Unhappy Recap: Rockies 11 Mets 3

This game was like a lot of the losses from June. The Mets got an early lead, the starter blew it, the bullpen made it impossible to come back, and the offense stopped hitting.

The Mets got some luck to get to that early lead, Reyes bunted for a hit, stole second, and scored on a bad throw by the pitcher on a comebacker by Gotay. Reyes should have been nailed at third base, but Atkins didn't make a good effort to catch the throw. Then the Mets got another run when Wright got a single over a drawn in infield (it would have been an easy out with the infield back).

Then Jason Vargas went to work. He absolutely sucked. He got killed. There were several lucky hits and bloops, but there were also home runs by Atkins and Torrealba and a bases loaded walk to Helton.

Speaking of bases loaded, after Vargas loaded the bases in the 4th Willie had seen enough so he called on Joe Smith to face Ryan Spilborghs. Smith immediately gave up a grand slam making the score 10-2. This season batters are 7 for 13 against Smith with the bases loaded, and 5 for 41 against all the other Mets pitchers.

The only bright spot was Ramon Castro who homered for the Mets third run.

Kaz Matsui went 5 for 5 and now is batting .316 on the season.

Jason Vargas will probably get another start on Sunday.

Happy Recap: Mets 6 Cubs 5

The second walkoff win in four games, both on RBI by Carlos Delgado.

Let's just go through the 9th inning play-by-play before we get to the rest of the issues surrounding this game.

David Newhan singled
Ramon Castro lined out
Carlos Gomez singled, advanced to second on defensive indifference
Carlos Beltran walked
Endy Chavez walked with bases loaded
Ruben Gotay singled in a run
David Wright singled in a run
Carlos Delgado singled in two runs, Mets win!

Willie Randolph had no intentions on winning this game.
He rested LoDuca (of course) and Easley (no big deal), but he also gave Reyes (injury), Beltran and Wright the day off as well. Should have had Wright in the lineup.
That meant Newhan played second, Gotay played short, and Franco played third.
The only regulars that started were the lefties, Green and Delgado.
But the biggest proof that he didn't care about this game was when Gotay came up with the bases loaded and the score 5-2, he let him hit. He could have used Wright or Reyes, but he left Gotay in. It worked out, but only due to sheer luck.

And remember, all of this happened on a day Jason Vargas was pitching, so the Mets were hamstrung from the start. Vargas didn't pitch badly. He pitched 5 good innings then got hammered in the 6th but stayed on through 7. Then Willie brought in Ambiorix "White Flag" Burgos. But he pitched two good innings and got the win.

Ryan Dempster didn't pitch as well. He was charged with 5 runs in a third of an inning. He threw 26 pitches before we was taken out for Scott Eyre who threw three. The last two resulted in singles which drove in 3 runs.

The Mets are a perfect 4-0 on Thursdays.

So the Mets go into the Yankees series having won 7 of 9 and 11 of 15. And with the bullpen and the starting players well rested.