The Nationals are a seriously bad team. I don't think we can count on the Braves to wipe out the Phillies. So the Mets need to do this on their own. We need a sweep of the very beatable Nationals.

bad all around. bad starting effort by pedro letting up 4 runs to the inferior nats, bad bullpen effort by sanchez letting up 3 more, and abysmal batting as we scored just 2 runs on the lowly nats. when our linuep reads reyes church wrigh beltran delgado, we have to do better than that in crucial games. we are a half a game up now. basically, we have no lead. we have to play better than the phillies for 13 games, and 4 of them are against the cubs. the phillies have only the nats, braves, and fish left on their schedule. it's not looking good folks. i sooooo wish we could turn back the clock 4 days. 4 days ago we had scored 10 and 12 runs against the nationals and our whole team was on a role, 3 games up. remember those days? 3 losses, a phillies sweep and 2 blown leads later, we have a half game lead. my confidence in this team is way down. gulp.

This is going to be a heartburn week. Heck it will probably be that way for the rest of the month. There's no room for error. The Mets must win the next three versus the Nationals. This is the absolute worst time for both the pitching and the hitting to go out on us.

!) This team is too good to have two such bad, so similar meltdowns in consecutive years.

2) There was no 7-game lead from which to fall, so it shouldn't spiral as badly as last year.

3) The Mets may benefit from playing the Cubs and play to the level of the competition. I imagine it's tough getting worked up to play in DC in late September.

4) The Phillies are only playing against spoilers (see #3). The problem is that spoilers don't seem interested in ever spoiling against anyone but the big-market teams i.e. the Mets.

5) It wasn't that long ago that we went into Milwaukee and swept them and we swept DC recently too. There's plenty of time left in DC to step it up. Don't try to win 3 games at a time.

The collapse is looming. Bats are dead.

it's official. i have hit the panic button. that is something i failed to do last year. i failed to start worrying until the final week. not that it makes a difference, but it's officially time to start worrying folks. time to buy an extra bag of paper bags at your next supermarket trip, because they may come in handy should we blow this again. i know we never really had a commanding lead...at the 17 games mark we were only 3.5 games ahead...but still this is awful. what the heck happened? on friday we were up 3 games and had scored 10 and 14 runs in our last two games. in the 5 games since, we have blown 2 saves and scored i think under 5 runs collectively. pelfrey was great tonight, letting up just 1 run over 7 innings. he was the only positive. when we're facing frikin odalis perez in the most important part of the season, we have to more than put up 4 measely hits and not get any runs. and we failed twice with runners in scoring position. i still can't beleive that we have lost two in a row and scored 2 runs COMBINED to the NATIONALS just when it becomes do or die time! luckily, the brewers and phillies are both down by one run, and that could change. if it does, we deserve to be in second in the division. we really do. this team has played simply limp in the past few games. i am jumping up and down on the panic button right now.

great. perfect. and that is what cost us our only run too, that play. rubbing salt in the wound.

Well, what happened was we were rolling along and everyone was hot and pitching in. Then all of a sudden we had a Monday off, a Thursday off, throw in a rain day or two, a doubleheader, which got us out of the win-one-a-day cycle and it's been all downhill like we've forgotten how to do everything ever since.

I'm finding it hard to be optimistic this morning about the Mets chances of making the playoffs. The early season problems that have once again reappeared are now combined with injuries in a way that I'm not sure the Mets will be able to recover from.

Here are some of the biggest issues that worry me.

* The bats go silent for a couple of games at a time against mediocre to poor pitching.
* The bullpen doesn't contain a pitcher who can reliably throw a scoreless inning.
* Injuries. No closer because Billy Wagner is out. Short in the already short outfield because Fernando Tatis is out. Damion Easley doubtful due to quad injury.
* Starting pitching handicapped. John Maine is doubtful. Pedro Martinez is ineffective.

I'm starting to think that even if the Mets get a wild card sport they won't make it out of the first round of playoffs.

as a mets fan, i have learned over the years that the only way to keep ones sanity is to be an optimist. i agree with your assesment rob, all except for one thing: the starting pitching. sure, our bats have gone quietly, our bullpen is worst in the game, and we have our closer, starting left feilder, starting right feilder, third string corner outfeider (pagan), fourth string corner outfeilder (tatis) and fifth string corner OF (nixon) all out for the season. but looking at the flip side, the optimist side of me feels the need to poin out that the following are all true as well:

- we are only a half game back, exactly where we were at the all-star break and we were ecstatic with our position then. that is overcomeable in one day so we are basically in a virtual tie with the phils.

- though silent in the past two games, our bats have proved to us over the past few months that they are plenty capable of hitting well, and i think our lineup is better than the phillies is.

- in my mind, our starting pitching is in the top 5 in the MLB, and pelfrey, johan, and even perez have been pitching excellently for the entire season 9knock on wood). and niese looked great in his last start, and due to his recent callup his arm has to be fresher than anyone elses. If maine comes back in time for the playoffs, we will have 4 great arms ready to go and pitching is what wins playoff series.

- out of the 12 games left on our schedule, 10 are at home and 8 are against poor teams.

this is going to be a crazy 2 weeks, but i am confident with every aspect of our team other than bullpen that it can, if it forgets the past 5 days and plays with vigor and confidence, outduel the phillies and win this division! or at least a wildcard.

Maine himself suggested this possibility, saying that if his coaches and trainers didn't think he was ready to handle a starters role in time for the playoffs/end of season, he would be happy to pitch from the bullpen to help the team out. i am all for this idea. we all know maine is a great pitcher and that our bullpen blows, and our pitching minus pedro has done allright without him. hey, it's better to have him in the pen then not playing at all, right? would you guys be cool with maine temporarily moving to the bullpen to help them out or do you think that would be a bad move.

also, click on the "The Silver Lining" post on the far right of the iheartmets homepage to see even more reasons why the mets are far from done in this race. if it's gone, use this link.

http://miraclemets.net/?p=612

i thought it was a good article.

All i can say is ARGHHHHH!!!!

For those of you that remember Mr. Peabody and the Wayback Machine......I feel like i've stepped into the Wayback Machine, and it's Late September 2007.....except this year i'm not deployed!!!!

Arggggghhhhhh!!! If i have to hear from one more Yankees fan about "the Fold", "The Choke", "The Fade"......i'll slap somebody!

That being said, i'm not panicking, but frustrated. The last couple of games against the Nats have been ours to win, but instead they've been lost!!!

Tug Said it.....I believe it.....That settles it......
YA GOTTA BELIEVE

Glad I wasn't following last night's drama in real time. It was 7-2 the only chance I got to check on it before the nightly unraveling. I hear Heilman was even worse than usual (IS THIS POSSIBLE??).*

OK, I make no pretense that this team is as good as 2006's, but how many times lately has the league's best team advanced to the Series? Does anyone think the 2006 Cardinals or 2007 Rockies were the best team in the league? Of course not. Any team can win any series and as long as we're ½ a game out in the East and ½ a game up in the WC, we might as well play for them and hope for the best. This is still mostly the team that won, what, 10 in a row or so not that long ago and didn't lose a series for weeks on end.

Even if we do end up with the WC, maybe we'd be better off because we'd have a better shot of taking Chicago in a 5-game series? Has anyone thought of that yet? Come on, we can't let Shea go into history without some fnial playoff games unlike that dump in the Bronx.

* and yet I see this on Wikipedia:

> [Heilman] has had three straight consistent years of an ERA under 4 as a reliever, a feat that is rarely achieved.

When does this ever happen? When does he rack up any good stats? There must be games I'm missing or he's like a hitter that hits 3-run HRs when you're down 11-2 in the 8th--looks nice, means nothing.

I really didn't want a split but that'a what we'll have to take. The Phillies were no help, sweeping the Braves. Hopefully the Braves are weakened and we can get em at Turner Field this weekend. Milwaukee lost so the Mets are 1.5 games up on the wild card. Ten games left. It's a sprint to the finish.