Well, this is sort of becoming the norm now, isn’t it? You can almost predict exactly what’s going to happen. Matt Harvey goes out, pitches his heart out, and somehow gets cheated out of a win. As much as we all hoped for that streak to break today, the Mets offense was not up to the task of handling Adam Wainwright. The Mets were shut down through the first seven innings by Wainwright, only posing a threat in the fourth with two outs. Lucas Duda, however, flew out to end the threat.

Matt Harvey, predictably so, was incredible again. He tossed seven innings of one-run ball while striking out seven batters. His only real show of weakness was in the third, when he allowed a two-out triple to Matt Carpenter, who lined one just out of the reach of a diving Marlon Byrd. LaTroy Hawkins did Harvey no favors either, as he allowed an RBI single to Allen Craig in the eighth to widen the margin to 2-0. The run was charged to Scott Rice, who left a runner on base when he was removed in favor of Hawkins.

That became a huge issue for the Mets, as Byrd tried to make up for earlier by slamming a solo home run in the ninth, but it was a case of too little, too late. John Buck was left stranded on second by Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Josh Satin.

Thus. Matt Harvey was saddled with the loss and his record fell to 5 – 1 with eight no-decisions. …Eight.

Dillon Gee was dominant for the Mets as they beat the St. Louis Cardinals by the score of 5-1 tonight at Citi Field to even the series at one game apiece.

It was the third consecutive solid outing for Gee who is 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA in that span. The righthander held one of the most potent offenses in the game to just one earned run tonight in 6.2 innings pitched, scattering just six hits and two walks while striking out seven. Just a tremendous effort from Gee who improves to 5-6 for the season.

The Mets roughed up highly touted pitching phenom Shelby Miller for three home runs tonight. Lucas Duda went deep in the fourth inning to put the Mets up 3-0, David Wright launched a towering drive in the sixth, and Marlon Byrd blasted his ninth homer of the season in the seventh to complete the trifecta. All three homers were solo shots.

Jordany Valdespin and Omar Quintanilla went 0-for-8 at the top of the order, but Mets 3-4-5 hitters saved the day going 5-for-11 with four RBIs and four runs scored.

The bullpen did the job with 2.1 perfect innings of relief from Scott Rice, Brandon Lyon and Bobby Parnell.

Breaking News: We cannot confirm or deny reports that Josh Satin was abducted by aliens en route from Las Vegas on Sunday. However we do believe that Satin may have become the victim of foul play at the hands of a menacing manager who goes by the name of Terry Collins and is known to prey on rookies.

With the win the Mets improve their record to 24-36. Weather permitting (there’s a wicked storm brewing) dueling aces square off with Matt Harvey (5-0, 2.10 ERA) opposing Adam Wainwright (9-3, 2.34) at 1:10 PM.

Lets Go Mets!

Credit: Gordon Donovan

It’s time.  Losing seven out of our last eight to the Miami Marlins is proof enough.  Measured changes at Citi Field are long overdue. Binghamton’s southpaw reliever Jack Leathersich has been nothing short of dominant this season — and his ascent to the show should be at the top of a long list of personnel changes.

As a B-Met fan who attends Binghamton games regularly, I would hate to see Leathersich go. He is a joy to watch pitch in person and never fails to deliver. Yet, player development is the primary purpose of the minor leagues, and Leathersich has proven he has electric stuff.  There is nothing left for Leathersich to prove in Binghamton and with the major league team playing AAA like ball in Flushing, there is much to gain in jumping Leathersich from Binghamton to the big club.

Leathersich has been lights out in Binghamton.  The kid has a mid 90′s fastball, above average curve and a funky windup that can be deceptive for opposing hitters.  Leathersich’s Eastern League strikeout numbers are dazzling.  In 28 innings, the B-Met pitcher has fanned 53 batters, nearly two per inning. He has held opposing hitters, as a whole, to a miniscule .170 average.

In late May, Rob Castellano of SB Nation reported Leathersich’s strikeout percentage was a full 20% higher than the average in the Eastern League. Leathersich misses bats — this is something I can validate from my visits to NYSEG Stadium this spring. He is also improving his command, as he has walked only three batters in his last twelve innings, after he walked ten in his first 13.0 to begin the season.

Sandy Alderson just reported that Robert Carson is headed back to Triple-A.  At the press conference Alderson reported the Mets will be looking for a second left-handed arm to offer support to Scott Rice in the bullpen.  The numbers are literally screaming at Alderson to make the call for Leathersich.  His 1.61 ERA, 1.14 WHIP and those crazy strikeout numbers all build a case for adding Leathersich to the major league team.  Elevating Leathersich now provides the Mets adequate time to conduct a fair evaluation to help determine if the lefty reliever should be part of the team’s overall improvement plan.

Thoughts From Satish R. 

You know what? Leather Rocket would be better served to pitch in Flushing than with the Las Vegas team at this point and he is absolutely dominating AA. He is the most advanced homegrown relief pitcher in our system right now and has recently drawn rave reviews, including a comparison to Billy Wagner from our own Joe D.

The only issue here is that Leathersich is not only the 40-man roster, and the Mets have only one open spot. My original idea that was the Mets would promote Josh Satin and Collin Cowgill for Ike Davis and Mike Baxter, respectively. Satin would take up a new spot on the 40-man and that would likely leave Josh Edgin as the man in line to be promoted for Robert Carson. That being said, the Mets could drop Carson from the 40-man and promote Leathersich with Satin — or promote Andrew Brown over Satin and then take Leathersich…

Bottom line? Keep your eyes and ears open.

The Miami Marlins scratched out a run in the top of the 20th inning to break the 1-1 deadlock and beat the Mets 2-1 at Citi Field tonight.

Matt Harvey started for the Mets and was solid for seven innings until he was removed with what the team initially diagnosed as “lower back tightness.”  The righthander gets his fourth straight no-decision after allowing just one run on six hits with no walks and six strikeouts. The Marlins’ only run off Harvey came in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly by Chris Coghlan.

Shaun Marcum was just as solid despite getting tagged with the loss. The veteran tossed seven scoreless innings of relief before tiring in his eighth inning of work and allowing the Marlins to score the game-winner. he allowed five hits, walked none and struck out seven. It was the longest relief stint from a Met reliever in 30 years.

The bullpen as a whole was outstanding with Brandon Lyon, Bobby Parnell, LaTroy Hawkins, Scott Rice, Greg Burke, and David Aardsma combining for five scoreless innings of relief.

The only Mets run came in the second inning when Juan Lagares drove in Ike Davis with an RBI single. Lagares  in the second inning. After that there was nothing but a whole lot of awful offensively…

The Mets were a franchise worst 0-for-19 with runners in scoring position and left 22 men on base. They had plenty of chances to score the go-ahead and squandered prime opportunities the eighth, ninth, and tenth innings.

The good news? Rick Ankiel has been designated for assignment, more on that in an update by my wingman Satish…

The Mets and Marlins will hook up again tomorrow as Jon Niese (3-5, 4.40) will face Tom Koehler (0-4, 3.70) at 1:10 pm in the Sunday finale.

If losing in nine innings to the Marlins is unacceptable, then losing in 20 is [expletive deleted].

— Ed Leyro (@Studi_Metsimus) June 8, 2013

The only thing that will keep the Miami Marlins from losing more games than the 1962 New York Mets is the 2013 New York Mets. #Ducks

— Mets Merized Online (@MetsMerized) June 8, 2013

One of the reasons for the Mets’ poor start is their inability to hit.  New York ranks 29th of 30 teams in batting average, with only the Marlins (.227) possessing a lower team batting average than the Mets’ .228 mark.

The Mets’ lack of success at the plate is more noticeable when two statistics are considered.  New York’s right-handed batters are hitting .225 versus right-handed pitchers and their left-handed batters hit a mere .210 against southpaws.  Ordinarily, a team would combat this by employing a switch-hitter or two.  That way, there would be more lefty-righty matchups, which have traditionally favored the hitters.  There’s only one problem with that.  The Mets don’t have any switch-hitters.  And it’s not like they have many switch-hitting options in the minors, either.

Last of the Mohicans? Not really. But Andres Torres was the last switch-hitter to bat for the Mets.

New York’s current 40-man roster does not feature any switch-hitters.  But wait, there’s more.  Their Triple-A affiliate in Las Vegas had only one switch-hitter on the roster.  That’s had, as in past tense.  Switch-hitting catcher Landon Powell was only batting .159 in 82 plate appearances and was released today.  The Mets also have just one player who bats from both sides of the plate at AA-Binghamton.  But switch-hitting second baseman Daniel Muno is only hitting .217 in a team-leading 241 plate appearances.

Unless the Mets make a trade for a switch-hitter, it does not appear as if they will have one on the major league roster at any point this year.  The only other season in which the Mets did not have a single at-bat credited to a switch-hitter was 1964, almost half a century ago.

In late inning situations, opposing teams usually have left-handed pitchers available to face lefty hitters.  Similarly, they use right-handed relievers against right-handed hitters.  But with the Mets not having any switch-hitters on their active roster, they’re forced to use their bench players or keep their starters in the game for a unfavorable hitting matchup.

An average starting pitcher can go about six innings.  Therefore, innings six through eight are usually reserved for tiring starters and/or middle relievers.  Any batter should be able to hit a tiring starter.  Likewise, a switch-hitter would have no problem against a middle reliever because he can bat from either side of the plate.  So how are the Mets doing at the plate in innings six through eight?  They’re hitting a paltry .211 in those innings with a .273 on-base percentage – numbers that are considerably lower than their overall figures (.228 batting average, .295 OBP).  Makes you wonder if those numbers would look better if the Mets had a couple of switch-hitters in their employ who could foil potential lefty-lefty and righty-righty matchups in the later innings.

When constructing a roster, teams always try to have a lefty or two in the bullpen.  The Mets currently have two such pitchers in Robert Carson and Scott Rice.  But teams should also have their share of switch-hitters on the roster.  The Mets have zip, zilch, nada.  Their inability to send a switch-hitter up to the plate in the late innings has made them very vulnerable against an opponent’s bullpen.  That makes it exceedingly difficult for them to erase late-inning deficits.  (The Mets have been outscored, 97-71, from the sixth through the eighth innings.)

The Mets need many things.  They need a dependable bullpen.  They need better outfielders.  They need to clone Matt Harvey.  But one thing they also need is a switch-hitter.  After all, they already have a bullpen (sort of).  They have outfielders (or guys who play outfielders on TV).  They even have a Matt Harvey (and his achy breaky back).  But they don’t have a switch-hitter.  It’s time for the Mets to switch things up if they want to fix that gaping hole on the active roster.

Couldn’t help reading today that Bobby Parnell deserves to be an All Star on MetsBlog.  Sorry, but I beg to differ.

Parnell ranks 13th out of 15 National League closers with 9 saves. The leader, Pittsburgh’s Jason Grilli, has 22 saves, while Edward Mujica of the Cardinals and Craig Kimbrel have 17 saves each. All three have ERAs of 1.93 or lower. Do those three deserve to be All Stars? You bet they do. Parnell isn’t even on the same map as them.

The Mets closer has blown three saves out of 12 opportunites and his 75% save ratio is the worst mark among all 15 qualified NL closers.

His 1.01 WHIP, which is pretty impressive, still only ranks seventh among qualified closers, and his Batting Average Against of .202 while good, isn’t even in the same company of of guys like Grilli (.141), Kevin Gregg (.148), Jonathan Papelbon (.125), Mujica (.138) or Aroldis Chapman (.183), In fact, Parnell doesn’t even have the best BAA in his own bullpen, as that honor goes to Scott Rice who boasts a .198 BAA.

So aside from just taking the fanboy approach, what exactly makes Parnell more deserving than any of those elite closers I mentioned?

Heck, I wish all the Mets could be All Stars if you asked the homer in me. But from a pure baseball intellect standpoint and an unbiased point of view, it’s very clear that Parnell doesn’t deserve a spot on the All Star team and that there’s at least 6-8 closers in front of him that do deserve the honor.

His blown save last night that allowed the Nationals to comeback and beat the Mets 3-2, had the bearded one allowing a double, a wild pitch, a single, another double, and finally a sac-fly with the bases loaded to clinch the deal for the Nats.

Now, has Parnell embraced the closer role better than many of us expected?

Yes, of course. But to count him among the elite closers in baseball, or even in the league, is pretty ridiculous right now.

Parnell is not an elite All Star caliber closer. He’s just a good one – most of the time.

On those rare occasions when the Mets need to protect a late lead, Parnell and Rice have been Terry Collins‘ first line of defense and his go-to guys.

For Rice, it has led to an NL-leading 32 appearances. That puts the late-blooming rookie on pace for 96 appearances this season.

For a couple of weeks now on MMO, I’ve argued Collins’ questionable bullpen management habits and his propensity to burn out his pen’s best arms before the All Star break. We’ve seen this acted out before in his first two seasons, but what he’s doing now with Rice is bordering on negligence and insanity.

Wanting to use Rice as often as he has is totally understandable given that he’s held batters to a slim .198 batting average this season – only Parnell and Matt Harvey have been better. But to use him with such reckless abandon is what the big issue is. There’s always a price to pay when you abuse an arm like that, and usually it’s the pitcher or the team that pays the price. On Sunday it was both.

Rice walked four batters and struggled mightily with his command. Questionable still was Collins’ decision to leave a weary-armed Rice in the game to face right-handed slugger Marcell Ozuna who ripped a two-run double to tie the game. Chris Coghlan would follow and put the Marlins ahead with an RBI groundout to hand Rice his fourth loss of the season.

In his first 22 appearances Rice posted a 2.67 ERA. Over his last ten appearances he’s posted a 5.00 ERA  and is now at 4.00 for the season. Coincidence? I think not.

Not even Matt Harvey Day could stop the Miami Marlins from beating the Mets this afternoon by the score of 11-6 to complete an embarrassing three game sweep of the Amazins.

Looking for his sixth win of the season, Harvey struggled today against the Marlins and allowed four runs – a career high – for the second time in three starts. He toiled through five innings letting up ten hits and two walks while striking out five.

“I’m not happy about the start at all,” Harvey said after the game. “I didn’t execute my pitches very well.”

Once again in this series, the Mets bullpen provided no relief even from the usually reliable Scott Rice who was torched for three runs on four walks and a back-breaking double by Marcell Ozuna. LaTroy Hawkins gave up three runs and Brandon Lyon allowed one.

Offensively, the Mets connected for three home runs in the game including solo shots from both Lucas Duda and Omar Quintanilla, and a two-run 425-foot bomb by Ike Davis who hit the ball hard all day.

The Mets were outscored 24-8 by the Marlins in the forgettable three game series. It’s pretty clear that it’s time for this team to go into 2014 mode… Play the kids, dump the chumps… Another losing season beckons…

They’ll have the day off on Monday to lick their wounds before heading to Washington to play the Nationals. Jeremy Hefner (1-5, 4.74 ERA) opposes right-hander Jordan Zimmermann (8-3, 2.37) at 7:05 PM on Tuesday.

STAY TRUE TO THE ORANGE AND BLUE?

Updated by Joe D. at 10:45 PM

Jack Leathersich is freaking unbelievable. He just struck out the side tonight in the ninth inning for Binghamton. His last nine outs have all been Ks and he now has 27 strikeouts in his last 12 innings pitched. For the season, Leathersich has 48 strikeouts in 25.1 innings pitched.

Back in January I compared him to Billy Wagner in an interview I did with him. He laughed and thought I was being too kind. Was I?

The league is batting just .167 against him.

See you later this season at Citi, Jack…. Just like I told you five months ago…

Original Post 12:00 PM

Adam Rubin hosted a chat today at 12pm EST on ESPN New York, answering fan questions on everything involving our beloved New York Mets. One question posed by a fan asked Rubin when the Mets would consider promoting hard-throwing southpaw reliever, Jack Leathersich.

The lefty is currently in Double-A with the Binghamton Mets, and is tearing up opposing hitters through 18 appearances this season. He’s 1-0 with a 1.48 ERA, 45 strikeouts, and 13 walks in 24.1 innings pitched.

Coming into this season, it looked like the Mets were set in the left-handed reliever department, but things haven’t played out exactly how they were hoping. Veteran Scott Rice (3-3, 3.16 ERA in 30 appearances) has been doing a stellar job, but Josh Edgin (9.64 ERA in 11 games) is currently in Triple-A trying to work through his issues, and Robert Carson (9.45 ERA in nine games) hasn’t done a much better job.

Their lack of production has made the Mets thin at that position; Pedro Feliciano is still battling food poisoning, while Tim Byrdak isn’t expected to be available until at least around the All-Star break. Terry Collins has been using Rice just about every day, as he’s leading the majors in appearances. To take some of the burden off Rice’s left wing, it would make sense to have a second lefty in the ‘pen Collins has faith in using for big spots. Leathersich has been using his velocity to get strikeouts with the B-Mets, striking out 27 hitters in his last 13.1 innings pitched.

In response to the question, Rubin wouldn’t rule out seeing the southpaw eventually make his way to Flushing in 2013, as that was his prediction during spring training a couple months ago. However, he said we shouldn’t be hoping to see him at Citi Field until the organization at least promotes him to Triple-A Las Vegas first.

When do you think we’ll see Jack Leathersich in the majors?

(Photo Credit: Gordon Donovan)

Updated with thoughts by Joe D. on 5/31

When Terry Collins removed Dillon Gee in the eighth inning last night after registering one out, I like everyone else who were interacting on Twitter busted a gasket.

Here was Gee, pitching the game of his life and in the midst of retiring 15 consecutive batters – including the last five via a strikeout – and Collins decided to pull him despite only throwing 88 pitches to that point? Has he gone mad?

We’ve seen this so many times before from Collins and as usual his reasoning was as irrational as ever citing that “he didn’t want Gee to lose the game.”

Time and time again he’s done this and in fact it had the inverse effect resulting in losses for Jeremy Hefner, Shaun Marcum and Jon Niese. Despite his illogical attempts to secure a win for his pitchers, in most cases it led to a loss or no-decision.

Also, what does it say to his pitchers that Collins doesn’t trust them enough to win their own games?

Last night worked out okay for Gee, but that still doesn’t make what Collins did rational or right.

It was a terrible call, and to compound it by going to Scott Rice who desperately needs a day off, only made the decision even more foolish.

Rice leads the league in appearances and has played in 31 of the Mets’ first 51 games. That’s a recipe for disaster for the rookie who is on pace for 100 appearances – smashing every franchise record in the books.

Original Post 5/30

So picture yourself as Dillon Gee.

You’ve had a rough start to this season after coming off surgery.

Questions about your role have been brought up with the impending arrival of super prospect Zack Wheeler.
You take the ball in the Subway Series against the Yankees – trying to lead your team to incredibly rare four-game sweep.

And you deliver the game of your life.

But after a career-high 12 strikeouts and retiring 15 batters in row, you see your manager Terry Collins trotting out from the dugout. You’ve only thrown 88 pitches though and have looked great!

Pitching coach Dan Warthen didn’t pay a visit to check on you. You didn’t allow a hit or walk to signal for the pitching change. You simply dominated but wound up being pulled after 7.1 innings.

Now looking back on all this, Scott Rice came in and did another great job retiring the two lefties. Collins looks like a genius for pushing the right button at the right time, but was that button pushed a bit prematurely?

Once Ichiro was announced as the pinch hitter and with Brett Gardner on deck, the decision to bring in Rice to face the lefties made sense at the time.

But here’s the thing: Gee didn’t seem to have much trouble with the bevy of Yankee hitters thrown his way all night, except for a meaningless solo homer he allowed to Robinson Cano.

This could be considered a case of over-managing by Collins, but the result was favorable for the Mets.

Gee showed little emotion after being pulled, but he had to have been perturbed. He easily could have gone the distance if he kept up his pace.

At least give him a chance to get through eight innings. Now that the Mets have a somewhat established closer in Bobby Parnell, the ninth inning was his based on the save situation.

But Gee would have had even more of a confidence boost if he’d been given the chance to put up eight frames of one run ball.

In the end, this really isn’t that big of a deal. The most important thing is that the Mets won the ballgame and pulled off the four-game sweep.

Gee now needs to focus on building upon this effort to erase the rough start to his season. This is the type of effort that can really get him going.

And with Wheeler not too far away, each start for Gee – and Jeremy Hefner for that matter – will be highly scrutinized.

In stunning fashion, Dillon Gee and the New York Mets beat the New York Yankees by the score of 3-1 tonight at Yankee Stadium to complete their first ever Subway Series sweep.

Wow, what a performance by Dillon Gee who pitched the game of his life tonight against the Yankees. The righthander held the Bronx Bombers to just one run on four hits, walked none, and struck out a career high 12 batters in 7.1 innings pitched. It was the best game I ever saw Gee throw. His fastball was biting, his changeup was getting it done, and his command was impeccable as he owned both sides of the plate. He pitched a heck of game…

The Mets scored their first two runs on another Marlon Byrd home run, his sixth of the season, a two-run bomb in the second off Yankees rookie Vidal Nuno. Their third run came in the eighth inning on an inifield single by John Buck to drive in a run.

Scott Rice finished up in the eighth and Bobby Parnell was smoking in the ninth to pick up his ninth save of the season.

This was such a great series all around for the Mets. Their starting rotation has put together a string of five consecutive phenomenal pitching performances, which is what has driven this five-game winning streak. It’s been incredible and fun to watch them pitch like this and we can only hope this continues.

Tomorrow the Mets head to Florida for a weekend series against the Miami Marlins. Shaun Marcum, who started this winning streak, will take the mound and oppose Jacob Turner who is making his MLB debut.

WE SWEPT THE DAMNED YANKEES, YO!!!

LETS GO METS!!!

The Mets played their first suspended game since Aug. 6, 1986 tonight and after Atlanta scored two runs in the top of the tenth inning,  the Mets lost the game 7-5 to drop them 11 games under .500 for the season. Brandon Lyon allowed both Atlanta runs and took the loss.

Right-hander Jeremy Hefner initially started the game for the Mets 18 hours earlier and delivered a gutty performance, allowing just two runs on three hits in six solid innings of work. Hefner walked just two batters and struck out seven in his 94 pitch performance. I had a terrible feeling in my gut when Terry Collins decided to end Hefner’s night with the 3-2 lead and leave the last nine outs for the bullpen. And right on cue, the very first batter, Dan Uggla, launched a solo home run of LaTroy Hawkins to tie the game, leaving Hefner still searching for his first win of the season.

Hefner, the Moore, Oklahoma native, has had a hard time dealing with the tragedy in his hometown. The killer tornado flattened his former elementary school where several children were found dead. He really has pitched better than his 0-5 record would indicate, and it would have been nice to see his teammates gut out this win for him.

Hawkins and Scott Rice are starting to fade after extensive overuse by Terry Collins. Hawkins allowed a run, and Rice allowed a pair of Braves to cross the plate. The bullpen is about ready to completely implode. Why did Collins feel the need to give Hefner the hook while he was in a groove?

The Braves took a 5-3 lead in the eighth on a two-run single by pinch-hitter Evan Gattis. The Mets evened it in the bottom half against Varvaro, who struggled to get a good grip but threw a wild pitch that let the tying run score.

Ike Davis struck out four more times and is now 1-for-41 and batting a season low .143.

Daniel Murphy has three hits including his 15th double of the season to go with two runs scored and an RBI. Nobody in hotter right now.

David Wright has two hits and swiped his eleventh base of the season.

John Buck hit his 11th homer of the season and drove in two to give him a team leading 32 RBIs.

Well, sort of.

This past Friday the Miami Marlins designated former-Met Jon Rauch for assignment and in the past 24 hours there have been conflicting reports regarding his potential release. If talk of his release is accurate, the Mets should be biting.

As my colleague Ed Leyro pointed out back in February, this Mets ballclub doesn’t quite measure up in comparison to last year.

With the non-tendering of the 6’7″ Mike Pelfrey, and the non-signings of the 6’10″ Chris Young and the burly 6’11″ Rauch, the Amazin’s lost their three tallest players. At the time of Ed’s article, not a single Met on the active roster was listed at over 6″4″, however both LaTroy Hawkins (6’5″) and Scott Rice (6’6″) have since trumped that mark.

Rauch has had an unfortunate start to the year, going 1-2 with an ugly 7.56 ERA in just 15 outings with Miami. His stats across the board are pretty unsightly, however given that he was one of the more dependable arms out of the ‘pen last season, Rauch is worth taking a chance on.

The now 34-year old has a career 3.80 ERA–discounting this year–and pitched effectively in 2012 with the Mets to the tune of a 3.59 ERA and 0.988 WHIP. Given the lowly state of the Mets’ bullpen that has somehow found a way to be even worse than last year, he is at least worth taking a look at.

If Alderson and company were to choose to take a flyer on him, Rauch could once again stand tall as a go-to arm of out of the mess known as the bullpen. What is there to lose?

What does everyone think? Anyone up for a Rauch reunion?

The team is 10 games under .500, the first baseman is batting .147 and virtually no one is showing up to Citi Field.

It seems that every time the Mets fall behind, the game is over. Sure, the team has had a few exciting late-game wins, but there is very little fight right now.

One issue that has hindered the team is giving up three or more runs in a single inning. The Mets have done this 31 times this year, which leads the bigs.

On the flip side, the team has scored three or more runs offensively in an inning just 19 times.

Even if this team can get on some sort of hot streak (unlikely), it won’t be by overpowering its opponents. It would be by playing sound baseball and scratching out enough runs to win a close ballgame.

But if the team plans on changing its ways, limiting the big inning from a defensive standpoint is a good way to start.

Rallies happen; they are part of the game. Minimizing the damage though is key to winning – or at least staying competitive – in ballgames.

Other than Matt Harvey and Bobby Parnell, the Mets’ pitching staff has been very inconsistent. Scott Rice has been good lately, but collectively the unit has struggled.

The pieces for future success are on the farm, so we’ll just have to be patient until they are ready. But for the time being, the team is still responsible for at least providing somewhat of a decent product for its fanbase.

Because if they don’t, that fanbase will dwindle even further than it already has.

Every day we hear the same thing from Terry Collins, and who could blame him?

There have been times this year when the team has shown it can play exciting baseball, and now they just have to try to do that more consistently. Obviously as they’ve shown, that’s easier said than done.

Limiting big innings is a good start. This team is not going to score many runs, so the runs it does score are sacred.

There is still time, and there’s no better time than the present to turn things around.

Rice lowered his ERA to 3.05, and is now on pace for 99 appearances. That would surpass Pedro Feliciano‘s franchise mark of 92 games in 2010 and rank second all-time to Mike Marshall‘s 106 appearances for the Dodgers in 1974.

That is one heck of a workload to say the least, and to think that it’s coming from a pitcher who has toiled for 14 years in the minors before finally getting his shot in the majors makes this all the more amazing.

Rice, the 31 year old rookie, is proving to be the second best weapon in the Mets bullpen after closer Bobby Parnell. However, how long can he continue on this torrid pace before it all catches up to him and he begins to breakdown?

“Right now it’s early enough in the year”, manager Terry Collins said. “We’ve tried to get him some days off. But he keeps pitching four out of five, it’s got to be a concern. We’ve got to certainly pick up some of the workload with somebody else.”

Rice has no complaints and is enjoying every minute of his new-found life in the majors, but he also understands the risks.

“If my arm is feeling fine, I’m going to go out there and throw,” Rice said. “I’m going to be smart, and I know my body. I know how to take care of myself and prepare myself to throw every day.”

I’ve been pulling for Rice since back in Spring Training and was so glad for him when he made the team, but I never expected he would play such a significant role this season. Here’s to more great outings for this veteran rook, who definitely knows his place. He earned it the hard way.

Juan Lagares and Daniel Murphy homered to pick up Dillon Gee, and the bullpen came up with a superb effort with four perfect innings to give the Mets a 4-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs Sunday at Wrigley Field. The victory gave the Mets their first series victory since they beat Washington, April 19-21, at Citi Field.

RECORD: 17-24, 4^th NL East

ON THE MOUND: Dillon Gee gave up three runs on eight hits in five innings for the no-decision. … Scott Rice was superb in relief retiring six straight hitters. … The Mets also received a strong one-out showing from Greg Burke and Bobby Parnell worked the ninth for his sixth save. … The Mets’ bullpen retired 12 straight hitters.

AT THE PLATE: Inserted in the leadoff spot, Murphy hit a go-ahead homer in the eighth. … Lagares hit a game-tying, two-run homer in the seventh. He had two hits in the game. … The Mets had six hits in the game and struck out seven times.

BY THE NUMBERS: 15-for-29: Murphy’s hot streak.

THEY SAID IT: “Everything comes to a head at some point.’’ – GM Sandy Alderson when asked if there was a limit to Ike Davis’ slump after saying sending him so

ON DECK: Shaun Marcum is scheduled to open the Mets’ three-game series against Cincinnati, beginning Monday at Citi Field.

The newest Met, Rick Ankiel, couldn’t hold onto Ty Wigginton’s sinking line drive for a double. Wigginton then scored from second on an infield hit off pitcher Scott Rice. Matt Holliday followed with a two-run homer, and just like that it was over and the Mets had their fourth straight loss, 6-3, at St. Louis to fall seven games below .500.

ON THE MOUND: Jeremy Hefner had his third straight quality start, giving up three runs in six innings. Hefner retired the last ten hitters he faced. Even so, the Mets are now 0-7 when he starts. … Rice and Scott Atchison combined to give up three runs on five hits.

AT THE PLATE: The Mets had four hits, three from Daniel Murphy. … Ten more strikeouts by Mets hitters, surprisingly, none by Ike Davis or Lucas Duda.

METS MATTERS: Reliever Frank Francisco has a mild strain of the flexor pronator in his right elbow. He will be shut down for 72 hours before he resumes throwing. … Outfielder Andrew Brown was optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas to make room for Ankiel.

THEY SAID IT:  “We aren’t scoring. I told him he got us to where we needed to be.’’ – Manager Terry Collins on Hefner’s performance.

BY THE NUMBERS: 12: Number of times in their last 16 games the Mets scored three runs or less.

ON DECK: Dillon Gee (2-4), Shaun Marcum (0-3) and Jonathan Niese (2-4) will be the Mets’ next three starters in this series against John Gast (0-0), Shelby Miller (5-2) and Adam Wainwright (5-2) for the Cardinals.

PRETTY IN PINK?

The Mets were beaten by the Pittsburgh Pirates by the score of 3-2 this afternoon in front of a nicely packed Mother’s Day crowd at Citi Field.

Matt Harvey started and while he pitched good enough to win, he wasn’t at his best and he seemed to rely mostly on a variety of breaking balls and off-speed stuff rather than his usual 95-98 mph fastball. He tossed seven innings and allowed two earned runs on five hits, two walks and an uncharacteristically low four strikeouts. He is now winless in his last four starts. Despite Harvey not having his A-Game, a couple of clutch hits could have made the young right-hander 5-0.

Terry Collins unveiled his revamped lineup which was an epic failure today. In fact, the Mets offense has piled up 28 strikeouts in the last two games. After the game, Collins said that was “because his guys are trying to hit homers.”

Collins is committed the following four at the top of the lineup going forward and emphasized that “Ike Davis is our cleanup hitter, end of story.”

Ruben Tejada: 0-for-3

Daniel Murphy: 1-for-4

David Wright: 0-for-3

Ike Davis: 0-for-4

The math is ugly as they combined to go 1-for-14. Hope they do better tomorrow…

Mets were outscored 21-7 during the last three losses to the Pirates. Today they only mustered four hits including a home run from Lucas Duda, his eighth longball of the season. But get this… Eight home runs and only 12 RBI in 102 at-bats this season. Still, that’s better than Ike davis who has just 9 RBI in 110 at-bats with 39 strikeouts. When he struck out in his final at-bat, you could hear the boos as far away as Staten Island.

This team is not hitting and the Mets ranks 13th in the NL with a .234 batting average and last in the league with 264 hits. If Gary Cohen tells me one more time about how they rank 5th in On-Base Percentage and walks, I think I’m going to chuck my remote through the TV.

Daniel Murphy and John Buck have returned back to planet earth after orbiting around the planet for four week in April.

The bullpen was ineffective and Scott Rice took the loss. Bobby Parnell struggled through 1 1/3 innings allowing three baserunners. He might be unavailable tomorrow after throwing 30 pitches.

Defensively, Juan Lagares made this incredibly sick, sick, sick, catch in centerfield that had to be seen to be believed. It was the highlight of the game for the Mets. He dives forward with his outstretched glove, the ball bounces off the tip of it, and he refocuses and catches it again before it hit the ground. Wow…

This was a disastrous homestand for more reasons than one, and the Mets now find themselves at 14-20 and buried in fourth place in the NL East. They set sail for St. Louis to face the hottest and winningest team in baseball on Monday. The Cardinals have won nine of their last nine led by Carlos Beltran who leads the team with nine home runs and 23 RBI while posting a .308/.341/.558 batting line. Jeremy Hefner (0-4. 4.63 ERA) will oppose Lance Lynn (5-1, 2.72) and try to stop the bleeding.

UH OH, HERE COME THE MIGHTY METS…

When you glance at this morning’s Mets pitching leaders, you see two names that belong in Matt Harvey and Bobby Parnell. Each of them have been nothing short of phenomenal in their roles of closer and staff ace. But just below them is a name nobody expected much from this season – that is unless you read my preseason feature on Scott Rice – the 31-year old rookie who has become a cult figure here on MMO.

The left-handed reliever has performed at a level unseen by a southpaw since Perpetual Pedro was in his prime during the Omar Minaya legacy.

Rice has been a Godsend in the bullpen both for his effectiveness and reliability, but more than that he’s been the bullpen’s most durable reliever, leading the team with 16 appearances and 14.2 innings pitched. For a Mets bullpen that is ranked 29th in the majors with a 5.09 ERA, Rice along with Parnell have given the team their all and have been the most steadfast performers in an otherwise ill-performing bullpen.

Gone already are Greg Burke, Josh Edgin and Aaron Laffey. Brandon Lyon and Robert Carson may soon be the next to go. Jeurys Familia who I felt earned a job out of Spring Training, is finally here and so far the early results have been encouraging.

But getting back to Rice, Mike Kerwick of The Record had a great profile of him this morning on NJ.com. He goes back to his formative years and gives some more backstory to what has already been one of the better storylines to this Mets season.

“He’s been terrific,” said Mets manager Terry Collins. “Extremely durable. When you talk to him, this is what he’s been waiting for his whole life, this opportunity.”

Kerwick shares a fascinating story about Rice that only furthers my respect for this unique player who toiled in the minors for 14 years before finally making his major league debut this season with the Mets. Most players would have quit and hung up their spikes after eight or nine years, but Rice remained determined and set on making it to the majors against all odds.

Rice bounced around – five major league organizations, 18 minor league teams – before he finally caught on with the Mets last month. He threw his first major league pitch on April 1, almost 14 years after he was drafted.

In the darkest moments of those 14 years, Rice would place calls to his father. Dennis knew a thing or two about watching a baseball dream implode. Rice’s father blew out his shoulder years ago, back when he was a middle infielder for the University of Southern California.

“He’s the main reason why I kept playing,” Rice said. “At times I hated it. But he kept pushing me, telling me, ‘Hey, you’ve got to get out there, you’ve got to keep doing this, you’ve got to keep doing that. You’ve got to make these phone calls to teams.’

Rice was very instrumental in the 7-6 win against the Marlins that put an end to the team’s six-game losing streak, the longest such streak in two seasons.

With the Mets barely holding on to their one-run lead, Collins turned to Rice to get a critical out with the tying run on third in the eighth inning. Rice came in and induced an inning-ending grounder from the pesky leadoff hitter, Juan Pierre. Once again, Rice rose to the occasion without breaking a sweat.

“He’s been very, very good,” Collins said. “He realizes when he keeps the ball down and throws strikes, he gets ground balls. So far we’ve caught them.”

There haven’t been too many great bright spots to the Mets’ season thus far, but Scott Rice is certainly one of them, and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

The New York Mets lost their second straight game to the Philadelphia Phillies by the score of 9-4 this afternoon at Citi Field. The loss drops them to 10-12 and they have lost eight of their last eleven games.

Shaun Marcum (0-1, 6.75) made his Mets debut and lasted just four innings, allowing three runs on five hits and two walks. He tossed 71 pitches, 44 for strikes, and was charged with a wild pitch. Marcum’s fastball never eclipsed 85 mph. He’ll need to do better than that next time out if the Mets are to make any noise the rest of this season.

The bullpen was called on to pitch five innings and first up was Robert Carson who was absolutely torched by the Phillies. The lefthander allowed five runs in the fifth inning including two home runs by Domonic Brown and John Mayberry. LaTroy Hawkins and Scott Rice each tossed a pair of scoreless innings. Rice has been very effective out of the pen for the Mets. But nevertheless, they now have worst bullpen in the majors with a 5.28 ERA.

Offensively, David Wright had two hits and an RBI, and catcher John Buck hit his eighth home run of the season in the ninth. He now has 23 RBI this season and only Mike Piazza and Ivan Rodriguez have had more in the month of April since 1920. Good company.

The other runs came on a sac fly by Ike Davis and Jordany Valdespin drove in the Mets’ first run with a double in the second.

The Mets have lost three in a row, and four of their last five games against the Phillies this season. They’ll look to salvage the final game of the series with Jon Niese going up against Cole Hamels at 1:10 PM on Sunday.