It is re-assuring that at least one person in Metville is happy today: Omar Minaya, the General Manager. He got his requisite victory in St. Louis this weekend. Losing series number four is merely a footnote.
The numbers are ugly, friends. Your team resides in last place, two games behind the Washington Nationals and four games from the division leading Phillies. Wave goodbye to Philadelphia because this is the closest the team might be the rest of the campaign.
Thank goodness for small favors and Mike Pelfrey. If not for Big Pelf’s early season performance the Mets could be a wretched 1-11, instead of 4-8. With two wins, and more save(s) than the entire Mets bullpen combined, he has personally prevented the ship from hitting the bottom of the North Atlantic.
Moreover, the pitching in general has not been as putrid as anticipated (give that time) but the hitting has. The mark of a mediocre team (we’d take 6-6 gladly at this juncture) is when one facet is firing hot and the other colder than the wife when the wedding anniversary is forgotten.
Take Saturday’s marathon 20-inning victory-Please. Finally, the Mets had pushed across a run in the 19th off of position player Joe Mather (because the inventor of baseball, Tony LaRussa, had fired all his pitching bullets) and Jerry Manuel summoned closer Frankie Rodriquez to end the insanity.
(I commend all those who sat through every inning of the 6:53 tilt, I missed five innings, sorry. But who wasn’t a tad embarrassed for the Mets “hitters” when they were shutout by infielder Felipe Lopez and barely posted a crooked number off of Mather? That was pitiful.)
Of course, K-Rod could not retire Yaddy Molina with a base open in the 19th and we play on. When Jeff Francoeur, the only regular producing, managed a sac fly against Mather, for the team’s second run, Pelfrey stepped up and put everyone out of their misery.
Omar was seen starting the charter flight because his club accomplished his slated goal of one win under The Arch. Only someone had to tell him there was a rubber game Sunday Night.
Unfortunately, it was John Maine’s turn. What ensued was his 115 pitch-five inning forgettable performance and an offense that has a harder time finding a hit with RISP than a vacant Taxi on a rainy night in the Big Apple.
With the GM setting a negative defeatist tone, the players’ have fallen in line. Jason Bay has fanned 18 times and knocked home as many runs as Pelfrey and Ollie Perez combined (a deuce). David Wright is hitting .244, among the team leaders, and the the team average of .224 is now leaving the express track and headed to the Mendoza Line.
Jose’ Reyes is lost (so is Carlos Beltran) and needs to load up on the pasta, rice and beans, and NY Strip. Luis Castillo, a table setter, has scored four runs. If his knee gets worse the offense should improve. But not if replaced by the $2 million backup man, Alex Cora (.167).
The entire bench should be fumigated (Frank Catalanotto .154, Fernando Tatis .167, Gary Matthews Jr. .200, and all trail Henry Blanco’s 0-9. Chris Cater deserves a shot).
Maybe first base will get a jolt from the recall of Ike Davis. A small step in the right direction. Anyone have a light for the cigar dangling from Omar’s lips?
