Unhappy Recap: Diamondbacks 10 Mets 4

I think we have enough evidence know that we know Mike Pelfrey is never going to be anything more than a 5th starter in the majors. His stuff is good but he can't throw strikes, he gives up a ton of hits and he gets rattled very easily and melts down.

Pelfrey has made 5 starts this year and the Mets are 2-3 when he takes the mound. And because the bullpen is so bad the Mets can't afford their starters to throw so many pitches that they have to come out of games early.

Here are Pelfrey's 5 starts so far this year:
5 innings, 100 pitches
7 innings, 100 pitches
5 innings, 98 pitches
5 1/3 innings, 99 pitches
5 innings, 102 pitches

And when you do that you have a situation like this game. The Mets were only down 5-4 but if the bullpen has to pitch 3 innings or more they are going to give up runs every time. The only difference here was that Heilman and Sosa survived (barely) without giving up any runs, it was Duaner Sanchez who couldn't get anyone out. So if the Mets, whose lack of timely hitting has killed them this year, were to get a run off the Diamondbacks bullpen (as it turned out, they didn't) it wouldn't have mattered because Sanchez allowed five runs.

Up and down game for Carlos Delgado. First he helps Pelfrey blow an early lead with a piss poor back-handed effort on a ground ball that for some reason was scored a hit. Then he bounced back with what should have been a huge 3-run homer. You can see the plan was to pitch him inside, Webb just got that pitch a little too far out over the plate.

Regardless of how this game turned out I think we are seeing that the Mets need to keep Church in the 2 hole.