After yesterday’s 2-1 ninth inning loss, David Wright didn’t blame the bad call at third base and instead pointed the finger of blame for the loss on himself and the rest of the offense.

“Sometimes the calls go your way. Sometimes they don’t. What we need to do a better job of is offensively going out there and scoring more runs. We can’t expect to win games 1-0. Offensively we need to do a better job … It seems like the better teams, they go through a rut like this and it only lasts a series or two. We can’t allow it to kind of consume us and take over for a week, two weeks. We’ve got to snap out of it. That starts offensively and going out there and having good at-bats.”

As I wrote in my recap last night, Anthony Recker should have fired the ball to first base to get the easy out and keep the winning run from getting on base. Seems like Recker understands now that he screwed up:

“He dropped it pretty much right in front of the plate for me,” Recker said. “I knew we needed to get an out. I just tried to make a play I probably shouldn’t have tried to make. We talked about it before the bunt — ‘get an out.’ But he laid it in front of the plate. My instincts told me to go to third. Obviously the throw was a little bit high. If it was a good throw we might have had him. I probably don’t need to make that play. I just need to get an out.”

Recker’s passed ball before the play at third base also had a lot to do with how things unravelled as that was what got Chris Coghlan to third base in the first place. Maybe subconsciously the Mets catcher was thinking he could erase that ply by getting him out, but regardless it set up the chain of events that eventually led to the loss.

As for Wright, what he says is true, The team needs to score more runs. By my count they’ve scored 11 runs in their last six games. That’s not going to translate into many wins no matter how good your starting pitching is.

But beside the lack of runs, the Mets bullpen must shoulder much of the blame. They can’t seem to hold a lead of any kind including a recent four-run lead. Reportedly, Bobby Parnell was pissed that he wasn’t called upon for the save opportunity last night. He of course had the blown save the night before and has registered just two saves on the season thus far. He has a good beef. Brandon Lyon was just plain awful and as I wrote yesterday, he has been for the last two weeks. Hope he treated Jeremy Hefner to a great meal after the game as he cashed in his $100K bonus check he picked up before the game.

Mets Lineup

1. Mike Baxter – RF
2. Daniel Murphy – 2B
3. David Wright – 3B
4. Ike Davis – 1B
5. John Buck – C
6. Kirk Nieuwenhuis – CF
7. Lucas Duda – LF
8. Ruben Tejada – SS
9. Jonathon Niese – LHP

Game Notes

Terry Collins is backpedalling on his pre-opening day statement that Collin Cowgill and Marlon Byrd would pay everyday in his outfield. Today, he told reporters he now intends to mix-and-match in the outfield based on matchups and that his outfield is not set right now.

John Buck is off to a great start with the Mets. He is the only catcher in the majors allowed to have personalized art on his catcher’s mask. Wilson, which supplies the catcher’s masks for MLB, now bans artwork, but Buck is grandfathered in and is permitted to have the personal touch according to Newsday.

After being swept by the Nationals to open the season, the Marlins finally broke into the win column Friday with a win over the Mets. The victory marked the first of its kind for the club after its roster underwent a total makeover in the offseason.

The Mets have hit at least one home run in each of their first four games for the first time since 2006.

Game Preview

The Mets dropped their second game in a row last night as the Marlins beat the Mets by the score of 7-5. In the first two games of the season, the Mets had excellent starting pitching and timely hitting. In the second two games of the season, the Mets still had excellent starting pitching, but the hitting fell apart. Earlier on yesterday’s game the Mets had a ton of chances to score earlier in the game and couldn’t get it done. When the Mets started to score, the Mets bullpen simultaneously fell apart. This afternoon Jon Niese will be making his second start of the season as he goes up against Ricky Nolasco.

Jon Niese picked up a win in his first start of the season pitching 6.2 innings allowing 2 ER and 4 hits while walking 2 and striking out 4. Terry attempted to pull Niese out of the game after 6, but Niese insisted to stay in the game. Last season Niese had a 13-9 record over 190.1 innings while posting a 3.40 ERA. Against the Marlins he totaled 25.1 innings over 4 starts with a 1-1 record allowing 9 ER, which would be a 3.20 ERA. The Marlins have the following numbers against Niese:

Polanco 11-32, 5 2B
Kearns 5-15, 2B
Stanton 3-12
Coghlan 2-10, 2B
Nolasco 0-4
Ruggiano 2-5
Brantly 0-3

Nolasco was the hard luck loser in his first start of the season against the Nationals. He allowed only 3 hits over 6 innings of work. Sadly for Ricky, two of those hits were solo homers to Bryce Harper. Last season Nolasco was 12-13 over 31 starts and 191.0 innings while posting a 4.48 ERA. He picked up one loss in three starts over 18.1 innings against the Marlins. Rickey allowed 9 earned runs and 19 hits during that stretch, which is a 4.34 ERA. The Mets have the following numbers against Nolasco:

Wright 25-63, 6 2B, 6 HR (.397 BA)
Murphy 8-25, 3 2B
Davis 3-20, 2 2B
Duda 2-14
Tejada 2-12, 3B
Kirk 3-5, 2B

Let’s Go Mets!   Check 213 Miles From Shea!

That would give him about five starts, assuming there are no other setbacks, before Opening Day.

Frankly, I don’t care if he’s starting Opening Day. I just want him to get fully healthy as soon as possible, even if that means missing a few starts early in the season.

The Mets are faced with a tough situation regarding Santana is he regains some of his form from previous seasons.

In one scenario, Santana could get off to a great start when he returns, and the team too could play great baseball out of the gate.

Santana would provide leadership and experience for the Mets’ young pitchers, and if he has his stuff working, he will try to keep the Mets competitive for as long as possible, hopefully deep into September or even October.

But scenario two could work out just as well for the Mets.

Santana could pitch very well out of the gate, and the Mets could swing a deal similar to what they did in 2011 with Carlos Beltran.

Beltran was tearing the cover off the ball and the Giants needed an outfield bat, so Sandy Alderson pulled off a deal for San Francisco’s top pitching prospect, Zack Wheeler.

Now, even if Santana starts red hot, he likely wouldn’t command a Wheeler-type prospect in a midseason trade, merely based on his recent injury history. But there’s no reason why the Mets can’t acquire an impact player as they gear up for a strong season in 2014.

It’s going to be a difficult call. If the team is hanging tough, Santana will likely be part of that success, yet the team needs to be realistic in its chances. A contender needing a starting pitcher could certainly look to bring in a starter of Santana’s caliber.

These scenarios, however, will be rendered irrelevant if Santana continues to struggle with injuries or pitches poorly.

But from the Mets’ perspective, a healthy Santana can help this team both in the present –  if he’s pitching well – and in the future – if the team can acquire another young prospect in a trade.

It’s a fact: Every team experiences some sort of injuries over the course of a 162-game season.

For some reason however, it always seems the Mets are plagued with the injury bug more so than other teams.

This year was no different, as Mike Pelfrey went down early, Ruben Tejada missed time and now Johan Santana has been shut down.

But an injury that was overlooked in the big picture that has had a crippling effect has been Dillon Gee’s blood clot right before the All-Star break.

Gee was just 6-7 with a 4.10 ERA in 17 starts, so you may be asking how this injury was so detrimental. But look at his game logs, and you’ll see how vital he was to the Mets’ first half success.

In those 17 starts, Gee tallied 12 quality starts. The Mets however only won six of those games, proving the offense and bullpen were of course futile.

Throw out his first three starts of the season (even though he threw a seven-inning gem against the Braves in his second start), and Gee threw quality starts in 11 of his final 14 games.

What more can you ask of your fifth starter?

Gee’s record was not indicative of how he performed this season. It’s a shame that he went on the disabled when he did, because he was just coming off a stellar eight-inning, one-run outing against the Cubs right before the break.

While the outlandish two-out RBI stats played a role in carrying the Mets during the first half, it really was the starting pitching that kept the Mets relevant. R.A. Dickey, Johan Santana and Jon Niese did the heavy lifting, but Gee was right there being a consistent anchor.

SNY showed a stat last night that Mets’ starting pitchers’ ERA so far in the second half is 4.74. This obviously has played a role in the team’s downfall.

It’s curious that the Mets didn’t immediately give Matt Harvey the chance to fill Gee’s spot in the rotation while the team still had a fleeting chance. Harvey has looked great in the bigs so far and would have almost certainly done a better job than Miguel Batista and Jeremy Hefner.

Either way, what’s done is done, and now we all just hope for the speedy recovery of Gee. Though he won’t return this season, Gee is making good progress.

Considering that the Mets have other pressing needs (mainly the outfield and the bullpen), expect the starting rotation to look something like this: R.A. Dickey, a healthy and well-rested Johan Santana, Jon Niese, Matt Harvey and Dillon Gee. Based on track record, Santana will likely get hurt at some point, which then opens the door for Zack Wheeler.

This is actually a decent rotation when everyone is performing up to par. Now if the team can only hit a little…

When looking at Chris Capuano’s stats, anyone unfamiliar with the Mets would think he’s having a pretty poor season.

However, it’s been quite the opposite for the lefty. Capuano has actually pitched well for the Mets but has been the victim of some tough luck this season.

He’s made 11 starts so far with a record of 4-6 and a 4.86 ERA. Despite these numbers, Capuano has kept his team in the game in the majority of his starts, but the Mets have had trouble scoring runs when he pitches.

In two of the three starts in which Capuano gave up more than five runs, he only really had one bad inning in each of these. In fact, in his recent start against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Capuano hung five consecutive zeroes on the board before being plagued by infield singles and errors in the sixth.

He only gave up one run in his last start on a home run to Prince Fielder, who continues to abuse the league in his contract year. Luckily, Jose Reyes bailed him out with a clutch two-run triple to give Capuano the win.

Coming off an injury year, Capuano has been a good find for the Mets. Unlike Chris Young, he’s been able to stay healthy all year and give the team a chance to win each time out.

The starting pitching overall has been good over the last few weeks. R.A. Dickey has put together a few solid starts, and Dillon Gee has been unconscious. Jon Niese has been serviceable as well, but Mike Pelfrey still needs some work.

That leaves Capuano, who quietly goes about his business each start. Once again, the stats may not be there, but he has shown he is a true competitor.

Depending on how the next two months pan out, the Mets might be able to get some value in a trade for Capuano, who is a free agent after the season. He can be a swing man or even a lefty specialist—he’s held lefties to a .229 BA—for a contender down the stretch.

Whatever becomes of Capuano, it’s nice to see gritty performances out of him. If the Mets are to make a play for the Wild Card, Capuano will need to continue these strong outings, but with one major change that he can’t control: The Mets have to score him some runs.

Surprisingly, several good starting pitchers are still available, yet teams appear reluctant to pull the trigger.

I figured that once Cliff Lee signed, the other starters would fall like dominoes since teams in need for starting pitchers would not want to be left in the dust.

Carl Pavano and his disgusting mustache won 17 games last year. You would think someone would want to lock him up. True, he has had an interesting last few seasons, but he proved last year that he can stay healthy for an entire season.

Now, I do not want Pavano anywhere near the Mets nor do I think they even have the money to spend on him. But as of now, he appears to be the best starting pitcher available. So similar to the situation with Lee, once Pavano is off the table, the other pitchers may go fast.

Among these are the two names we’ve heard linked to the Mets: Chris Young and Jeff Francis. Both are coming off injury years and seem to want guaranteed contracts in the $5 million range at this point. Is that too much to spend on a question mark? If the Mets weren’t financially strapped and if Johan was healthy for the start of the season, I’d say roll the dice on one of them. But taking things into account, it might be best to see if the prices come down after the new year.

If there is a team out there willing to pay $5 million for either of these players, then go for it. But it seems like other teams are thinking along the same lines as the Mets.

I wish the Mets would make more of an aggressive play for Brandon Webb. Here’s a guy who was dominant not too long ago but also had injury troubles. I wonder if he is asking for multiple years because of his impressive resume. That could be what is keeping the Mets out of the running.

If the Mets could be a sleeper for Webb, that would be great. I would rather have Webb than Young or Francis. But with the clock ticking, all three of these pitchers may call somewhere else other than Citi Field home in 2011.

In one of the seldom-made smarter moves on the Mets’ management part leading into 2010, Dickey was signed to a minor league contract, making his first appearance with the big club in May of this year.  And what has transpired is nothing short of magical.  Okay, fine.  It was more than what most expected from him (we’ll take our miracles where we can these days, thank you very much): he has gone 10-6 with a 2.91 ERA in 22 games started.

Yes, in a year when pitching had more question marks than exclamation points, R.A. Dickey provided a nice solid punctuation mark on the season’s starting pitchers.

According to Baseball Reference among other sites, Dickey last made $525,000 on the books for the Twins.  Since he signed a minor league contract, I cannot find record of what he is making for the Mets this year.  However, I guarantee you it is not enough since he really has been the Mets showstopper this year.

For THIS year, operative words.  Of course, with his performance, Dickey has grown on the fans and thus, now talk has occurred with the usual — Should we lock him up now or later?

When I initially had the idea for this column, I had wanted to talk about the ramification of perhaps offering a multi-year deal for R.A. Dickey, and I was going to argue against it for obvious reasons. One is, we’ve learned that offering a multi-year deal, especially to a pitcher, is not a very good idea (especially based on a one-year performance).  Two is, whenever the Mets think that lightning will strike twice, we learn time and again it certainly never does.  Third is Dickey’s not getting any younger.  I know knuckleballers tend to go for years and years, but to give him a multi-year deal would be shortsighted based on that and that alone.

Of course, with the news that Johan Santana is not only out for the year with season-ending shoulder surgery, the type of surgery he is due to get has been problematic for pitchers regaining their form, this might change some of the dynamic for the Mets pitching staff in 2011.  Santana’s surgery is bad news not just for Santana but for the Mets as well.  However, this is the time to think about Dickey’s future, since I think that the Mets also have to think in terms of Johan Santana NOT being “JOHAN SANTANA” of old.

Dickey is historically a below-.500 pitcher.  However, if he gets two more wins on the season, he will be exactly at .500 lifetime.  I think it would be premature to give him anything long-term.  A one-year contract, maybe.  With an option.  And that’s IT.  Based on his historical performance, the Mets should not be offering anybody, regardless of what they are making now or how well they perform as a pitcher, anything long-term.

I won’t disagree he is worth every penny he is earning, if not more.  In fact, Dickey himself is so humble that he is not taking any of this for granted.  He was even quoted as saying: “I want to continue to have the mentality that I’m entitled to nothing. That mentality helps me work well and continue to be good at my craft.”  A “problem” like R.A. Dickey is a good one for the Mets to have, right?  After this season though, I think any long-term contract for any pitcher, even R.A. Dickey who has proven his worth, would be problematic.

First of all, while we all clamored for a #2 or even #3 pitcher behind Johan Santana, Mike Pelfrey has stepped up unexpectedly into that role, and then some.  You can almost call he and Santana co-aces at this point.  And who would have thought RA Dickey would be picked up off the scrap heap and delivered quality innings the way he has?  Those three guys have the Mets right in the thick of an early pennant race–2.5 games back of the Braves and a half game back of the mighty Phillies.  Of course, the Marlins and Nationals are right there too, making this a potentially explosive second half in the NL East.

Also, guys like Ike Davis and Chris Carter have provided pop and spark, collectively, and Rod Barajas leads the team in homers.  Oh, and David Wright has regained the power stroke he lost last year.  All this and Carlos Beltran hasn’t even seen the field.  Heck, we may not need him!  Finally, K-Rod even seems to have re-discovered his fastball or become more confident in it.  Sure, he’s blown a few, but what closer hasn’t?

So yes, on June 9, I do believe.  I believe this team has a significant shot at winning the division and making noise in the playoffs.  Wins like last night continue to breed confidence in the players, management and in us fans.  Let’s go Mets!

Despite the amazing turnout at the poll for this question (734 votes), the results are extremely too close for my taste. The majority of voters (247 34%) believe that the Mets’ biggest concern is starting pitching, and of course that would make sense especially with uncertainty over Maine and Perez .

An alarming 25% or 183 of MMO poll takers, believe that Jerry Manuel is a big problem. Next, at 22% (162) are concerns at corner outfield. Lastly, 19% (142) of voters were concerned with production at first base and while that’s the least of the four answers only 15% separates it from the top answer.

When you have this many concerns for one team, the future might not seem too bright. But I have a feeling that if the Mets can make adjustments in each area, there is still hope for a big turnaround. Of course, that doesn’t include Jerry Manuel. Manuel will have to learn from his mistakes as the season goes along and hopefully make changes that will help this team see the light. At 34-33 this season, its apparent that some changes and improvements are needed.

It looks like the Gangsta approach is starting to wear thin on a lot of fans…

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New Poll: Whose injury has had a bigger negative impact?  

Please place your votes in the poll section on the right column. Thanks for voting!