Nice Job, Guys

I suppose whatever I could say right now could very well have already been said the last time the Phillies indignantly swept the Mets and thoroughly embarrassed them in the process.

I'm really at a loss right now because it looked like the Mets had turned a corner and were finally ready to march into the Playoffs after a completely ass-backwards regular season. But it appears I'm mistaken. After another three games in which they looked like they were the last place team and the Phillies were the first place team, the Mets now, once again, have to turn it all around and reclaim their division lead, which has shrunk to 3 1/2.

How does a team with championship aspirations manage to get themselves completely humiliated again and again by their closest division rival? It's bad enough that they were swept in Philadelphia a few weeks ago, but now they've allowed the Phillies to march into Shea and sweep them TWICE IN A ROW! This is now 6 straight losses at Shea and 8 overall. And it's completely baffling and totally unacceptable.

I'm not sure what the problem is. All signs right now point to the Bullpen, and that's the obvious choice right now, considering they had huge hands in the pissing away of all 3 games this weekend. But while Heilman, Sosa, Mota et. al. are all worthy of the blame they receive, what's lost is that while the Phillies were doing things like getting hits and driving in runs with runners in scoring position, the Mets were grounding into double plays and getting sacrifice flies from their cleanup hitter. On Sunday, the pitching matchup featured a guy with an ERA in the mid 3s, and a guy with an ERA in the mid 6s. And guess who came out of it looking worse? It's not Oliver Perez's fault that his offense didn't back him up, and certainly not his fault that his teammates also forgot how to field.

The bitch of it is that with 2 weeks left, Philly is probably going to go out and get killed by St. Louis. The Mets right now seem to be the only team they can beat! Of course, the Mets are headed into their final stretch of the season, with 14 games against mostly dregs. It would be nice if the Mets could get their shit together and wallop them good and proper, but I don't know if I can count on that right now. Coming into another must-win game, with ElDuque clearly ailing (and my feelings that he is now the one who should go to the pen in the postseason—if there is a postseason—is another post for another time), rather than giving the ball to someone who might actually throw a good game (Pelfrey), or someone deserving of a shot just so we can see what he has (Humber), the Mets are once again announcing their presence as a World Championship Contender by sending the almighty Brian Lawrence to the mound tonight in Washington. Good God, what the hell is going on with this team!?

Magic Number: Still 11.