Happy Recap: Mets 7 Nationals 2

Even the easy wins don't seem so easy.

I really thought the Mets were going to lose after getting only one run in the first inning. Reyes led off with a double down the line, Murphy singled to center and Milledge misplayed it, letting it roll all the way to the wall. I thought Murphy could have scored but I realized it was prudent to leave him on third for Wright and Delgado. And Wright struck out, and Delgado popped out and the Mets stranded Murphy.

Seems like every time this year the Mets left runs on the table like that, it came back to bite them. But thankfully not this time. The Mets continued to pound out hits, scoring in each of the first five innings.

Brian Schneider continues to kill the Nationals. Four of his 9 home runs are against them. He has 3 homers at their home field this season. He had only 2 homers at their home park last year, when he played for them.

David Wright sank back into his slump. After 2 4-hit games in 4 days last week, he went 1 for 18 in this series, with 7 strikeouts. He now has 13 strikeouts in 52 at bats, with a man on third and fewer than 2 outs. He also has 13 hits in those situations.

Johan Santana once again did the job. He now has 15 straight starts without a loss, the second longest streak in Mets history. The Mets are 11-4 in those starts, a streak that began on July 4th, continuing Santana's second half dominance.

I disagreed at the time with bringing in Joe Smith in the 8th inning with a 6-run lead but I understand Manuel's panic. Personally I would have gone with Parnell and saved the better relievers (Smith has been great) for more high-leverage situations, but you can't believe that a 6-run lead is safe.

Happy Recap: Mets 9 Nationals 7

This bullpen makes sure there is no such thing as an easy victory. The offense is going to have to keep putting up these huge numbers because the relievers can't hold a lead.

This time there isn't much to blame on Jerry Manuel. Even though he used 8 pitchers his hand was forced in most of those situations. He couldn't leave Brandon Knight in for another inning, he's just not ready go to that long. He showed remarkable restraint not to yank Rincon and Stokes because they were both terrible. And Aaron Heilman made only his 3rd appearance in 14 September games, allowing hits to the first 2 batters he faced.

I even agree with pulling Schoeneweis after he got 2 quick outs, because Joe Smith has been so good lately. Smith hasn't allowed an earned run in his last 13 2/3 innings over 18 appearances. And leaving Smith for the 9th was exactly the correct move, but it didn't work out because of Wright's error, and Smith's walk.



And those mistakes were compounded by the eminently hittable Pedro Feliciano who got two outs before he allowed the hit that drove in 2 runs and put the tying run up to bat.

Thankfully Luis Ayala shut the door or the Mets would have been the Mets would have lost their second game after holding a 7-1 lead.



Thank god the offense finally woke up, the Mets needed every run they could get.

Jose Reyes and Carlos Delgado got the evening off to a great start with solo homers in the first, once again the Mets scoring runs in the first inning and going on to win the game.

I was a little worried about Delgado because over the past few games I've seen him jump at balls and tap them to the right side again, but I'm glad to see he isn't falling back into his bad habits.



Carlos Beltran is awesome, I don't care what anyone says. He takes more criticism than any other Met (because of his contract) but he's a really great player. He does everything well and contributes with his bat (two homers) and his glove (turned a double play and went back gracefully to catch Zimmerman's ball that could have been disaster).



Once again the Mets are relying on Johan Santana to pitch them to a victory. Jerry Manuel is counting on him for "Hopefully nine innings, 170 pitches."

Unhappy Recap: Nationals 1 Mets 0

This is how the meltdown starts. First it was the bullpen, then the starting pitching, now the offense has gone completely in the tank, scoring 2 runs in 2 games against the Nationals.

I'm not ready to give up on this season yet, but this is starting to look exactly like last year. No one can make the play, get the hit, or get the out that's needed to win a game.

The Mets didn't get enough base runners to have a lot of serious chances to score but when they did, it was disaster.

They didn't even get a baserunner in innings 2 through 5 so the first failure came in the 6th inning when with 2 on and 1 out Ryan Church flied out and David Wright hit one hard, but it was caught for the third out.

The only other chance came in the 8th when Ramon Castro and Robinson Cancel singled with one out. Reyes tapped out the pitcher and Ryan Church struck out on a pitch in the dirt. And that was all she wrote.

Mike Pelfrey was excellent again after one bad start, but something always seems to go wrong when the Mets hit one of these skids.

David Wright, Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado are a combined 1 for 23 so far in this series.

And the Mets lost Fernando Tatis for the season. Tatis was the one guy who had been hitting over this stretch and he is the Met who had proven himself to be most reliable in clutch situations through the year. His absence is going to force Manuel to play Church everyday and platoon Murphy and Evans in left.

Unhappy Recap: Nationals 7 Mets 2

I think I've been on this ride before, and I want to get off. It seems like a lot of things from last year are starting to repeat themselves. Mainly, there was a huge psychological component to last year's meltdown and it already seems that doubt is creeping into the minds of Mets players and especially Mets fans.

I think that's why we saw Mets fans booing Luis Castillo (even though he'd been out for weeks) and Luis Ayala (even though he'd been doing fairly well as closer before Sunday) at Shea this weekend. Or maybe they just don't like players named Luis.

A big question coming down the stretch is going to be about Jerry Manuel's handling of the bullpen. It's clear that his strategy right now is to pitch the starters as long as possible, and the relievers as short as possible. He has shown that he doesn't want righties to face lefties or lefties to face righties. Unfortunately, this strategy maximizes the number of relievers he is going to use in each game. So every time a guy gets a few batters out, Manuel removes him, which is basically rolling the dice.

This bit him in the ass in the 7th inning. After Ricardo Rincon retired 2 batters with no problem, Manuel went to Duaner Sanchez who gave up a walk, a single, a wild pitch and a 3-run homer to put the game completely out of reach.



Before this outing however, Sanchez had pitched 4 1/3 in his last 5 appearances allowing only 1 hit and no runs.

I think Manuel needs to adjust this strategy by leaving in guys who are going good and diminishing the number of pitchers he uses in each game and the number of outings for each pitcher over the next two weeks.

Because this slide (should it continue) has such a huge psychological component, I think David Wright's double play in the 8th was a huge hit to the team's confidence. Even if they could have cut the lead to 7-4 or 7-5 and still lost, it wouldn't seem like such a blowout.

Wright, Beltran and Delgado were a combined 0 for 11 in this game. The Mets need them to regain their form, or they can definitely kiss this season goodbye.

Bobby Parnell looked good in his inning, maybe he can contribute out of the bullpen.

Pedro Martinez is terrible. The Mets are now 7-13 when he starts. First off, he seems to allow a run in the 1st inning of every single game. And as I talk about a lot in this space, the Mets usually pick up an advantage by scoring first, Pedro almost always gives away that advantage. But he just gives up so many hits and so many runs. He has a 5.47 ERA, most guys would be out of the rotation if they pitched that poorly for three straight months, but the Mets continue to rely on him, for at least 2 more starts.

Happy Recap: Mets 13 Nationals 10

I've said all season that the Mets biggest problem isn't their bullpen, but the lack of clutch hitting. That doesn't seem to be a problem anymore. The Mets are getting every key hit and are winning despite bad starting pitching.

Carlos Delgado went 0 for 3 but I'm still impressed by him. With the game tied in the 7th inning he went the other way and hit a sacrifice fly to score Wright with the go-ahead run. Home runs come and go but making contact with runners on 3rd and 1 out will always be there.

Carlos Beltran had another big game with 3 hits and 2 RBI, including a 2-out hit to drive in the first run.

And David Wright may have finally broken out. Four hits in four at bats culminating in that crucial home run to give Ayala some breathing room. Jerry Manuel says the extra time Wright has been spending in the batting cage with Howard Johnson is starting to pay off. If the Mets can ever get Wright, Beltran and Delgado all hitting at the same time, they're going to be very tough to beat.

Of course, the Mets seldom get this much offense with contrbutions from Jose Reyes who was on base 3 times. He also broke the Mets record for career stolen bases with 282. A record he later extended to 283. I expect Reyes to hold this record quite possibly forever.

Unfortunately Mike Pelfrey followed up a bad outing by Oliver Perez with a bad outing of his own. But this is a team game and it's so encouraging to see this team pick up their teammates during bad games.

With 17 games left the Mets now have exactly half the lead they had last year with 17 games left. But I'm much more confident they can hold it this time.

Happy Recap: Mets 10 Nationals 8

Carlos Delgado is absolutely incredible right now. There doesn't seem to be anything else to say about him. He's on one of the greatest rolls I've ever seen. And when you compare it to the way he was (or wasn't) hitting earlier this season, it's even more remarkable. And he's not just hitting homers and driving in runs, he's doing it at crucial times.

For the second straight game he hit 2 home runs and once again they were both big shots in distance and in consequence. Both times he extended a 1-run lead, and in the second case, gave the bullpen a much needed insurance run. Not lost in all this is his single that started a rally in the second inning.

Carlos Beltran also delivered a big home run, turning an 8-7 deficit into a 9-8 lead. Beltran has had a subpar season but he has come up with a number of big home runs.

David Wright also got his first big hit in what seems like weeks. In the first inning with Church on first, Ron Darling said Manuel shouldn't send Church with a struggling Wright at the plate. He did, and Wright struck out and Church was caught stealing to end the inning. But in the 4th inning Wright got a key 2-out hit to tie the game.

Oliver Perez was awful, but it was his first truly putrid start (more than 4 runs) since June, so I'll give him a pass. I'm encouraged that walks weren't his undoing this time.

I'm also incredibly impressed with the bullpen, which held the Nationals without a run for the last 4 innings. Joe Smith got to pitch to more than one batter for a chance, and he was excellent. And Luis Ayala continues to try to erase the memory of Billy Wagner. He's now 6 of 7 in save chances as a Met.

This is the third time this season the Mets won a game in which they allowed 8 runs or more.

Happy Recap: Mets 9 Nationals 3

Another laugher for the Mets, but this one wasn't quite as easy as it could have been.

Oliver Perez pitched really well, he just got in a little trouble he was one pitch away from getting out of, but couldn't quite do it. Amazing how quickly 0 runs in 7 innings can become 3 runs in 6 2/3.

In his first 12 starts Perez was 4-4 with a 5.70 ERA.
In his last 13 starts Perez is 5-3 with a 2.61 ERA.

His walks are way down to just above 3 per 9 innings during that recent stretch. I love what Perez has done and demand he be resigned.

And then there's Joe Smith. He came in to get Perez out of trouble (he's been good with inherited runners) but to start the 8th he refused to throw a strike and had to be pulled from the game.

Duaner Sanchez and Aaron Heilman both had good appearances, much needed.

Before I get to the offense, I want to make it clear that the Nationals suck. But the Mets still need to beat them. The Phillies play them the same number of times, so do the Marlins, so it's all equal. The Mets need to start pounding these inferior opponents. I had hoped for a 6-2 stretch against the Pirates and Nats, which seemed unlikely after Monday's meltdown but now seems possible again.

The way the Mets got on the board in the 4th made me so happy because they drove in runs with a groundout and a sacrifice fly. If the Mets were more effective at scoring runs with outs, they'd have 5 more wins this season.

I guess Brian Schneider likes playing against his old team. He has 2 homers against the Nationals, and 1 against everyone else.

The add-on runs were key, coming as they did from Murphy (now batting .441), Tatis and Easley. The last two runs came courtesy of terrible Washington defense.

Happy Recap: Mets 12 Nationals 0

It's nice to take a breath and have an easy victory for a change.

Great job by Brian Stokes to give the rest of the bullpen a day off. Maybe he can stick around as a long man.

John Maine looked good through 5 innings and it was nice to be able to work him back in slowly and not worry about the bullpen blowing it.

The offense was just great, everyone deserves to be commended, but a lot of it probably had to do with bad pitching by Jason Bergmann who melted down in the third inning.

David Wright actually got a sacrifice fly in the first inning.

Daniel Murphy is awesome. There's always the doubt that he can keep this up (obviously he can't) but so far so good for this guy.



Ok the third inning was so awesome I have to run it down:
David Wright reached on infield single
Carlos Delgado walked
Carlos Beltran grounded out to first
Daniel Murphy singled to left, Wright scored
Fernando Tatis singled to left, Delgado scored
Brian Schneider walked
John Maine walked, Murphy scored
Jose Reyes singled to left, Tatis and Schneider scored
Argenis Reyes struck out
David Wright walked
Carlos Delgado walked, Maine scored
Carlos Beltran doubled to center, Reyes and Wright scored
Daniel Murphy lined out

Happy Recap: Mets 4 Nationals 3

How's this for a change? Santana pitches less than spectacularly, but the offense bails him out and the bullpen saves the game for him.

It's not like Santana gave up 6 runs, but he still pitched much worse in this victory than he has in many of his no decisions, and even some of his losses. It's a real shame that it took him this long to get to double-digit wins.

The two Carloses came through with RBI hits -- both times with 2 outs -- to give the Mets two early leads. But Santana blew them both putting him in a tenuous position heading into the 8th.

After he allowed the tying home run to Ryan Langerhans the Mets built a big rally with two singles, a walk and a bases loaded hit batsman (sounds like an inning the Mets bullpen usually has)to score a run.



But with one out Daniel Murphy struck out with the bases loaded. Then Brian Schneider pinch hit for Santana, and also struck out. I don't have a problem removing Santana there because a hit is worth 2 runs and Schneider is much more likely to get a hit.

I love David Wright and I know he has a lot of RBI but I still feel he fails in a lot of key spots. With Reyes on third and one out in the 5th, Wright struck out.

Amazingly Joe Smith and Pedro Feliciano were able to get through the 8th and 9th without trouble and the Mets got themselves a much-needed win.

Unhappy Recap: Nationals 1 Mets 0

Who says a 1-0 game can't be exciting?

This was an encouraging and disconcerting game all at the same time.

Mike Pelfrey was freaking awesome and I was really hopeful that he would pitch the first no-hitter in Mets history. I was actually praying to score a run just in case he kept it going. Wouldn't it be just like the Mets to pitch a no-hitter for 9 innings and lose it in extra innings because they couldn't score.



The big thing that happened in this game is that the Nationals executed and the Mets didn't. Any number of plays could have turned this game, and the Nationals made the ones that did.

First they executed perfectly in the 8th. Double, sac bunt, sac fly. So easy it makes you wonder why the Mets can't do it.

And then there was that incredible catch by Willie Harris.



I don't mind the play by Jose Reyes in theory, it was heads up and he was hustling. But Guzman took off way before he did so he had no real chance of being safe, unless the throw was bad. Once he saw Guzman take off he should have known he couldn't beat him to the bag.

I don't have a problem with Beltran either. I loved that he stole a base, and almost tied the game because of it. And normally I hate the contact play but in that case it was almost a necessity.

The fact is Delgado sucks. He can never get a big hit, and he couldn't even get the big out. All he needed was a fly ball, which he is great at, but he couldn't even do that.



And then Delgado apparently beat it out of the clubhouse without answering any questions provoking Billy Wagner to flip out.

Unhappy Recap: Nationals 5 Mets 3

Aaron Heilman sucks. But we knew that.

We learned in this game that Claudio Vargas may turn out to be a decent 5th starter. And I think he is going to be in the Mets rotation until Pedro gets back, and maybe longer if Pelfrey doesn’t shape up before then.



I think Willie may have given him the hook too early but I understand not wanting to push a guy in his first start for the team. He was nearing 100 pitches but I might have given him another batter or two.

Why did Alou have to go and get himself ejected? The Mets could have used him in the lineup when the tying run was on first in the 8th inning.

We got Sosa out of here, I think Heilman should be next.

Happy Recap: Mets 6 Nationals 3

This game was basically won by the only three Mets who are performing above expectations this season.

John Maine was excellent and circumstances conspired to hold him to 6 innings more than his performance did. Easley's error cost him a few extra pitches and the fact that his turn in the order came up in the bottom of the 6th made it the right decision to take him out.

Wins and losses are sometimes dismissed as useful statistical tools in evaluating pitchers, but with Maine the 5 wins are meaningful. There are a lot of ways to get a 2.81 ERA but the fact that Maine has done it with 7 straight starts of 2 runs or fewer, shows that he is keeping his team in the game and giving them the best shot to win.



Ryan Church has got to stay in the number 2 hole. He has been awesome and is constantly getting the big hit with men on base. Also one of my pet peeves is when a pitcher gets a lead and immediately gives it back. Maine did that by allowing the Zimmerman home run, but Church got that run right back in the bottom of the inning.

I hate when the announcers say a player looked like he was trying to prove something to his old team. But in 7 games against the Nationals so far this season Church is hitting .367 with 11 runs, 2 homers and 9 RBI.



Billy Wagner still has not given up an earned run this year. He did blow one save and give up unearned runs in another appearance but his ERA is still 0.00.

The Mets need Duaner Sanchez for that 8th inning, but those two walks could have killed us.

Damion Easley is a huge offensive upgrade over Luis Castillo and he allows Church to bat second, but if he keeps playing defense like that, the Mets will have to come up with another option.

And I have to praise Carlos Delgado for his performance in this game. The bunt single was great. I have been begging him to do that for more than 2 years now. If he does that once every 10 games (and I believe he could do it more often than that) he can add 30 points to his batting average. For math wizards, estimating 33 at bats per 10 games (seems reasonable) 1 extra hit per 33 at bats adds 30 points to your batting average.

He also crushed that ball to centerfield with two men on but Milledge made a great play on it.

But what about that play by Kearns? That was just awful. Did the wind have something to do with that? I can't remember seeing a guy whiff like that, not even Todd Hundley during his outfield experiment.

After the game Maine denied it but I think he hit Felipe Lopez to lead off the game as a response to the "softball girls" controversy from the previous game. First pitch, first inning, off the leg, seems a little suspicious?

The Mets started this game 0 for 8 with men in scoring position before Church's big "double" in the 6th. But over that same span they were 4 for 5 with a man on first.

Before being called up Fernando Tatis has 12 homers in 120 at bats for AAA New Orleans.

Annika Sorenstam threw out the first pitch, just hours after she announced her retirement from golf at the end of the season.
She was given a jersey with #59 on it, a nod to her best ever round. Kudos to the clever Mets staffer who thought of that, even though it likely went over the heads of almost everyone watching.
But why did her jersey say Annika and not Sorenstam on the back?
She gave a very thoughtful interview with Kevin Burkhardt from her seat behind home plate. Burkhardt is an excellent "sideline" reporter, whether he's interviewing dignitaries or relating a story about a particular player, his reports always seem unobstrusive and he always keeps his eye on the game during them.

Unhappy Recap: Nationals 10 Mets 4

I think the Nelson Figueroa experiment is just about over. As good as he was for a couple starts, and as nice a story as he is, he has been getting killed lately.
He's very hittable, he's been walking guys and there's no reason to expect him to turn it around.

On the bright side the offense pounded out double digit hits for the 5th time in the last 6 games. But after they gave Figueroa 3 leads, and he blew them all, the offense went in the tank, stranding a lot of runners.

Carlos Delgado went 0 for 5, stranding 6 runners. He also made a key error in the second inning leading to the Nationals first run. To repeat, he's not going to hit .160 all year, he will have his moments, but overall he's still going to suck.

Why couldn't the Mets get Odalis Perez out?

This was also another game in which the Mets were in it and had a chance to come back, until the bullpen came in.

I don't know what is wrong with Sosa but he sucks even more than Heilman does.

The Mets need to win at least 2 out of the next 3 against Washington to avoid having this homestand become a complete disaster.

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.

Happy Recap: Mets 7 Nationals 2

The Mets finally got some key hits with runners in scoring position. I don't even care that most of them didn't even leave the infield.

Even if he doesn't hit two doubles every start Johan Santana is still going to win a lot of games for the Mets. He was awesome last night but except for against the bottom of the order. Wily Mo Pena, Wil Nieves and Tim Redding got 5 of the 7 hits he allowed, and produced the Nationals only 2 runs.

I'm glad that Willie went with Ryan Church batting 5th. He needs to do something to separate Delgado from Beltran.

I do wish he would have given Santana a chance to go a little deeper. He had only thrown 97 pitches and probably could have gone at least one more inning on about 13 pitches.

Happy Recap: Mets 3 Nationals 2

The Nationals completely gift-wrapped this game for the Mets, who were so bad offensively, that they almost didn't take it.

Let's examine how the Mets scored their runs:
First inning: Reyes singles then scores on a double by Church. But the double should have been a two base error as Wily Mo Pena dropped a very catchable ball by closing his glove too early.



Eighth inning: With 2 outs Church reaches on an error by Belliard, a ball that definitely should have been fielded, an absolutely routine play. But this was the one time the Mets actually did something to create their runs because after that error, Wright walked and Delgado came through in the clutch with an RBI single, breaking and 0 for 14 stretch.

Fourteenth inning: Easley singled, reached second on a pitch dropped by the catcher (technically a stolen base), went to third on a throwing error (botched pickoff attempt) and scored on a wild pitch.



Obviously the Mets didn't earn any of those runs.

Now let's look at their missed chances:

First of all, after Church's "double" 16 Mets were retired in a row (10 strikeouts) by John Lannan, proving the old SUCKME (Some Unknown Chucker Kills Mets Everytime) accurate once again.

7th inning: Delgado walked, Pagan singled, Clark sacrificed, Casanova blooped out to third base and Castillo grounded out.

9th inning: Castillo singles and steals second but Beltran struck out. Not one of the more egregious offenses committed by the Mets in this game. You can't expect a 2-out hit every time.

10th inning: Church walked, Wright flied out, Delgado walked, Pagan lined out.

12th inning: Easley singled, Reyes got a bunt base hit on a horrible play by Ray King, so bad they really scored it an error, but it should have been a hit. Then Church made the biggest fuckup of the game. He bunted too hard, and right at the pitcher. You have to make the third baseman field that one. Yes, it was a bad call, Easley was safe at third but the play was very close and it should never have come down to that. Then Wright grounded into a double play to compound the problem.

13th inning: Sosa walked, Chavez walked, Casanova struck out, Castillo lined out.

But as bad as the hitting was, the pitching was awesome. Another great start for Nelson Figueroa who was damn near perfect other than that 2-run homer.



And even more impressive than Figueroa's 7 innings were the 7 innings turned in by the bullpen. 3 hits, 3 walks and no runs by 6 different pitchers.

The teams sacrificed (or tried to) 5 times in this game, and none of them helped produce a run. The sacrifice is usually a bad play. Trading a base for an out is a bad idea. The only time it should be used is when you have a man on second and none out late in a close game and a good hitter coming up next. Or when a pitcher is up. Most of the other times it just hurts you. For instance, in the 7th, the sacrifice was a bad move because Casanova and Castillo were up after Clark and Clark probably had the best chance of the three of them of getting a hit.

Happy Recap: Mets 5 Nationals 2

Nice to see the Mets hitting with some power.

I don't know if the wind at Shea, or the construction of CitiField had anything to do with it but the Mets early season power outage (other than Wright) was a bit troubling.

I still think Beltran will be good for 30 to 40 homers this year.

A good performance by John Maine but he absolutely has to keep his walks down. Whenever he gets into trouble it's because he walks guys. That almost happened in the 7th inning but luckily Joe Smith bailed him out, or as Maine himself put it, "he saved my butt."

Does anyone think that Jose Reyes's two-game surge has anything to do with Beltran and Delgado encouraging him to act like his old self again? And was his early season slump related to the fact that he had toned down his act after last season?

First of all, talk that the Mets lost last season because the Marlins were pissed at their showboating and had extra motivation is absolute nonsense. There is no reason for a team or player to do something (or not do something) to avoid pissing off the other teams.

Second of all, while the timing is curious I refuse to believe that Reyes didn't get any hits at the beginning of the season just because he wasn't smiling and doing his stupid handshakes. It just doesn't make any sense.



But I hope he keeps hitting like this, I hope he keeps smiling, laughing, dancing and doing his handshakes. And I hope he brings back the Professor Reyes skit.

Happy Recap: Mets 6 Nationals 0

My favorite part about this game is that the Mets got it done with their young players. Wright, Reyes and Pelfrey won this game by themselves, and they're all 25 or younger.

Pelfrey was great, avoiding the mental breakdowns that often lead to big innings. The third inning was the inning where he usually blows it, 2 hits, then a walk (he always walks guys when he's already in trouble) but he bounced back to get Zimmerman and Johnson. After that he cruised.

It was nice to see Duaner Sanchez on the mound again.

David Wright had 5 RBI, but twice he came up with Reyes on third and fewer than 2 outs and didn't get the run home. Once he walked, and once he struck out. If he had gotten those 2 RBI he would have been only one short of the team record.

Unhappy Recap: Nationals 9 Mets 6

It's getting harder and harder to write about these games because they are all the same. The Mets offense gives them a lead, the starter fades, the bullpen blows it and the Mets lose.

This is what it's like to be a Mets fan, you know what's going to happen but you can't help but be sucked in. Beltran and Alou go back to back in the first inning, the Mets build a 5-0 lead and Humber was going along nicely and even after he allowed a 2-run homer in the fourth he got the next three guys out.

But the 5th inning was an absolute fucking disaster. One that is becoming all too frequent and all too predictable. Humber gave up a walk a single and double and that was the end of his day. Four innings from your starting pitcher. Awful.

Joe Smith was called on and he gave up 2 more hits. First five batters reached base.

Then Pedro Feliciano who I still think it the Mets best relief pitcher allowed a double to Wili Mo Pena that made the game 7-6 instead of 6-5.

And that was it. The Mets didn't score again. And just in case they did, Billy Wagner gave the Nationals two insurance runs in the 9th.

Schoeneweis, El Duque and Heilman all pitched scoreless innings.

I can't blame Willie. When your starters go 4 innings you have to go to the bullpen. When the bullpen can't get anyone out what are you supposed to do. It's not like he has some guys that have been good lately, and others haven't. Everyone sucks and he has to roll the dice.



Alou extended his hitting streak to 30 games.

The Mets have lost 9 of their last 13.

The Mets have given up 89 runs in their last 11 games.

The Nationals, who are still the lowest scoring team in the majors, scored 57 runs in 6 games against the Mets.

The Mets scored at least 6 runs in 9 of their last 11 games. They record in those 9 games in 4-5.

Unhappy Recap: Nationals 10 Mets 9

So close, but yet so far. A stirring comeback fell just short for the Mets after the first 8 1/2 innings went exactly according to recent form.

Tom Glavine turned in a stinkbomb of a performance, allowing 3-run homer to Austin Kearns in the first inning.

And each time the Mets chipped away with a run, Glavine allowed another. And like most Mets pitchers he only went 5 innings forcing Randolph to put to much trust in a bullpen that deserves none.

Carlos Muniz gave Willie a scoreless 6th but walked the first two batters in the 7th before giving way to Jorge Sosa. With two outs Sosa failed to cover first on a groundball to Delgado which should have been an easy out. The next batter singled in two runs.

Aaron Sele came in for the 8th and allowed one run in each of the 2 innings he pitched, making the score 10-3 entering the bottom of the 9th, when the patient began to kick.

LoDuca singled, then Newhan struck out, then 6 straight Mets reached base. Gomez walked and Reyes hit a 3-run homer to right, his second homer of the game (he led off the first with one), his 12th of the year, his 4th career multi-homer game.
Castillo singled to right and then Manny Acta went to his closer Chad Cordero. Wright singled and Beltran walked, then the red hot Moises Alou ripped a double to right field to drive in all 3 runs and make the score 10-9.
Jon Rauch came in for Cordero and Endy Chavez came in to run for Alou. Carlos Delgado was up, the Nationals used the overshift on the infield yet Delgado refused to try to slap one to left field. He got tied up by inside pitches then struck out. And for some unknown reason Endy Chavez tried to steal third. He was safe, but only because Ryan Zimmerman fell down. Paul LoDuca flied out to end the threat.

Now it's too easy to say that if Sosa had covered the base and cut off two runs the Mets would have won 9-8. The Nationals would have played the 9th much differently had the lead been smaller. But the Mets had a lot of other chances in this game. The Mets hit into inning ending double plays in the 4th, 5th, 7th and 8th innings. In the 5th and 7th Wright did the honors and in both cases two men were on. Two on, one out, no runs, twice. That's where the Mets lost this game. And in the first inning when Glavine got killed.