Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Not Again

This is simply unacceptable.

John Lannan and Odalis Perez were blitzed by the Mets last week at Shea, each lasting only three ineffective innings before surrendering the baseball to Nationals manager Manny Acta in games the Mets eventually held on to win. One week later, Acta handed the ball right back to his two top lefties – and they responded with back-to-back dominant performances.

It’s one thing to give up late leads and lose games when your beleaguered bullpen finally starts pitching down to their skill level. It’s quite another to be completely handcuffed by two mediocrities such as Lannan and Perez, each of whom had just been beaten up by the Mets a week earlier. The result? The New York Mets are a second place ball club now.

If it wasn’t for the Milwaukee Brewers, perhaps the only team in baseball more pathetic than the Mets right now, the Mets would be completely out of the playoff picture with 13 games to go. Neither team deserves to be in the playoffs, but I guess one team will wind up being even less deserving than the other and will earn the right to get swept out of the Division Series.

More at Flushing University tomorrow.

3 comments:

James Allen said...

After the weekend I had a dreaded feeling that the Mets would lose 3 of 4 to the Nats. Little did I know. Didn't I watch these games a year ago? (In tonight's case, I think I saw this game a few months ago.) Now, like Phil Humber last year, we get to see a pitcher like Brandon freakin' Knight take the hill when the team desperately needs a win. Yippee.

And we can't just rip the bullpen exclusively can we? Can the middle of the lineup disappear even more? And Odalis Perez?? Give me a goddamn break.

Delgado not even bothering to run out a thrid strike that got away from the catcher typified the general futility of the evening. If you're too dejected to even make the catcher throw the ball to first, things must really really suck.

James Allen said...

And another thing. When did most career hits in a particular stadium become an important record? Is the day a guy tips hit hat for breaking the "most hits on Wednesday" far behind?

TW said...

I hope not, I own that record!


11 games to go, just beleive. I look at it this way, it's not a collapse if we never should have been here in the first place, and after the way this season started and how bad the bullpen has been for the entire time, this team has no business being in the race for a playoff berth. If they don't make it, the Jets (or Giants if you prefer) will pick up the slack. The Knicks should be at least watchable and the Rangers should be ready to make some real noise. College basketball will then be in full swing and before you know it will be March and we'll start the whole thing over again.

It's not like anyone is going to beat the Angels anyway.