them before.  It is one thing when your team is just horrible, but this team doesn’t really have an identity other than underachieving. 

After the Mets fired Willie Randolph, I questioned why they would name Jerry Manual the “Interim Manager” thinking that if they were searching for a change of coaching philosophy, why would they go with Randolph’s right hand man?   But, Manual is growing on me a little bit.  However, I’d like it if his record as manager was a little better.  But  I guess what I like is that he is just a little more animated and fiery than Randolph.  No matter what the situation was, Randolph always put up the same face, and in some situations that is probably a really good thing, but I think when a team was struggling as much as the Mets were, it would have been nice to hear Willie say something that somehow made the fans feel like he was as frustrated as the fans were.  Manual, at least for right now, is saying the right things.

The Mets have an off day on Thursday and return Friday, playing a twilight doubleheader against the Yankees.  Game one is at Yankee Stadium scheduled to start at 2:05 p.m. with Mike Pelfrey will pitch game one for the Mets and Dan Giese for the Yankees.  Pedro Martinez and Sidney Ponson will start the night cap at Shea Stadium will begin at 8:05. 

Mets Blog

The Mets were pummeled 11-0 by the Seattle Mariners for a second straight game.  The Mariners jumped out to an early lead scoring early and often.  The Mets have lost the first two games by a combined score of 16-2.

The offense flatlined pretty much the entire game; Jose Reyes, Luis Castillo, Carlos Delgado, Trot Nixon, Endy Chavez, all had O-fer’s.  The team stranded 9 players on base and hit into two double plays.  However, in the fourth inning we saw something we haven’t seen since Bobby V donned the orange and blue- a manager argued so vociferous that he was ejected from the game (it was Manual’s first as manager, and his second on the season).  Not only did Jerry Manual have words with home plate umpire Brian Runge but so did Carlos Beltran and both of them ended up being ejected from the game in the bottom of the fourth.  Beltran made some remarks to Runge regarding his strike zone-and I will comment that his strike zone was all over the place, anyway, Runge didn’t take too kindly and made sure Beltran knew it.  Runge actually took off his mask and basically stopped the game and really baited Beltran, and to his credit, Beltran did not bite.  It was when Runge got out of line that Manual came out of the dugout to protect Carlos.  Runge got into a short exchange with Manual and chest bumped him-Manual went crazy, he was thrown form the game, and Beltran, after seeing what happened to Manual, got into with the umpire and made sure that he heard all he had to say before he left the game as well.  

Good job by Jerry Manual and Carlos Beltran.  Something has happened in the past few days or the past week that has lead to a renewal of Beltran we’re seeing a fire in him that he hasn’t show the NY fans since he go there.  Maybe he really didn’t see eye to eye with Randolph, maybe he is just tired of losing, but this is the hardest I have seen him play and he has stepped up as a leader and showing some intensity.  I hope we see more of this Carlos! 

Oliver Perez was awful; he was in trouble from the start.  In his 5 innings of work he gave up 6 runs (5 earned) on 7 hits, one walk, one hit batsman, two strikeouts.  In his post game remarks Jerry Manual address Oliver Perez’s and mentioned that it is a concern and that it is going to have to be addressed.  Perez is 1-5 and his era is almost 8 when facing sub par teams (think back to his starts against the Pirates, Giants, and now the Mariners)

All I can say is that I hope Ryan Church is ready to come back to the lineup, and I hope he can pick up where he left off in a hurry.  Trot Nixon, I understand was a move the Mets had to make and it didn’t cost them anything, but, I’m sick of Chavez, Easley, and Nixon, they need Chruch back and the better figure out who is going to replace Alou and what they are going to do with Carlos Delgado.  Also, as much as I love him, David Wright is killing us, right now he is hitting at .272, I know that he leads the team in RBI but the Mets need more consistency out of him.   I know there is a lot of pressure considering that they started out the season trying to make up for what happened last year, and then have fallen into this cycle where they just haven’t been good any aspect of the game.  It is just hard to believe that with the coaching changes that HoJo is still with the club.  I don’t know how much the hitting coach actually helps, but is appears he hasn’t done much to help Wright. 

The Mets will send John Maine to the mound looking to salvage the last game of the series.  First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. 

Mets Blog

The New York Mets and the Texas Rangers were rained out on Saturday night and played a good old fashioned double header on Sunday.  The Mets had John Maine on the hill for the first game and Pedro Martinez pitched the second.  The Rangers took the first game of the double header 8-7.  The Mets took the nightcap 4-2, taking two out of three from the Rangers.   

John Maine pitched 6 1/3 innings and while he was credited with five earned runs, two of the runs were on base when he left the game in the top of the seventh, both scored when Pedro Felicano allowed an RBI single to Ramon Vasquez.  Maine did not pitch as poorly as his line would suggest, he did give up 7 hits, while striking out five and not allowing any walks.  The Mets’ bullpen did a terrible job once again.  Pedro Felicano was not the only culprit; Joe Smith entered the game with a runner on and gave up a two out two run homer to Ian Kinsler.  Scott Schoeneweis pitched an inning and gave up a homerun to Milton Bradley.   

The Mets did have two late inning rallies, the first in the bottom of the eight, down 8-3.  With one out, Carlos Beltran walked, Carlos Delgado hit a short fly ball single that allowed the run to score.  Trot Nixon hit a double to right field that would drive in Delgado.  Brian Schneider walked, Damion Easley got aboard on an error and that would load the bases.  Jose Reyes had a chance to do some damage with only one out and bases load, but he popped up to right field and for some inexplicable reason, Sandy Alomar elected to send a very slow Brian Schneider home, and he of course was thrown out at the plate by a mile.  However, the Rangers we not finished trying to give the game away.  In the bottom of the ninth, the Mets tacked on two more runs, but fell just short, and lost the first game 8-7.   

The Mets really had an opportunity to take the first game even with the runs the bullpen gave up.  However, they got lousy situational hitting and a really boneheaded move by their third base coach.  This team is not good enough to overcome those types of mistakes.  Guys have got to get their heads in the game.  With Alomar’s brilliance at third yesterday, you can see that it isn’t just the players who have brain lock during a game.   

The Mets did redeem themselves in the night cap of the doubleheader winning 4-2 behind Pedro Martinez.  Martinez struggled early on giving up two runs before the Mets could get on the board, but he hunkered down and pitched pretty well.  In his six innings of work he gave up two runs, just one earned on six hits, allowing one walk and recording four strikeouts.  Much to the ire of the crowd at Shea Stadium, Pedro left the game for a pitch hitter in the bottom of the sixth.  The crowd could be heard in the background chanting, “We want Pedro!”  It worked out in the Mets’ favor however as pinch hitter Robinson Cancel hit a two run single to give the Mets a 4-2 lead.   

The bullpen was much better in the second game.  Pedro Feliciano pitched a scoreless seventh, Duaner Sanchez pitched the eighth giving up nothing, and Billy Wagner came in for the save in the ninth.  Without any excitement, he retired the side in order while recording two strikeouts.  While you could see Wagner was nervous and did not have his great stuff he did what had to be done and finally got a save.  The bullpen finally gave the Mets what they needed.   

The good thing to come out of this series was that David Wright snapped a skid that was something like 6-40 and was a combined 4-7 with an RBI.  He looked much better at the plate; let’s hope he can carry it over to the series with the Anaheim Angels.  The Carloses both had good days at the plate too.  In the two games Beltran was 4-9 with three RBI, three runs scored and a walk.  Delgado was 3-9 with two RBI and two runs scored. 

 Speaking of the Anaheim Angels, them Mets begin a three game interleauge series with them in Anaheim tonight.  Mike Pelfrey, coming off a brilliant performance in his last outing against the Diamondbacks will be on the mound for the Mets, the Angels will counter with Jered Weaver.  First pitch is scheduled for 9:55 p.m. 

Mets Blog

The New York Mets coming off a terrible weekend opened a three game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday.  The Mets had John Maine on the mound and Moises Alou back in the lineup.  Early in the day, the Mets held a players only meeting behind closed doors where they discussed their goals for the rest of the season.  They all carried a sheet of paper that is their “blue print” for success.  Written on the paper were some motivational messages like, “team before self”, “We B4 I”, “We have time”.  The Mets plan was to go 62-38, finish with 92 wins and make the playoffs.  However, things didn’t exactly work out for the Mets and their little plan as they dropped the series opener 9-5 and put themselves in the midst of their second five game losing streak of the season.

The Diamondbacks scored first but the Mets came back in the bottom of the inning and scored three runs to take a 3-1 lead.  In the bottom of the second with a runner on base, David Wright hit his 12^th homerun of the season, giving the Mets a 5-1 lead.  That lead would not stay for long as Orland Hundson hit a two run homer in the top of the fifth to cut the Mets lead 5-3. 

John Maine left the game after five innings, giving up five hits, three earned runs, three walks and seven strikeouts; he left the game after five innings because he had thrown 101 pitches.  It has been the same old story for Maine, he leads the majors in the amount of pitches thrown, and he is 30^th in the league in the amount of innings pitched.  John ends up throwing too many pitches early and as a result does not go deep into games.  He doesn’t always make adjustments, or isn’t able to close out innings.  And Tuesday night was no different.

Claudio Vargas was on the mound in relief with a 5-3 lead in the top of the sixth, he walked the lead off man then retired Chris Snyder on a liner to left.  With one and and one on, Justin Upton was hit by a pitch, and a grounder by Jeff Salazar allowed the runners to advance a base; both would score on Augie Ojeda singler that just made it past the glove of a diving Carlos Delgado and rolled into right field.  Ojeda would take second on Endy Chavez’s throw to home, but was stranded there when Vargas retired Chris Young to end the inning.

There was some excitement when in the top of the seventh inning, the weather worsened and the Umps suspended play, Billy Wagner and Scott Schoeneweis came out of the bullpen to help the grounds crew secure the tarp on the field.  All I could think, as nice as it was that they helped out, I figured one of them would end up breaking a finger or spraining their ankle.  Luckily though, the tarp went down without injury and the Mets were on a rain delay for about an hour.  After the rain delay, Joe Smith gave up a homerun to Chris Snyder in the top of the eighth to give the Diamondbacks a 6-5 lead.  The Diamondbacks would hit two homers off Duaner Sanchez in the top of the ninth to make it 9-5.  It should be noted that when Rick Pederson visited the mound in the ninth and when Willie Randolph came to the mound to remove Sanchez from the game, they were both booed. 

As I mentioned before, Alou finally returned to the Mets line up after missing 18 games with a strained right calf.  The Mets are playing their 63^rd game of the season and Moises Alou has played in 15 of them. Judging by this, he should be hurt again by Saturday.  Seriously though, Alou hit the first pitch he saw and drove in two runs.  For the night Alou was 1-2 with 2 RBI.  After the rain delay, he was replaced by Damion Easley because of stiffness in his calf.  Marlon Anderson also came off the DL and pinch hit in the bottom of the seventh.      

 The Mets placed Ryan Church on the DL retroactive to last Friday.  It is thought that he should be able to join the team when they return to Colorado at the end of June.  This whole thing has been a mess and handled so poorly.  Church will not be allowed to resume any baseball activity until he is 100% symptom free, and according to Mets brass, they will make their decision solely on medical advice of Church’s neurologist.  Great, only took them three weeks to figure out what to do.  Consider this, Moises Alou had talked his way off the DL and into the starting line up last weekend during the Padres series, but the Mets waited until Tuesday to allow him to play because they wanted to be “cautious.”   I don’t know if that is an example that the Mets realize that Alou is made of glass or if they really just didn’t pay attention to what was happening with Church but you really have to do a better job than that.  If they had paid closer attention to Church’s condition, maybe he would not be going through this right now.       

Also, I know that it is still technically early, and that headed into play Tuesday night there were 100 games left in the season, but dating back to exactly on year ago the Mets are now 82-82.  There is no reason to believe that the Mets are going to pick it up any time soon and turn this around.  I love the fact that the manager Willie Randolph says that there are still 100 games left to play.  I am sick of hearing that there is a lot of baseball left to play.  What will the excuse be when there are only 81 games left in the season?  Is that still a lot of baseball left to play?  Or, how about last year with 17 games to play, was that a lot less baseball left to play?  Yes, so your point is that the Mets can turn this around.  Funny though, we were saying to ourselves in September there are only 17 games to go, the Mets can’t possibly blow this.  The Mets are not playing well now, they haven’t played well in a whole year, and the fact that it just keeps getting worse, isn’t lost on anyone.  People can clamor all they want about it isn’t Willies fault, or that there is still 100 games to go, but time is running out and the longer the Mets let this go, the harder it will be to over come.  If I was Willie I would be really annoyed by the fact that once the Mets had the lead then went on cruise control.  I don’t know if they have this false sense of security or maybe it is a sense of entitlement, whatever it is, they need to stay in the game, and play the whole game.   

The Mets continue the series with the Diamondbacks on Wednesday night, Mike Pelfrey will pitch for the Mets and the Diamondbacks will have Brandon Webb on the mound.  First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m.

Mets Blog

The New York Mets lost their fourth straight game to the San Diego Padres 8-6 on Sunday afternoon.  The bats came alive early, in the first inning the Mets scored more runs than they had the first three games of the series. Howeve they were unable to capitalize on their offensive production.  With one swing of the bat, Tony Clark drove in the winning runs and the Padres completed a four game sweep, sending the Mets home to Shea 7 ½ games behind the first place Phillies. 

Pedro Martinez did not pitch well.  When he took the mound in the bottom of the first, he had a 3-0 lead.  The Padres scored their first run of the game off a balk by Martinez, for Pedro that was only the sixth balk of his career, the first one in ten years.  Pedro allowed three runs in the first inning, that marked the sixth straight start (dating back to last season) where Pedro had given up at least one run in the first.  Pedro went five innings, giving up four earned runs on ten hits with four strike outs. 

Endy Chavez had a great defensive play in the bottom of the first when he threw out Edgar Martinez at third to record the second out of the inning.  Endy Chavez had kind of gotten lost in the shuffle early on because  Marlon Anderson was getting so much playing time and plate appearances, but with both Ryan Church and Anderson unable to play, Chavez has come in and consistently played great defense and has had some good offensive production as well.  In the top of the seventh, Chavez laid down a perfect drag bunt that scored Delgado from third to add what was thought to be an insurance run, to give the Mets at 6-4 lead.    

Raul Casanova was the surprise starter behind the plate today, as Ramon Castro was a late scratch from the line up, not because of injury but because he overslept and did not show up until one hour before game time.  Great job by Castro, especially considering that he knew that he would be starting today with it being a day game after a night game and a lefty on the mound for the Padres.

Maybe I should write uncomplimentary things about Carlos Delgado every day (like I did in yesterday’s blog), after going 3-4 yesterday, Delgado was 3-5, hit two RBI came off a triple in the first inning.  Although the guys did have a better day offensively, the Mets as a team left nine guys on base.  Maybe a couple of other big hits might have saved this one for them today since their pitching let them down. 

For Billy Wagner, it was his third blown save of the season.  Wagner replaced Duaner Sanchez with two on and two out in the bottom of the eighth, he allowed a single to Jody Gerut which scored a run (that run was charged to Sanchez).  With the count full, pinch hitter Tony Clark took a fast ball deep to hit his first homer of the season and to give the Padres an 8-6 lead.  8-6 would be the final score as Trevor Hoffman came in to the game in the top of the ninth and the Mets were retired in order to end the game. 

The Mets did a terrible job; this weekend was a big weekend for them (and not in a good way).  They were coming off a stretch where they had just won three series in a row, and were playing the last place Padres, they should have taken three of four or at the very least split the series.  Not only were they playing the worst team in the National League, but their division rivals, the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies were playing each other, meaning the Mets could have gained some ground in the division.  The Braves were swept by the Phillies, and had the Mets played well against the Padres, they would be going home in the thick of the race.  Instead they now go home closer to last place than first.

 If this four game stretch wasn’t bad enough, the Mets return home to face the first place Arizona Diamondbacks who are scheduled to have Micha Owings, Brandon Webb and Dan Harren on the mound in this series.  The Mets will counter with John Maine, Mike Pelfrey, and Johan Santana.  The Mets are in trouble, they have put themselves in a position where every time they take the field now they need to win.  Yes, it is only the second week in June, but the Phillies 7 ½ game lead could become insurmountable quickly as the Phillies are hot right now and the Mets are not. 

Mets Blog

The New York Mets beat the San Francisco Giants 5-3 on Wednesday afternoon and with the victory they won the three game series by taking two out of three games.  The Mets now have won two straight games and are two games over .500 at 30-28 on the season.

John Maine threw six innings while giving up seven hits and two runs to get the victory.  Maine stepped up big for the Mets and recorded his sixth win of the season.  Duaner Sanchez pitched seventh and eighth innings and allowed one run and then turned things over to Billy Wagner in the ninth who shut the Giants down and recorded his 13th save of the season.

At the plate for the Mets, they got three runs in the first inning and than two more in the fourth inning for all of their scoring.  In the first inning, Carlos Beltran doubled to score Jose Reyes and David Wright.  Beltran then came around to score on a rbi single by Carlos Delgado.  In the fourth inning, it was a two run home run by Reyes that scored both runs.

Reyes and Beltran both finished the game with two rbi while Delgado had one rbi.

The Mets will start a four game series with the San Diego Padres on Thursday.

Mets Blog

The New York Mets won their third straight game on Thursday night beating the Los Angels Dodgers 8-4.  The Mets are now back at .500 and sit 4 games out of first.  Not only did the Mets spoil Joe Torre’s return to New York, but they manhandled Brad Penny once again.  Penny is now 5-13 lifetime against the Mets is 1-10 at Shea Stadium.   

The Mets had 13 hits last night and David Wright continued his dominance against Penny, hitting two two run homers in last night’s game.  In 21 career at bats against Penny, Wright is hitting a whopping .524 with four home runs, five walks and 19 RBI.  Wright’s average is now up to .284 after going 2-4 with 4 RBI in last nights win.  Luis Castillo, Endy Chavez, and Brian Schneider all had RBI as well. 

The Mets got great defense last night, in the first inning Endy Chavez made a great play to throw out Juan Pierre at the plate to keep the Dodger’s off the board.  Later in the game Carlos Delgado made a great play on a line drive to first, and just missed doubling Russell Martin off first. 

The Mets have done a good job in these past three games.  I don’t know if it is the orange jacket, if it is the fact that Willie seems like he is safe for the time being, or if it is the thought of getting Pedro back, but something has clicked and the Mets have been a much better team, might even be the best we’ve seen them play since the Yankee series.

I applaud Willie Randolph for sitting Carlos Delgado those two games against the Marlins, Delgado was 2-4 last night and played good defense.  When asked about the manager’s decision to sit him those two games, Delgado told the press that he understood where Willie was coming from.  According to the New York sports pages, when asked how he’d feel about a platoon at first, Delgado basically said, that he and Willie would have a problem if that were the case.  Wow-really Carlos?  You are hitting .222 and have killed the Mets this year.  I realize that at one point you were a superstar, but you haven’t shown the Mets that in a year and a half.  I guess you don’t get that “Whatever is best for the team” concept, huh?

The Mets looked so much better the past three nights, watching them has been fun again!  They hustled, played hard, and did not give up.  They have gotten some good pitching performances, and their bull pen has been great.  They are also getting two out hits which is something that we haven’t seen them do.  I get that winning three straight is too soon to proclaim that the Mets are back, but it sure is nice to watch them play good ball once again. 

The Mets will send John Maine to the hill tonight and he will be opposed by Clayton Kershaw who made his Major League debut just five days ago against the St. Louis Cardinals.  Game time is 7:10 p.m.  

Mets Blog  

The New York Mets ended their five game losing streak with a 9-2 win over the Colorado Rockies on Saturday afternoon.  They finally found some offense and quickly went to work on Rockies’ starter Jeff Francis, jumping out to a five run lead in the first inning.  When all was said and done the Mets would score 9 runs off 12 hits. The Mets found the spark that has been missing during their losing streak; maybe it was the fact that they jumped out to a 5-0 lead.  However, I think the excitement of seeing rookie Nick Evans make his major league debut going 3-4 with three doubles and two RBI helped a little bit too.  Evans was called up from AA Binghamton where he has played in 43 games, hitting .296 with 31 RBI.  Evan’s offensive production marked only the second time in the last 58 years that a Mets rookie went 3-3 in this major league debut; the last Met to do that was Kaz Matsui.   

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