The New York Mets completed a rain shortened series with the New York Yankees on Sunday night with an 11-2 win.  However, one can only guess what the score might have been if not for an awful call by the umpires in the fourth inning.  The Mets had scored three runs off of Yankee starter Chien-Ming Wang when Carlos Delgado came to the plate.  Delgado hit a shot to left field that struck the foul pole and bounced into the crowd, third base umpire Mike Reilly called it a homerun; however first base umpire Alfonso Marquez said it was a foul ball, and after the umpires gathered to discuss it, the call was reversed by home plate umpire Bob Davidson.  Replays on the telecast showed that the ball was clearly a homerun, and when television cameras caught up with the guy who was sitting next to the foul pole and had possession of the “foul” ball, there was a black scuff mark on the ball and a white scuff mark on the foul pole.  Lucky for those umpires that Delgado went on to hit a RBI single and that those two runs did not cost them a victory.

I was concerned that that call not going the Mets way was going to be a problem.  I thought for sure the Mets would end up losing the game 6-5 and that call would really make or break the game.  But, the Mets went back to work and really did what they had to do to win the game.  Seven of the nine Mets starters all had a hit, David Wright and Jose Reyes each had two hits, Reyes hit a homerun, his second of the series and fourth of the season.  However, the best thing that came out of that blown call debacle was that Willie Randolph actually got fired up.  He went out to argue the call with the umpires, when play resumed, Randolph must have continued jawing from the dugout because ESPN’s microphones picked up the shouts of home plate umpire Bob Davidson yelling “Shut up Willie!”  Although Davidson did not eject Randolph, bench coach Jerry Manuel who really got into with the umpires, was thrown out of the game.

Oliver Perez did a great job on Sunday night.  It looked like he might get into trouble in the bottom of the fourth when after the excitement in the top half of the inning, Perez gave up a lead off single to Derek Jeter and then a two run shot to Hideki Matsui to make it 4-2.  It looked like Perez might lose it in that fourth inning, but he composed himself and went 7 2/3, walked only two, gave up two earned runs on three hits, and struck out five.  Other than that one inning, Perez pitched really well.  He gave the Mets exactly what they needed, going deep in the game and preserving the win.   He is really going to be a big key to the Mets success down the road if they are going to go anywhere this year, and it was good to see him get it together instead of going into complete meltdown mode.

This was a great weekend to be a Mets fan.  The Mets finally played the way you expect them to, as a team they were great.  Ryan Church continues to make a name for himself.  His defense is really good, and he also has put up great offensive numbers, hitting his ninth homerun of the season last night; Church is now hitting .307 with 9 homeruns, 32 RBI.  I just hope that the Mets can capitalize on this momentum and play tough; they are now in second place, just one game out of first and tied in the loss column with the Marlins.  This upcoming road trip could be a big challenge; they’ve got four games in Atlanta and three in Denver against the Rockies.  After the trip, the Marlins come to town for three and then the Mets close out May with three against the Dodgers.  The Mets could really make some headway here in these next 13 games.  It would be great for them to open the up division a bit and put some distance between them and .500.   

The Mets have an off day on Sunday, and open a series with a double header against the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday.  First pitch for game one is scheduled for 1:10 p.m.  The Mets will finally face Tom Glavine who will pitch the first game of the double header; he will be opposed by John Maine.  Claudio Vargas coming off a great start against the Washington Nationals, will start the 7:10 p.m. nightcap for the Mets.

Mets Blog    

After handing Micha Owings his first loss of the season, the Mets faced a 6-0 Brandon Webb on Saturday afternoon.  Knowing how good Webb is, as Mets fans we couldn’t expect that there would be much offense, and there wasn’t, at least, not for the Mets.  The Diamondbacks crushed the Mets 10-4; Brandon Webb earned his seventh win of the season. 

The Mets pitching was so bad on Saturday, that I can hardly find the words to describe it, which is a problem given that that is exactly what I am supposed to be doing.  The score is not really an indication of how bad the Mets pitching was.  The Diamondbacks scored 10 runs on 15 hits.  However, as a team, they left 11 guys on base.  Imagine what would have happened if the Diamondbacks got a few other key hits. 

Again, it wasn’t just one pitcher, as a staff walks were a problem.  Or I should say, throwing strikes was the problem.  Mike Pelfrey pitched only 5 innings.  He was awful, but luckily for him, the Diamondback’s helped him out of trouble a time or two.  Pelfrey would leave the game after the fifth inning because he had thrown his maximum number of pitches and was clearly laboring.  His final line: 5 innings, 9 hits, 5 Runs (all earned), one strike out, and 4 walks.   It wasn’t just Pelfrey who stunk, Heilman-awful, Schoeneweis, Sanchez-awful!  The Mets as a staff gave up a total of six walks; four of them belonged to Pelfrey.  Guys didn’t get ahead of hitters, Aaron Heilman hit two batters-although, I do have to give him some credit, with bases loaded in the seventh, he did get a big strike out to end the inning.  Duaner Sanchez gave up five earned runs on 4 hits.  The fact that the Mets can’t get a starter to go more than five or six innings has totally exposed the Mets bull pen, and if this keeps up, how can they expect that the relief pitchers can hold up in August?  

After the Mets disaster on Wednesday (and I’m not talking about the water main break at Shea Stadium) manager Willie Randolph said to the press here in New York, that in 162 games, a team is bound to have a stinker-I’m wondering now if for some reason I misread what he said, like did he go on to say that teams are bound to have some stinkers every other game?  Is it too early to be concerned?  The Mets have failed to play well and we are whole month into the season.  Is it too early to be worried that they haven’t and won’t get passed what happened last year in September?  I think for a lot of folks, the frustration about how the Mets are playing isn’t so much that the Mets are having a hard time to start the season; but it is about the Mets having not played well since last year in August.  

There are two good things to mention.  The first, Carlos Delgado hit another homerun, and has raised his average about 30 or so points in the past week, I hesitate to say it is a good sign, so I’ll just say, maybe there is hope.  The second good thing, Ryan Church!  Church is the ONLY guy on the team hitting .300 or better.  He is hitting .330 to be exact.  There was some concern that Church wouldn’t be able to hit off lefties, but Church it the lone bright spot in a struggling Mets offense.   

Also, note to Willie Randolph-could you show us something?  A little emotion please?  Something!  While I understand that you are not a guy like Bobby Cox and that you’d like to conduct yourself more like the guys you worked with on the other side of town, but right now, you’re looking more like Art Howe instead of Joe Torre.    

Just when you think things are looking up for the Mets, you’d be wrong.  On Wednesday there was a water main break at Shea Stadium postponing first pitch by just about an hour.  For Oliver Perez and the Mets, it was more like the dam broke and what came pouring out were waves of walks, waves of errors, waves of quitters, and I hope that there were waves of boos.

Waves of quitters you say?  Yes, waves of quitters.  The Mets were never in this game.  You can tell that just by looking at the box score.  Granted, before they even realized what was happening, they were down 7-0.  One had to figure the Mets could maybe put up a bit of a fight, but apparently fight was no where to be found.  The Mets were facing pitcher Tom Gorzelanny who came into the game with and ERA over eight!  That’s right, over eight.  And what did the Mets bats do?  The Mets mustarded just two hits, TWO!  Is there an echo in here?  I tell you what the echo is.  It is that voice that has been inside my head since September as I watched the listless Mets night after night, loss after loss, spiral out of control.  It is the sound of Jimmy Rollins saying, “We’re the team to beat.”  The echo is the sounds of other ball parks that house winners, guys who try and guys who want to win.  Right now, it seems Shea Stadium houses nothing but guys who have inflated salaries and fragile egos- whiners-”Oh the fans boo us.  Oh we have injuries.”  Save it!  What we have seen from some of the Mets this year has been pitiful.  No wonder the Mets fans boo!

Oliver Perez failed to make it out of the second inning today.  He left having pitched 1 2/3 innings, giving up 2 hits, 7 runs (but only two of those were earned) 5 walks, and two strike outs.  Could this guy have been any worse?  I guess the answer is yes, but luckily manager Willie Randolph saved us the misery and pulled him in the second.  He just imploded.  Am I the only one who is sick of watching the Mets pitching staff walk just about every body is sight?  Even Santana who hardly walks anyone walked three on Tuesday night.  Can someone please retire the side in order like for one inning with out giving up three walks?  Oh wait, lets see-Jorge Sosa didn’t walk anyone.  We should give him some credit-only one of the five runs he gave up was earned.  Aaron Heilman performed well today!  The Mets finally found the perfect spot for him-put him in with a twelve run deficit and we’re good to go.  However, at this point I’m not sure we could trust him with a twelve run lead.

So the Mets jet off to face the league leading Arizona Diamond backs who have the best record in baseball and some of the best pitching in baseball.  Yeah-this should be fun.  If you are looking for Wednesday’s recap, uhh-THEY STUNK!  That about sums it up.