Reinforcements

During the 4th or 5th inning of last night's game, I heard Ron Darling talking about how he had been speaking to one of the Nationals broadcasters before the game. He said that the Nationals broadcaster (whose name escapes me) was talking about the team. He said that they had been very inconsistent so far, particularly in regards to the performances they had been getting out of their regulars. He mentioned that when they'd hit, they weren't getting good pitching. When they were getting good pitching, they didn't hit. When they had leads, they couldn't hold them. Sometimes they hit and pitched, but couldn't field. It was never the same from one day to the next. Darling concluded this by saying that this was the sign of a last-place ballclub.

Doesn't that description sound a little too familiar here?

One inning later, it was the Mets doing the imploding, allowing the Nationals to come back from a few one-run deficits and eventually romp over the Mets for 10 runs, mainly off of Nelson Figueroa and Jorge Sosa. Following the game, Figueroa blasted the Nationals for cheering and yelling during the game.

Again, sound familiar?

Seems to me that Figueroa could have circumvented that by simply pitching better against a last-place team, but then, maybe that's asking a little too much. And after their performances last night, both Figueroa and Jorge Sosa have been sent packing, designated for assignment this afternoon in favor of Claudio Vargas and Matt Wise, with Vargas scheduled to make the start on Wednesday evening. Of course, this happens to be the next game I have tickets for, so we'll close our eyes, eat an extra bowl of Matzoh Ball soup and hope for the best.

If nothing else, today's moves (which includes the disabling of Angel Pagan, who'd been struggling anyway, and the recalling of Fernando Tatis), particularly that of designating Sosa, are a sign that the Mets are, at the very least, not going to stand idly by while the same players screw up over and over again. Sosa was set to make $2 million this season, which the Mets have displayed that they are willing to eat in order to somehow better the team. Whether or not Matt Wise is actually going to better the team remains to be seen, but even if he's terrible, he's not going to be any worse than Sosa had been over the first 6+ weeks of the season. In the case of Figueroa, yes, it was a nice story having him return to the Mets after being dealt 10 years ago (for a pair of rent-a-players, Jorge Fabregas and Willie Blair, if you can believe it), returning to his hometown team and pitching well for a pair of starts, but the sad reality of it is that once you're a journeyman, you're forever a journeyman, and once you stop producing, you're likely out of job again. But that's what the 5th starter's spot is for the Mets right now, at least as long as Pedro is out. So, it's Claudio Vargas now. We'll see what happens.

With the Mets embarking on a rather difficult stretch now (next 5 series include @NYY, @ATL, @COL, FLA, LA), they need to beat up on the teams they're clearly better than, such as the Nationals. They should win the remaining games in this 4-game series, and with Maine tonight, that's a good start. But with Vargas tomorrow and Pelfrey Thursday, it's hard to know what the hell you're going to get. The next 19 games are going to tell you a lot about where the Mets are, and where they're going to go this season.

Waking Up

After a weekend that saw him produce a 5-RBI game and a 3-RBI game, it may be that time of year where Carlos Beltran begins to go on one of his hot streaks.

About damn time.

After a rainout on Friday night, which drew the ire of some indignant fans who like to scream and yell on WFAN, the Mets and Reds staged one of my most favorite Baseball Traditions on Saturday: The Day-Night Doubleheader.

In the afternoon half of this mockery, the Mets put up 12 runs, backing Johan Santana, who clearly didn't have his best stuff. This meant that, after Wednesday's game in LA, the Mets had back-to-back games in which they scored 12 runs. Now that's news! News enough that Santana, who didn't look especially dominant in allowing 3 runs on 10 hits, really didn't have to break much of a sweat, as the Mets charged ahead and really didn't look back. Beltran came up in a pair of RISP situations and responded with a 2-run single and a 3-run triple, hits sorely missing from his, and the Mets repertoire across the board. Carlos Delgado added a cosmetic HR and Schneider hit his first of the season, and at that particular moment, you had to be thinking sweep. The Reds are awful, they have no pitching, and the Mets are finally starting to hit.

So of course, the Mets go out and shit the bed in the nightcap. Bronson Arroyo, he of an ERA over 7, comes out and shuts the Mets down. 12 runs one game, 1 run the next. Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2008 Mets.

Sunday could very well have been redemption day for the Mets. Oliver Perez wasn't outstanding, and he wasn't overpowering. But he was a hell of a lot better than he had been lately. Perez generally has been the victim of one really putrid inning that snowballs out of control, and yesterday, he ran into trouble in the 6th inning, allowing 3 runs. But by that time, Beltran and Ryan Church had already hit HRs off of screaming Reds Rookie Johnny Cueto (shades of Jose Lima?) and the Mets held a 6-0 lead, which they were able to salt away even before the Reds managed to bat out of order in a thoroughly comical scene.

So, I don't know what's next for the Mets. Today does not look like a particularly good day for Baseball, although after Friday, it appears that the Mets will wait as long as possible to call a game. Which means that we'll get people who call WFAN that went to the game, actually thinking it would be played, and scream about how it's all Freddie's fault and indignantly shouting "I WILL NEVER GO TO ANOTHER METS GAME AGAIN!"

Yeah, that's right. Get mad! That's how you affect change. Hit that 6-run HR.

Spare me, folks. Just remember, if you don't go, someone else will.

Washington in town this week, which means that the Mets will probably split a 4-game series (assuming all 4 are played). The rotation is jumbled after the rainout. Another rainout might fix it. And the Yankees are coming up over the weekend (It's interleague play already???)

Headlights Look Like Fastballs

Leave it to John Maine to take the ball when the Mets appear to be staring down the bleakest of days, falling deeper into an abyss of lost hope and shattered dreams, sailing into a sunset and watching the season fade into a maelstrom of darkness, as dark as the soul of the loneliest fan in the back row of UR48.

With another solid outing on Wednesday, Maine continued to provide a stabilizing force for the Mets. With his high fastball working well and setting up his slider (and his new looping slow slider), Maine efficiently threw shutout ball into the 9th inning—The 9th Inning!—before the Dodgers finally reached him for a run and he departed after 8.1 very solid and very important innings.

It helps that the bats woke up and gave Maine the backing he needed today, although the offense still remains the larger problem with the club. For once, the Mets situational hitting came through, plating 6 runs after 2 were out in the 5th inning, and even included a 2-run single by Maine himself, his first hit of the season. Ryan Church continued hot, Luis Castillo came up with a pair of hits, Wright finally broke out of an 0-11 skid and the Mets basically had one of those rare days where everything fell into place for them.

Now, I just hope that the Mets can do this without John Maine to provide the light at the faraway end of that dark, bleak tunnel, and play "the kind of game they're supposed to be playing" a few more times as they return home to face Cincinnati over the weekend.

Serves Me Right...

...for trying to be positive.
Last night's game was just like every other game the Mets have played this season in which the offense failed to show up, mirroring games like this one, this one and this one. Last night was one of those efforts that I hate the most, because LA's starter Hiroki Kuroda basically said to the Mets, "Here, you can have this game." And the Mets refused to take it. Of course, they let the Dodgers hang around. Kuroda departed for Hong-Chih Kuo, who, let's face it, is not a good pitcher, except when he faces the Mets (regular season only), and only when he faces the Mets does he start striking out everyone. Blake DeWitt hits an Inside-The-Park HR that's probably still bouncing. Then Broxton and Saito, and Goodnight, Sweetheart.

It's a game straight out of 2007. The Mets were 2 for 13 with RISP last night. As a team, they're hitting a grand .242 with Runners in scoring position, and an even more hideous .167 with 2 outs and runners in scoring position. These numbers won't cut it. And after last year, you'd think they would have learned something. Apparently, that's not the case.

The Mets 16-15 record right now seems perfectly indicative of the kind of team they are: A team with no identity, no consistency and, at times, no direction. It's not a team I'm enjoying to watch and not a team I feel good about. I know I'm not the only one who feels this way, but it seems like I have to ply my fandom based on events of the past. I was watching highlight films from 1999 and 2000 yesterday. Happier times. Times when I enjoyed watching and rooting for the Mets. There was pride then. There's no pride now. I don't know what the hell there is now in rooting for this version of the Mets, other than a lot of headache and mental anguish.

I don't know. Afternoon special at Chavez Ravine today. Can Death Cab for John Maine right this ship?

Here We Go Again...

And it took Oliver Perez all of 3 pitches to undo the good vibes I was trying to bring in here. Every start it's something else with him. If it's not the walks, it's the HRs. And playing from behind, the Mets offense basically went back into their little shell, where they didn't make much of a peep until the game was, for them at least, out of reach.

I know the Dodgers are hot right now, and I know that the Joe Torre Minutiae has spread throughout that locker room, but how are the Dodgers, the Sad Dodgers any different from the Mets, at least as far as the makeup of their clubs? Yet the Mets pretty much lay down and died last night, to the point where it wasn't even worth it for me to hear the end of the game. I was asleep by the time it was over, and yet I felt I wasn't really missing anything. This is not a good sign. And at least one person (whom was mentioned last week) seems to be pretty certain where the finger needs to be pointed...