Any way you slice it I think that the 2010 season, what's left of it, is going to be a very long one. Every time I have some hope, like after the 8 game winning streak, and after the 5 game winning streak and sweep of the Phils, the reality sets back in. Now we have a pair of series losses after a sweep that should have turned the Mets season around.

I dozed off during the late innings of the Mets-Cubs game last night. When I woke, but was still a bit fuzzy, the game was tied in the bottom of the 9th inning. Dan Murphy was on 3rd with no one out. David Wright was at the plate. Shea was rockin. Time for some Met magic.

Wright worked the count to 3-0. Got a pitch to hit but he fouled it off. The counted ended up at 3-2. The Cubs pitcher then challenged Wright with a high fastball. Wright stayed with it and drilled the ball into center field. Daniel Murphy walked home. The crowd at Shea exploded. The scoreboard said the Phillies lost, meaning the Mets were a half game out of first with four to play. And we also held the Brewers a game out of the wild card. It was a much needed win.

That's when I really woke up.

I don't have too much hope for a team that can't beat the worst teams in the league. We got swept by the Astros. The bullpen blew another lead today against the awful Pirates. Almost no lead is safe. It really doesn't look good as far as the playoff possibilities are concerned. Every pitcher in the bullpen is weak. What the heck should we do?

Take my advice on this one. Let the loss last night go. It sucks, for sure. But let it go. It's only one game. There's a lot of work to do this season and I think that the team and fans need to look ahead. The Mets need to "bear down" as my dad used to say and win the next two games.

I asked myself plenty of questions after the top of the ninth inning last night. What if Billy Wagner had been available to close the game? What if Jose Reyes had gotten at least one out on the bouncer up the middle? What if Endy Chavez had been positioned correctly when So Taguchi hit a fly ball turned double? Lots of questions. In the end the collapse boiled down to bad pitching, bad defense and bad luck.

The loss today was a tough one folks. Billy Wagner blew his second save opportunity in as many days. And the Mets offense (or what's left of it) failed to produce in key scoring situations. Bases loaded with one out should always equal at least one run!

A quality start by Johan Santana got tossed out the window. Just like Mike Pelfrey's quality start last night almost slipped away. No matter. It goes back and forth just like it has all season long. One night it's the starting pitching, the next night it's the relief, sometimes it's the defense and many time's it's the hitting. Choose your poison with the 2008 Mets.

I'm not one to go to negative this early in the season. I'm very disappointed though. I fear that we have a team that is potentially headed sideways for a while. The Mets have the highest payroll and the oldest roster in the National League. Our reward for that special sauce is barely .500 squad. It's not good enough.

Where do we begin with this team? In a post last month titled Consistently Inconsistent I lamented the same things I feel today.

One day our pitching does us in. The next day the hitting fails us. Sometimes we have problems with starting pitching. Other times its the bullpen. Consistently inconsistent.

I can't imagine that there are too many fans thrilled with the team this morning. Two weeks into the season and the team is 5-6. Not exactly primed for a wire-to-wire run.

What's most frustrating for me is the fact that there's no single reason why the mets have lost games. Yes, there are injuries. Reyes has missed a couple of games. Pedro Martinez is out. Moises Alou is out. But those aren't the only reasons why the Mets have lost games.

The bullpen has collapsed. Starting pitching has collapsed. The bats have gone silent. The defense has failed. Pick any combination of the above and you can come up with reasons why the Mets have lost six games to date.

I can't take anything good from this series with the Phillies. Its a total wash out.

The game today is one of the worst regular season losses I can remember. Its up there with getting eliminated by the Cardinals in 1985. Yes, I know that our Mets are still in first place. But we looked like door mats out there. We looked like a joke and that hurts.

Comeback, schmumback. You get no points for coming back twice and then blowing the game in the ninth inning. To be sure, this one falls on Willie Randolph and Billy Wagner. Everyone was dumbfounded to see Wagner come in for a six out save. He hadn't done that in eight years. And this is a guy who less than a week ago had arm fatigue issues. So Willie did the unthinkable and Wagner followed through by falling apart. Ugh!

A good kick in the ass!

I thought about recording a podcast but I couldn't stand the tears on the mic. Then I hear the words of Don Vito Corleone screaming, "You can act like a man!"

We've got a team that is under performing big time and missing huge opportunities. The Mets came out of their Midwest swing on an high note after taking four of six from the Cubs and Brewers.

Damn, what a bad way to celebrate the 4th of July. After a promising three wins out of four in Philadelphia the Mets have been swept out of Colorado.

Pitching was a disaster. After the first two days you could hardly believe that the staff would give up seventeen runs. And the bats did not come alive as they should have in Colorado.