3-0 down to the Brewers already and they have had 11 hits in 4 innings. The Mets have only managed 4 hits in 5 innings.

 They need to make a trade badly for a big bat i know they need starting pitching but they are not scoring runs. They should look to trade Tatis who keeps hitting into double plays like clock work, i think they should trade Murphy too. He is still a liability at 1st and his bat hasn't been hot, i think Evans will do a better job at 1st in the long run. Go get Adam Dunn.

Here's what's jumping out at me about this game.  There's the usual Chinese water torture of giving up the early 1-0, 2-0, 3-0 lead and looking lifeless against a renowned starter like Braden Looper.

But when we're down like that, you get David Wright leading off an inning and there's a 3-1 count on him.  Next thing I know I look up and he struck out.  Take the damn walk.  Work a walk, get on base, do something.

Two, not every inning has to involve six base runners by the opposing team.  Just by chance you'd think we might get 3 up, 3 down sometime.

***************

THEN........

We apparently do something right to crawl back into the game and Stokes becomes an instant Milwaukee rally.  Grand slam out of nowhere and we're down 7-2. 

This is getting depressing.  Like psychotically depressing night in, night out.  I have enough aggravation without this.  Even teams in the late 70s and early 80s I was able to watch and get some enjoyment out of the game, but this is just awful.  I haven't been to a game since two years ago, haven't been to Citi obviously and am beginning not to care if I do or not.  Prove me wrong.

***************

THEN........

We get two runners on, signs of life, and what does Wright do?  Hint?  KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

Look at what Milwaukee did...they scored in 6 different innings.  They kept pouring it on.  If we'd gotten 5 runs early, guarantee we wouldn't have added anything to it.

Yes the Mets lost their fourth straight game and fell below .500. But it gets worse. The New York Post is reporting that Carlos Beltran could end up missing the rest of the season. Excuse me while I fall ill for a few months.

The Mets confirmed today that Beltran was in Vail, Colo., for a second opinion on his ailing right knee from noted orthopedic surgeon Richard Steadman.

The ominous aspect of that for Beltran and the Mets is that Steadman is the inventor of microfracture knee surgery, an operation that -- if he opts to have it -- would sideline Beltran for a significant amount of time and potentially jeopardize his career.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06292009/sports/mets/beltran_seeks_second_opinion_on_knee_inj_176742.htm

This team is done.  Toast.  When other teams solidified their starting pitching, we put it all into the bullpen.  Did we need to?  Yes, but we needed to do more too.  Putz lived up to his name and is out til who knows when and just as well.  I'd probbaly just as soon have Wagner fill that role if and when he comes back.  Perez was a bad overpayment for what we got instead of spending $5-10M more and getting someone dependable.

What are we left with now?  A sub-.500 team playing boring baseball in a stadium so cavernous you can't even count on seeing something exiciting like a home run and paying premium for the pleasure.  Yes, injuries are a factor but it's still partly the Mets' fault for incurring them.  Did they not take care of themselves during the offseason?  Did they not stretch right in spring or pre-game?  Is something else in their approach just completely off-base?  Off-base...sounds like the entire offense.  We've got a team that now dumped the Subway Series 5-1 (and it still would've been 4-2 if Castillo had caught the popup), has lost some embarrassing series to lousy teams like the Pirates and Padres, and I think they'll be lucky to win a game in Milwaukee.

I just about don't care at this point.

And even if they manage to right the ship just enough to win the division or wild card and advance, we'll know that this is far from the best team in recent memory and we'll hear that from other teams too.  The best they could hope for?  Maybe this year's version of the 2006 Cardinals that killed us in the playoffs despite being pretty unexciting otherwise.

David Wright Hits a great homerun to break a slump!  Let's go Mets!

Mets 5-2 down.

Santana walked the pitcher. Braun doubles and score son a throwing error by Santana. This team is awful at the moment just awful.

Does anyone know when all the injured players are due back?

Reyes?

Pagan?

Beltan?

Delgado?

Perez?

Maine?

Putz?

If they carry on like this they will end the season in 4th behind phillie, Florida and Atlanta.

As in could this team go any lower? I can't believe what I just saw. Fernando Martinez pulled a Castillo and missed an easy fly ball to center field. F-mart looked like a clutz in the process. That left runners at 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. After a walk the next batter hit a ball over Sheffield's head in left. Two runs scored easily but the third run scored because of a wild throw to the plate. Then the 4th run (the batter) scored on a wild throw back to 3rd base. Either runner at home or 3rd could have been out with a decent throw. Bottom line was four runs on a play that should have lead to only two runs. And even that shouldn't have happened since Martinez should have caught the fly ball. Ugh!

Well, just as well that I didn't know that it was a day game today, sounds like it would've been an aggravating one to watch, even coming away with a 1-0 win.  12 strikeouts by the offense, 1 lone run scored and it sounds like Wright was awful at the plate and in the field.  I don't think one win will fix anything, but if we can even play .500 for a week or two, that would help by not doing further damage while we run out extend the injury clock.

Atlanta beats Philadelphia 11-1!  2 games out of 1st!  We're closing in!

[Was that believable?]

What's a win? I'll take whatever we can get at this point. Meanwhile Johnny Franco is making headlines claiming the team is lacking in leadership. That may be true. But I don't think that any amount of leadership can make a decimated team like the Mets that much better. I'd settle for solid defense and practicing the fundamentals at this point.

http://blogs.nypost.com/sports/mets/archives/2009/07/franco_no_leade.html

I responded here:

http://www.nj.com/mets/index.ssf/2009/07/david_wright_responds_to_criti.html

I'm not saying Franco's right, I'm not saying Wright's right, but there does seem to be a lack of leadership here, maybe because no player wants attention drawn to himself as a leader for fear of being selfish like a Gary Carter or seen as needy for attention or a lightning rod for criticism. I live in Minnesota now but I get the daily postgame interviews as podcasts, and I've got to say that Wright gives awful interviews--it's tough to picture him firing up the team being so soft-spoken and can't pin anything on this or that that they're doing wrong, take it one game at a time, everything's fine and every other cliche in the book. At least the team seems to have stopped using the old postgame standby of "tip your hat to the opposing pitcher." You can't tip your hat every night--look in the mirror. And Wright: say something forceful with some conviction and full voice behind it.