This was an letdown because we had a 7 game winning streak, johan was on the mound, and for 6 innings it was neck and neck and johan was grooving, but the fact is they outplayed us and deserved the win. some games we out hit the other team, out pitch them, but lose anyway for dumb reasons like not converting with RISP or too many walks or a bad call or whatever. this was not one of those games. Derek Lowe was great, they outhit us by almost double, our bullpen faltered, and we committed 2 costly errors in the game costing us 5 unearned runs. that was really the difference: with sound fielding those 5 runs would be off the board and we'd have been tied 3-3 instead of down 8-3, but that's as big a part of the game as any. We can still take the series if we get our heads back on straight and forget tonight ever happened for tommorow's game.

This loss has Jerry Manuel written all over it.  Nevermind the bone head errors by Wright and Reyes.  The biggest bone head move was to: 1) Take Santana out, and 2) let Feliciano pitch to Matt Diaz who has a career batting average of .323 against lefties!

Through 7 starts this year, Johan Santana's ERA is 0.78. That is amazing. In those 7 games he has started, the Mets are 4-3. That is amazing too, but for the wrong reason. Also amazing for the wrong reason is that already Johan has 2 losses in which he didn't let up a single earned run. Instead of getting a needed, encouraging boost every 5 days, the Mets are slacking off with the presumption that they will win anyway, and that nonchalant laziness is intolerable. On days he pitches, the fielding falls apart (evidenced by Murphy's error in Florida and Wright's/Reyes' errors last night), the batting falls apart (he has less run support than any other pitcher with 7 starts thusfar) and the bullpen behind him falls apart (evidenced by last nights ugliness that turned a 1-1 game into a 8-3 game in 2 innings). Our record with Johan on the mound, despite his unquestionable dominance, is worse than our record without Johan on the mound! Johan is not one to care about his W's and L's, but he does care about the teams W's and L's and the rest of the team needs to get the message that even if he pitches a gem every time he can't do it alone. Until they learn that, we Mets fans will keep dreading Johan's starts instead of treasuring them.

Johan has definitely got screwed a bit by the lack of support behind him so far this season. He should be 7-0 (or at least 5-2) but the defense and offense have failed to perform when he's on the mount. The Mets have scored only 15 runs and made 7 errors in the 7 games Johan has pitched.

More blunders in game 2 vs. the Braves. Beltran misplays a fly ball. Braves score a run. Alex Cora caught napping on the bases. David Wright strikes out looking with runners in scoring position. I know that Jurrjens has some good stuff but that shouldn't cause Mets defensive errors and baserunning miscues. We still have time for some magic though.

Wooo! That felt great! The game ended like 2 minutes ago so i'm still pumped. There is not a chance in the world that we would have won that game last year. Down 3-0 in the 8th inning? No way. We'd have canned the next 2 AB's and gone home for a shower. not now! After Pelfrey gave us 7 very solid, encouraging innings, our bullpen was unable to do the same and it was 3-0 before our 8th inning AB. but instead of keeling over, our stars got tough and won us the game. Reyes had a clutch 2 run double in the 8th, Beltran doubled and stole third in the 9th to allow Castillo to drive him in as a pinch hitter via sacrifice fly in the 9th, and with 2 outs and nobody on in the 10th Reyes beat out an infeild single, stole second, and was walked in from there. Very exciting, but not so much for the win as for what it symbolized.

9 days ago, Omar Minaya slipped in a little barb about his Mets "not playing with an edge". He was quick to clarify that he didn't mean they didn't have that edge, but just that we weren't playing with it at the time. Since then we are 8-1, and we just won a come from behind extra innings game due to late heroics from our stars. Tonight, we played with an edge. At home, in front of an enthused crowd, vs. our division rivals, trying to protect our slim lead in the division, down 3 runs with 5 outs to get them, our backs against the wall, we delivered. Now we have to do that for 5 more months!

Great win tonight but why was Pelfrey pulled after 95 pitches when he was looking so strong? That's 2 consecutive nights where I felt the starting pitcher shouldve been left in the game.

Anyway, just a small blemish on a great game.  Good to see Beltran finally slide and get his uniform dirty stealing 3rd in the 9th for what was probably the turning point of the game!

I listened via my iPod this afternoon and thought this one was a real kick in the gut. I so hate getting beaten by the Braves. John Niese's carriage turned into a pumpkin and he turned in a performance as bad as Ollie would have on one of his bad nights. Jose Reyes, who's been playing better lately, gaffed on the bases getting thrown out at third without sliding on what would have been an infield hit by Luis Castillo. And then the missed opportunities like the end of the game where Beltran and Sheffield stranded Reyes on third base. It's going to be a long flight to the west coast tonight.

More bad news. Ryan Church has fallen of the face of the earth offensively. And Carlos Delgado may go on the disabled list with a bum hip. It's still May and I feel like we're in the dog days of summer already.