This Already Happened!

I guess it doesn't matter where they play, if the Mets ever play a game against the Marlins where they fall behind, peck and scrape and fight back to tie the game in a late inning, it's just about inevitable that the Marlins will somehow anticlimactically win the game in the bottom of the 9th in some stupid fashion. It's a Walk-off HR from Cody Ross (who appears to be Joe McEwing against other teams, but Barry Bonds against the Mets), or it's a scratch single by Chris Coghlan, or it's Hanley Ramirez running around the bases. So it wasn't much of a surprise that Dan Uggla came up and poked the winning hit through last night, even after Pedro Feliciano got the first two outs in rapid fashion. It didn't matter what Jerry Manuel decided to do, whether Feliciano pitched to Uggla, Ross, Paulino, Cheech, Chong, Abbott or Costello, the Marlins were going to score in the 9th inning. Because they were playing at "home" against the Mets, and that is how it is ordained to be. And because it's the F-ing Marlins, and because it's a walk off hit against those dastardly Mets, you just knew they celebrated like they just won a title or something, because that's probably the closest they're going to get.

I probably should have seen this one coming, but the Mets have perpetrated too much positive thinking. I was almost lulled to sleep thinking they would come back and tie against this awful Marlins bullpen. I kind of didn't realize what was going on until Cantu hit that double, and even then it didn't hit me. But once Uggla hit his 87-hop Astroturf single that Jose Reyes had no prayer of fielding, it hit me. Oh God! I was following a dead ballgame! Of course this was going to happen!

Predictably, the Mets went to San Juan, where I'm pretty sure they never won a game when it was the Expos "home ballpark" and lost two in a row. Way to keep the good vibes going, guys.

Road Worrisome

Nothing like a nice road trip to a US Protectorate to make you start worrying about the Mets again.

See, these homestands have been so good for the Mets, and that last road trip where they rolled over a pair of doormats really got us pumped up even further, because you thought maybe the Mets were going to pull out of this road trip funk that has plagued them most of the season. But they are playing the Marlins, who already kicked them in the nuts once in their own sorry excuse of a home stadium, and the Mets boast an in-division road record of something like 3-29 this season, so you can imagine how this conglomeration of bad can escalate.

Thus, you have games like last night where nothing goes right.

You figured someone was going to catch up with R.A. Dickey at some point, and of course it was the Marlins, who did their usual pizza party act while beating the Mets in front of a crowd that barely appeared conscious (I'm pretty sure I heard more cheers from the Puerto Rico crowd for the Mets than for the Marlins). I suppose it doesn't make much difference that the Marlins have 4 fans and their stadium is so putrid they decided to stick these games in Puerto Rico. A road game is a road game is a road game and for some reason the Mets seem to look a little bit tardy in these games. It doesn't matter if it's against the Marlins, who, for God's sake the Mets need to start getting a little nasty with, against Ricky Nolasco, who they've faced about 493 times over the past 4 years and they should be hammering mercilessly, but if it's not within their comfort zone at Citi Field, it seems to matter little.

I don't know. Maybe a couple of wins in the next couple of games could serve to make me feel better. That would be nice, wouldn't it?

Joie de Vivre

This is #5 of 5 Key Mets Players for the 2010 season.
I know late June isn't exactly the time to start talking about Key Mets Players, but, you see, this is a special case.

I couldn't quite land on who the 5th and final Key Met should have been for the current season. There were too many players who held too important a role to pick just one. Plus there just wasn't enough excitement to really get it up. If the team was sort of haphazardly thrown together, then why exert more energy than necessary. The team was un-finished and my list went un-finished.

However, almost halfway through the season, it's clear who this 5th Key Met is. It's Jose Reyes.

Last season, after Reyes disappeared in May and didn't return, the sentiment towards Reyes, which was tenuous to begin with, seemed to be reaching an alarming level of negativity. Most people I spoke to were tired of Reyes being all sizzle and no steak, and basically considered this season his last chance. And when he came back from his injury and his Thyroid issue and struggled, the naysayers were ready to pounce. "How long before we can just say he sucks?" people were asking. "What sort of trade value do you think he has?"

But eventually, the switch flipped for Reyes. Sometime in late May, those popups turned into line drives, and those line drives started to find gaps, and suddenly, it's 2006 again and Reyes is flying all over the place, leaping and clapping and everything's right with the world. It was a more mature Reyes now, though. You could see it. After he hit a HR against Philadelphia on May 26th, a laser beam into the Mets bullpen, Reyes didn't get homer happy, as he used to do. Instead, that swing stayed level. He kept swinging for line drives, and getting them. Not surprisingly, with Reyes on base, the guys behind him started hitting too, and the end result is that the Mets have been winning games. This was the recipe. Jose Reyes gets on base, makes people sweaty and uncomfortable, and scores a bunch of runs, spurring the Mets on to victory.
More heartening, however, has been the role that Jose has taken on on this ballclub. Because he still exudes that same youthful energy that he's had his entire career, it's easy to forget that he's not a kid anymore. He turned 27 earlier this month, and he's now in his 8th season in the Major Leagues. He's a cornerstone of this era of the Mets, and I think he's begun to realize that. The handshakes and the dancing are still there, and Jose is still Jose, but it seems like he has become a clear leader on this team. You don't see him pop out of the dugout to high-five anyone, now he's staying down the stairs and waiting for people to come back to him. He's smiling, but he's keeping it amongst friends. I still think other players around the league probably don't like him, but that seems to affect him less and less. He's made errors, he's had bad days, but you don't see him pouting or throwing his glove anymore. The energy will probably never go away, but I'm really starting to believe that Reyes is maturing as a person, something we all knew he needed to do in order to succeed. It started when he admitted losing focus, admitted letting things get to him more than they should and letting his exuberance come before his performance. These are things that we're not seeing out of Jose Reyes this season. This season, all I've noticed is that once he came back, he offered no excuses, he's just shut up and played baseball. And as of late, he's been playing baseball pretty damn well.
When we started this blog, we said that Jose Reyes was the most Ballclub player in the Major Leagues, that is, he's the guy who not only plays well, but genuinely looks like he's having fun out there. But for a few seasons, that guy wasn't showing up. It looks like this guy is coming back now. We like that guy. The Mets did really well when he was around. I hope he stays a while.

YAHOO!

Hey, let's keep this going! Long as we possibly can!

I mean, I know this winning streak won't go on forever, but this is the first time since sometime around May, 2007, that you're going into these games almost expecting the Mets to win. Even when they're going up against the Yankees.

Hisanori Takahashi was a little more Hey-Hey-Hisanori, and a little less like the guy you're thinking should go back to the pen, sort of like he was the first time he went up against the Yankees. For the second time, he shut out the Yankees for 6 innings, but this time the Mets bats backed him up, and the Mets bullpen backed him up, and the result was that the Mets, even in the ridiculous bandbox that is Yankees Stadium, came away with a sharp shutout victory.

I feel like I could jump as high as Jose Reyes right now, because every time you think this is over, every time you think the Mets are going to come back to earth, they end up pulling together to pull out a game. Again, I don't know how long this will last, and I don't know if this is just a hot streak that will turn the other way in August, but for now, this is pretty sweet. Especially when they start beating the Yankees.

What Road Problems?

Yeah! I mean, what road problems?

I know it helps when you're playing miserable teams like Baltimore and Cleveland, but you can't not feel good about the fact that the Mets have gone out on the road and kicked the teams in the nuts that they should be kicking in the nuts. When they left Citi Field, you were sorta worried that they would be something like 3-3 or 2-4 going to Yankee Stadium for the weekend, but here they are, 6-0, and now whatever happens this weekend, the road trip has to be considered a success since they can do no worse than 6-3.

More than that, the Mets are now amazingly 10 games over .500 and right in the thick of the division race, something that seemed a pipedream at the outset. But, here they are. How they're pulling it off is a mystery to everyone, but it's clear that they're not going to lay down, and they're not going to go quietly. I mean, when R.A. Dickey is 5-0 and just looking lights out, you know things are going pretty well for you, right?

Cleveland Rocks!

...or, at least, the Mets are rocking in Cleveland.

People in my office have been saying things to me like, "Hey, the Mets are looking good," or "Boy, break up those Mets," and I sort of have to go along with it. Strange as it may sound, the Mets are hot, and they're fun again. Even though I haven't been able to follow any of the games due to my usual summer nonsense, I know what's going on, and I'm enjoying it.

This is what the game generally looks like for me: I am in almost constant contact with a friend who will send me updates via Blackberry Messenger. Usually, I'm sitting in a workshop, taking notes on a speaker or an improv or whatnot. Sometimes, I will steal away for one reason or another, and I'll slip into my office and put Gamecast up on my computer. By time this came around, the Mets were already up 3-0. We take a break, and it's usually the 3rd or 4th inning, and I've got some time to sit back and actually see things unfold for a bit. Then, it's back in for more whatever, and more BBMs, and maybe another opportunity to catch a snippet on Gamecast. If it's tight, I will slip my phone into my shirt pocket and throw the paltry mobile gamecast on there. And if I ever need to know what's going on, I just glance at my shirt. We finish at 10, usually around the time the game ends. But, fear not, I've been keeping track the whole way through. Maybe I'm not super well-informed, but at least I know the haps. And last night's haps were pretty happening.

Cleveland Clinic

It was a bit of a clinic the Mets put on last night, even if it was only isolated to a 5th inning that saw them erase an early deficit and take a lead over the hapless Indians. But after falling behind 4-1, the Mets basically nagged the Indians to death with a few singles, Jose Reyes, some smart baserunning and a haymaker from Ike Davis. Suddenly, what was looking like an embarrassing loss turned into a slick comeback victory against a team they should beat.

As usual, I don't get to see much, or any of these games (not having cable notwithstanding, I'm now entrenched in my Summer Theatrics), so I'm relying on the benevolence of my friend to text me updates, or those brief moments where I can slip out and click on Gamecast. But after so many years of doing this, I've become used to following the Mets this way. I can always come home and see the highlights online afterward.

The season is starting to become fun. All of a sudden, the Mets are creeping back up on 1st place and building a steady margin over the .500 mark. It was a surprise to me last week to hear that the Mets were 6 games over .500. But they're playing well and winning the games they're supposed to be winning. In spite of their issues, this is becoming a very cohesive team that plays for each other and, amazingly enough, is fun to watch (or listen or grok, in my case).

Cuyahoga

So it's off to Cleveland for the Mets this week. It's rare that the Mets show up in Cleveland (I believe 2004 was their last appearance there). However, it's worth noting that I have my own connections to Cleveland. See, a sector of my family migrated there years ago, and every so often I have voyaged out there. Last Summer, in fact, I made my first trip to Jacobs Field (which is now Progressive Field, since Progressive Insurance pretty much has a stranglehold on the region, and if you like Flo, their ubiquitous spokeswoman, that's the place for you since her face is everywhere. Almost as much as LeBron James' face, for the time being. But that's besides the point. It's Jacobs Field and in my mind will always be Jacobs Field). I don't know how many loyal readers have ever been to Jacobs Field, but it happens to be on a short list of stadia I have been to that aren't Shea Stadium or Citi Field, so I thought I'd share my experience there.

My lone pilgrimage to Jacobs Field came on an oppressively hot (because there are only two real temperatures in Cleveland: Oppressively hot or ridiculously cold) Sunday afternoon last July. The game, between the Tribe and the A's, was eminently forgettable. However, Jacobs Field is a nice, pleasant place to watch a game. It's a very intimate setting. I know that Citi Field was somehow designed with intimacy in mind, but Citi Field feels like the Taj Mahal compared to Jacobs Field. It looks small, and it is small. I sat in field level seats along the first base line, giving me a nice clear view of Cliff Lee (in his last month with the team) and also a good shot of Ryan Garko's (also in his last month with the team) ass. But a quick look to my right and it appeared as though the right field seats were on top of you.

I wore a Mets hat to the game. I figured this was one of those rare chances to be the "Confused Fan," sort of like the guy who wears a Cardinals hat to a Mets/Braves game. As it turned out, I wasn't even the only person there in a Mets hat. While I was circumnavigating the Field Level (much the same way you can at Citi Field), I saw another gentleman in a Mets cap. We briefly nodded in some sad commiseration and went on our way.

People in Cleveland are, in general, a very friendly sort, which is strange considering how depressing the town feels. Jacobs Field, were it in New York, would probably be situated in Long Island City. Even on a Sunday afternoon, with a game to be played, Downtown Cleveland was more or less a ghost town. But the people in the stadium were there, and pleasant. I went up to an information desk to grab a schedule or something, and the guy at the desk gave me a funny look, as if to say, "Aren't you in the wrong stadium?" I said hello and mentioned that I was from New York and this was my first time here. He immediately brightened up and said something to the effect of, "Oh! Welcome! Welcome to our humble little stadium!"

The food at Jacobs Field is relatively unspectacular. I don't know if there is any great cuisine that could be associated with Cleveland, so I guess that makes sense. There is the general selection of fare, hot dogs, sausage, burgers, etc, etc. There's a pub-like section in the Right Field corner. The food costs about what you would expect ballpark food to cost, so anyone who thinks they're getting ripped off at Citi Field, well, you're not alone. The $7 sausage was nice, but what killed me was at the hot dog stand. See, you can get your $4.50 hot dog, or your $5.00 chili dog or whatever. But instead of Citi Field, where you can turn around and bathe in a tub of sauerkraut for free, in Cleveland, THEY CHARGE FOR THE SAUERKRAUT! If you want Sauerkraut, it's an extra 75 cents! I deemed this as sacrilege and walked away, indignant.

There is also a nice, large team store situated behind Home Plate, and an Indians Ring of Fame in a heavily-shrubbed area behind the Center Field fence. Security isn't especially prevalent in Jacobs Field, so you can pretty much have your run of the place up until game time. As I said, Clevelanders are a generally friendly, well-fed bunch so if you're lost, someone will more than likely be glad to point you in the right direction, even if you're rooting for another team (however I cannot vouch for their opinion of Yankee or Red Sox fans).

All in all, Jacobs Field is a nice, quaint, pleasant place to watch a game. I'd have to imagine it's markedly more interesting if the Indians are contending for something, or it's not 95˚ out and you get burned to a crisp (which happened to me. A note: If you're sitting in the Field Level or the Outfield, bring sunblock!). Should anyone ever find themselves in Cleveland when the Indians are in town, it's worth stopping by. Probably because there's a limit to the interesting things you can do in Cleveland (my trips out there have usually consisted of going furniture or appliance shopping with my cousins, or just passing time between meals).

No More Mr. Niese Guy!

I guess I should have gone to that makeup game last night.

We've seen some very encouraging signs from Jonathon Niese thus far this season. While there was certainly no guarantee that he would ascend as the 5th starter this season, he was certainly more worthy of the job than his competitors. But last night's magnificent 1-hitter was something else.

First of all, on the heels of Niese's solid outing last weekend against Florida, it appears Niese has turned a bit of a corner. He's demonstrated an ability to buckle down and get key outs when he absolutely needs to get him. But he was undercut by the fact that he was getting himself into all these jams in the first place. It was a little bit of John Maine in the sense that he just wasn't putting hitters away. Too many dinky hits, too many walks, too many baserunners, and he was toast by the 6th inning of a 2-2 game. The stuff is there. Niese features, among other things, a sick bender, that curve that he really should be able to just drop out of the sky if it's working well. Last night, he appeared to have it working, and the result, allowing simply a 3rd inning hit, speaks for itself.

Second of all, it took away the sting from the first game, where you can decide what the bigger story was. Was it a) Lady Gaga making a spectacle of herself (something that, knowing her, could have easily been staged) or b) Johan Santana having what was for him a pretty lousy game, coughing up an early 2-run lead and giving up too many annoying 2-out, run scoring hits while the Mets had a hard time figuring out Mat Latos.

Either way, by time Niese had finished off the nightcap, which I annoyingly missed out on, the happenings of the afternoon were long forgotten and the Mets capped off yet another homestand that saw them lose 1 game. Now, off to the road. A dicey proposition, except that the Mets have the good fortune of seeing a couple of the worst teams in the league on this trip.

Free Game!

Last night's rainout proved beneficial for me.

See, Wednesday's game was part of the Weekday Plan, which as many of you know I have. Unfortunately, due to my usual theatrics, I was unable to attend last night's game. I had even passed the tickets off to El Guapo. But sometime on Wednesday afternoon, someone came into my office and handed me an envelope with Mets tickets in them, one of which happened to be to that night's game. So after knowing I couldn't go, and already having given away my tickets, here I was, still stuck with a ticket to that night's game.

But then it started raining hard, and around 5pm word came down that the game was called. I notified El Guapo who said he'd give me back the tickets. I still had the 3rd ticket. Whether I decided to go to the makeup game tonight or not was academic. This is Free Baseball we're talking about, essentially. I know I already paid for the tickets (or, at least two of the tickets), but instead of missing a game I had intended to go to, I can now go whenever I please. Rock.

Play It Again, Ike!

Once again, turnabout is fair play.

The Mets and Padres played a fairly similar game just a week ago in San Diego, where the Mets took an early lead in a taut pitchers duel, but San Diego came back late and won the game on a walkoff HR in the 11th inning of a game that you just knew the Mets had no chance of winning.

Last night, the Mets fell behind early in a taut pitchers duel (headlined, not surprisingly, by Mike Pelfrey), came back on a disputed HR from Jose Reyes that was clearly a HR, almost won on an undisputed non-HR by Angel Pagan, and then finally won on a HR by Ike Davis in the 11th inning that didn't bear any sort of questioning since it landed somewhere in the vicinity of the Shea Bridge.

We'll let Ike wear the hero's mantel on this night, and deservedly so, since he's come back to earth a little bit. Let's not forget that the Mets started this uncanny ability to win just about every game at Citi Field on the night he made his first appearance almost 2 months ago. Let's also not forget that he's only spent 2 months in the Major Leagues and he'll have his ups and downs. He's making his ups count, that's for sure, and last night was one such example.

But Ike's heroics wouldn't have been possible without the effort of Mike Pelfrey. Just yesterday, I anointed Pelfrey the new Mets Ace, the guy who you could give the ball to and basically expect a good outing. Well, that's basically what we got. A 9-inning, 103-pitch sweat-fest that saw him not give the Padres an inch after giving up an early run. This has been his M.O. all season long. Once the Mets tied the game, you just knew Pelfrey wasn't going to give it back. Hell, he even said as much after the game. Despite runners in scoring position in the 8th and 9th, Pelfrey just reared back and got the necessary outs to keep the game even and keep the Mets in position for Ike to win it. No, he didn't get the win. But on a night where young, up-and-coming pitchers owned the night, Pelfrey certainly did his best to not be counted out.

Overnight Sensation

If you haven't been paying too much attention to the Mets, you probably haven't noticed that their ace right now isn't named Johan.

The Mets ace is going to take the mound tonight against the San Diego Padres. His name is Mike Pelfrey.

I've written plenty about Pelfrey in the past, particularly when he's been going good. It's very easy to get behind Pelfrey to begin with, considering he's a home-grown guy, someone who struggled mightily at the beginning of his career only to find himself during the 2008 season. We all know that he couldn't build on it last year, and at the beginning of this season, he was basically at a crossroads because nobody knew what the hell to expect. But the Mets invested a lot in the hope that he'd return, and they have been rewarded tenfold for their faith.

I don't know if it was the indignation of a poor spring, or frustration over being dropped down to the #4 spot in the rotation at the beginning of the year, but whatever it was, Pelfrey got mad and mean and started putting up numbers worthy of All-Star status.

He started strong early and the hope was that he could keep it up. After a pair of minor hiccups which you could basically just chalk up to days where he just didn't have it, Pelfrey has basically become the guy for the Mets right now. At this point, he's had, what, two bad starts all season? There's no guy in the rotation I feel more confident taking the ball right now than Pelfrey, and that's including Santana (who hasn't been pitching badly at all). That's called being a Key Met. And that's how you remove yourself from Key Met status and put yourself under the Sure Thing column.

It's back. Go Big Pelf.

Home Cooked Fish Fry

Alright, we've already established that the Mets play much better at Citi Field than they do on the road, but this is getting a little ridiculous.

Not that I'm complaining. Anytime the Marlins, who as any reader here knows I am no fan of, come in here all high and mighty after sweeping 4 from the Mets mere weeks ago, and come out of here having had the revenge sweep handed to them, you can't help but feel good. Home streak or not, it's always fun to kick the Marlins around and make them suffer in the process.

Not that any of these games were particularly easy. The Mets sandwiched a pair of frenetic comebacks around a brilliant performance from Jonathon Niese to do it. It's nice to see Niese back and doing his thing, but more surprising is the way they have hung around in games where they've fallen behind early. Sunday, in particular, was a good example of this. After Takahashi, who seems to have come back to earth a bit, fell in a deep hole, things seemed somewhat hopeless. But the Mets, in a trait that wholly avoided them last season, hung around, chipped away, and out of nowhere there's Jeff Francoeur hitting a game-tying HR, and then they're scraping the lead run across in the 8th, and there's K-Rod making it hairy in the 9th, but, hey, Cody Ross, little bitch that he is, struck out to cap off a rather sweet sweep.

So, now, here are the Mets, sitting just a tick above .500, hanging around on the fringes of contender-ship. It's markedly better than anyone really wanted to give them credit for, and a lot can be said about the way they've done it. That is to say, they've been doing it without major (or any) contributions from a lot of the guys you'd figure would be in the thick of it (Bay, Francoeur, Beltran), Wright scuffling half the time and Reyes taking weeks to find his sea legs. It's been less them and more guys like Angel Pagan, who seemed to spend most of the offseason learning how to play baseball, and the catching tandem of Barajas and Blanco, and perhaps most surprising of all, R.A. Dickey and Hisanori Takahashi pitching well. These are guys who were unceremoniously plonked in the middle of the rotation. These are guys whose signings were met with scoffs and laughter. But they're winning games for this team. The contributions of these guys have meant that we can't just go to sleep on the Mets, as much as it feels like we should at times. These games they're losing are usually fairly winnable (last Monday notwithstanding). And right now, this is anyone's division. This Summer is going to be kind of interesting.

Willed To Lose

The Mets seem to find an awful lot of ways to lose road games, usually by coughing up a late lead or pecking and scraping back from a deficit only to have some schmo hit a walk-off HR in extra innings, but I think yesterday's game is the first time this season that bad vibes caused the Mets to lose.

Consider that Johan Santana just pitched his heart out for 7 innings and 123 pitches, and by all rights deserved to win the game. Consider also that the Mets scratched out 1 run and spent the rest of the game not hitting and looking their usual putrid selves with bats in their hands. Consider also that these Padres are one of those annoying teams that creeps and pecks and scrapes and gnaws until there's nothing left but a carcass. Add all that up and you just had a bad feeling that the Mets weren't going to win this game 1-0. And I'm pretty sure that about 95% of Mets fans felt this way. Therefore, the collective stink just willed the Mets to lose. One strike away and Frankie Rodriguez naturally allowed David Eckstein and his .238 OPS to hit a dinky little single to score the tying run.

It would have been very convenient if Eckstein had scored on Gonzalez's subsequent double, because it would have spared us the prolonged misery. The game was already dead, I figured it was just a matter of time before someone like Chase Headley or Will Venable or Luis Salazar hit a walk-off HR to win the game. But nooooooooo, the Mets rose up and threw Eckstein out, thereby allowing them to spend two more innings looking foolish before Adrian Gonzalez hit the almost totally predictable walk-off grand slam.

These losses are frustrating, but what can you do when the Mets basically fell victim to their own self-fulfilling prophecy? It's OK, though. They're coming home. Expect them to win as many games this homestand as they lost on this road trip.

HOORAY! HOORAY FOR THIS!

Well, when in doubt, just give the ball to Mike Pelfrey, let him throw 7-8 innings, give up 1-2 runs and just hope the offense can back him up. More often than not, this strategy seems to work for the Mets, primarily because Pelfrey has been equal to the task just about every time it's been asked of him.

Last night's game in San Diego was no different. With the Mets screaming, and I mean absolutely screaming for a road victory to stop this insanity, Pelfrey went out, licked his hands, and threw his 8 innings, and the Mets bats gave him a small smattering of runs to stick in his pocket while he did it.

It's enough to make you jump for joy, watching Pelfrey pitch, because right now he's not just looking like the best pitcher on the staff, which is what we were tantalized into thinking he would be, but he's even looking like one of the top pitchers in the league right now. But more than that, Pelfrey has been a stabilizing force in the rotation. Never mind how he's been the anti-Maine or Perez or whoever else has been awful, but he came in when the Mets needed him to throw a lot of innings and keep the game manageable, and that's exactly what he did. No need for Elmer Dessens or Igarashi, or Feliciano, or Nieve, or whatever else the Mets would slop out there to get to K-Rod, Pelfrey's actions basically said, "Sit down, you clowns. I'm doing this myself."

I'm waiting for him to start finishing off some of these games, though. I think they'll come before too long.

Nautical Disaster

I'm starting to think I should just not bother following the Mets when they go on the road. Very little good seems to happen to them there.

Following an eminently forgettable weekend series in Milwaukee, where the Mets were undone primarily by the usual problems that have plagued them all season, the Mets steamed into San Diego and Petco Park, where I believe they've never won a game, and continued to look like a bunch of assholes.

I'm not quite sure how the Padres are doing it, because they aren't a good team. They are Adrian Gonzalez and the Del-Tones, more or less, but somehow they lead this division. Outside of Gonzalez, there's not a single name in that lineup that will strike fear into anyone's heart. Yet, here they are, with Jerry Hairston hitting grand slams, and Chase Headley and Nick Hundley bopping around, and David Eckstein continuing to piss me off, and all of a sudden "Hey, Hey, Hisanori!" turned into an embarrassing 18-run debacle that ended with Oliver Perez taking his lumps at the end of the game (I'm biting my tongue on Ollie at this point, because what's the use, but suffice it to say I think it's about time someone pulled a Tonya Harding on him). All this added up to yet another road loss, yet another mostly lifeless outing, and yet another game where the Mets managed to generate some offense and failed to back that up with any sort of tangible pitching.

I realize that the Mets have every right to feel as though they are contending, but, really, how can you seriously call them contenders when they have 7 road wins on June 1st? I'm not looking forward to the rest of this series at the Dog Run.