This is Fun?

I had to wait until this morning to write. I was in no mood to do so after the game, where my text message to El Guapo consisted of "It's over. We're through."

We may not be through, but we're certainly not looking too good right now. After Mike Pelfrey did absolutely everything he could possibly have done to keep the Mets in the game, the Mets offense failed to show up for the 5th game in a row. I know that the team has gone through power outages like this over the course of the season, but now isn't exactly an opportune time to do so. I'd like to say this is different than last year, but I think the only thing different from last year is that we already know what it's like. We've already seen this team go through this. You get the feeling that it's wearing on them just as much as it's wearing on us. It doesn't help when happy-talking chuckle heads like Bob Klapisch write these gloom and doom articles, and it doesn't help when I get asked "Hey, what's up with your Mets?" in some snide, sarcastic tone of voice 47 times a day, and it doesn't help when a Mets fan says to me, "We're gonna be OK!" in some thinly-veiled tone of false hope, and it really doesn't help when my insane co-worker will call me at around 12:40pm and begin screaming, and I mean SCREAMING, about Marlon Anderson and Endy Chavez, one of whom didn't even play last night, and the other whom didn't see a plate appearance.

It's easy to say that once the Mets fall out of first place, as they did last night, they probably won't see it again. It's easy to say that this whole thing is officially in their heads and now out of control, and it sure as hell appears that way right now. Jerry Manuel called a team meeting last night that appeared to have no effect. At least he appears to be conscious while this is going on. Last year, Willie was so lost that the team had to meet without him. But then the Mets go out and get shut out by a guy who, not even a week ago, they torched for 7 runs in 3 innings, and in one such inning forced him to throw 48 pitches. Now they can't hit him!? He's not a good pitcher! He's fortunate to have a Major League job, and the Mets made him look like Walter Freakin' Johnson last night. Then, I get a quote like this:

We hit some balls hard, they caught some balls, and Pelfrey pitched extremely well.

Thank you, Jerry Manuel, for this brilliant insight.

Philadelphia falls behind Atlanta and storms right back. The Mets go down a run to Washington and somehow this is an insurmountable deficit. Joel Hanrahan? Who the hell is Joel Hanrahan? I'll tell you who he is: He wild-pitched the winning run home for the Mets in a game back in April. Remember him? Now, he's Goose Gossage? I don't think so. This team clearly has its head so far up its ass it's ceased to be charming or funny or something to throw cliches at. But at this point, I don't know if anybody on this team even knows how to react in any other way. Take David Wright, for example, who got one of the 4 hits the Mets were able to muster against Odalis Perez. In the 6th inning, he was legitimately robbed by Willie Harris (whom I don't have the energy to launch a full-scale diatribe against, however rest assured I hold him in the same regard as Shane Victorino) on a ball that would certainly have tied the game had it not been caught. But it was caught, and in reality, the Mets had no business allowing the game to come down to a play like that. In the 9th, Wright battled Hanrahan before predictably striking out.
Last week, I would have thought him a likely candidate to hit one out of the park and tie the game. Not now. Not with the Mets playing within the last 2 weeks of the season. Now, it's Idiot Time! And after the game, Wright gives us this gem:

This is what makes it fun. We've got 12, 13 games left to decide the season, this is what you work for, this is what you prepare for, and as an athlete, you love this.

This is fun? Really? David, last week, you fed this guy his lunch. Now, he comes back and beats you 1-0, knocking you out of 1st place. Your teammates haven't hit in 5 games, you've lost 4 of them, and your team, as a whole, appears tight and haunted by the ghosts of last September. Maybe it's somehow fun for you to lose excruciating games that your bullpen pukes up, maybe it's fun for you to get repeatedly robbed by a pipsqueak in a #1 jersey, I don't know. You must be a masochist to think this is fun right now. I'm not having fun.