Unhappy Recap: Tigers 15 Mets 7

The worst pitched game for the Mets all year. Just a horrible blowout, the kind of game that happens every once in a while over the course of the season.

I'm not going to both dissecting the other game pitch by pitch and run by run but I will point out a few things.

The Mets gave Glavine a 3-0 lead in the first inning on another home run by David Wright. His fourth in the last 4 games and his 12th overall. Last year when Wright had a sizzling hot first half with homers, his 12th came on June 13th. It was part of one of two stretches of 3 homers in 3 games he had early last year.

I have no sympathy for Glavine and his inability to win games. Every time he is given a lead he blows it. He gave up a run in the first, and a run in the second but he still had the lead. The fourth inning demonstrated my frustration with watching him. Polanco led off with a double. Then he got two outs, and faced Omar Infante. With a one run lead. He started Infante with two strikes, then he refused to throw anything else except for a fastball 6 inches off the corner. He threw four of them, all balls, walking Infante. A similar at bat against Ivan Rodriguez (full count) ended in a triple that gave the Tigers the lead for good. Once he got sufficiently behind he struck out Sean Casey on three pitches.

Glavine made all of that moot by allowing 6 hits and 6 runs in the 5th.

But with the score 10-3 the Mets showed some life, much like when it was 8-3 on Saturday. Carlos Gomez hit his first major league home run. A three run shot.

With the score 11-6 Joe Smith came on for the 8th inning. With two outs and nobody on he all of the sudden turned to shit. Four hits and two walks later the Tigers had tagged him with 4 runs, nearly doubling his season ERA to 2.63 from 1.37. In his last 6 appearances he's given up 5 runs, 11 hits and 5 walks in 5 2/3 innings.

Could this be the start of some major bullpen trouble? I don't have that answer yet but I knew Smith wasn't going to be this great all season. It remains to be seen whether he can follow up this bad outing with 5 or 6 good ones.

Even though the starters have turned in two stinkers in a row, I still have confidence in them, and in the lineup which has been struggling. But if Smith was just a flash in the pan, and Heilman stinks, and Mota can't get it done without the juice then the Mets season may very well depend on Duaner Sanchez.

Unhappy Recap: Tigers 8 Mets 7

A very disappointing loss because the Mets offense finally broke, sort of, and scored a lot of runs.

Oliver Perez didn't have it, getting bitten by his dual nemeses, the home run ball and the walk. They bit him in the first inning after a walk to Ordonez he allowed a 3 run homer to Guillen. And that came after the Mets scored in the first inning by a Reyes run created by Beltran. They haven't been getting too many from Reyes lately so they need them from Beltran.

Reyes however did tie the game in the 5th with a 2 out two run single after Castro and Gomez couldn't get runners in from second and third. But Perez gave the runs right back in the fifth. You can't get too mad at Perez he's been so good and so consistent but the fact that he has occassional bouts of wildness coupled with his flyball pitching which makes him prone to the home run, this level of performance may be the ceiling of his potential.

Even with a subpar outing from Perez the Mets trailed by only two runs until Gulliermo Mota came in and couldn't get anyone out. He allowed 4 hits and 3 runs in a third of an inning before Sele bailed him out. So far, Mota definitely does not look like the pre-steroids Mota from last year.

But the Mets responded with 4 hits and 3 runs of their own to cut the lead to 8-6, with Reyes up and a man on first and one out. But Reyes popped out on the fisrt pitch (he has been a lot less patient recently), but Valentin doubled and Beltran walked loading the bases, but Delgado couldn't come through.

David Wright led off the 8th with a home run to cut the lead to one but the Mets couldn't scratch that last run across.

Happy Recap: Mets 3 Tigers 0

Leave it to Jorge Sosa to break the Mets out of their slumber. He's the first Mets pitcher to get 6 wins in his first 7 games for the team. And in those 6 wins he's allowed 2 runs or fewer. He got some help from good defense, Reyes and Gomez made good plays to prevent hits. In all the Tigers got 4 hits. Sosa threw 116 pitches but he lasted 8 innings, helped by throwing only 5 in the 7th.

Wagner came on and clearly bounced back with no ill effects from his blown save the night before. He pitched a perfect inning and struck out two.

David Wright and Delgado homered for the second day in a row.

The Mets got their third run after Gomez and Beltran singled. Gomez scored on a sac fly by Delgado, but replays show he probably did leave too early. I doubt it would have affected the outcome of the game. I don't think the Tigers would have hit Wagner even if the score were still 2-0.

I really like Gomez batting second. I mentioned before that I think he wasn't getting good pitches in the 8th hole. I also said I thought he was feeling more pressure batting 8th to drive in runs which is not his specialty. I think the biggest reason for the recent offense slump is the weakness of the #2 hitter. If the Mets need to leave LoDuca batting 6th because Alou and Green are hurt then they need to give Gomez a chance.