*Sighs* Well my fellow Met fans, whatever happens Sunday afternoon, win or lose, the Mets still failed this weekend. Whatever the outcome of Sunday’s ballgame may be, the Mets still will be further back from the NL East top spot than they were at the series start. As a result of Saturday’s homely 4-1 loss to the Phillies, the Mets now find themselves 3 games behind, and not even the sole possessor of 3rd place. They’re tied for that spot now with the Atlanta Braves, who won 5 straight before losing yesterday in Washington. As for the Mets, Fernando Nieve pitched a mediocre game at best, hurling 5 2/3 innings giving up 4 runs (3 earned) while allowing 6 hits and an ugly 6 walks. The bullpen however came on again and pitched scoreless baseball to the games close. On the other hand, Phils starter Jamie "Old Man" Moyer took his 6.05 ERA into the game and of course shut us down over 6 1/3 innings, allowing only 5 hits and 1 run courtesy of a Nieve RBI single. 6 singles for us total, the RBI hit comes off the pitchers bat… Is it even a plausible goal at this point to expect the Mets to stay in the playoff picture with the great majority of our key hitters out? Another lousy pitcher shuts us down, while our starters just cannot get the job done. However, with Oliver Perez set to return Wednesday night against the LA Dodgers, it is official that Tim Redding will be moved to the bullpen to accommodate. Good move. Personally, I’d rather see Redding off the roster altogether, but it’s all about the money sadly. So go now Tim, take your glove and your terrible contract out behind the centerfield wall. Even with Nieve’s subpar game today, it was better than anything Redding has provided us with in a long long time. Nieve should not have been charged with an unearned run but, and I feel like I’ve said this a quadrillion times this year, the Mets once again played defense sloppy enough for a pigpen. In the 6th inning, Paul Bako popped one foul down the 3rd base line that David Wright was under, but then gave up on for some reason, and of course the ball dropped. Tim McCarver on FOX said that a fan may have called for it throwing Wright off. However it was later revealed that Cora was shouting at Wright that he had enough room to make the play. This gave Bako new life, and of course he walked. Then, with 2 men on and 2 out, Omir Santos let a pop foul ball drop from his glove, giving batter Shane Victorino another life. The torture of Met baseball… Promptly, Victorino singled to center scoring Bako, despite him hesitating before crossing the plate. A good Ryan Church throw would have nailed him, but the throw was horrible and way up the 3rd base line. So friends, let’s sum up this already lost and unsuccessful series. Lifeless offense, ineffective starting pitching, little league carefree defense, and a lights out bullpen that hasn’t been useful because the Mets never lead when the pen is called upon. Our Mets, who we had the highest of hopes for after solidifying the weak bullpen, are more or less a 3rd/4th place ballclub. It aint always easy believing, but we must. Let’s just be thankful we’re only 3 games back of 1st at the present. Maybe our underachieving club can turn it around sometime. Let me provide you with an interesting tidbit, a silver lining of sorts. Last season’s 10 game win streak began on July 5th. That’s today! In the words of Billy Idol, "It’s a nice day to, start again!" Let’s go Mets! As always my darling readers, thank you so much for taking the time and reading.
