Unhappy Recap: Braves 4 Mets 2

This game was the disaster. All the losses to the Braves this week were bad, but this one was the nuclear meltdown that is going to get Willie fired, either right now, or very soon.

The problem here is not lack of talent, or even the manager or even players underachieving. The problem is not friction between Latin and American players. The problem here, for whatever reason, the Mets do not make those couple of big plays in every game that are the difference between winning and losing.

They wasted a good (not great) effort by Johan Santana with bad defense and worse offense.

Luis Castillo sucks. He made a great diving stop then for some reason didn't bother throwing to first. For the second day in a row his bad defense got the Braves on the board early. And remember, we signed him for his defense.

It certainly wasn't his great ability as a hitter. When the Mets started to rally getting runners on first and second with one out (the amazing Church emerging from a concussion induced haze to get a hit) and he hits one back to the pitcher for a rally-killing double play.

Let's look at all the bad defensive plays in this game:
Schneider's error in the second inning that put Teixeira on.



Then there was the play by Castillo that could have been the third out.

In the 7th when the Braves took the lead, Beltran misplayed Kelly Johnson's single into a double.

Then David Wright charged on a bunt that Santana fielded, allowing the runner to get to third.

I'm not taking the blame off Santana, he threw a wild pitch and allowed 12 hits, the most he's ever allowed in a game.

I think the Mets did get a diminished Santana, 12 hits and 1 strikeout are very un-Santanalike numbers. I know a lof of them were bloop hits, but that's ridiculous. So many 2 strike counts where he couldn't put guys away. And he's supposed to be a strikeout pitcher.

I know he's supposed to be a second half pitcher, but he wasn't last year and at this point I'm not very hopeful.

Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado hit back to back homers. Big fuckin deal.

In 374 at bats combined, the Carloses and Moises Alou have 10 HR. 17 players have more including Mike Jacobs.

The lone bright spot in this dark storm was Marlon Anderson. He made an incredible catch in the first inning. Even though he went 0 for 3 to drop his average to .173, with major holes and left and right for the time being and major weak spots and first and second, I hope he gets a lot more playing time.