Okay, I’ll admit that even though I live in the central time zone, I’m not staying up until midnight or later to watch our Mets. And I’m certainly not going to watch as they are on the big drop portion of the roller coaster ride that is the 2009 season. An error and timely hitting by the other team once again did the Mets in last night, and they have now lost three in a row after winning the first three games in San Francisco late last week.
I said last week that the errors were still happening but that awesome hitting, speed, run production and effective pitching were covering them up. Now, as injuries to Carlos Delgado, Alex Cora and Jose Reyes have hurt the team offensively and defensively, the weaknesses are once again exposed, and they have also run into a very hot (though Manny-less) Dodgers’ team.
I have no doubt that the Mets will regain the magic they showed in the first half of this month, but the ugly baseball being played is a very disturbing constant. Pelfrey balks three times? Church forgets to touch third base? Those types of mistakes should never happen in the big leagues. And the Mets, with their enormous payroll, should not rank third in the majors in errors (32, trailing only Washington and Seattle).
And I don’t want to harp on the negative, because there has been so much to be optimistic about as well, but the Mets currently rank tied for 27th in baseball with just 26 home runs. The Yankees, by contrast, have 61 homers even with A-Rod missing the first month and a half of the season. The division-leading Phillies have 51, and do you want a telling statistic? The Phillies have committed just 11 errors, lowest in the majors.
Like I said, I really believe the Mets will turn it back around, and hopefully they do before facing the Red Sox this weekend. But it’s not going to be a smooth ride. So strap yourself in, Mets fans, and let’s hope we don’t all puke at the end of the ride.
