Unhappy Recap: Nationals 10 Mets 5

I blame a lot of this loss on Oliver Perez. A good pitcher has to be able to go more than 6 innings.

In his last four starts he's pitched 5 2/3, 4 1/3, 5 2/3 and 5 2/3. That's not good enough. With the Mets bullpen as bad as it is, he needs to give them 7 innings every time out.

Now Willie Randolph did fuck up by bringing in Heilman when he did. I could have understood the move before Perez got two outs, but removing him with two outs against a pinch hitter was probably a mistake.

But as I've said before in response to criticism of Willie's handling of the bullpen, there is a good chance that no matter what he did there it would have resulted in runs. Perez was losing and Heilman stinks.

There have been 4 grand slams hit in the National League so far this year. 3 of them were given up by the Mets bullpen.

Home runs allowed:
Mets bullpen: 11 in 64 1/3 innings
Mets starters: 14 in 119 1/3 innings
Mets opponents: 12 in 184 innings (roughly)

At least Carlos Beltran (and Marlon Anderson also) tacked on a meaningless home run. Now at least the Mets as a team have more than Chase Utley.

One other thing I wanted to mention before it became meaningless, the way the Mets manufactured the first run. Casanova singled, Perez sacrificed, Reyes grounded out to the right side and Castillo singled Casanova home. The Reyes out was key because they play Castillo so shallow and Casanova is so slow, he never would have scored from second on that hit. Turned out not to matter but I was pleased at the time.

Ron Darling mentioned (before Beltran's home run) that the Mets had hit 10 home runs in 20 games. He then said they were on pace for 70 homers for the season. Isn't that the easiest math possible? They'd be on pace for 81, exactly 81.