A Total Wash Out

Submitted by robsafuto on Thu, 08/30/2007 - 23:04.

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!

This team has problems right now. The bullpen is obvious. It is shot. Feliciano and Heilman may be the only live arms in there right now. Everyone else is waking dead. There's just no way a team can compete with a bullpen that can't hold a two run lead.

The offense still has its troubles. The Mets scored a lot today but they were the beneficiaries of eight walks by Philly pitching. Jose Reyes got intentionally walked even though he's in the middle of a bad slump. Carlos Delgado is better but still a zombie right now.

There's plenty of life in David Wright thank heavens. I feel good about Beltran, Endy Chavez and Marlon Anderson as well.

I think that Reyes will bust out of this slump but the bullpen is going to be a tougher nut to crack. Do we roll the dice on Bob Wickman? No kidding. This team needs someone right now. The last week tells you how valuable Duaner Sanchez, Chad Bradford and Darren Oliver were to this team last season.

All these guys can do now is get their act together and fast. It is conceivable that the Mets could be pushed out of a playoff spot altogether if they don't pick it up. Keep an eye on the San Diego-Arizona battle in the West. There's a good chance that the wild card comes from that division.

There is no time for lamenting this from the Mets perspective. Anything less than winning five of the last six on this road trip and its a bust. The other possible saving grace is the fact that the second half of September is packed with games against Washington and Florida.

Preach it brother!

Submitted by sgtwarbucks on Thu, 08/30/2007 - 23:53.

Rob as always you're saying what i'm thinking.

This isn't the team that started playing in April. It isn't even the team that was playing in August. It just seems that they (the pitching staff) are waiting for the "second coming" when Pedro comes back. They have to realize that one player (in this case a pitcher) doesn't a team make.
The METS need to get back to combining great pitching with great hitting. I can't think of the last time i was enthralled with both the offensive power that we SHOULD possess, and the overpowering pitching that we (for some unknown reason) CAN'T tap into.
I'm going to also say that the Marlins have always had the potential to be spoilers, both with us and the rest of the NL East. We have to spank BOTH them and the Braves, so that when the Braves face the Phillies they can prove the old adage "The enemy of my enemy is my friend". We need to let the Braves and Phillies beat up on each other, and further widen our lead.
At the end of the regular season we only need to have a 1 game lead in order to clinch our division. I don't want to have to sweat out the rest of the season. I wish that we could clinch as early as last year, but that just isn't going to happen.

Once again, thanks for the site, the podcast and the faith in the METS that you have!

"We need to let the Braves

Submitted by JNGold on Fri, 08/31/2007 - 00:37.

"We need to let the Braves and Phillies beat up on each other, and further widen our lead."

Exactly. Since the Mets have proven they are incapable of beating either. What a way to win the division. Don't forget, the NL West leading Padres we only have 2 wins against also. Maybe the Mets can just let everybody play so that there will be no-one left to play and the Mets will win the Pennant by default.

There is really no other way

Submitted by vrosario2 on Fri, 08/31/2007 - 01:28.

There is really no other way to say it than how this smart man has said it. There is no kind way to say it. I am a life long Mets fan, live and die Mets fan, but even the biggest Mets fan in New York cannot go to sleep today knowing that the Mets blew a 4-game series and a "not so bad" 6-game home stand. Not only did we blow a 4-game series but we also got a 3-game series against the Braves. Whether we win or lose the next series this game and this series will be sticking up all of Met Nation's ass, all the way in up there. The bullpen is straight up garbage and the pitching rotation is on sleeping medications, their working but drowsy. The lineup has come a long way, bats are starting to come alive. David Wright, Deglado, Chavez and the bottom part of the lineup. the bench is also working on all cylinder like the bench of the last two years. Reyes, I do not know what is going on with him. Only one hit in the 4-game series in almost 20 at-bats. The Mets have got to wake up. Remember the last Pirates series, we need the same wakeup that we had after that dissapointing loss. Can it happen? Of course. However, Willie has got to fix up the bullpen and wake up the lineup. He has got shake the cages of these sleeping Mets players. I really hope they can turn it around during the Braves series. We got Maine pitching tomorrow and he is coming around, maybe he can help turn this team around.

pass the anti-depressants

Submitted by Phoola on Fri, 08/31/2007 - 03:22.

Each game in this series was more jaw-droppingly appalling than the one before it. A 9-2 rout in which we couldn't manage more than 2 runs against the worst pitching staff in the NL while our bullpen was in a competition to see who could toss the softest. A 4-2 heartbreaker in which we could all see Mota serving up the game losing HR in the 10th five pitches before it happened, like a gloomy prediction of disaster coming true before our eyes. A 3-2 whack on the head with a hammer in which we tasted revenge over that SOB Brett Myers to have it snatched from our jaws by an interference call. And today's mind-numbing torture chamber of proof that the offense is there but further proof that we will find a way to bungle it away through mismanagement, poor defense and the horrible pitching again. Does anybody here think that our bullpen is safe with a lead of less than four runs? I don't see a fix for it, it will have to magically fix itself.

The guys on the field get paid millions for this. I know they are doing their best - I honestly believe that they want to win as badly as we want them to - but when they fail they go home to their ostrich farms and 50-acre estates and penthouse apartments while we are left staring into space, reading each other's blogs of woe.

I have been a Mets fan for 40 years, and know the pain that they can wield in my heart. But it has been a long time since the Mets have caused such anguish. They can turn it into jubilation very easily - it takes a one-game lead after the final game of the season. It is slipping away but it is not gone.

Here's the link: http://www.wfan.com/episode_download.php?contentType=36&contentId=978359

Maybe there is a positive from the series...

Submitted by Alar on Sun, 09/02/2007 - 03:23.

Maybe their sweep finally woke the Mets up? If that's what happened and if it's not too late for them to start playing intense baseball, the Phillie series will have been very positive indeed!