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.